Issue 55 / May 2015

Bido Lito! May 2015 5
Bido Lito!
Issue Fifty Five / May 2015
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Editor
Christopher Torpey - chris@bidolito.co.uk
Editor-In-Chief / Publisher
Craig G Pennington - info@bidolito.co.uk
RACE TO THE POLLS
Editorial
There are some things that always jump to mind when I think of General Elections in this country, and Monty Python’s Election Night Special sketch
is high on that list. In recent years, however, that list has come to be less about the swing to the Silly Party, and more about the mundane memories
that are related to my own personal experience of elections past. I’ll never forget the stern look given to me by the woman in the Polling Station
the first time I went to vote, as if she was assessing my quivering, youthful eligibility. And then came the fumbling with the ballot paper, the horror
that I might put the cross in the wrong box, and the mild terror I felt when I looked the returning officer in the eye and saw that he’d noticed that I
hadn’t folded the slip properly. I’m much better at it now, and in 2010 I was so pleased with my electoral prowess that, encouraged by a few pints, I
boldly ventured down to Wallasey Town Hall at midnight to check how the count was going. If either of those two police officers on duty that night
are reading this, I’m still sorry for scaring you.
I also remember sitting in school on election day in 1997 and hearing the parties’ cars driving round Wallasey Village parping out their final
exhortations to vote. There was a feeling of excitement in the air then, when New Labour swept to power and we thought it was all going to be
groovy. That’s a far cry from the media onslaught a General Election brings us today. My increasingly cynical mind now can’t see past the positioning
of it all – the televised debates, interviews with leaders and leaders’ partners in the paper, the guest appearances on Have I Got News For You, the
battle buses – as part of an electioneering process that only connects with the electorate once every five years. “Where are you for the other four?” I
feel like shouting at the telly, even as I’m thinking that I want my own battle bus.
This year’s election is going to be fought on more fronts than ever before, and it’s sometimes difficult to sift through all the arguments when
they’re coming thick and fast from every angle. I personally think that the waters have been muddied over issues that aren’t worth wasting breath
on: immigration (such a non-issue, and the sole preserve of UKIP) and the NHS (keep it, protect it and fund it properly, even if it means raising taxes
elsewhere). One of the messages that has been given little voice during these debates is what to do with arts and culture: how we look after and
nurture those creative people who bring a bit of inspiration in times of harsh austerity. In a recent column he wrote for The Guardian, the commentator
Owen Jones said that it works the other way, too: “Music… can reach us where modern formal politics often does not: our hearts. And because of its raw
emotional power, music has the potential to make us contemplate social injustice more effectively than any column the likes of me can churn out.”
In that spirit, we have decided to look more closely at the policies put forward by the five main parties in England that will directly affect our
independent creative community; the plans and proposals that will impact the livelihoods of so many of our country’s treasured creators long after
the 7th May election date has passed. Go to page 16 now to read Phil Morris’ ‘Which One Of You Is The Arty Party?’ article – and make sure you vote!
We were also sad to hear that The Kazimier club is to close on 1st January 2016, meaning that we’ve only got seven months left to enjoy a venue that
is about more than just bricks and mortar. The Kaz, and the amazingly inventive people behind it, has been an integral part of Liverpool music over the
past seven years. The invention and care with which they’ve curated their own nights over this time has been stunning, and their sense of adventure
has undoubtedly spurred on countless musicians, artists, costume designers and krunk fiends who’ve passed through its doors.
The Kazimier is, and history will recall it as, part of a community within a community – reaching out from the club to the Kazimier Garden to The
Invisible Wind Factory, and to the now departed Wolstenholme Creative Space and MelloMello – that nurtured this month’s cover artists Stealing
Sheep, and rubbed off on countless others. When we had our own office in Mello it was just above Stealing Sheep’s studio. I’d walk past the room
most days and hear the sounds drifting out on to the landing of the three hard at work on their new album. How, and where, will our community’s
next creative melting pots be formed? Well, that’s something that only we can decide. Liverpool, it’s over to you.
Christopher Torpey / @BidoLito
Editor
Photo: Keith Ainsworth
Reviews Editor
Sam Turner - live@bidolito.co.uk
Designer
Luke Avery - info@luke-avery.com
Proofreading
Debra Williams - debra@wordsanddeeds.co.uk
Sales And Partnerships Manager
Naters Philip - naters@bidolito.co.uk
Digital Content Manager
Natalie Williams - online@bidolito.co.uk
Words
Christopher Torpey, Craig G Pennington,
Dave Tate, Paddy Clarke, Jack Graysmark, Phil
Morris, Peter Shilton, Jennifer Perkin, Laurie
Cheeseman, Paul Fitzgerald, Richard Lewis,
Alastair Dunn, Sam Turner, Glyn Akroyd,
Christopher Carr, Maurice Stewart, Ben
Lynch, Paddy Hughes, Debra Williams, Jamie
Carragher, Matthew Cooper, Naters Philip, Chris
Hughes.
Photography, Illustration and Layout
Luke Avery, Nata Moraru, Keith Ainsworth,
Hannah Cassidy, Christian Davies, Marco
Lawrence, Krent Able, Lloyd Pursall, Glyn Akroyd,
James Tweedale, Antonio Franco, Jack Thompson.
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