Issue 97 / March 2019

ISSUE 97 / MARCH 2019 

NEW MUSIC + CREATIVE CULTURE 

LIVERPOOL 

YANK SCALLY / BBC 6 MUSIC FESTIVAL 

MUNKEY JUNKEY / SLEAFORD MODS

Wed 20th Feb 

White Denim (USA) 

+ BC Camplight 

Sat 23rd Feb 

The Spitfires 

+ Nick Corbin 

Sat 2nd Mar 

Sleaford Mods 

+ LIINES 

Thur 7th Mar • SOLD OUT 

Fredo 

Thur 7th Mar 

Mountford Hall, Liverpool Guild 

of Students 

Trixie Mattel (USA) 

Sat 9th Mar 

The Clone Roses 

vs Kazabian 

+ Sapho 

Mon 11th Mar • SOLD OUT 


of Students 

Greta Van Fleet 

(USA) 

Wed 13th Mar 

The Wailers 

Thur 14th Mar 

Wille and the 

Bandits 

+ The Cubical + Rainbreakers 

Fri 15th Mar 

Joanne Shaw 

Taylor 

Sat 16th Mar 

Damien Dempsey 

Fri 22nd Mar 

Liverpool Rocks: 

Semi Final 

Sat 23rd Mar 

AC/DC UK 

& Dizzy Lizzy 

Sat 23rd Mar • SOLD OUT 

Gerry Cinnamon 

Wed 27th Mar 

Hayseed Dixie 

Sat 30th Mar 

Liverpool Rocks: 

Semi Final 

Sat 30th Mar 

Keywest 

Sun 31st Mar • 6.30pm 

Mo Amer 

& Guz Khan 

Thur 4th Apr 

Holy Moly 

and the Crackers 

Sat 6th Apr 

The Showhawk 

Duo 

+ Benji & Hibbz 

Fri 12th Apr • SOLD OUT 


of Students 

DMA’s 

Sat 20th Apr 

Nirvana UK (Tribute) 

Sat 27th Apr • 6.30pm 

Liverpool Rocks 

Final 

Sat 27th Apr 

Newton Faulkner 

Sat 27th Apr 


of Students 

Hollywood 

Undead 

Fri 3rd May 

The Bon Jovi 

Experience 

Sat 4th May 

The Amy 

Winehouse 

Experience… 

A.K.A Lioness 

+ Lauren Hope 

Thur 16th May 

Little Steven & 

The Disciples Of 

Soul 

Sun 19th May 

Ross Edgley - 

Worlds Fittest 

Live Show 

Thur 23rd May 

Glenn Hughes 

Performs Classic 

Deep Purple live 

+ Laurence Jones 

facebook.com/o2academyliverpool 

twitter.com/o2academylpool 

instagram.com/o2academyliverpool 

youtube.com/o2academytv 

Sat 25th May 

The Icicle Works 

Sat 1st Jun 

The Smyths 

Mon 3rd Jun • SOLD OUT 


of Students 

Anne-Marie 

Sun 4th Jun 


of Students 

Kaiser Chiefs 

Fri 21st Jun • SOLD OUT 

Alesso 

Sat 22nd Jun 

Hipsway 

Fri 2nd Aug 

The Fillers 

(The Killers Official Tribute 

Band) 

Sat 28th Sep 

Red Rum Club 

Sat 5th Oct 

Definitely Mightbe 

(Oasis tribute) 

Sat 16th Nov 

The Macc Lads 

Sat 16th Nov 

UK Foo Fighters 

(Tribute Band) 

- Banging On The Ceiling Tour 

Wed 20th Nov 

Fontaines D.C. 

Fri 29th Nov 

The Doors Alive 

Fri 6th Dec 


of Students 

Happy Mondays - 

Greatest Hits Tour 

Fri 6th Dec 

SPINN 

Sat 14th Dec 

Ian Prowse 

& Amsterdam 

TUE 19TH FEB 7PM SOLD OUT 

FRANK CARTER & 

THE RATTLESNAKES 

WED 20TH FEB 7PM 

STONE BROKEN 

+ THOSE DAMN CROWS 

+ HOLLOWSTAR 

FRI 22ND FEB 7PM SOLD OUT 

SPINN 

FRI 22ND FEB 6PM 

SAT 23RD FEB 6PM 

SAT 2ND MAR 6PM 

LIVERPOOL ROCKS 

– QUARTER FINAL 

MON 4TH MAR 7PM 

CROOKED 

COLOURS 

THUR 7TH MAR 7PM 

AS IT IS 

FRI 15TH MAR 6.30PM SOLD OUT 

THE SLOW 

READERS CLUB 

SAT 16TH MAR 7PM 

ADY SULEIMAN 

FRI 29TH MAR 7PM 

SPQR 

FRI 5TH APR 6.30PM 

PINEGROVE 

SAT 6TH APR 6PM 

MAVERICK SABRE 

MON 8TH APR 7PM 

YAK 

WED 10TH APR 7PM 

INDOOR PETS 

FRI 12TH APR 7PM 

MONKS 


ANTEROS 


A TRIBUTE 

TO EDDIE VEDDER 

FRI 26TH MAR 6.30PM 

UNDER THE 

APPLE TREE 

– LIVE ON TOUR WITH 

WILDWOOD KIN 

+ ELEANOR NELLY 

SAT 4TH MAY 7PM 

BLANCMANGE 

TUE 7TH MAY 7PM SOLD OUT 

LUCY SPRAGGAN 

FRI 17TH MAY 7PM 

J MASCIS 

SAT 18TH MAY 7PM 

ELECTRIC SIX 

TUE 11TH JUN 7PM 

HONEYBLOOD 

SAT 5TH OCT 7PM 

A BAND CALLED 

MALICE 

FRI 18TH OCT 7PM 

NINE BELOW ZERO 

SAT 2ND NOV 7PM 

STONE 

FOUNDATION 

SAT 16TH NOV 7PM 

LONDON CALLING 

PLAY THE CLASH 

FRI 22ND NOV 7.PM 

BLOOD RED SHOES 

TICKETS FOR ALL SHOWS ARE AVAILABLE FROM 

TICKETMASTER.CO.UK 

90 

SEEL STREET, LIVERPOOL, L1 4BH 

A ST P A TRICK’ S CEL E B R ATIO N 

plus special 

guest 

IAN PROWSE 

ticketmaster.co.uk 

o2academyliverpool.co.uk 

11-13 Hotham Street, Liverpool L3 5UF 

Doors 7pm unless stated 

Venue box office opening hours: 

Mon - Sat 10.30am - 5.30pm 

ticketmaster.co.uk • seetickets.com 

gigantic.com • ticketweb.co.uk 

Saturday 16 March 2019 

O2 Academy2, Liverpool 

gigsandtours.com ticketmaster.co.uk 

An SJM Concerts presentation by arrangement with DMF Music Ltd

18TH - 22ND APRIL BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND 

FEAT 

ANTI SOCIAL JAZZ CLUB - BERNIE CONNOR - CHANNEL ORANGE 

GREG WILSON - JOSEPH KAYE & ELLIOT FERGUSON 

MELODIC DISTRACTION - NIGHTCRAWLER PIZZA 

PARKLIFE GARDEN PARTY - SUPERSTITION 

40 SLATER STREET, LIVERPOOL. L1 4BX 

THEMERCHANTLIVERPOOL.CO.UK

What’s On 

April – 

September 

Tuesday 9 April 7.30pm 

King of Ghosts 

Wednesday 10 April 8pm 

Paddy Crazy Horse Tour 

Tommy Tiernan 

Friday 12 April 6.30pm 

Glyndebourne Film Screening 

Handel’s Saul (cert. 12A) 

Friday 14 June 8pm 

Music Room 

Sharon Shannon & Band 

With Special Guest Seckou Keita 

Thursday 26 September 7.30pm 

Friday 27 September 7.30pm 

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra 

And In The End: 

A Celebration of 50 Years of 

Abbey Road and Let It Be 

Saturday 18 May 8pm 

Tales From The Last Days Of August & 

The Butterfly Effect 

Jon Ronson 

Age Restriction: 16+ 

Box Office 

0151 709 3789 

liverpoolphil.com 

LiverpoolPhilharmonic 

liverpoolphil 

liverpool_philharmonic 

Principal Funders 

Thanks to the City 

of Liverpool for its 

financial support 

Principal Partners 

Media Partner 

Image Jon Ronson

C 

M 

Y 

CM 

MY 

CY 

CMY 

K

ido100! 

In June 2019, Bido Lito! will publish the 100th edition 

of our magazine and ask the question: 

What will Liverpool’s 

new music and creative 

culture look like in 

2028, in another 100 

editions’ time? 

Through a series of projects, bido100! will explore our 

fast-paced and unpredictable, tech-laced future and 

look to learn what we can do differently today 

to help shape a better creative tomorrow.

New Music + Creative Culture 

Liverpool 

Issue 97 / March 2019 

bidolito.co.uk 

Second Floor 

The Merchant 

40-42 Slater Street 

Liverpool L1 4BX 

Publisher 

Craig G Pennington - info@bidolito.co.uk 

Editor-in-Chief 

Christopher Torpey - chris@bidolito.co.uk 

Media Partnerships and Projects Manager 

Sam Turner - sam@bidolito.co.uk 

Features Editor 

Niloo Sharifi - niloo@bidolito.co.uk 

Live Editor 

Elliot Ryder - elliot@bidolito.co.uk 

Digital and Social Media Officer 

Alannah Rose - alannah@bidolito.co.uk 

Lucy Doyle – lucy@bidolito.co.uk 

Community Membership Manager 

Brit Williams – brit@bidolito.co.uk 

Design 

Mark McKellier - mark@andmark.co.uk 

Branding 

Thom Isom - hello@thomisom.com 

Proofreader 

Nathaniel Cramp 

Interns 

Eddy Turner 

Ciara Nevinson 

EDITORIAL 

I 

was standing outside Evian Christ’s CONTAINER event a 

while back, chatting to an unnamed musician I had just met, 

when I was confronted with the ghost of my own adolescence 

in his words: “I hate the Liverpool music scene, there’s nothing 

cool happening here, except, like, this, obviously.” Despite being a 

native Scouser, he was more interested in the international world 

of rappers and producers which Evian Christ belongs to than the 

local gig circuit. He wished to move to London, to find his niche 

tastes reflected by the people and events available to him there. 

Another attendee, who had moved here from London just a few 

months ago, elegantly managed to insult his new city at the same 

time as praising the night’s event: “I feel like people here don’t even 

understand how cool this event actually is. And it’s free!? Like, if 

this was in London, there’d be celebrities here.” This infantilising 

interaction is a salient example of how wild the north-south divide 

truly is – we’re seen as cultural philistines, as if we don’t have 

access to the same internet as the rest of the Western world. Even 

if something ‘cool’ happens here, we are surely not savvy enough 

to know it, like Stormi Jenner at her first birthday party. 

I’m not entirely unsympathetic to these perspectives; as a 

historically eccentric, gender nonconforming person and the 

daughter of first-generation Iranian immigrants, I’ve definitely 

felt the pain of enforced conformity in this city. Certainly, it is 

not a city overflowing with people who share my experiences 

and subsequent world views. Alienation breeds resentment; it 

is comforting to transform the pain of rejection into a sense of 

superiority, saying ‘fuck you’ to the social standards that have 

weakened you. The internet becomes a second home, a portal 

to perspectives which are soothingly unfamiliar. You begin to 

fantasise about moving someplace else – London, Berlin, New York 

– where you’ll meet ‘like-minded’ people. Finally, at long last, you’ll 

be properly and correctly appreciated. 

In this month’s issue, we meet two such creatives who 

followed the Yellow Brick Road to London, but are now back home. 

Avant-garde designer Clara Cicely tells her own tale of moving 

FEATURES 

to the Big Smoke in search of something she didn’t know she 

already had. Her extravagant clothes appear in Bido Lito!’s first 

fashion spread, shot in a symbolic location, Liverpool Lime Street. 

Caitlin Whittle gets the scoop on Kevin Le Grand, the fearlessly 

strange performance artist slowly but surely taking over the queer 

performance scene nationally after moving back and forth like a 

boomerang from London to Liverpool since she finished school. In 

recent years, Liverpool’s weirdos are beginning to establish their 

own cultural presence, actively making Liverpool the place to be for 

cutting-edge creatives instead of looking for that place somewhere 

else. 

Liverpool may not be the most diverse place, but in many ways 

it provides an ideal environment for creative outliers to thrive. It’s 

relatively cheap, and the scene is small enough for connections 

to form organically without being claustrophobic. This is clear in 

the case of Yank Scally, this month’s cover artist; his debut album 

is a massive cross-genre collaboration that spans local artists 

to international producers. His experimental electronic creations 

are certainly different from what you might hear at most ‘singersongwriter 

holds guitar’ music nights in the city, but as the bustling 

enthusiasm of Evian Christ’s crowd proved, there is a silent 

contingent of people hungry for something else. Munkey Junkey, 

another electronic producer on Merseyside, is another creative 

outlier on the scene who is beginning to meddle with a decadesold 

paradigm of what music in Liverpool looks and sounds like. 

This city considers itself a bastion of political independence, 

not beholden to the whims of the rest of this country. Emerging 

from this landscape are a breed of artists who are just as irreverent 

in their attitude towards how things are usually done. We don’t 

need to compete with London, because what we have would be 

lost in the process of emulation: a great capacity for sincerity, and 

no regard for what’s ‘cool’ to anyone else. 

Niloo Sharifi 

Features Editor 

Cover Photography 

Adam Thompson and lil witch (illustration) 

Niloo Sharifi 

Words 

Niloo Sharifi, Christopher Torpey, Elliot Ryder, Caitlin 

Whittle, Clara Cicely, James Booton, Jonny Winship, Jah 

Jussa, Sam Turner, Brit Williams, Paul Fitzgerald, Jennie 

Macaulay, Ian Abraham, Julia Johnson, Glyn Akroyd, 

Megan Walder, Eddy Turner, Lisa Haglington, Umut 

Tugay Temel, Phoebe Train, Maria Andreou, Alison 

McGovern. 

Photography, Illustration and Layout 

Mark McKellier, Adam Thompson, lil witch, Niloo 

Sharifi, Hannah Blackman-Kurz, Lewis Dohren, Robin 

Clewley, Caitlin Whittle, Zuzu, Hollie Fernando, Darren 

Aston, Glyn Akroyd, Tomas Adam, John Middleton, Rob 

Battersby, Gareth Jones, Matteo Paganelli. 

Distributed by Middle Distance 

Print, distribution and events support across 

Merseyside and the North West. 

middledistance.org.uk 

The views expressed in Bido Lito! are those of the 

respective contributors and do not necessarily 

reflect the opinions of the magazine, its staff or the 

publishers. All rights reserved. 

12 / YANK SCALLY 

Before the Toxteth audiomancer’s finger drops on the delete 

button and wipes the slate clean, you’d better get on board. 2019 

is the year of the Bulletproof Wizard. 

16 / BBC 6 MUSIC FESTIVAL 

In March, Liverpool’s musicians and venues take centre stage as 

the city plays host to three days of live music and conversation, 

reflecting the spirit of BBC Radio 6 Music. 

18 / MUNKEY JUNKEY 

“Sometimes it feels like you’re on a tiny little life raft out in the 

ocean, but once people sing your songs back to you, you’ve won.” 

22 / BLOOM 

After seven years of steady growth, mental health charity The 

Open Door Centre is ready to embark on its latest chapter in the 

Bloom Building. 

REGULARS 

10 / NEWS 

30 / SPOTLIGHT 

33 / PREVIEWS 

20 / LONDON SUCKS 

“Don’t let people tell you where you need to be, go where makes 

you happy.” 

24 / KEVIN LE GRAND 

Caitlin Whittle gets cosy with Kevin Le Grand, a queer 

performance artist whose work explores the grey area between 

fun and despair. 

26 / THE CHILLIN’ ROOMS 

How is a coffee shop in Kensington is at the vanguard of a 

movement towards cannabis acceptance in the UK. 

32 / SLEAFORD MODS 

“It feels like people are being eaten alive. We’re being consumed.” 

34 / OUR GIRL 

“We learnt how to make your guitar sound amazing with a load 

of distortion, reverb and a screwdriver.” 

40 / REVIEWS 

52 / ARTISTIC LICENCE 

54 / FINAL SAY

NEWS 

Oyé All Stars 

The dynamic, irresistible sound of the Soweto township is 

coming to Africa Oyé this year, as it’s been revealed that 

seven-piece force of nature BCUC will be headlining the 

27th edition of the festival. BCUC gave a taste of what to 

expect at their incendiary live show at District in October 

2018, and their blend of hip hop, indigenous funk and rock 

energy has to be seen to be fully comprehended. It has all 

the hallmarks of a legendary Oyé headline set. Algerian 

musician SOFIANE SAIDI will also be performing in Sefton 

Park, bringing his new project with electro-Maghreb 

wizards MAZALDA to bring a fresh take on the classic 

80s-inspired sounds of Algerian Rai. All this and much 

more is coming your way – for free – on the weekend of 

22nd and 23rd June. Your attendance is highly expected. 

BCUC 

The Female Gaze: 

Women Depicting Women 

A new exhibition launches at Queen Avenue gallery DOT-ART on 

International Women’s Day, Friday 8th March. A trio of locally based 

artists, Liz Jeary, Mia Cathcart and Rebecca Atherton, will explore 

identity and male gaze through diverse art forms in a two-month 

long show. With the guerrilla girls’ famous campaign proclaiming that 

less than five per cent of artists exhibited in the MOMA were female 

while, according to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, 51 per 

cent of visual artists are female, representation is a vital issue in the 

art world. March is also the last chance artists have the opportunity 

to apply to Liverpool, 2028 – an opportunity to be displayed at the 

gallery as part of the bido100! programme of activity. Go to dot-art. 

co.uk for more details. 

Liz Jeary 

Huw&A At Sound City+ 

Huw Stephens 

Get yourself lanyard-ready as Sound City+ has announced the first names 

to be appearing at the conference this year. Following last year’s sold-out 

event at the Cunard Building, industry figureheads HUW STEPHENS, DAVE 

ROWNTREE and DR JENNIFER OTTER BICKERDIKE will be dispensing 

pearls of wisdom for music biz networkers. Sound City+ have also revealed 

that sessions at this year’s event will include Touring The Asian Music Circuit, 

Women In A&R: How The Game Has Changed and Brexit: The Realities For 

The Music Business. The conference takes place on Friday 3rd May and is 

followed by the two-day festival in the Baltic Triangle. 

Curry On Up The Charts 

Critically lauded beer and Indian eatery BUNDOBUST 

has finally made its way to the western end of the M62. 

The award-winning purveyors of small plates from the 

subcontinent are opening a Bold Street premises this April to 

add to the thoroughfare’s dangerously good food and drink 

offer. The recipes on the Bundobust menu derive from the 

owners’ Gujarati, heritage while the ales stocked are craft beers 

from all over the world. Ahead of opening its doors next month, 

Bundobust will be pitching up in the kitchen of The Merchant 

on Slater Street so Liverpudlians can sample their wares over 

the weekend of 6th-8th March. 

Sound Women 

The people down at Sound on Duke Street are good old eggs. 

As well as setting up a regular night for underage giggers, 

they’ve helped the Sound Women collective to build a really 

supportive network around their regular events. What started 

as a community of like-minded women trying to help each other 

has blossomed into a series of workshops, classes and “femalefronted 

entertainment”. In March you can attend a finance clinic, 

a social media for business workshop, craft classes and more. 

It’s rounded off by the customary Sound Women gig (23rd 

March), featuring indie-electronica fusers FOXTRAP, who’ve just 

dropped their self-titled debut album. 

COMPETITION: Hole In Liverpool One 

Liverpool’s crazy golf community will rejoice this month with the 

opening of JUNKYARD GOLF in Liverpool ONE. The course is renowned 

for its treacherous fairways, sticky bunkers and extensive cocktails 

offer. Split into three nine-hole courses, wannabe Woosnams and Lexi 

Thompsons are challenged to overcome car parts, circus side-shows 

and jungle flora to complete in par. To celebrate the opening Bido Lito! 

is giving away four golf, cocktails and snacks packages. All you have to 

do to win is answer the following question: Which Fleetwood Mac song 

lends its name to gaining a four under par? Is it a) Tusk b) Albatross 

or c) Birdie. Send your answers to competition@bidolito.co.uk by 

Monday 18th March. Winners will be notified by email. 

Junkyard Golf 

10

MEMBERS’ 

MIXTAPE 

In this new monthly section, we 

ask one of our members to compile 

a selection of music from their 

recent listening playlists. Andy 

Johnston takes up the reins to tell 

us what tunes have been keeping his 

headphones busy lately. 

Sledge Allegiance To LIMF 

Liverpool International Music Festival has well and 

truly established itself as a recognisable shape on 

the city’s musical skyline. Transforming Sefton Park 

for one weekend each July the festival brings a host 

of well-known names to South Liverpool for a multistage 

celebration of new music, heritage music and 

everything in between. This year, LIMF planners have 

announced that DISCO CLASSICAL FEATURING 

SISTER SLEDGE WITH KATHY SLEDGE is the first 

name on the proverbial team sheet. Disco hits past 

decades will be reimagined for a 35-piece orchestra, 

following on from the success of Haçienda Classiçal 

at last year’s festival. Keep your eyes peeled for 

more announcements incoming for the 20-21st July 

weekender. 

LIMF 

Cow-Abunga Clwyd 

Bido Lito! will once again be proudly presenting 

two brilliant new Liverpool-based artists 

at international showcase festival FOCUS 

WALES. This year, Wrexham will be treated 

to the soulful sonics of KYAMI and the grunge 

grandiosity of COW. Kyami’s new track Super 

Special premieres on bidolito.co.uk from 1st 

March to give you a taste of the New Yorker’s 

salient blend of indie RnB. Cow have been 

troubling the rafters of Merseyside venues for 

the past year with their blend of emotionally 

wrought alt-rock. Elsewhere on the FOCUS bill is 

Welsh national treasure CATE LE BON, Heavenly 

Recordings’ BOY AZOOGA and indie-popsters 

KERO KERO BONITO. 

Rustin Man 

Vanishing Heart 

Domino 

A beautiful piece of music 

from the former Talk Talk man 

Paul Webb that sounds like 

it could have been recorded 

when Talk Talk were still a thing. A mix of folk and psych 

that just takes me away every time I hear it. The whole 

album, Drift Code, makes you all warm and fuzzy. 

Foxwarren 

To Be 

ANTI- 

Violette Sospeso 

More news of good people doing good things has reached us, and this is an initiative that warrants 

greater recognition. Inspired by the caffé sospeso tradition born in the working-class cafés of Naples, 

the people at La Violette Societá have included the option to purchase a “suspended ticket” for any 

of their upcoming shows. A suspended item is the advance purchase of something for someone who 

needs it, no matter why. For their bi-monthly live shows, La Violette Societá offer the option of buying 

a suspended ticket, which will be made available to any person who, for whatever reason, would really 

appreciate the opportunity in joining them at that particular event, but cannot afford to do so. The next 

event that this applies to comes at Studio2 (Parr Street) on 26th March, featuring spoken word artist 

KIRSTY TAYLOR, and music from THE HOLOGRAMS, LEMONDAE FIX and THE LOSING TOUCH. 

In Harmony @ 10 

The Florrie 

God Save The Florrie 

If the latest episode of the Bido Lito! Arts + Culture Podcast 

hasn’t already made it into your ears yet, you must remedy this 

now. Liverpool 8’s grand dame, The Florrie, takes centre stage on 

our third show, as we take a closer look at the team behind the 

restoration of a building that positively throbs with community 

spirit. Its ethos, history and wide-ranging activities are discussed 

in another fascinating feature, all for free. Download our latest 

show wherever you get your podcasts, or head to bidolito.co.uk/ 

podcast for an archive of all previous episodes. We’re also now 

on Spotify, so there is officially no way of escaping us – you have 

been warned… 

I first discovered Andy Shauf 

a few years ago at End Of 

The Road festival and this is 

another great piece of work 

by him – this time alongside D.A. Kissick, Avery Kissick and 

Dallas Bryson as Foxwarren. Dreamy pop to be listened to 

by a campfire (or in the car on your way to work driving to 

Birkenhead). 

Sharon Van Etten 

I Told You 

Everything 

Jagjaguwar 

More synthy than her past 

works, the whole Remind Me 

Tomorrow album is sublime, but this is my pick of all the 

tracks. A gloomy piano-led track that brings Van Etten’s 

voice to the forefront – a thin slice of heaven. 

Strand Of Oaks 

Weird Ways 

Dead Oceans 

Launched in February 2009, IN HARMONY Liverpool uses orchestral 

music making to improve the life chances of children from school in 

North Liverpool by increasing confidence and wellbeing, enhanced 

by opportunities to travel and learn new musical skills. Now in its 

10th year, the scheme has helped improve the lives of thousands 

of pupils, and is getting the decade-long celebration it deserves. 

Over the weekend of 9th and 10th March, a series of events will 

take place to help raise funds and awareness of the initiative, as well 

as featuring performances from the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth 

Orchestra. The culmination of the celebrations comes on Monday 

11th March, where 250 young musicians who’ve taken part in the 

programme will perform their favourite pieces from In Harmony’s 

past 10 years alongside the venerable Royal Liverpool Philharmonic 

Orchestra. 

In Harmony 

You’re never quite sure what 

you’ll get from Timothy 

Showalter or Strand Of Oaks 

– full-on rock, psych or folky 

acoustic guitars, but I love this new track of theirs. This is 

very much going down the Americana route with a bit of 

The War On Drugs mixed in – ace. 

Head to bidolito.co.uk for an extended version of the 

Members’ Mixtape, including a playlist compiled by Andy. 

For more information on our Community Membership, head 

to bidolito.co.uk/membership. 

NEWS 11

YANK SCALLY 

Before the Toxteth audiomancer’s finger drops on the delete button and wipes the slate clean, you’d better 

get on board – 2019 is the year of the Bulletproof Wizard. 

YANK SCALLY enters his bedroom studio, leading in 

Bill Nickson and Astles, who are visiting for the first 

time. “Yeh, I probably should have cleaned up,” he 

tells them as they perch among the clutter, “but I feel 

like it’s more authentic.” It is mid-afternoon, but you can’t tell in 

the darkened room. The windows are covered by sheets pinned 

to the frames, and the only other light source is the computer 

screen. His hosting strategy is unique. They sit around smoking 

for some time, while Yank Scally prank calls an American 

record store on speakerphone, demanding that they check their 

stockroom for Under The Boardwalk by Bruce Willis. Snickering 

as they hang up, he is suddenly contrite: “Nah, nah, I’m getting 

side-tracked. D’you wanna make some tunes?” 

No one can believe the time when the guitars are put away; 

suddenly, the day is gone. “Time doesn’t exist in this room, does 

it?” asks Dan. Bill agrees: “The Yank Scally experience. It gives 

me more context for the music.” Over the last year this dim, 

smoky room has been the site of a secret creative explosion. 

Yank Scally has been crafting his most concentrated work to 

date. A whole host of collaborators have passed through the 

labyrinthine hallways of the building he lives in to record with 

him. His first full-length project, There’s Not Enough Hours 

In The Day, features 10 other artists across its 14 tracks. 

These range from local rappers, singers and instrumentalists, 

to international producers. In this project, Yank Scally brings 

together artists from very different worlds, intermingling them 

naturally with his extravagant synth creations. 

There’s Not Enough Hours In The Day is a collective 

achievement, which also tells a story of the creative community 

in this city. “’Cos I’m kind of a hermit and I don’t really like 

drinking, I tend to just invite people round here,” he explains. “I’ve 

had like all kinds of people here, from people who’ve never done 

anything before to fully-fledged artists.” Seasoned rappers Bang 

On!, MC Nelson and Remy Jude all squinted to write their album 

verses under the dim light emanating from his screens. Martha 

Goddard of the Hushtones, WOR Music, Josephine Yeoman 

and George Styers lent him their voices and musical ideas. He 

even secretly recorded me reading my poetry to him one night 

and mixed it into Red Sky At Night, the six-minute ambient 

interlude at the centre of the album. This is one of two tracks 

featuring international producers; he describes &&, the Algerian 

producer who finished it off, and Dad’s Computer who features 

on Morning, as his “internet friends”. The album art was drawn 

by friend lil witch, and vectorised by another, Gemma. His wizard 

robes were sewn by a friend’s mum. 

The album was recorded, mixed and mastered in this 

bedroom, in a studio also obtained through a collectivist effort. 

“I’ve got one monitor and one speaker that was given to me 

by a friend who went to India, I’ve got keyboards that people 

have lent me. The computer was my grandad’s. Like, none of 

it is mine.” He has no soundproofing, and as the occupants 

of his neighbouring bedrooms came to learn, he doesn’t use 

headphones. He mastered his own album on this set-up, trusting 

his own ears above all others, with no regard to how things are 

usually done. 

This uncompromising nature caught Bido Lito!’s attention 

last year, when out of a sea of wordy, bombastic press releases 

came a SoundCloud link with a single line: “hello. im from 

toxteth”. “I don’t really have a lot to say anyway, so the only 

thing I’ve got to show is music,” he tells me. Back then, Yank 

Scally’s SoundCloud held hundreds of songs. There were disco 

beats; pop songs; harsh noise; artist studies with titles like Burial 

Copy; a donk version of Dido’s White Flag. Some of the songs 

had hundreds of plays, but most had less than a hundred. We 

were amazed to only just be hearing about someone so prolific, 

and so audibly talented. “I had no idea about press kits or any of 

that stuff,” he explains. As part of the Merseyrail Sound Station 

artist development programme, he got to present his ‘press kit’ 

to a panel of industry experts, and to his shock they were just as 

intrigued. “I didn’t realise, by accident, it meant more that I’d put 

less.” 

When it comes to the words he uses, Yank Scally is a 

minimalist. “I can’t explain it. There’s just a set amount of lyrics 

that I’ll ever use. I don’t like the way some words sound.” He 

mentions musicians who take the same approach: “Say, like, 

James Blake, Arthur Russell, Daft Punk. If you deconstruct 

their lyrics, each word is quite purposeful and they use so few.” 

Although he studies a vast range of genres, he is most attracted 

to musical outliers, like Moondog, the eccentric New York drifter. 

“I like musicians who have, like, a stylised way of doing things. 

With dance music, the drop’s always about turning it up. You get 

that ‘oooh’ off the drop, and that only lasts for a certain amount 

of time, so I’m trying to figure out how to constantly drop it 

over and over again.” He describes the wonder he felt as a teen 

watching Justice on stage with their huge light-up cross, and 

hearing Daft Punk release experimental albums after their hit 

debut. A decade on, he is creating his own stylised electronic 

music which defies genre and his own fantastical persona. “My 

friend Mike called me an audiomancer, which then led me on to 

wizard-type thinking.” (Mike, who has wandered into the room, 

interjects: “I have no idea how you do it, la, I just see fucking 

green squares.”) After shooting his music video for Up All Night 

in costume, he insisted on keeping it on while he walked around 

town, gleeful at the turning heads. “I’ve become my own hero. 

For a long time now, I haven’t really been listening to a lot of 

other people’s music,” he confesses. “I’ve only been making my 

own.” 

The penultimate song on There’s Not Enough Hours In The 

Day, Sunday, begins with an auto-tuned prank call to another 

American record store. The employee quickly loses his patience: 

“Is this the healing crystals guy? Seriously dude, I don’t have 

time for this.” As his delighted peals of laughter echo away, the 

melancholy, McCartney-esque organ chords swell into a singalong 

anthem of hope for all of the beautiful, imperfect ones: 

“Spent all day in bed again/but I’ll try again tomorrow.” 

Yank Scally’s persona and musical practice bears the marks 

of its origins, a young boy hell-bent on having fun against all 

the odds. Our school systems don’t encourage experimentation, 

or recognise strengths which lie outside of academic diligence. 

Even art and music teachers end up enforcing joyless parameters 

of achievement by necessity, and access to extracurricular 

resources is limited for some. The art industries are overflowing 

with those who grew up with tutors and musical instruments. 

Electronic music is the great equaliser, because all you really 

12

“I’ve become my own 

hero. For a long time 

now, I haven’t really 

been listening to other 

people’s music, I’ve only 

been making my own” 

need to make it is a computer, and maybe some pirating 

capabilities. He remembers being 12, googling “how to make 

music like daft punk” on his grandad’s computer. “I think I 

actually tried one called Cakewalk first and it was disgusting, 

then I opened up Fruity Loops. It comes with a demo track, which 

is really intuitive. To be honest, for a long time I had no idea what 

I was doing, and I would refuse to watch guides because they 

were boring. I’d rather just press buttons and see where it goes.” 

Music allowed him the creative freedom to experiment outside of 

the rigidity of academia. 

“I was just messing around with Fruity Loops for ages, 

and then after years, people were like, ‘Hey, you’re actually 

getting pretty good at this’.” He built a low-budget recording 

studio in his room. “Thinking back now, the set-up was wrong, 

but somehow I got it to work. The room would be constantly 

full of my mates, and it got to the point where I had so many 

visitors that I’d just sort of make tunes in the background 

while everyone was just chilling.” Yank Scally relishes his 

ability to make beats in the most minimal of environments; the 

independence is freeing. “A guitarist or something would have 

to go to a studio and record. I could just make disco beats on my 

computer.” 

After dropping out of college, his experimentation 

intensified and became more focused. “The way I’ve always 

done my musical studies is, you know, like how a painter does 

a collection, that’s how I do it. I make an idea first, and do a 

series like that. Sometimes three or four, and sometimes actual 

hundreds.” He uploaded songs and deleted them when he felt 

like it. “I really like the delete function. People don’t use that 

enough. Y’know, it’s the internet, the button’s right there. But it’s 

not always as easy, as I’ve come to figure out. People actually 

grow, like, a connection to a song and you just turn around 

and delete it – it’s kind of unfair, because you’re playing God at 

that point.” It took a while for him to sense the existence of his 

audience from the confines of his room. 

Unlike most Liverpool acts, he never cut his teeth on the gig 

circuit; his rehearsal room is his studio and online was his stage. 

“Up until 2016-2017, there was a large period where I was 

isolated and I just sort of forgot about everyone else.” Journalists 

and blogs would feature his songs and include him in playlists, 

only to find the track gone without a trace, with links leading 

nowhere. “My music was kind of separate, like I wasn’t making 

music to impress anyone or, anything like that. And I’m still not, 

but people exist in the equation now. There was an awkward 

stage, where it was like, people can’t actually like my music, 

’cos I don’t like it, so I had to change that, d’yknow?” He started 

to sing on his own tracks: “I got tired of waiting for the right 

environment and timing, and the opportunity to have a singer 

in my room.” He stopped studying other people’s music, and 

started combining the styles he had mastered to create his own. 

They began to have an autobiographical quality to them, like 

sonic diary entries. He wrote a song about feeling down, and 

one about loving smoking, using heavy guitar riffs mixed with 

drum and bass. 

As summer approached, something shifted. He began 

making uplifting, melancholy synth soundscapes with repetitive, 

minimalistic lyrics. His SoundCloud reached what he calls a 

“critical mass”, and he deleted everything. Most of the songs 

he wrote after this point appear on his new album. Going For A 

Drive, the only Yank Scally song on Spotify (currently), was the 

first of this group: “It was my first true song. It was a huge step 

up, ’cos I was, like, opening the book on my life or whatever. 

I wrote it just before the summer. I was feeling like I was just 

coming out of a long sadness.” The song captures something 

about the savage beauty of the world after surviving a rough 

patch and reawakening to it. “Feeling so alive, sleeping all 

day… going scatty, smoking biff”, he sings in a cycle. The rest 

of the album is just as personal. “There was a girl I met a long 

time ago, and we got into a bit of a thing over the phone.” She 

reappeared suddenly in the summer after a long silence, “And, 

yeh, from that came Delete, Up All Night and Magic Spells.” 

These songs take us through the despair of digital separation, 

losing sleep on the phone, and being cursed with infatuation. 

They are also certified bangers. 

At some points, Yank Scally felt like God’s lightning rod. “A 

few months ago, I felt like, enlightened. I was making all these 

tunes, and they were just coming out of me and that. I feel like 

it was just... [he makes a whooshing sound and extends his 

arm] Like, I wasn’t really having any part in doing that, and 

at some points it was almost scary, like I’m not even joking. 

I guess I’ve very little self-esteem, so being able to do that… 

I’m not saying I’m pure amazing or anything, but at that point 

I knew I was putting out good music daily, hourly. And it was 

just weird to have this duality of, like, being so tired and stuff 

all the time, and then being this all-powerful producer wizard.” 

We hear this contradiction on the refrain of Bulletproof Wizard, 

an uplifting bop featuring WOR and Remy Jude which he 

describes as his theme tune: “Bulletproof wizard – not enough 

hours in the day!” 

As an artist, he is free of a certain egotistical angst for 

recognition; it’s about doing what he loves. His ambition is 

to remain in a constant state of transformation, to never stop 

deleting: “As I get closer to solidifying myself as an artist, I feel 

trapped and it’s boring. You sort of feel like a cliché, it’s like 

when you meet your hero or whatever.” His plans for the next 

year are monumental. “I wanna release 12 albums, each with 

its own sound. I have a project’s worth of stuff in me every 

month, for definite, and if I can keep up the pace I can probably 

go faster. I feel like it can’t get old.” He wants to collaborate 

with filmmakers, game designers and to buy a factory for 

himself and all his friends. “Right now, I’m using the bare 

minimum to do the most that I can. And I can’t wait for the day 

that I can, like, shop. Synth shopping would be like me getting 

a makeover, basically, and you would hear it the next day.” Yank 

Scally might not care much for applause, but he is pushing to 

have it all. “So, I can really go out there and do something big.” ! 

Words and Photography: Niloo Sharifi 

soundcloud.com/yankscally 

There’s Not Enough Hours In The Day is out now. Catch Yank 

Scally live at the Bido Lito! Social on 28th March at Shipping 

Forecast. 

FEATURE 

13

Box office: 

theatkinson.co.uk 

01704 533 333 

(Booking fees apply) 

– 

: TheAtkinson 

: @AtkinsonThe 

: @TheAtkinsonSouthport 

The Atkinson 

Lord Street 

Southport 

PR8 1DB 

Country & 

Americana Music 

Grateful Fred’s 2019 

Season Ticket £38 

£11 adv / £13 doors* 

Join us for a monthly night of pioneering new music 

hosted by the Grateful Fred’s with a headline act 

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An Evening 

of Country & 

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Music 

Sat 27 April, 7.30pm 

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Wed 3 April, 7.30pm 

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Wed 1 May, 7.30pm 

The Resonant Rogues 

Wed 3 July, 7.30pm 

Blue County 

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Jess Klein 

*Plus booking fee £1 per ticket online/phone

MEMBERSHIP 

THE ALL-NEW BIDO LITO! 

COMMUNITY MEMBERSHIP 

Bido Lito! has always been about supporting and championing 

Liverpool’s new music and creative culture. Through our team of community 

writers, photographers, illustrators and creative minds we’ve charted our 

city’s vibrant, do-it-together creative ethos since 2010. This community 

spirit is central to what Bido Lito! has become, and it’s something we’re 

committed to expanding upon. 

A new global movement towards community journalism has emerged 

in recent years, and we see Bido Lito! playing a key role the movement’s 

continuing development. As traditional media organisations face existential 

threats to their business models and their moral authority, community 

journalism harnesses the energy and passion of local people, creating a 

powerful, independent media voice free from advertorials and clickbait. 

With this in mind, we are making some changes to our Bido Lito! 

Community Membership. 

Bido Lito! Community Members will still receive the latest edition of the 

magazine in the post before anyone else, along with exclusive download 

and playlist content from Liverpool’s most exciting new artists. And, 

members are still invited to come along to our monthly Bido Lito! Social for 

free. 

“Community journalism 

harnesses the energy 

and passion of local 

people, creating a 

powerful, independent 

media voice free from 

advertorials and clickbait” 

But - and most importantly - Bido Lito! Community Members will be 

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recommending features, providing insight into live events, curating playlists 

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We still believe strongly in the editorial integrity of the magazine, so Bido 

Lito! Editors will have the final say on commissions; but the voice of Bido 

Lito! going forward will be shaped by our community members. 

If you are passionate about supporting and championing Liverpool’s new 

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Bido Lito! Community Member today. 

For more information go to bidolito.co.uk/membership

6 MUSIC 

FESTIVAL 

In March, Liverpool’s musicians and venues take centre stage as the city plays host to three days of live 

music and conversation, reflecting the spirit of BBC Radio 6 Music. 

The premise of state-funded radio dealing primarily in 

content that resists control seems fantastical. You need 

only cast a glance through the lens of BBC Radio 6 

Music to flare this feeling, irrespective of its contribution 

to reality for close to 20 years. The on-air red light of the BBC 

is a portal to an in-tune portion of the population. With its 24- 

hour glow, 6 Music hasn’t shied from projecting the sounds of 

art, angst and protest from the furthest reaches of the UK and 

beyond. 

Granted, much of this owes to the BBC’s invisible appetite 

for pulling the levers of a draconian machine. It offers space for 

subculture and creativity alongside its straight-faced agenda 

setting. It doesn’t ensure the nation wakes in unison to six 

spritely pips proceeding The Today Programme. Instead, an array 

of independent voices pulled from the indie-championing masses 

found their home in 2002. 6 Music was to be alternative for the 

alternatives, hardwired into the circuit boards of the mainstream 

studio desk. It’s essentially pirate radio, emitting from a dry dock 

outside Broadcasting House. 

The station itself has been through modest cosmetic 

changes since its creation. It now partially lives up north at 

Salford’s MediaCityUK. The northern accents of two women 

– Lauren Laverne and Mary Anne Hobbs – are at the controls 

of the station’s morning mid-week broadcasts. Voices of the 

new music printed press from years past continue to guard the 

track selection. A glaring difference, however, is the station’s 

popularity. Nine years ago, it attracted just 700,000 listeners 

per week, initiating calls for it to be axed. As of May 2018, the 

station attracts 2.5 million weekly listeners. It’s a remarkable 

turnaround in the face of knitted executive brows and the 

unrelenting rise of streaming services. Its improved popularity is 

the perfect riposte to BBC’s zero-sum approach to its existence. 

Since 2011, it’s likely a portion of its listenership has been 

pulled from Radio 1, blurring the 

boundaries of what it is to cater 

to ‘the alternative tastes’, much of 

which is seemingly in line with age 

and cycles of popularity. 

However, few would argue 

that the station’s flagship music 

festival fails to pull together an 

‘alternative’ line-up that most 

promoters can only dream of. 

It’s a festival that’s bled from the 

blueprints in which the station 

was founded upon; an ethos that 

puts passion and place ahead of 

listening percentages. As of 2014, 

the event has rooted itself in cities 

across the country that carry an air of the alternative. Places with 

fortifications surrounding their own independent culture. Places 

such as Glasgow, Manchester and, as of this March, Liverpool. 

This year things will be no different; the festival will again 

boast a collection of renowned stars, erupting talent and a 

programme of fringe events that unlock the city’s scene for those 

listening from afar. Notable artists enlisted for the three-day 

event include ANNA CALVI, HOT CHIP, the recently reconvened 

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE QUEEN and CHARLOTTE 

GAINSBOURG. IDLES, JON HOPKINS and VILLAGERS were all 

regular fixtures on 2018’s best 

albums lists, and all of them 

“For a city battling to retain 

its cultural and musical 

value against a tide of 

regeneration, the 6 Music 

Festival weekend carries a 

high level of importance” 

have shown that their sizeable 

Liverpool fanbases will turn out 

to witness their live turns, too. 

Plenty of tongues have been 

wagging for the new wave of 

alternative stars LITTLE SIMZ, 

SLOWTHAI and GAIKA in 

recent months, and they fully 

deserve their place in the midst 

of this talent-packed line-up. 

2MANYDJS and EROL ALKAN 

are part of an exceptional cast 

of DJs who will be charged 

with making sure the 6 Music 

Festival energy lasts long into the night. 

Local artists also make an impression on the upper echelons 

of the billing, too, with SHE DREW THE GUN, BILL RYDER- 

16

JONES, THE CORAL and STEALING SHEEP all scheduled to appear. These artists will form a blanket 

spread to play shows at the Olympia, Mountford Hall and Camp and Furnace between 29th and 

31st March, with the festival fringes running through the independent hubs within the city. CRAIG 

CHARLES also drops in at late-night hub Invisible Wind Factory on Saturday 30th March. The 

festival is an opportunity for the city’s music scene to flash its feathers in the faces of those who don’t 

normally frequent Sound Basement, the Shipping Forecast, Phase One or 81 Renshaw. It’s also an 

opportunity for radio to show it’s still in touch with people and place, despite the emphatic drive of 

boundary-less app-based streaming. It’s a weekend where the BBC Sounds will take you somewhere, 

to be part of something. Not simply a heady escape from the commute or the bored four walls in the 

free hours of the day to day. 

For a city battling to retain its cultural and musical value against a tide of regeneration, the 6 

Music Festival weekend carries a high level of importance. Liverpool has a resurgent independent 

scene that’s pushing its roots through freshly applied layers of apartment block concrete. The same 

can be said for 6 Music. While a fanfare of listening figures suggests a state of rude health, streaming 

services will continue to circle around radio’s face-lifted anatomy. The festival arrives on a weekend 

where there’ll be a searing spotlight on Liverpool and 6 Music. Both will be expected to be at their 

best. 

Few will be able to feel the pulse of 6 Music better than GIDEON COE. His record bag, littered 

with post punk, indie, jazz, soul, reggae, dub, ska and live recordings, makes up the station’s jittery 

heartbeat from 9pm to midnight. He’s seen it all. Launch, near death and renaissance. He’s had 

stints in the mid-morning schedule, but his best colours have been kept under the cover of darkness, 

reflecting from moonlight and streetlamps. It’s programming that best reflects what 6 Music was 

created to do; build parallel conveyor belts that draw together the contemporary and nostalgic, 

finished with a dose of the weird and wonderful. “Being at 6 Music has opened my ears,” he tells 

us, when asked about he how he tailors his programmes, “and once I started on the night-time 

programme that was even more the case.” For over a decade, Coe has been using the looser hours to 

knit together the musical fibres of wide-spanning genres. “I saw it as an opportunity to mix things up 

as much as possible. At the same time, I spend a lot of time working on the flow of the programme; 

a lot of moving things about and looking for good segues or links between records. And in that there 

are some gear changes. I like doing that. If any records are challenging, then that’s down to the ears 

of the listeners.” 

While Coe’s only previous experience of Liverpool was in his early days a sports reporter, his 

acknowledgement of place within music has allowed him to piece together the scene from afar. 

Although, he admits, this does not always provide the clearest picture. Radio can only provide a 

flashlight against the permanent floodlit arena of the internet. As such, the defining sounds of a city 

can so often punch above the true variety that exists for the ears of outsiders. Liverpool’s seemingly 

intractable relationship with arty post-punk and psychedelic pop isn’t the only case of musical 

pigeonholing across the country, though. Speaking of his home city, Gideon adds: “Musicians often 

write and record about what they know and reflect where they come from. Thus it always was. I 

live in the part of West London that gave us Hawkwind and The Deviants, and some of the other 

counter-culture types lived round here. And that in turn – via the various squats in the area in the 70s 

– provided a good base for many of the punk musicians. But that has little bearing on the music being 

made in this part of London now.” The same can be said of Liverpool. Beija Flo, Lee Scott, Eyesore 

And The Jinx, SPQR, XamVolo and Brand Stank, to name a few, currently fill a colourful musical 

palette spread across the Liverpool scene. It’s far from a two-pronged attack. 

Radio is challenged to locate and acknowledge these emerging scenes that have grown from the 

internet with no musical signposts related to a former understanding. And often, scenes will not wait 

for the acknowledgement of radio. The democratised sphere of the internet offers burgeoning scenes 

free range exploration to join the dots of their musical world. Radio is still very much a hierarchical 

gatekeeper and approver of sounds. But, as Coe argues, it’s a role that remains unique. Playlist 

culture and related artist auto search can only go so far in sketching out the foundations of musical 

education. “You can listen to music at random online and try to work out where it comes from but 

often it’s hard to tell,” he says. “Music radio for me has always been about the DJ as well as about the 

music played. Some of my favourite parts of Janice Long’s Radio 1 programme in the 1980s involved 

her talking to Peel’s producer John Walters. Then there was the music she played, which was great. 

The human element is important to me as a listener.” 

If there is one strand of 6 Music’s programming that defines itself in the face of technological 

advancement, it’s the abundance of live recordings to hand. Not only does the BBC possess a rich 

archive of material, but its use engages the listener in a completely different way. The portal of radio 

veers beyond the boxed-in studio. It becomes a romanticised escape that draws music towards its 

tangible entry point. All lashings of colour and atmosphere, like an in expensive audiobook complete 

with musical soundtrack. It’s the empirical moment of encompassing experience. “Those recordings 

are a vital part of what we do, and over the last 16 years, 6 Music has added a huge amount to that 

BBC’s music archive. It’s a huge achievement on our part, probably the most important thing we have 

done. To have The Beatles’ BBC recordings and Georgie Fame at Ronnie Scott’s alongside a recent 

session from Beak or The Specials gig from early February this year at the 100 Club in London is a 

big part of what makes 6 Music distinctive.” While the live recordings cannot drill down into core of 

every scene and subculture, they bring radio closer to the importance of place, just as the 6 Music 

Festival will attempt to when it arrives in Liverpool. In the eyes of Coe, the task remains the same as 

it ever was: to be a distinctive and trustworthy voice. “6 Music needs to do that in a landscape that 

is shifting in terms of the music that is being released, which naturally evolves over time, and what 

music is being played on other stations. Take a good variety of new and old records from a variety 

of places and mix them up with bits and pieces from the music archive. That remains the plan every 

night.” 

6 Music remains a popular yet peculiar facet of the BBC. Its creation, planned closure and 

unprecedented growth doesn’t do much to bolden the lines between its working balance of 

alternative freedoms and state funding. If anything, its near demise in 2011 highlights its peculiar 

existence on the waves of the highest reaching radio mast in the country. The emergence of the 6 

Music Festival, however, was simple logic. It’s a brand that was nowhere near past its sell by date and 

in need of a tangible entry point. With that, 6 Music has proven difficult to throw away. An emotive 

heirloom resting in the playroom of your childhood, now turned office. It’s the radio equivalent to the 

vinyl revival; a proven formula capable of placing nostalgia in the willing hands of youth. It’s going 

from strength to strength, against the odds and current of contemporary practice. It’s got the voices 

for a particular set of ears. But this cannot always remain the same. Thus, it’s not all misty eyed. The 

crackle of tape format does rear its head in the station’s presenting roster. Leaning ever closer to the 

contemporary would be a sure-footed step. ! 

The Good, The Bad And The Queen 

Little Simz 

Charlotte Gainsbourg 

Words: Elliot Ryder / @elliot_ryder 

Illustration: Hannah Blackman-Kurz / @Hbkurz 

bbc.co.uk/6music 

The BBC Radio 6 Music Festival takes place between 29th and 31st March across multiple venues. 

BBB Radio 6 Music Festival – full line-up 

The Good, The Bad And The Queen, Anna Calvi, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jon Hopkins, Little Simz, 

Gang Of Four, Jungle, IDLES, Hot Chip, Villagers, Erol Alkan, 2manydjs, The Cinematic Orchestra, 

Chali 2na & Krafty Kuts, Ex:Re, Marika Hackman, Fontaines D.C., The Coral, Nemone, BC Camplight, 

Slowthai, Max Cooper, Julian Cope, Julia Jacklin, The Comet Is Coming, Justin Robertson, Skinny 

Pelembe, Clinic, Renegade Brass Band, Bodega, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Breakwave, 

Elliot Hutchinson (Dig Vinyl). 

IDLES 

FEATURE 

17

MUNKEY 

JUNKEY 

James Booton meets worldly electronic producer Munkey Junkey to talk culture-clash, 

the ubiquity of depression and being a Merseyrail Sound Station artist. 

As the sun fades over the jungle canopy, I find myself 

lured subconsciously inside the depths of the forest. 

Through the dense vegetation, a dark, hazy figure can 

be made out, bounding through a junkyard of split 

cables, drum machines and busted speakers. As I push past the 

sonic mist into the clearing, I come face to face with the creature 

I have been seeking. A hairy wanderer, a headphone wielder, a 

MUNKEY JUNKEY. 

Now, sat on his couch in his basement studio, admiring the 

fine detail that has gone into the room’s messy aesthetic, I feel 

right at home. Munkey Junkey (Kurran Karbal) and bandmate/ 

best friend Zuzu head off to grab a brew while I sit and listen to 

his latest tracks. When they return, we settle in, and after a half 

hour chat about football, holidays and our preferred methods of 

intoxication, we finally slide into musical discussion. 

Born in New York, growing 

up in the Middle East, moving to 

Switzerland, then London, then finally 

Birkenhead, Karbal has witnessed 

cultural extremes from across the 

world. It is clear, not just from his 

appearance and accent, but from his 

music as well, that this exposure to 

such different societies has expanded 

his mind and changed his perspective 

of the world. The more he talks, the 

more I understand why his music 

seems so insistent on pushing 

boundaries and fighting against 

censorship. 

“Growing up in the Middle East, 

anything that was parental advisory, 

so anything I liked, was illegal. A CD would cost 50 dirhams 

[around £10] but if you wanted anything that was parental 

advisory, they wouldn’t have it on display, you’d have to go up 

to the counter, ask for, say, ‘Limp Bizkit’ and pay 100 dirham. 

We are about to go on tour with one of the sons of Billie Joe 

Armstrong [Green Day] and Dookie changed it for me, but you 

just couldn’t get hold of that kind of music out there.” 

“I went to visit my sister in Damascus,” he continues, “and 

my sister’s landlord asked me not to play my guitar because the 

secret police would come and search the house if they heard 

it.” Not to say that Karbal didn’t enjoy his time spent in Abu 

Dhabi (his best friend, who he ensures I clarify is “a Jersey boy, 

not from New York”, moved out there just two weeks after he 

did) but it certainly affected his musical growth. Now, with this 

new Munkey Junkey project, he seems intent on innovating and 

continuously pushing his sound without holding back. In fact, 

that is part of the reason behind his name – he explains how his 

favourite Hindu god is Hanuman the monkey, known to be joyful 

and innovative. 

His music reflects this in abundance. On my first listen I 

struggled to place his disjointed beats onto my spectrum of 

musical perception. The electronic production, the hip hop beats, 

“Sometimes it feels 

like you’re on a tiny 

little life raft out in the 

ocean, but once people 

sing your songs back 

to you, you’ve won” 

the emo influences, all didn’t register; it is a new sound, a new 

concoction that is fresh and insightful and one that has continued 

to grow on me until this very moment. 

“I feel like there’s a lot of pressure to produce something 

familiar,” I say. “It’s a safer bet financially”. “Especially in 

Liverpool,” Zu adds. 

“Yeh, totally, I always think of that South Park episode with 

nostalgia berries, because everyone loves hearing a song they 

know. It’s definitely a slippery slope as a musician to go for 

something because its tried and tested. We’re all guilty of it. 

At the moment I’m getting really into that Frank Ocean record, 

Blonde. The first time I heard some of them songs I was like, ‘This 

is too crazy,’ but now I’ve heard them 10 times I’m like, ‘YEH!’ 

Once you know the journey you kind of enjoy it more.” 

Even Karbal struggles to describe his own music to me, but 

the idea of a theme park is one that 

sticks, with a multitude of thrills and 

spills just round each corner. I liken it 

to riding on those freaky Harry Potter 

staircases; never stagnant, always 

pulling you from your seat. However, 

there is a flipside to this desire to 

push things forwards. The reality 

is that if you break from the crowd 

you are on your own, often with 

self-doubt as your only companion. 

Karbal explains how this affects the 

creative process, saying that “even 

though you like a record more when 

you are familiar with it, the tail-end 

is that if you’ve heard your own song 

500 times you start to hate it”. I can 

sense the atmosphere of the room sink as we begin to discuss 

the emotional side of making music. I can feel myself picking at 

the scab, scraping past the bubbling surface and discovering the 

harsh realities that Karbal has already faced so far in his life. The 

tones lower, and the faces become more contemplative. It feels 

like a good time to dig into Munkey Junkey’s lyrics. 

His first ever release, Kill My Ego, tackles issues close to 

the heart and features his family past as a motif throughout. He 

talks about his family returning to India after his cousin had just 

committed suicide, partly, Karbal believes, due to the pressures 

burdened on him by Indian culture. 

“That cousin was the only cousin I had who played an 

instrument and I looked up to him, but he killed himself because 

of the pressure. It’s something that gets felt a lot in Indian culture, 

there’s a huge pressure to do well financially and maybe not be 

so creative. It’s like when people ask, ‘Why are there no Indian 

players in the Premier League?’ I know why!” 

Being a creative can be painful; the process of making music 

is cyclical in nature, and leaves you exposed and vulnerable, 

opening up a space for the dark recesses of the mind to take over. 

However, as Karbal points out, it can also be the best platform 

to heal your subconscious self and feel more connected to the 

world. “I think it’s healthy to talk about it. We all feel some fuckin’ 

crazy emotions, so to feel isolated on top of those can really send 

you into a spin. I feel like music can really help that.” 

“We live in crazy times, y’know, with everything being so 

positive... everyone adapts. There’s kids living in penthouses 

that are sad as shit and some people live in tiny villages and are 

happier than them. It doesn’t matter where you are in life, how 

much money you’ve got, how many people love you, we can all 

be our own worst enemy and be fucking depressed.” 

I guess Karbal’s own nomadic youth has had a part to 

play. When the only consistent element of your life is change, 

adaptation becomes second nature. However, it is this ability to 

adapt that has also helped him to overcome these emotions. 

“Sometimes it feels like you’re on a tiny little life raft out in 

the ocean,” he continues, “but, as Drake said, once people sing 

your songs back to you, you’ve won.” This is becoming all the 

more regular for Karbal now, both with his own music and in 

performing with Zuzu. After starting the project around a year 

ago, he is now involved in Merseyrail Sound Station, which aims 

to support Merseyside’s next generation of artists via studio 

workshops and artist-led masterclasses. 

“Zu actually applied for me and I’m so stoked that she did! 

It’s sick, like all the tutors are all great! I was like, ‘Uh oh... time to 

play my music again’ and I wanted to shrink up into a hole, but 

they were so nice. The whole thing is just really good, you can 

feel isolated being a musician, so to be put in a spot with other 

musicians who are going through the same thing is so good. I’m 

still riding the confidence boost that I got from it!” 

Now, feeling rejuvenated and full of creativity, Munkey Junkey 

seems ready to take off, with the Merseyrail Sound Station 

journey culminating in a live performance at Liverpool Central 

station in March. New single Look Out Below, which he played to 

me earlier, is also set for release in the coming months. It holds 

a deeper texture than his previous tracks, and gives evidence of 

his personal and musical growth over the past year. With this 

newfound confidence it feels like this is his time and that the next 

six months will be huge for him. 

As we tail off into conversation comparing the traits of 

Liverpudlians to those from London and I realise I have missed 

my train, it seems the right place to end. Karbal has been 

all across the world and somehow ended up in Birkenhead. 

Merseyside should be happy to have Munkey Junkey. He 

has integrated into the music community, been lifted by the 

welcoming nature of its members and is now repaying us with 

warmth, vibrancy and great music. ! 

Words: Jams Booton / @BOOT_MUSIC 

Photography: Niloo Sharifi and Zuzu 

soundcloud.com/munkeyjunkey 

Look Out Below is released in March. Munkey Junkey performs 

at Liverpool Central station on 29th March as part of Merseyrail 

Sound Station Live. 

18

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20

Designer Clara Cicely decodes the 

mythic pull of the capital, which 

draws creatives seeking their 

fortune away from our city, and 

into its misty folds. She narrates 

her own tale of longing, exploration 

and disappointment, which will 

surely be familiar to many. How 

many others have stood on the 

platform at Lime Street, waiting for 

a train which symbolises a journey 

into finality, a place for people just 

like them? 

I 

spent most of my teenage life waiting until I was old/stable 

enough to move to the Big Smoke. It became such an 

important goal for me as soon as I realised I wanted to work 

in fashion. London is known for being one of the world’s 

fashion capitals and is recognised globally for its creative talent. 

To me it was a place for all the freaks and outcasts to live how 

they want, dress how they want and express themselves freely. 

People I wanted to dress and people whom I admired had all 

lived or worked there at some point. A glimmer of hope at a time 

in my life when I hadn’t been exposed to this sense of belonging 

yet, that just kind of stuck with me. So, as you can imagine, when 

the opportunity arose to move there, I grasped it firmly with both 

hands. I put so much expectation and pressure on it to be the 

perfect place and convinced myself that once I arrived my life 

would begin and everything would go right. But here I am: skint, 

miserable and writing this article on why I hate London. 

As a creative student, it gets drilled into you that London 

is the place to be if you want to make something of yourself. 

“But it’s where all the good jobs are!” is something I’ve also 

regurgitated to people. What they don’t tell you is that most of 

them are unpaid unless you’ve somehow gathered five years 

experience in two months and it’s extremely difficult to get 

that experience unless you have a lot of money. How can big 

companies (especially ones that make millions, who could easily 

afford to pay their interns) expect young students or graduates 

to be able to work 10-hour shifts, five days a week for nothing 

but travel reimbursements – if you’re 

lucky – and still be able to pay rent 

and feed themselves? The whole 

‘exposure is payment’ concept needs 

to be killed off. Yes, exposure is great. 

Yes, I absolutely would do it for the 

experience if I could afford to live at 

the same time, but the reality is I can’t, 

and neither can most other people. 

Going from the north to the south 

is more of a culture change than I ever 

thought it would be. It is very difficult 

to meet people/network and therefore 

potentially find work, in a city that is 

not very open. It’s kind of an unwritten 

rule in London that everyone keeps 

themselves to themselves – which 

definitely has good points but ultimately makes it a lot harder 

when you don’t know anyone and it comes to meeting people. 

Everyone is out for themselves and the ‘scene’ is super exclusive 

and not welcoming. 

One of the biggest realisations I had after relocating was 

how much stuff there actually is going on in Liverpool that I’d 

been oblivious to, and how accessible it is. In fact, most of the 

opportunities I’ve had since then have been in the north. Because 

it’s a small city, there’s such a tight creative community and 

everyone is always down to help out, recommend each other for 

work or collaborate on projects. The city is packed full of artists, 

musicians, writers, and hard-working people who wouldn’t 

sabotage their peers to get what they want. It is the kind of city 

I am incredibly proud to be from, and will be moving back to for 

this reason. Although moving to London’s been a huge wake up 

call, some good has come out of it, as it’s truly made me realise 

what a great city I come from and that what really matters is 

being happy in a good environment. It’s near impossible to be 

creative when you’re in the wrong environment, your brain just 

won’t allow it. Sometimes it’s best to see for yourself – but if it 

doesn’t work out that is more than fine too. Don’t let people tell 

you where you need to be, go where makes you happy. ! 

“Don’t let people 

tell you where 

you need to be, 

go where makes 

you happy” 

@claracicely 

FEATURE 

21

B L O O M 

After seven years of steady growth, mental health charity The Open Door Centre is ready to embark on its 

latest chapter. Bido writer and healthcare professional Jonny Winship finds out how the centre’s new Bloom 

building will help them bring issues around mental health awareness and support even closer to the heart of 

our region’s creative community. 

Honest and open discussions around mental health 

have been among the most valuable and necessary 

progressions made by us as a society this decade. 

We now have an expanding volume of information 

available to us, helping us to understand the signs, causes and 

traditional treatments of mental health conditions, allowing us to 

start the journey towards overcoming our issues. 

The next challenge facing our healthcare systems, 

communities and ourselves will be a move towards wellrounded, 

diverse and accessible solutions to mental health 

issues. Our approach to mental health rehabilitation and 

treatment is something that is long overdue a reform; for all 

our positive discussion and acknowledgement of these issues, 

our solutions and treatment options are not paralleled and are 

far behind where we need them. Mental health is something 

that has been considered an underfunded, under provisioned 

area of the NHS, resulting in long waiting lists and individuals 

struggling to engage with the limited services available. But 

there are a group of people here in Merseyside whose work has 

shown that a grassroots, tailored and multifaceted approach to 

mental health is more than achievable. 

The Open Door Centre, one of Wirral’s worst kept 

secrets, has been challenging our approach and perception 

of mental health for seven and a half years. Birthed from the 

determination and imagination of founder Lee Pennington, 

the charity has grown with the benevolent support from its 

volunteers and the local community. Its ethos is simple: to 

provide young people between the ages of 15 and 30 with 

support if they’re feeling down, stressed, low or anxious – with 

no waiting lists and no fees. Although that alone may appear 

novel and groundbreaking, it’s their approach that really offers 

a sense of excitement and positivity around tackling mental 

health. The Open Door Centre takes the worlds of culture, 

community, social action and the arts, and funnels them into 

one service, helping people to understand and vocalise what 

they are experiencing through both traditional and nontraditional 

mediums. 

The charity has evolved in recent years, building a network 

of support through their live events and fundraising; in 

addition to developing their external support branches, they 

have also invested in their self-sustaining internal support, 

creating a strong team of staff and volunteers. On the back of 

developing new partnerships with statutory bodies, The Open 

Door Centre looks to enter their new chapter, with the aim of 

finding more innovative ways in reaching a greater number 

of young adults in Merseyside. Last year they supported 300 

with their therapeutic services, this year that is projected to 

be over 600. This has in part been exercised with the opening 

of their new multi-purpose venue, Bloom. Tucked away in 

plain sight, in the shadow of the Cammell Laird shipyard 

in Birkenhead, the building offers a colourful and creative 

setting in a repurposed manufacturing premises. Boasting a 

vibrant and welcoming aura, the building itself is a celebration 

of colour and expression, clad in a bold and contemporary 

design. 

Upon entry, Bloom is more akin to some of the creative 

spaces around the Baltic Triangle, than of a treatment or 

clinical space. But there is more warmth, the aesthetic is not 

just for show, it’s a well-rounded reflection of the energy, 

inspiration and expression of everyone involved at the 

charity. As I enter the building, on my way to chat to Lee and 

the team, I’m welcomed with the pacifying and disarming 

feel of the building; the smoky burn of the wood fire in the 

corner backdrops the coffee and lounge area, while the 

soft hum of music filters in above. There are no white walls, 

no receptionists, nor people in lab coats flicking between 

22

treatment rooms. The front of the building comprises a 

communal area, music venue and cafe, while towards the back, 

neat wooden sheds and breakout spaces are the locus for the 

charity’s private consultation and 

meeting rooms. 

The incorporation of mental 

health within Bloom is subtle; it’s 

rooted within the foundations and 

softly woven into everything they 

do. What you see and feel is an 

expressive celebration of culture, 

arts and community. Nevertheless, 

there are direct and immediate 

resources on hand to help people 

quickly and easily address their 

mental health concerns. Adele 

Iddison, the charity’s coordinator, 

describes one of their therapy 

programmes and key resources, an 

interactive Computerised Cognitive 

Behavioural Therapy (CCBT) tool 

called Bazaar: A Marketplace For 

The Mind. “The programme is bespoke to people between the 

ages of 15 and 30,” Adele tells me. “It has all the principles 

of CBT as a therapeutic intervention applied to a computer 

programme, but the crucial thing is you don’t go through this 

on your own – you will be paired up with a mentor. This is 

someone of similar age and character, and it’s all about that 

relationship, and that interaction with someone that creates a 

unique mode of therapy, with a computer-based intervention.” 

The eight weekly sessions are delivered by the centre’s 

many mentors in their treatment sheds, which offer a relaxed 

setting, neither claustrophobic nor foreboding, but casual and 

disarming. The mentors are made up of volunteers, these are 

often people who have either been through the programme 

themselves or have perhaps had personal experience with 

mental health issues, among individuals looking for a career 

in mental health or opportunities in the sector. “Anyone from 

the community, who’d like to get involved with volunteering 

can come and get in touch with us,” says Greg Edwards, 

the centre’s operations manager. Training is given to people 

aspiring to be a mentor, and is made up of group workshops 

and one to one training. 

“The incorporation of 

mental health within 

Bloom is subtle; 

what you see and 

feel is an expressive 

celebration of culture, 

arts and community” 

Mya Higginson, one of the centre’s ambassadors and 

mentors, tells me how the mentoring programme can be 

beneficial to both the participant of the programme and the 

mentor themselves: “It has given 

me great structure, and has been 

a great opportunity to meet 

other people, I believe it made 

me more confident. Emotionally, 

I’ve gotten just as much out 

of mentoring than those 

going through the programme 

as a member.” This type of 

relationship helps breed the 

self-sustaining and cooperative 

environment that runs through 

the charity. 

Joel Dipple, Bloom Coffee 

coordinator, also remarked on 

the nurturing environment. “I’ve 

seen it from an outsider’s point 

of view. I joined a month ago, 

it’s amazing to see the work that 

these guys have done, and how rewarding it is for them when 

people come in and get involved with the mentor scheme and 

develop. It’s a great energy and its amazing to now be part 

of that team.” Joel’s role is to oversee the communal café and 

venue space, anyone can come and visit without enrolling or 

directly involving themselves with any of the services, it can 

simply act as a relaxing place to sit and have a coffee. 

The cafe area doubles as a live music and events space, 

which is a marked escalation of The Open Door Centre’s 

healthy involvement, and support for, the region’s music and 

arts community. The ODC ran the successful music festival 

Astral Coast between 2012 and 2014, bringing a host of 

musicians to New Brighton’s Floral Pavilion, including Bill 

Ryder-Jones. They have since been involved in the run of 

shows at Fresh Goods Studio in Birkenhead, showing that 

their commitment to music runs deep. The charity uses 

opportunities like these to help inspire discussion around 

mental health, creating a culture of tolerance among young 

people with regards to them tackling and expressing 

themselves. Their new space will allow future live events 

to be held on site and, aside from the music, Bloom will 

also host mindfulness classes, dance therapy, visual arts 

workshops and origami as the centre continues to find ways 

of connecting directly with people via music and arts. 

There has been an organic growth to the charity; the 

hard work the team have put in has been replicated by the 

many volunteers and attendees who now involved. A healthy 

relationship with the local community, across public, private 

and third sectors has also helped the centre to blossom – it 

regularly receives referrals from GPs and social services, 

helping to define it as a formal and established mental health 

service. 

Greg explains that due to the sustainability and support 

within the charity, it’s free and immediately accessible, which 

is something that can inspire mental health services going 

forward: “None of this is radical, but it is radical compared to 

where it sits against what mental health services are available 

at the moment. Hopefully we can make a change to where 

there isn’t negativity around inaccessibility and waiting lists.” 

The Open Door Centre is not stopping here; boosted 

by various funders who are wholeheartedly engaged in 

this cause and the development of their new premises, the 

charity will look to expand and reach out to more people 

looking for an engaging way to tackle and understand their 

mental health. Greg declares they will continue to build upon 

the elements that define them: “Support for people who are 

struggling, training for people who want to get involved and 

social action and culture. It’s not just art for art’s sake, it’s art 

for a purpose, to bring about change and to engage people 

who would otherwise be disengaged from traditional avenues 

of support.” ! 

Words: Jonny Winship / @jmwinship 

Photography: Robin Clewley / robinclewley.co.uk 

Illustration: Lewy Dohren / lewsidohren.com 

theopendoorcentre.org 

FEATURE 

23

KEVIN LE 

GRAND 

Caitlin Whittle gets cosy with Kevin Le Grand, a queer performance artist 

whose work explores the grey area between fun and despair. 

“The true nature 

of Kevin’s work is 

unfettered exploration, 

subverting ideas 

of entertainment 

and the arts” 

Wrapped up in a duvet, after sharing 20 McNuggets, 

Big Macs and milkshakes, myself and KEVIN 

LE GRAND are ready to begin our interview. I 

can’t remember the first time I met Kevin and 

I’m fairly certain she can’t remember either. Lack of self-control 

on celebratory evenings aside, some of the clearest memories I 

have of Kevin are watching her performances. Over the past year 

I have found myself, suddenly, extremely interested in live art. It 

had always been something I’d neglected or brushed off as “not 

for me” or inaccessible, until seeing it first-hand. As a recurring 

performer at Eat Me + Preach at District, Kevin’s uncompromising 

charisma reaches every audience member. Her drag feels both 

referential and classic, and the content of the performances is 

always challenging and deeply honest, somehow, even when she’s 

being funny. It is entertainment as much as it is art, the exploration 

of ideas and experimentation with themes is as exciting to see as 

it must be to do. Not to mention she also probably has the most 

symmetrical face in Liverpool. 

Le Grand is now a firm fixture in queer performance circuits 

in Liverpool and London. Her charisma has captured the attention 

of the art world. There is an overwhelming sense of contentment 

being in the presence of someone who is visibly flourishing in a 

field so perfect for them, especially when they did not immediately 

end up there. Starting from the beginning, Kevin doesn’t have 

much to say about growing up in Maghull. “I was brought up on 

the gorgeous streets of Maghull, which now thinks it’s a village 

with their own scarecrow festival. It’s a very quiet place just full of 

old people and drug dealers.” 

Leading up to the point she is at now has been difficult for 

Kevin; existing on the outskirts of a small town as a trans person 

is both scary and disheartening. We exchanged stories of growing 

up LGBTQ in Liverpool and considered the changes we’ve see 

around us since then. “When I first moved back to Liverpool last 

year, I stayed in my mum’s house for three months. I remember 

seeing some teenage boys at the train station in Maghull holding 

hands with matching bubble-gum blue and pink hair. Which made 

me feel really happy because me and my friends were them at that 

age.” Returning to Liverpool from London to find the queer scene 

to be both growing and so welcoming has made Kevin feel ready 

and willing to call it her home again. 

She had a few false starts along the way, as we all do. “In 

school I was just a bit of a waster, I didn’t really know what I 

wanted to do, so I went to sixth form to do performing arts but 

then I quit because I was failing anyway, and I thought the best 

thing to do before you fail is to just quit.” After this she continued 

onto college to do fashion, which she thrived in, leading to a 

place at London College of Fashion. “LCF was interesting, I think 

I only went in about four times and just spent the rest of the 

time partying. The college didn’t know that, and I ended up on 

the website as ‘successful alumni’. It said something like, ‘Kevin 

is completing their second year while also modelling for so and 

so’. My teachers were seeing me in the fashion magazines but 

didn’t know that when I wasn’t in the magazines, I would just be 

in some scummy afterparty for, like, seven days.” This chapter of 

her education went the same way that high school did, she quit 

before she failed. 

Modelling didn’t go as planned, either: “The day that I went to 

get my modelling contract was also the day that I was supposed 

to go for a consultation to get my wrist fixed because I had fallen 

out of a window trying to climb in because I’d forgotten my keys 

and broken my wrist. So, I chose to miss the consultation and 

sign my modelling contract instead and my modelling career 

was a flop so now I’ve got a gammy wrist and a failed modelling 

career!” Although this anecdote might come across as tragic, 

it led to what was clearly the best route for Kevin: becoming a 

performance artist. 

She started performing at a night called the Yeast London 

Cabaret (a name created in homage to the yeast infection, located 

in East London). This was run by “big green autistic drag queen” 

Oozing Gloop. “I rang him and said, ‘Listen, I’ve quit uni – can I start 

performing with you?’ He said yeh, and then I started performing 

monthly… I just used to sing songs and talk shite. My performance 

hasn’t changed much, to be honest.” Despite her claims, it seems 

to me that around this time Kevin had begun to combine all her 

passions (performance, modelling, fashion and clubs) into one 

specific artistic outlet. Making more friends along the way, Kevin 

collaborated with Charles Jeffrey to make a film and create a night 

in VFD, previously Vogue Fabrics London, until they were sued 

by Vogue magazine. “It was just sort of a big pop-up party. We’d 

spend a week making these big cardboard sets, we’d paint them, 

and I’d perform within the set. It was hilarious, people would 

always take bits of the set home with them. One time we made 

a three-headed cardboard monster; my head and the two other 

peoples’ that I ran the night with.” 

The true nature of Kevin’s work is unfettered exploration, 

subverting ideas of entertainment and the arts. From building 

cardboard living rooms to decorating venues with reflective heat 

sheets and spray-paint, the seeds were being sown for more 

experimentation. Shortly after the night at VFD ended, Kevin 

moved back to Liverpool. Then back to London. Then back to 

Liverpool again. “When I moved back to London, I started to get 

more involved with the live art scene rather than cabaret. It’s 

different, you can take a lot longer with whatever you’re doing. 

There are durational things, like I watched a woman roll around on 

eggs for eight hours and cover herself in glitter. I wasn’t really into 

it, but never mind – I started making longer work.” 

I have watched Kevin crawl out of a handbag, perform an 

interpretive dance of her life story and explore the darker side 

of The Cheeky Girls. This last performance was particularly 

surreal, but behind it lies an insightful observation about the duo’s 

infamous pop hit. “I first realised that The Cheeky Song was a sad 

song when I listened to the lyrics more closely – ‘I never never ask 

where do you go, I never never ask what’s in your mind, touch 

my bum, this is life’ – and I realised that the song was written by 

their mother, and it’s the passing down of inherited misogyny and 

domestic trauma.” 

I had to ask what her favourite performance has been so far, 

what she is most proud of. “The duvet show! I come out in the 

duvet and some music starts playing. I’m wearing a duvet and 

pillow as sort of a coat that I’ve made. The music cuts off. It’s all 

about when you wake up in the morning and you’ve got that fear, 

and you can’t remember what you’ve done, and it lasts about three 

days. You lock yourself away in the anxiety of it all, and the shame 

you feel within that. So, the performance is paired with a track 

which is me screaming at myself: ‘Look what you’ve done now! 

You’ve killed him! It’s your fault! What will the neighbours say?!’ 

Then I whip out a kazoo and start screaming back at myself and 

rolling around the floor in this duvet. It all climaxes with me and 

the audiences singing Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien together to release 

ourselves from the fear.” 

Kevin’s work is therapeutic and cathartic to those who can 

relate to these chaotic emotions. Kevin often jokes about her 

mental health and wellbeing. “I look like Siouxsie Sioux tonight, 

don’t I?... No, not Siouxsie Sioux, more like Looptie Loo.” She is 

currently writing and developing a musical production for the 

stage: “Handbag The Musical is going to be a fully immersive 

theatrical piece all about diving into the depths of the handbag. It’s 

all about the handbag being a feminine accoutrement, the handbag 

feeling like home, the handbag becoming your home when you 

have nothing else.” It sounds like an all-singing, all-dancing 

existential crisis. 

The general feeling in the queer scene in Liverpool at the 

moment is that things are coming together, and from that different 

styles and sections of people are emerging. Kevin Le Grand’s 

performances carry the weight of hardship and struggle, as well 

as expressing truly what it is like to celebrate yourself and others 

around you. Her analysis and subversion of mundanity includes 

the audience’s interaction; everyone in the room can relate and feel 

celebrated in solidarity. As the boundaries of the scene expand, we 

can expect to see more experimentation and art come forward. It 

seems Kevin is a signifier of changes to come and someone I truly 

believe will be spoken about for years into the future. It would be 

worthwhile to keep your eye open for the many club nights and 

performances which Kevin Le Grand will inevitably be involved 

with. ! 

Words and Photography: Caitlin Whittle 

@mskevinglegrand 

24

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THE 

CHILLIN’ 

ROOMS 

How a coffee shop in Kensington is at the vanguard of a 

movement towards cannabis acceptance. 

It’s Friday night and we’re on our way to a secret location. A 

phone call IDs us, the gate is opened and, after paying our 

day membership, we’re in and walking straight into the 

ultimate speakeasy. A long hall with benches, tables 

and chairs either side of a central walkway. The air is 

thick with sweet-smelling smoke and down the far end 

there’s a stage area. It’s open mic night and the place 

is buzzing. 

We’re invited to take a seat and a friendly face 

brings us a skinning up tray and the chance to get 

a soft drink, tea or coffee. Looking around the 

venue, there are spaces for around 120 people. 

And it’s a full house tonight. Somebody offers 

me some organically grown sativa – perfect. Just 

what the doctor ordered. This isn’t a night for 

indica’s couch lock introversion – this place was 

made for an energetic, euphoric and cerebral 

high. 

People are talking to each other and to 

complete strangers. Phones are on the table 

but no one is looking at them. The music is a 

great mixture of classic and current and the 

venue is energised in ways that I haven’t seen at 

many open mic nights. But this isn’t Amsterdam, 

Arizona or Colorado. This is Kensington, Liverpool 

and this is THE CHILLIN’ ROOMS, first set up in 

2002, and a Mecca to those in the know. 

OK, I have to be up front and say that I’m not 

entirely impartial in this. A few years ago, I made 

a film about the birth of Amsterdam’s coffeeshops, 

and the growth of the ‘green’ cannabis industry (The 

Green Avalanche – Official, it’s on YouTube). At the time, 

I wondered if the rest of the world could ever follow the 

Dutch lead on toleration. And since then, Portugal, Spain, 

Canada and the USA have all changed laws, reaping serious 

financial and societal benefits. But the UK seems stuck in a 

different mindset, as if they prefer widespread criminality, an 

overrun judicial system and full prisons. 

Nevertheless, there seems to be a change in the air. 

Following on from the cannabis clubs in Spain and the medical 

co-operatives in the States, a series of cannabis social clubs 

have been opening up across the UK – places where you can 

go and smoke in a friendly welcoming place, with like-minded 

individuals. Members pay their memberships and new joiners 

have to be recommended by a friend. It’s a club for smokers and 

The Chillin’ Rooms is, and always has been, at the vanguard. 

Gary, a former pub landlord, has been running the club for 

over 17 years, on and off, depending on the changing whims of 

the local constabulary. “It’s all about having a positive impact,” he 

tells me. “It’s a social enterprise. We’re creating jobs and paying 

above minimum wage. We’re all above board. If people didn’t 

come here, they’d be sitting at home or having a quick puff in the 

garden, looking inwards and alone. Here, everybody is together. 

We’re all looking forward and talking to each other face to face. 

There are people who travel from the other side of the country 

to come here. And we’re not in this to make loads of money and 

drive round in big cars. What we’re doing here is building this 

community up and spreading that out into the local area.” 

Promoter of the music night is Ste Weevil. “The night is 

called the Backbone, ‘cos Gary’s always said that what we’re 

doing and the people that are coming – we’re the backbone of 

the UK. And we feel that the music community here has become 

a backbone of the Liverpool music scene as well. Bringing the 

music has brought a lot of people in, and helped to promote the 

club. We’ve been doing the Fridays and building it up slowly, and 

Barry Sutton has started a night called the Baby 

Backbone, which is on Thursdays. Look how 

many people are here. There’s no alcohol, 

but the drinks are flowing and a creative 

business is thriving.” 

We know how much talent there 

is in this city, and tonight its musical 

spotlight is on full beam. Reggie 

Lloyd warms the crowd up, before 

handing the mic to Scarlet, who 

plays a mixture of classics and 

original material. Both are excited 

to have played. “It’s a saving grace 

of a place, and playing is a badge 

of pride,” says Reggie. “The set up’s 

fantastic.” 

Another act is Johnny Taylor 

from The Sky, who plays his own 

material and a blistering cover of 

Johnny B. Goode: “Because of the weed 

thing, it adds to the whole atmosphere. 

Everyone’s just relaxed and chilling. They 

listen a bit more and they’re inclined to take 

in what you’re doing, instead of getting pissed 

and talking and not being arsed.” 

The stand-out act is Resonator Force, who play harmonic 

Merseybeat/West Coast indie rock. Jamie (vocals), Luke 

(guitar) and John (bass) have been coming to the Backbone 

for a couple of months. “We heard about it a while back 

but we just assumed it had gone, dead and buried, but 

we turned up for an open mic and it’s the best place 

in the world,” says Jamie. “There’s the little door – the 

secret knock, all that caper, and I get in here and my 

face is smiling that much there’s nowhere else for 

my cheeks to go. It hurts after a bit. I mean, what 

more do you want? No one bothers you. You can 

talk to people if you want but if you don’t want 

to it’s all good. It’s beautiful. What do you see 

around you? Do you see a roomful of criminals? 

Technically, yeh, but in reality, no. These people 

are the mellowest people around for 10 miles. 

How many people 50 yards away from here 

are throwing shit at the telly, screaming at the 

footy, downing Stella, kicking the cat? All kinds 

of stuff that stoners just can’t be arsed doing.” 

That question of illegality and criminality is 

discussed in full the next day, when we travel to 

the 271 Cannabis Club in Moreton, Wirral for a 

meeting of the UK Cannabis Social Clubs. The UK 

CSC organisation has been running since 2011 

and has upwards of 70 clubs registered with it. 

It’s professionally run, and lobbies in Parliament for 

changes to cannabis drug laws. Delegates have come 

from all over to listen to a well-polished presentation 

about cannabis legality, the grey area that currently 

exists and what can be done to stop big business from 

taking over. 

Currently, cannabis is a class B substance, meaning 

that possession could get you five years at Her Majesty’s 

convenience, and supply and production up to 14 years. This 

seems illogical and draconian when 33 states in the USA allow 

medical use and 10 allow recreational drug use. The reality is that 

UK police often turn a blind eye. Depending on who you talk to, 

they seemingly won’t prosecute if you grow a number of 

plants in your home, and smoking in public usually 

warrants little more than a slap on the wrist. 

UKCSC policy analyst Stuart Harper 

tells me: “If I’d have been asked 10 years 

ago if cannabis was going to be legal in 

the near future, I would have said no. If 

someone asks me now, I can say that 

I think in the next three to four years 

it will be legal. So, it’s about how 

we can take that momentum that 

we see before us in politics about 

medical cannabis and use that for 

social good.” 

Chairman of the UKCSC, Greg 

de Hoedt, began using cannabis 

medicinally to help a serious medical 

condition. “I got diagnosed with 

Crohn’s disease in 2009 after a 

year’s battle trying to find out what 

was wrong,” he tells me. “I was getting 

really ill and had a really bad flare 

up in 2010. The doctors told me they 

were going to operate on my intestines 

and that I’d probably die within two years. 

I had friends in dispensaries in America, so I 

26

“There are fantastic 

people who are 

being lost to society 

because of our 

backwards attitude 

to cannabis, and I 

want to change that” 

went there and I got access 

to an abundance of cannabis 

products, from chocolates to 

oils to the right flowers for my 

condition, just because I was in a 

community that knew about it. And I was 

thinking, ‘Wow! Why is this not in the UK? 

How did I not know about this and the benefits of it? 

Why are we so behind?’” 

In the UK, currently, the dealer is king. Consumers don’t 

really know what they’re smoking, because they aren’t offered a 

choice. Visitors coming back from Amsterdam will rave about the 

different kinds of weed on offer and the varied effects. You’ve got 

your indica strain, which is high in cannabinoids (CBD), often a 

deep muscle relaxant. You’ve got your sativas, which are usually 

high in THC and provide the user with a clear and euphoric high. 

And then you’ve got your skunk and haze varieties – 

which are magical crosses between the two. 

And research in the USA suggests that 

different combinations work for seizures, 

glaucoma, stress, depression, 

insomnia, as a painkiller… the list 

goes on and on. 

The UKCSC is currently 

lobbying members of 

parliament, with Stuart 

Harper a regular in the 

House of Commons 

lobbies. “Most political 

people that I speak to, 

whether it’s an MP or 

an aide, or a member 

of a think tank – they 

all have the same 

point of view, that 

the drug laws in the 

UK are an aberration; 

that they happened 

quite by accident at a 

specific point in time 

where public attitude 

was set a certain way. 

And the whole world 

signed up for a set of 

rules that no-one really 

wanted then, and they 

definitely don’t want now.” 

Although no one at any 

level of government is talking 

about legalising cannabis for 

recreational usage, there are definite 

moves to legalise some sort of medical 

marijuana. Interestingly, the investment 

firm owned by Theresa May’s husband, 

Philip, the Capital Group, is the major investor in GW 

Pharmaceuticals, which mass produces CBD oil in the UK for 

export, and Tory drugs minister Victoria Atkins’ husband is also 

involved with a legal cannabis farm. 

However, nothing is straightforward. “If anything they are 

looking at additional legislation to restrict CBD sales, so they’re 

going in the opposite direction,” Stuart says. “What they want 

is control of the medical cannabis market, which is what they’ve 

been sold by the investment groups that are bankrolling the 

medical cannabis movement in the UK. They want the Canadian 

model, which is going to be pretty much mail order. And if you’ve 

got a mail order facility, one 

of the things that it blocks out 

is small vendors. It’s going to be 

big corporate contracts that are 

awarded. But in this next two years 

there is a window of opportunity for the 

social club model.” 

Although politicians seem wary of any backlash 

that could accompany change, the real groundswell towards 

toleration seems to be coming from the UK police, in particular 

Police Crime Commissioners Ron Hogg (Durham) and Arfon 

Jones (North Wales). 

Michael Fisher has been running the Teesside Cannabis 

Club, on the high street in Stockton-on-Tees, since 2014. They 

employ staff through the local Job Centre, pay tax and National 

Insurance, and are a registered company. “Durham police and 

PCC Ron Hogg got in touch through the media and we 

arranged to go and meet at their headquarters,” 

Michael explains. “On the back of that, we 

stayed in touch and still speak today. It’s 

a business relationship. But you’ve 

got to always think that the police 

can’t condone an illegal activity, 

regardless of how good a 

friend I am. It’s so black and 

white to them. So, I operate 

on a very thin line, in the 

grey area.” 

“Before we were 

legally registered we 

were just a group of 

people who were 

committing a crime. 

Once we created the 

company we became 

an actual legal entity. 

Everything that we 

do is legal, apart from 

the consumption 

of cannabis on the 

premises. We don’t 

have people vending 

or selling cannabis 

in our club. The only 

people selling cannabis 

is the club itself. It sells 

the members’ homegrown 

cannabis back to the collective. 

Everything else in the club is 

entirely legal and above board.” 

Greg says that he’s had similar 

talks with the crime commissioner of 

North Wales, Arfon Jones. “He came up to 

me in Parliament and asked me if I would help 

to set up cannabis social clubs in his area. He said, ‘We 

need to change the situation and I think this is the way to do it.’ 

There’s more than enough people that want to have access to 

these kind of facilities.” 

Back at The Chillin’ Rooms, Gary is adamant that he could go 

into any economically repressed small town or neighbourhood 

and provide employment for all who wanted to work in the 

cannabis industry. “From 18 to 80, everyone could have a job, 

and receive above national minimum wage, just by growing in 

their spare room or by working in a cannabis social club. There 

are fantastic people who are being lost to society because of our 

backwards attitude to cannabis, and I want to change that.” 

Indeed, there are plans to use profits from the club to bring 

about regeneration to Kensington, beginning with cosmetically 

improving the appearance of the road and moving on from there. 

Jamie from Resonator Force: “I grew up around here and the fact 

that it’s here is just incredible. It’s a haven, basically. Why should 

we be skulking round the corner in the shadows? I could get 

nicked for a spliff in my pocket, get a fine, get a criminal record, 

or a fella could go out and get four cans of special brew, have a 

piss on the phone box, throw up in the street, start singing footy 

songs and swearing – no one would say nish. Not a fucking word. 

They’d walk past him to strip search two kids in hoodies. It’s 

ridiculous.” 

Gary introduces me to Gabby, who is a DNA scientist. She 

and her boyfriend have travelled from the other side of the 

country to attend the Backbone music night. She gives me her 

insight: “For thousands and thousands of years we’ve been 

experimenting with drugs. We are the most cognitive species on 

the planet, so what are we going to do but exercise our minds?” 

At 11pm, the lights come on and everyone politely leaves. 

There are hugs at the door, and ‘see you later’s. As the last 

stragglers file out, Gary muses on the night and the club 

members who have helped to make it. “When I used to run the 

pub, I saw some horrible things. Family arguments that resulted 

in glassings. Fights over nothing. And in The Chillin’ Rooms, there 

is none of that. It’s peaceful. Everyone is sociable. It’s civilised. I 

have never had trouble in here.” 

Whatever your preconceptions are about cannabis, there’s 

energy, drive and a feel-good vibe there which should be 

experienced even if you don’t smoke. It’s a model for how 

things could be. A night out with old friends and new, in a safe 

environment with great music and quality cannabis. What more 

could you ask for? 

There is no doubt in my mind that changes in the 

cannabis laws are coming, definitely for medical and maybe 

for recreational. But we have to decide whether we want big 

business or small community businesses running things, and 

if it’s choice between Theresa May’s husband or Gary, I’m with 

Gary all day. ! 

Words: Jah Jussa 

Illustration: Hannah Blackman-Kurz / @Hbkurz 

Further information about the UK Cannabis Social Clubs can be 

found at ukcsc.co.uk. 

FEATURE 

27

5pm til 9pm - SUNDAY TO FRIDAY 

£2 Slices 

£10 Pizzas 

2 cocktails £10 

cheap plonk 

25 Parr Street, Liverpool L1 4JN. 

0151 559 2599

EVERYMAN & PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS 

SWEENEY TODD 

The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 

A Musical Thriller 

Music and lyrics by 

STEPHEN SONDHEIM 

Book by 

HUGH WHEELER 

Lighting Designer MARK JONATHAN 

Director NICK BAGNALL 

with 

KACEY AINSWORTH & LIAM TOBIN 

Sound Designer IAN DAVIES 

Set and Costume Designer MICHAEL VALE 

Assistant Set and Costume Designer KIRSTY BARLOW 

Musical Director TAREK MERCHANT 

Casting Director SOPHIE PARROTT CDG 

From an adaptation by CHRISTOPHER BOND 

Originally directed by HAROLD PRINCE 

Original orchestrations by JONATHAN TUNICK 

Originally produced on Broadway by Richard Barr, Charles Woodward, Robert Fryer, Mary Lea Johnson, Martin Richards | In association with Dean and Judy Manos 

Performed by arrangement with Music Theatre International (Europe) Limited 

at the 

0151 709 4776 | everymanplayhouse.com 

5–11 Hope Street, Liverpool, L1 9BH 

Photograph by Gary Calton 

FRI 12 APR TO SAT 18 MAY

SPOTLIGHT 

DAVID OGLE 

A discussion on space and place with the Liverpool-based artist who has 

recently worked on a series of works focused on the Sefton coast. 

If you had to describe your art style in a sentence, what would 

you say? 

Experiments with the properties of materials, processes and 

environments; translating visual ideas through different forms of 

representation. 

How did you get into making visual art? 

After graduating from university (in Lancaster) I spent a couple 

of years without making any artwork and floated between a few 

different jobs. I didn’t feel any particular compulsion to produce 

my own work until I saw that there was an artist studio space 

being listed for hire near to where 

I was living at the time. I think it 

was more the idea of having my 

own studio than a sudden rush 

of inspiration to make art but I 

remember how exciting this prospect 

was to me at the time. 

The studio was a small, windowless 

room (about the size of a single-car 

garage but with a higher ceiling) 

that led out into a sprawling 

communal warehouse space. It was 

having this space at my disposal 

that really became formative in 

how my work developed. I wanted 

to translate my drawings into 

something environmental, something 

that existed at a scale that would 

challenge the surroundings I was working in. 

Naturally, having very little money to produce large-scale 

sculptural work, necessity dictated that these be materially 

inexpensive and this was what led me to the linear works using 

fishing line that were illuminated with ultraviolet light. With 

this approach I found that I could produce architectural-scale 

interventions into the space using a volume of material that could 

be carried around in a pocket and that cost a negligible amount to 

money (pennies) to realise. 

“I want to reveal 

aspects of an 

environment that 

go unseen and 

capture something 

that is intrinsic to a 

unique location” 

Can you pinpoint a moment or a piece of art that initially 

inspired you? 

I remember visiting the Hayward Gallery’s Dan Flavin 

retrospective (around 2006) and this being influential. I was 

attracted by the preparatory drawings for the artist’s sculptural 

works – pared-back, linear assemblages on graph paper with 

coloured pencil lines representing Flavin’s typical neon tubes. 

The translation between these works on paper and the glowing 

installations in the galleries below was, I’m sure, posthumously 

informing of how I approach my own work. 

What do you think is the overriding 

influence on your artmaking: other 

art, emotions, current affairs – or a 

mixture of all of these? 

Recently, a lot of my work has been 

informed by walking, landscape and 

the summation of the elements that 

amount to our experience of place 

(weather, time, topography, etc). I 

am wanting to reveal aspects of an 

environment that go unseen (such 

as how winds invisibly shape and 

re-shape a coastline) and capture 

something that is intrinsic to and 

inseparable from a unique location. 

Naturally, the work of other artists is 

also influential, though it’s an eclectic 

mix I tend to draw from. My recent 

outdoor work for example, although formally disparate, was 

informed more by 19th Century Romantic painting (particularly 

Casper David Friedrich) than it was contemporary artists working 

with light or expanded forms of sculpture. There is something 

in these dramatised, imagined landscapes (typically depicting 

the remnants of human activity overcome by the power and 

indifference of nature) that has an enduring resonance for me. 

Tell us a little bit about your current exhibition at the Atkinson 

in Southport? 

I am showing a range of works that I have produced along the 

Sefton coast and presenting these alongside a selection of 

paintings from the museum’s collection that have documented 

this landscape over time. There is a particular emphasis (in the 

choice of paintings) on works that depict an environment in a 

state of continual flux and dynamism and the effects of this upon 

successive populations. 

For example, the last piece in the exhibition is by Herbert Royle 

entitled Westerly Breeze, Ainsdale Sands (c.1920). I am showing 

this painting alongside a triptych of video works that show 

clouds of colourful smoke moving through the landscape at three 

different sites around Ainsdale (in the woodlands, the edge of 

the dunes and out onto the sand itself). The smoke visualises the 

movement of winds through the landscape (revealing the forces 

that continually shape the locations) and allows audiences to 

perceive this process more vividly. 

The work resembles postcard-like memories of the landscape 

and the Sefton coastline. Does this mean the works you 

produce are solely focussed on memory and nostalgia? 

Memory in a sense, but not a personal memory and I don’t feel 

a sense of nostalgia. It’s more that I’m wanting to document 

an event. Within one of the pieces, for example, Ray (2015), 

blue smoke slowly emerges from an underground cave that 

is suddenly illuminated as the sun breaks through overhead 

clouds, casting defined beams of light striking downwards onto a 

woodland clearing. 

I want to revel in the elements of a place at a particular time, 

perhaps, as you say, to evoke the memory of an experience in 

a landscape (that would otherwise be lost), but more as a way 

of creating something that is defined by its connection to a 

particular place or time. 

Words: Elliot Ryder 

davidogle.co.uk 

David Ogle’s exhibition The Last Night is open now at The 

Atkinson, running until 23rd March. 

30

ANA MAE 

We love Ana Mae’s psychified 

doo-wop ditties, and we’re pretty 

sure you will too. 

“Writing music 

is like having a 

mate you can 

tell anything to” 

If you had to describe your music in a sentence, what would 

you say? 

It’s pretty dreamy, with a soulful vintage feel. 

How did you get into music? 

Since I can remember I’ve always made a lot of noise and 

wanted to create. I loved hearing my mum sing songs around the 

house when I was a kid. My family loves music, so I do. I was a 

weird child and spent a lot of time playing alone and making up 

imaginary worlds, games and songs. Growing up I was awkward 

and unsure whether I would really ever be able to perform any 

songs I’d written. I suppose now I’ve found my sound and it fits 

right, so I’m happy to share it. 

Can you pinpoint a live gig or a piece of music that initially 

inspired you? 

So, I have two answers for this, which I reckon have left equal 

imprints on me. First is about my dad who has been playing 

guitar forever; I remember waking up to hear him playing Here 

Comes The Sun most mornings when I was little. This made me 

want to play the guitar too. The second is about my grandma 

and her showing me Nat King Cole when I was about 10 and 

describing his voice to me as velvet, his singing made her so 

happy. This made me want to sing too. 

Do you have a favourite song or piece of music to perform? 

What does it say about you? 

To be honest I really like performing a song called Honey 

Somewhere that I wrote ages and ages ago. It’s been re-worked 

and performed with different people in different ways but it still 

makes me smile. It’s about fighting off your demons and feeling 

sweet and sound in a savoury place, I suppose this is something 

I’ll always relate to. 

What do you think is the overriding influence on your 

songwriting: other art, emotions, current affairs – or a mixture 

of all of these? 

It’s a mixture, I think. When I write songs I pick things out from 

the past or the present or consider the future, or just make 

things up like fantasy. I love how there aren’t rules or lines to 

follow and you can really just go on about whatever you like 

if it sounds right. Sometimes a little more meaning is involved 

though, of course. Writing stuff is like having a mate you can tell 

anything to. 

If you could support any artist in the future, who would it be? 

Probably Björk. She’s the queen of musical magic to me and I love 

her so. 

Why is music important to you? 

Because, even when I feel like shit, if I put my favourite songs or 

albums on I feel better. There’s music for every mood. It can be 

emotive and empathic and feel what I feel if that’s what I need. 

Sometimes it’s good to listen to something overtly heavy to just 

take my mind off stuff too. I think I mentioned before it’s like my 

mate, always there. 

That I Would Do is out now on SoundCloud. 

SHARDS 

The dreamy quartet of Alex, 

Paddy, Dan and Cain are making 

huge strides as one of the 

leading lights of the Jacaranda 

Records roster. 

“Music is meant 

to invoke emotion 

and if you can’t do 

that for yourself 

then what’s 

the point?” 

If you had to describe your style in a sentence, what would you 

say? 

Alex: Sad and horny. 

Have you always wanted to make music? 

Alex: No, I think I wanted to be an architect when I was a kid. Or 

something to do with space. A space architect. 

Dan: I used to sit and watch my dad’s Kiss DVDs and it all went 

from there. 

Can you pinpoint a live gig or a piece of music that initially 

inspired you? 

Alex: I saw Tame Impala a few years ago. I can’t remember what 

song it was and it has this mad, five-minute breakdown live and 

I just remember closing my eyes and thinking, ‘This is fucking 

beautiful…’ 

Cain: Playing Guitar Hero 2 when I was a kid thinking I was the 

fucking shit. I used to play the same song over and over again – 

John The Fisherman by Primus. 

Do you have a favourite song or piece of music to perform? 

What does it say about you? 

Paddy: Yeh, I got given this absolutely unbelievable guitar. It’s a 

12-string Rickenbacker and we played My Birthday, which was 

brand new at the time and it was beyond perfect how it sounded. 

A real dream to play. 

What do you think is the overriding influence on your 

songwriting: other art, emotions, current affairs – or a mixture 

of all of these? 

Alex: Emotions, definitely. To make ethereal, vulnerable music on, 

like, a large scale. There’s nothing better than listening to a song 

or seeing it live and you can feel it through your whole body. For 

us to make that for other people, I think the songwriting process 

generally goes through a level of like, do we feel this inside us 

and if not then it gets thrown away. It makes it more honest and 

genuine I think... music is meant to invoke emotion and if you 

can’t do that for yourself then what’s the point? 

Do you have a favourite venue you’ve performed in? If so, what 

makes it special? 

Alex: We’re playing a venue this month in Manchester that’s like 

Bido Lito! – pink all over. The stage, floor, ceiling, everything. That 

kind of millennial pink. Suppose everyone uses it nowadays, it’s 

all just a big fad. 

Why is music important to you? 

Siri: OK, I found some results on the web for ‘Why is music 

important to you?’. 

Google Assistant: Music is important because it helps us in many 

ways; also, it’s funny to listen. 

Paddy: Music is an art form. We are emotional beings and every 

child requires an artistic outlet. 

Cain: Ear food. 

Alex: I think the Google Assistant gave a more profound answer 

than I could give 

soundcloud.com/shardsshards 

Reflections is out now. Shards play Kendal Calling in July. 

SPOTLIGHT 31

PREVIEWS 

“It feels like 

people are being 

eaten alive. 

We’re being 

consumed” 

GIG 

SLEAFORD MODS 

O2 Academy – 02/03 

The duo, whose discography is a sleazy take on 

Orwell’s 1984, return with Eton Alive, another LP 

of biting social commentary that is so vital that it 

should be on the national curriculum. 

The prescience of SLEAFORD MODS shouldn’t be overlooked. Since the release of 

Austerity Dogs in 2013, the band have remained a litmus test of public outcry. It’s music 

that feels and fights with the collective experiences of those under the polished shoe 

of coalition cuts. Vocalist Jason Williamson is brutally honest, but perhaps it is he who 

is most bruised by his prosaic accounts of fighting the good fight. It’s a familiar cycle of broken 

mirror anarchism. A game rigged so those in the reflection perceivably bring on their own fate. 

Those at the bottom deserve to be at the bottom, we’re told. If you don’t believe that now, the 

season finale of Benefits Street should have rammed the point home. 

If not prescient, then, the Mods are very least the rebellious town criers manning the periscope of 

the many. Their charged instrumentation and jaw-aching lyricism is the most accurate opinion poll out 

there. In this slew of musical upheaval comes Eton Alive, the duo’s fifth full-length record. It’s serious 

and loose in equal measure; it finds the jittery pulse of Williamson’s now familiar series of characters, 

through which he narrates with a newfound vigour. In comes more joviality, singing and melody, but 

the firm point remains, like Andrew Fearn’s musical backbone, still yet to show the weight of five 

albums. With two shows in the region pencilled in on the band’s latest tour, Elliot Ryder checked in 

with Williamson to better understand what it’s like to be Eton Alive. 

Eton Alive generates an apt set of imagery for the current state of affairs. Is perceiving things in a 

dark, humorous way a reliable coping mechanism for yourself? 

I don’t know, actually. I’ve not had to cope with it like some people have. When the coalition came 

into power, and the next Conservative government, the band took off. So, in the last seven years I’ve 

been in a good, though not massively good, financial position. Better off than I was, anyway. So I’ve 

not had to cope, in that sense. But in a sense of the anger it produces, a good way of battling it is to 

take the piss. I like the naivety of it, you know? The whole resistance in the ‘you posh bastaaaards’ 

taunt. There’s something I really cherish in that. It’s the kind of humour I was brought up with. As 

you say it’s quite prevalent. I thought it was an apt title for the ongoing theme of the nation since 

the Brexit result. You know, people aren’t shocked anymore. They’re just dumbed down, powerless, 

weak. It feels like people are being eaten alive. We’re being consumed. 

Sonically, your music hasn’t strayed too far from Divide And Exit – offering subtle changes along 

the way. Do you think it’s over-emphasised for artists to take a new direction with each new 

release? Is the term progression quite toxic to hear? 

It is if the whole body of your work is changed, it doesn’t work. It sounds too forced when people try 

to consciously overhaul their sound. Tame Impala are a good example of musical progression, the way 

they moved from prog to more punchier, disco-inspired tracks. Ours is a slower progression. I’d like 

to think this album is quite different than the last one, with a bit more of the singier stuff weaved in 

between. But ours is a strong formula; it doesn’t feel like it needs a dramatic overhaul. Plus, I’m always 

suspicious of people who attempt to do it, as normally it’s not done that well. 

As someone who can look back on a chronicle of their stream of consciousness, how do you think 

the expectation to progress affects the sincerity of your writing? 

You try to put these things to the back of your mind. It does bother me though. But I’d like to think it 

doesn’t alter how I write. I try to get to the nucleus of the writing subject, and I’ll just keep refining it 

and refining it until it’s something I’ve produced without worry over other people’s perception. That 

way it’s more an honest account of what you wanted to write down in that moment. 

You’ve made some changes in your lifestyle in recent years. Do you think that there’s a further 

expectation to hear this on the new record? 

Not necessarily, no. You know, sobriety and the changes in my life are not really something that I 

promote though my music. Mainly because a lot of people don’t get to the take the time to make the 

changes I made. Fortunately, I had a bit of money and I was able to go and see someone to help sort 

my head out. You know, have the time to talk and retrain myself, take up exercise. It’s just not something 

that I’d ever have been able to do if I was still on minimum wage. So, I think it’s important I don’t chuck 

it down people’s throats and start talking like I’m some enlightened person, know what I mean? 

Is there ever an element of escape in your social commentary? 

There’s definitely escapism in my short stories. They’re all based on memories or experience, so you’re 

able to take yourself back to those times. Some of those times when you were a kid, those that you 

really cherish, the words help transport you back to that, that environment. On the whole though, 

that’s about as far as it goes really. In the songs, there remains an element of fantasy to them, such 

as lines built on aggression, beating people up, those sort of things – you know, definitely the kind 

of things that I’m not doing day to day. In many ways, you can embrace these false happenings as a 

means of relieving frustration. 

The current social climate offers little in the way of normality, thus meaning any form of 

commentary has a surreal element. Does it unsettle you that your prognosis of the nation on 

records leading up to Eton Alive is now something that’s shrugged off as a sign of the times? 

It was obvious what was going to happen, wasn’t it? There were lots of people that forecast the fact 

it was going to get worse, that people were going to become a lot more insular. It’s something that’s 

spoken about a lot on the new album; how these issues have refined themselves in recent years. 

These are all just classic traits of capitalism, really. It’s not surprising. You try to reason with it and 

inject an element of whimsicalness, like saying, ‘Oh, it can’t be that bad’. Fair enough, in some ways it 

isn’t, but predominantly it is, and it’s getting worse. 

Are bands like Sleaford Mods a product of socio-political upheaval, or inspired by it? 

Both. We’re all involved in modern civilisation, and that’s dictated by those two factors. Everything is 

political these days. 

Could Sleaford Mods exist if Britain was historically socialist in its sensibilities? 

It would, but it would have been different. I was influenced to do Sleaford Mods by the music I was 

listening to and my conditions and circumstances. If we lived in a fairer society it may not have had 

the same drive. We’re human beings, and the word fair is seemingly not as popular as chaos or 

murder, or any of these other negative traits that the human condition is capable of. I think it would 

be very unrealistic, at this point in our existence, to think we could achieve any kind of socialist 

utopia. As a race, we haven’t even been around for a million years, so we have long way to go 

before we reach a climate where Sleaford Mods could exist in a different light to what it does now. 

We can imagine there’ll be a headline such as ‘Sleaford Mods’ answer to Brexit’ in one of the big 

press titles coinciding with the release of your album. Do you ever feel slightly fetishised as an 

articulate voice of the working class? 

Perhaps when we came out it was fresh and people weren’t used to hearing what we were saying 

at that time. Now people have gotten used to it, you know, coming back with the whole ‘here they 

are again’. Perhaps we are of our time. I don’t think we are, though. It seems people just view the 

content of what we’re saying as though they’re used to it, as though it’s all just second nature to 

them now. People are just waiting around for me to say something, and, me being me, I’ll just say it. 

So, it’s probably a mixture. 

At Bido Lito! we’re celebrating our 100th issue this coming June. As part of the celebration we’ll 

be speculating what the state of Liverpool’s independent music scene will be in in another 100 

issues’ time. For context, I’m currently speaking to you a matter of yards away from an enormous 

apartment complex that’s resting on top of the former Kazimier venue. Is there any way of 

slowing the neoliberal tide of economic anxiety? 

I think there’s going to have to be some major upheavals. The elite have got a firm grip on everything. 

It would be a case of them being enlightened and perhaps easing off. Only that way will things get a 

little better. I can’t really see an uprising because we’re so controlled; all the mechanisms to maintain 

that are firmly in place. It’s a move that will have to come from the elitist side of existence. It’s a big 

question, though. Who knows what’s going to happen. Everyone adapts. Some fall through the net 

and others survive. That’s the case of what it’s going to be. It’ll come down to a case of morality. The 

best way to cope with all of this is to be someone that others can turn to, when they need to. ! 

Words: Elliot Ryder / @elliot_ryder 

sleafordmods.com 

Sleaford Mods play O2 Academy on Saturday 2nd March and The Live Rooms, Chester, on 

Thursday 4th April. Eton Alive is out now via Extreme Eating. 

32

Interface Soundscapes 

FESTIVAL 

Open Circuit 

Various venues – 04/03-30/03 

Held in the venerable Victoria Gallery and Museum on 

Brownlow Hill (the building that coined the term ‘Redbrick 

University’, trivia fans), OPEN CIRCUIT FESTIVAL is 

a celebration of avant-garde music. Curated by the 

Interdisciplinary Centre for Composition and Technology (ICCaT), 

based in the Department Of Music at the University of Liverpool, the 

centre specialises in research that investigates the very fabric of sound. 

Their ethos sees staff and PhD students working together to explore 

how music composition and sonic artforms relate to new technology, 

performance and perception. This manifests itself in a number of 

free music performances, panel discussions, artist talks and public 

demonstrations. 

PIXELS ENSEMBLE bring a world premiere of Mozart’s Piano 

Concerto No. 14 (K449) to the Victoria Gallery on 6th March, with Liam 

Carey leading the sextet in a kaleidoscopic interpretation of the classic 

for piano, electronics and video. A week later (13th March) in the same 

building, Canadian pianist and composer DAVID LANG joins forces 

with long-time collaborator LEE TSANG to present a programme of 

improvisations and original songs, including new compositions. 

Saturday 16th March sees a double-header of activity at the 

University of Liverpool’s Department Of Music (Bedford Street South), 

with the launch of a new art and sound installation. INTERFACE 

SOUNDSCAPES is a ceramic surface that allows visitors to connect 

and be transported to different locations in the city, through listening 

to characteristic soundscapes of Liverpool, and will be in situ until 

May 2019. The evening event at the Department Of Music’s George 

Stephenson building will feature a concert from the London-based 

LIGETI QUARTET, followed by an open forum with the performers. 

The performance will be comprised of audiovisual scores and sonic 

visualisations in conjunction with composers from the university. 

Open Circuit’s closing event sees the return of ENSEMBLE 10/10, 

the contemporary music ensemble of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic 

Orchestra. Led by conductor Clark Rundell, the event features 

premieres of four cutting-edge new works, in a collaboration between 

the University of Liverpool and Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. 

Jazz flautist RICHARD WORTH’s performance will be the centre piece, 

performing as guest soloist with Ensemble 10/10 in a new work for 

ensemble, flute and electronics. Further event details can be found at 

opencircuitfestival.co.uk. 

Rudeboy 

FESTIVAL 

Doc’n Roll Film Festival 

FACT and British Music 

Experience – 28/03-31/03 

With its anti-mobile phone policy, powerful sound system 

and comfy seats, the cinema is still a special environment 

to experience your cultural fix. Music documentaries are 

especially well designed for the movie theatre. Seeing 

legends of the various genre canons on the big screen is enough of a 

delight, but delving into a well-structured story or witnessing a director 

dig into a scene, past, future or present can be compulsive viewing. 

This is why Doc’n Roll, the music documentary film festival, is 

always a welcome addition to the cultural calendar. The team behind the 

event can be relied on to pick films covering a broad and engaging mix 

of subjects and this year is no different. Taking place across FACT and 

the British Music Experience the festival programme takes in riot grrrls, 

reggae, rock and techno. 

Gina Birch and Helen Reddington’s Stories From She Punks weaves 

the directors’ own experiences as members of THE RAINCOATS and THE 

CHEFS respectively into the story of female musicians playing in punk 

bands in the 1970s. A special screening of Rudeboy: The Story Of Trojan 

Records is preceded by a Positive Vibration DJ set at 3Beat Records and 

a Q&A afterwards. Never Stop – A Music That Resists tells the story of 

Detroit techno with insights from the forebears of the genre DERRICK 

MAY, JUAN ATKINS and CARL CRAIG. And there’s much more to look 

forward to for fans of Brazilian metallers SEPULTURA, be-hatted auteur 

BADLY DRAWN BOY and those interested in the practice of Kirtan. 

There’s plenty on offer for all tastes and more films still to be 

announced. Go to docnrollfestival.com for more info. 

PREVIEWS 33

PREVIEWS 

MEMBERS 

PICK 

GIG 

OUR GIRL 

Phase One – 04/03 

Brit Williams chats to the lead vocalist of the 

refreshingly fuzzy Brighton trio ahead of a muchanticipated 

Liverpool headline show. 

Melodies reminiscent of an era long gone, colliding the emotion of 90s shoegaze with 

dreamy reverberation, OUR GIRL continue to enthuse listeners countrywide, note by 

note. After several years of touring and a series of releases through their manager’s 

independent record label Cannibal Hymns, the band’s move from Brighton to 

London has not only elevated them to the top of the bill at shows, but has secured them a 

dreamy album produced by cult hero Bill Ryder-Jones. 

It’s hard to ignore the effort and raw talent of a group who openly 

talk about how much they cry. Through the streak of emotivism 

caught up in the band’s instrumentation, Our Girl have been able to 

instill a sense of authenticity into their craft. They are a band who 

know no boundaries in expression; within that, we see their humble 

honesty to be especially pure. 

Tousled between a string of headline shows around the country 

sits an intimate Liverpool gig on 4th March. Ahead of the gig, Brit 

Williams chats to lead singer Soph Nathan about Stranger Today, 

working with Bill, and just how much vulnerability played a key role in 

the construction of their first album. 

“We learnt how to 

make your guitar sound 

amazing with a shitload 

of distortion, reverb and 

a screwdriver” 

Hi Soph! Your highly anticipated debut album Stranger Today was 

released in August of last year. Looking back at this feat, how do 

you feel that you’ve matured as a band since you first met several 

years ago in Brighton? 

Hello! It’s hard to tell, really. The album seems like a big step for us. Having a record that we’re 

proud of, that finally sounds the way we always hoped it would, is a big achievement in our eyes. I 

also feel like our confidence has grown a lot in terms of live shows. I didn’t use to be able to eat for 

hours before we played because I’d feel so sick. I get nervous still, of course, but now there’s a much 

higher ratio of pure excitement in there. 

Stranger Today is such a beautifully composed, yet emotionally driven album, notably in a song 

like Josephine. Is it important for you to conceptualise this sense of raw feeling in your music? 

Ah, thanks very much. We definitely try to mirror the emotion of the lyrics through the music 

as much as possible. Writing songs can be really cathartic for me, especially when I’m feeling 

something strongly and don’t know what else to do with the feeling. It’s a really good release, and 

we always try our best to match whatever the feelings are sonically and with dynamics. 

Is it difficult, perhaps straining, to project feelings of melancholia in such a stirring and uplifting 

way, as demonstrated on the record? 

It is sometimes. I noticed that especially when the album came out, it’s like I suddenly realised that 

the songs weren’t just ours anymore. Obviously, it was inevitable and it’s a really exciting prospect! 

But it hadn’t quite sunk in that people were actually going to listen to the songs and to my lyrics 

up close and personal in their headphones. And the thought of that does make me feel kind of 

vulnerable and squeamish sometimes. 

How did the opportunity come about to record with Bill Ryder-Jones? 

It was our manager Tim’s idea, actually. As soon as we heard what Bill had done we were on board, 

and Tim managed to get hold of him and luckily Bill liked us too! 

Can you tell us how the experience of recording with Bill has helped to shape you musically? 

Was there any advice he gave you that helped you during this process? 

Recording was quite an intense process, just because we only had 12 days to do it, and it was so 

incredibly important to us to get it right. About halfway through the 

recording process I started freaking out about whether we had enough 

time and Bill gave me a good pep talk which basically consisted of, “Calm 

down, it’s all going to be fine, we’ll have enough time and if we don’t it’s 

not the end of the world.” It sounds simple, and I probably could have 

told myself that, but in that moment I couldn’t. He taught us other stuff, 

too, mainly about guitar sounds, learning how to make your guitar sound 

amazing with a shitload of distortion, reverb and a screwdriver. 

Now that the album is out and you have a string of shows ahead 

including two different dates in Liverpool, what can we look forward 

to from Our Girl in the future? 

Festivals! And we’re starting to write new songs, so that’s exciting… ! 

Words: Brit Williams / @therealbritjean 

Photography: Charlotte Patmore / charlottepatmore.com 

weareourgirl.co.uk 

Stranger Today is available now via Cannibal Hymns. Our Girl play Phase One on Monday 4th 

March, and Liverpool Sound City 3-5th May. 

34

Charles Rennie Mackintosh 

EXHIBITION 

Charles Rennie 

Mackintosh: Making The 

Glasgow Style 

Walker Art Gallery 

15/03-26/08 

Rediscover the life and work of an architectural genius, 

designer and artist CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH 

(1868–1928) alongside the work of his closest friends and 

contemporaries in this must-see exhibition. Featuring more 

than 250 objects, ranging from furniture and embroidery to stained 

glass, metalwork and architectural drawings, the exhibition explores 

the movement that became known as The Glasgow Style – the only Art 

Nouveau movement in the UK. 

The Glasgow Style grew out of the technical studios of the Glasgow 

School of Art and a group of brilliant young designers, including the 

work of ‘The Four’ – Mackintosh and James Herbert McNair, who 

worked together at an architects’ practice, and the sisters Frances and 

Margaret Macdonald. A number of Mackintosh’s famous works still 

stand in Glasgow today, including the Glasgow Herald building (‘The 

Lighthouse’) and the Scotland Street school. Mackintosh also competed 

in a design competition for Liverpool Cathedral in 1903, but failed to 

gain a place on the shortlist (losing out to Giles Gilbert Scott). 

The Four’s close relationship developed into romance for McNair 

and Frances, who married in 1899, and for Mackintosh and Margaret, 

who married in 1900. The Mackintoshes often worked together 

harmoniously on different projects, inspiring and supporting one 

another. Work by all four artists features in the exhibition. 

The exhibition also showcases panelling, furniture and light 

fittings from many of the artistic tearooms designed by Mackintosh 

for Glasgow businesswoman Miss Catherine Cranston. This includes a 

section from the Chinese Room of the Ingram Street Tearooms, which 

has not previously been displayed outside of Scotland. 

Emergency Tiara 

FESTIVAL 

Threshold 

Baltic Triangle – 29/03-30/03 

Threshold Festival Of Music And Arts returns to the Baltic 

Triangle with a full line-up after a more pared-back event in 

2018. The festival’s expansive line-up continues to showcase 

emerging and grassroots talent mixed in with some heavyhitting 

national artists, all of whom will perform in venues across the 

Baltic Triangle on 29th and 30th March. 

Award-winning producer, singer-songwriter, World Loop Station 

Champion and record-breaking beatboxer, SK SHLOMO, headlines the 

festival as part of his debut album release tour. The electric blend of 

innovative lyrics, live-looping and epic synths that feature on Shlomo’s 

debut album Surrender evokes James Blake, Radiohead and Caribou 

with a polyrhythmic Arabic twist. “I’m so psyched to be headlining at 

Threshold Festival,” said SK. “I love Liverpool, love the people, it’s such a 

true home of British music and I can’t wait to show the crowds up there 

what I’ve been cooking up with my new album.” 

Maverick visual arts collective GANG OF FIVE will bring their 

illustrious illustrative flavours to the Baltic, demonstrating grassroots, 

collaborative activism through art. New York- based, Japanese surf-pop 

princess EMERGENCY TIARA will also be gracing the Threshold stage 

once more, having keyed the event into an extensive tour of the UK 

and Europe. Liverpool artist DANNY O’CONNOR also returns to the bill 

following his graffiti work at last year’s Across The Threshold event. 

It wouldn’t be Threshold without a PADDY STEER performance, 

and this year the Zelig-like character is again in attendance, bringing 

his retina-searing live show to the Baltic. The local contingent includes 

SEAFOAM GREEN, KATIE MAC and MERSEY WYLIE, along with dozens 

of other acts. There’s tonnes more alongside all this, so if you’ve got the 

taste for Threshold, head to thresholdfestival.co.uk to gorge on all the 

details. 

PREVIEWS 35

PREVIEWS 

GIG 

Acid Arab 

24 Kitchen Street – 23/03 

MEMBERS 

PICK 

Supremely talented Parisian electronic duo Guido Minisky and Hervé 

Carvalho are responsible for one of the most exciting music projects to 

bring the sounds of East and West together. Under the name of ACID 

ARAB, the pair of DJs perform and release intoxicating music that is 

a dynamic collision of cultures, resulting in a fizzing soundtrack of the 

Parisian banlieues. The full Acid Arab live line-up – featuring Pierrot 

Casanova, Nicolas Borne and sensational Algerian keyboard player 

Kenzi Bourras – will be on hand to make sure that this dance-friendly 

slew of electro, techno and hip hop comes together in the most gutwrenching 

form possible. Surrender yourself to the beats. 

Acid Arab 

EXHIBITION 

209 Women 

Open Eye – 01/03-14/04 

2018 marked 100 years since women finally won the right to vote in 

Britain. In acknowledgement of the centenary, Open Eye Gallery will host 

209 Women, a photographic project curated by Hilary Wood comprising 

of all current sitting female MPs. The show makes its way to Liverpool, 

having been debuted in the Houses of Parliament last December, with 

all photographs compiled into the exhibit taken by a team of female 

photographers. The project aims to champion the visibility of women in 

male dominated environments. 

Alison McGovern 

EXHIBITION 

Foreign Trade 

The Gallery – 02/03-31/03 

With the UK’s departure from the EU looming ever closer, DuoVision prepare an exhibition 

that explores the cultural impact and legacy of LGBTQI artists on the UK’s cultural landscape. 

FOREIGN TRADE is an exhibition featuring non British-born LBQT artists from a range of 

ages and backgrounds, who have chosen the UK as their home. Starting with the arrival of 

Australian visionary Leigh Bowery in 1981, the artists – including Spanish photographer 

GOZRA LOZANO, Oscar-nominated costume designer MICHAEL WILKINSON and his partner 

TIM MARTIN (Australia), and French performance artist THIERRY ALEXANDRE among others 

– to reflect on life in Britain before and after the Brexit vote. Each of the artists in the exhibition 

were recommended by other artists, replicating, the curators Martin Green and James Lawler 

explain, the strength of the community they’re part of, which is under threat by Brexit. 

FESTIVAL 

Angel Field Festival 

The Capstone Theatre – 22/03-30/03 

Following on from February’s Jazz Festival, The Capstone Theatre hosts the inaugural 

Angel Fields Festival. This combined arts festival is a welcome addition to the city’s 

cultural calendar with music, theatre, dance, film and more coming together under one 

multi-disciplinary umbrella. Marking a quartet of anniversaries, the programme nods to 

50 years since humans first visited the moon, 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, 

30 years since Ceausescu’s Romanian regime ended and 100 years since Bauhaus. 

Programme highlights include performances of Gertrude Stein’s White Lines and He 

Said It, jazzers the Kerem Quartet presenting 30 years On and classical missionaries 

IMMIX Ensemble closing proceedings with special commission Dream Makers. 

GIG 

Bob Log III 

Phase One – 30/03 

Bob Log III 

MEMBERS 

PICK 

How BOB LOG isn’t a stadium superstar by now is anyone’s guess. The one-man band 

and crown prince of punk blues is a fearsome assault on your senses, channelling hardcore 

Mississippi Delta blues, hip hop beats and punk rock into your cerebral cortex through the 

lightning rod of his slide guitar. You can’t see what’s going on underneath the trademark 

motorcycle crash helmet, but it’s enough of a puzzle to work out how he creates the 

crashing sound to worry about that. It’s probably best you don’t try and understand Bob 

Log, just let it hit you squarely between the eyes. 

CLUB 

The Sound Of Music’s 10th Anniversary 

Smithdown Social Club – 29/03 

The venerable podcast, community and institution that is Bernie Connor’s THE SOUND OF MUSIC celebrates 

its 10th anniversary in March, which is worthy of the loudest of fanfares. Coming with the wholesome tagline 

“We shall not shy away from pop music”, The Sound Of Music is an elliptical audio journey across the cosmos 

of pop, stopping off at various outposts for enlightening (and occasionally surreal) insights from popular music 

history. The monthly podcast – one of the longest-running music ’casts in the UK, and definitely the daddy 

in Liverpool – has gathered a crew of like-minded sonic explorers around it, and some of those cool cats will 

be taking part in the celebration event at TSOM’s new spiritual home of Smithdown Social. New generation 

Joseph Kaye and Kyd Dub (Comical Brothers) take their turn on the decks alongside frequent TSOM partners 

No Fakin’. The main man Bernie Connor also takes a turn on the decks, alongside Manchester legend John 

McCready. Do not shy away. 

Bernie Connor 

36

THEATRE 

Wise Children 

GIG 

Touts 

GIG + FILM 

John Otway 

MEMBERS 

PICK 

Storyhouse, Chester – 19/03-23/03 

Studio 2 – 28/03 

81 Renshaw – 23/03 

Emma Rice’s adaptation of Angela Carter’s acclaimed 

novel garnered a similarly fervent response from critics 

as the source text after its initial run at London’s Old Vic. 

Now Chester’s Storyhouse theatre brings the production 

up North to wow theatre fans. The innovative production 

tells the story of Nora and Dora Chance, twin chorus girls 

celebrating their 75th birthday while their actor father 

celebrates his 100th on the same day but on the other 

side of the Thames. It’s a celebration of showbiz, family, 

forgiveness and hope with generous dollops of sex, scandal 

and Shakespeare. All bases covered, then. 

TOUTS have been causing quite a stir over on the 

Island of Ireland. The punk trio from Derry have 

quickly built up a reputation that sees them as 

one of the most hotly tipped bands around. Going 

far beyond Hometown Records’ description as a 

singer that can’t sing, a mod that can’t play bass 

and a drummer that can’t see (yes, that’s their own 

label’s words), the lads have waded in to make their 

mark on the resurgent wave of contemporary punk, 

with no signs of the noted weaknesses at al. Their 

appearance at Studio 2 comes with support from 

the equally talented Dubliners INHALER. 

Cult hero JOHN OTWAY brings the movie of his life, Rock 

& Roll’s Greatest Failure, to 81 Renshaw this month. 

The singer songwriter’s story is a familiar one of talent 

unfulfilled but told by the man himself in characteristic selfdeprecating 

style. A true eccentric who was once believed 

to be a punk trailblazer, Otway has made a career from 

surreal performances, publicity stunts (one of which got 

a lyric of his named by the BBC as the seventh best of all 

time) and sustaining an ardent fanbase. To see the movie, a 

Q&A and a one of the artist’s legendary live performances 

grab an advance ticket. 

GIG 

Ady Suleiman 

Arts Club – 16/03 

The debut album of singer-songwriter ADY SULEIMAN’s 

may have been a long time coming, but it proved well 

worth the wait when it dropped in 2018. Memories is 

a rich collection of influences harvested since his 

breakthrough in 2013, underpinned by warming neo-soul 

vocals and heartfelt lyricism. Jumping off from the success 

of the full-length release, his latest studio work, Strange 

Roses, is another mark of quality to springboard in a 

stretch of live shows in the coming months. One of which 

will see Suleiman’s dramatic talents return to the theatre 

stylings of Arts Club. 

Ady Suleiman 

Snapped Ankles 

MEMBERS 

PICK 

CLUB 

Snapped Ankles 

Kazimier Stock Room – 08/03 

While regeneration in the city centre has worked tirelessly to rub away 

any semblance of the former Kazimier, there have remained shoots of its 

former glories resolutely peering through the layers of concrete falling on 

Wolstenhome Square. From the ashes of the former Rat Alley comes a new 

indoor micro event space, simply named Stockroom – pulled together from the 

venue’s old prop storage space. The opening night at the venue will welcome 

London synth lords SNAPPED ANKLES along for a set in the evening. In the 

afternoon, the band will also be running a synth log workshop with a limited 

number of spaces. Further support at the opening celebration comes from 

Melodic Distraction’s LUPINI. 

EXHIBITION 

Ericka Beckman and Marianna Simnett 

FACT – 29/03 

Can we learn anything about modern day society from fairy tales? In particular in the way storytelling explores images of the 

female body? Artists ERICKA BECKMAN and MARIANNA SIMNETT believe so, and their work forms the body of an exhibition 

at FACT that launches a new season focusing on identity, representation and gender. The differing approaches of the two artists 

– Beckman is an eminent American filmmaker and Simnett is a London-based performance and installation artist – are at once 

alluring and repelling, sensual and troubling. Both artists present strikingly different forms of visual storytelling, but equally 

make the female body the main player in the multi-layered fantasy worlds they create. A number of film works by both will be on 

display as part of the exhibition, as well as Simnett’s sound and light installation Faint With Light. 

Ericka Beckman and Marianna Simnett 

GIG 

Bido Lito! Social: Yank Scally 

Shipping Forecast – 28/03 

Yank Scally 

This month’s cover artist is relatively new to the live game, but he’s taken to 

it as effortlessly as he has everything else. In celebration of the collaborative 

effort that was his debut album There’s Not Enough Hours In The Day, YANK 

SCALLY is amassing as many of the guest musicians and performers who 

feature on the album to perform with him for this special live version of the 

LP. Think of it as a brief insight into the weird world of the Bulletproof Wizard, 

where musicians and ideas come and go, woven together by Yank Scally’s 

expert conducting. As usual, Bido Lito! Members get free entry – to sign up, 

head to bidolito.co.uk/membership. 

PREVIEWS 37

EVENT HIGHLIGHTS 

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Gladys Knight 

3 July 

Vitality Netball 

World Cup 

12-21 July 

26 March 

Fame UK Reunion: 

The original cast live on stage 

5-6 May 

Russell Howard 

5 October 

31 October - 3 November 

25 May 

Danny Baker: 

Good Time Charlie’s Back!!! 

3 June 

Paul Smith: The Following Tour 

9 November 

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22 November 

Get your tickets at mandsbankarena.com

REVIEWS 

“His voice is just 

beautiful. Not so much 

that of an angel, but of 

one of the fallen ones 

who’s seen a fair bit of 

trouble along the way” 

John Grant (Darren Aston) 

John Grant 

Philharmonic Hall – 04/02 

JOHN GRANT wears his heart on his sleeve. With his solo 

albums he settles scores, tells stories of heartbreak and recounts 

anecdotes of life which resonate universally. This could all present 

him as belligerent and bitter. Yet, pull together his storytelling 

skills, copious amounts of humour and breathtaking melodies, 

and on paper you have the type of artist that would grab the 

attention of anyone. Not least anyone with half an interest in 

humanity or music. Live, though, it’s raised to a whole other level. 

Grant performs with a mix of brutal honesty and an 

awareness of the theatricality of his performance, as seen from 

the first song, the mesmeric Tempest. He’s warm, engaging and 

incredibly funny, both in his lyrics and off the cuff. These lyrics, 

which are a mix of beautiful sensitivity and laugh out loud filth, 

mean you’re never left in any doubt what he thinks; apposite 

references mean he easily finds his target and hits it square on. 

The Philharmonic Hall as a setting for the gig is an interesting 

choice. Its pared back Art Deco curves are at odds with the spiky 

electro-rock music and at first it feels like there should be more 

movement. It is rather static, aside from the thirsty sneaking 

out to the bar, but it soon shows itself to be a wonderful choice: 

the audience being seated means that, despite the vast space, 

the gig takes on a more intimate feel and the performance is 

personal. And anyway, Grant’s got the moves for us, at some 

points busting out some swaying that could be termed as 

dancing. A great bear of a man in his baseball cap and boots, 

with a brash sensitivity and a charming awareness of his 

audience, Grant swaps between playing keyboard and taking 

centre stage in front on the mic wielding it with rock-star intent. 

It’s a mix of theatre and raw honesty with his foul-mouthed 

lyrical tirades and tales of love and loss. The light show is 

incredible; strobes and lasers match the upbeat electro-synth 

driven rock and focus in on Grant for the more mellow and 

reflective songs such as Metamorphosis. 

His voice is just beautiful. Not so much that of an angel, but 

of one of the fallen ones who’s seen a fair bit of trouble along 

the way; it’s strong and mesmerising and what strikes you is its 

purity and power. It ranges from the staccato of Black Belt to 

the soaring vocals of TC And Honeybear. Over the course of the 

two-hour gig (this is a man intent on giving us value for money), 

it maintains its clarity, resonating and soaring around the hall. 

The “badass band” to which Grant refers is just that – tight 

knit and talented. There’s a warmth on stage, a feeling this is 

a happy band of troupers. He refers to songs he wrote in Eric 

Pulido’s house, tonight’s support act. Pulido comes back on stage 

to accompany Grant on Sigourney Weaver during the encore. 

The majority of the songs come from 2018’s Love Is Magic, 

with all but one of the songs on the album making it on to the 

set list. Is He Strange and He’s Got His Mother’s Hips are met 

John Grant (Darren Aston) 

with cheers. The majestic title track is saved for the encore. Older 

songs such as Glacier see some of the audience sing along word 

for word in elation. 

At the end, Grant’s as fresh as when he nonchalantly walked 

on stage. He holds the audience in his thrall throughout. At 

the end of Outer Space, the fourth track of the encore, when 

it’s all finally over, the audience are on their feet with quite 

a few rushing to the front wanting to shake hands with the 

great, gregarious charmer. He seems thrilled with how warm a 

reception he receives. He’s a performer who knows how to play 

his audience, how to get to get every emotion from them. We 

leave feeling elated. John Grant is wonderful and certainly one of 

a kind. 

Jennie Macaulay / @jenmagmcmac 

40

“The band may be 

visually dwarfed by their 

vaulted surroundings, 

but their sound fills the 

immense space with a 

pared back clarity” 

The Delines (Glyn Akroyd / @glynakroyd) 

The Delines (Glyn Akroyd / @glynakroyd) 

The Delines 

+ Alasdair Roberts 

Nothingville Music @ Ullet Road Unitarian 

Church – 31/01 

My first steps into the spectacular edifice that is Ullet Road 

Unitarian Church are accompanied not by the silence I had 

expected, but by the strains of the church’s William Hill organ 

(built 1869, and a listed instrument in its own right). The sound 

from the grand old instrument seems to reverberate in every 

finely carved nook and cranny of nave and apse, an impromptu 

prologue to the latest concert in the Unitarian Church’s toedipping 

into the world of contemporary music. Promoted 

by Nothingville Music, who are seemingly making a habit of 

presenting quality musicians in unusual settings, tonight’s show 

is headlined by THE DELINES. The band are an offshoot of 

long-running Americana outfit Richmond Fontaine, now fronted 

by singer Amy Boone. It’s change of tack which bassist Freddie 

Trujillo has described as an attempt to fuse the country stylings of 

Sammi Smith (Help Me Make It Through The Night) with the soul 

groove of Booker T & The MG’s. It’s an attempt that has proved 

hugely successful if the critical acclaim afforded their first two 

albums, 2014’s Colfax and this year’s The Imperial, is anything to 

go by. The organ is being played by The Delines’ keyboard player 

Cory Gray, who “just couldn’t pass up this opportunity”. It’s his 

enthusiasm for the instrument that results in a last-minute re-jig 

of the setlist. 

The five-year hiatus between albums was an enforced one; 

singer Boone recovering from a car crash in 2016, the effects of 

which are still with her as she makes her way around backstage 

with the aid of a walking stick. 

Support comes from ALASDAIR ROBERTS, whose plaintive 

vocal style takes us immediately to the Highlands and islands 

of his native Scotland. His voice is redolent of peat fires and 

whisky, his storytelling sounds ageless, but his first song is the 

outward looking Europe. Crisp, agile fingerpicking adorns his folk 

melodies. Tales of love and separation are easily transposed from 

their Celtic origins to more contemporary settings. The pews are 

filling up quickly now; Roberts’ set is warmly received by those 

who have wisely decided not to spend too long sequestered in 

the annexed bar. 

Alongside the above mentioned members, The Delines’ 

line-up is completed by drummer Sean Oldham and guitarist 

and songwriter Willy Vlautin. Between them, this band have 

clocked up the miles and cut their teeth playing just about every 

genre going. From straight up country to LA punk, you name it. 

In Vlautin, they have a songwriter who is able to distil the lives of 

the characters from his novels (five published to date, all highly 

acclaimed) into the three-minute vignettes of American life 

caught up in his songs. 

They kick things off with the title track from The Imperial. I 

don’t know if Vlautin wrote these songs with Boone’s accident 

subconsciously in mind, but when she sings the opening line 

“All those scars, what did they do to you”, you’d be forgiven for 

thinking this is some form of catharsis for her. 

It’s immediately obvious that the soul tag they have earned is 

well deserved, there’s a Dusty In Memphis-meets-Brill Building 

cool to Boone’s delivery and to the arrangements, underscored 

by the rest of the band’s soulful “ooohs” and “aaahs”. There’s 

also a distinctive guitar and piano motif pushing the song to its 

conclusion. They jump straight back to Colfax for a beautifully 

heartfelt I Won’t Slip Up, with swirling organ, lovely melody, an 

uplifting melancholy already pervading the air. It’s a wonderful 

start and from here they never look back, covering most of the 

new album alongside a scattering of older material. The band 

may be visually dwarfed by their vaulted surroundings, but their 

sound fills the immense space. Not with loudness, but with a 

pared back clarity. It uses the superb acoustics to full advantage. 

Keyboardist Gray proves to be an equally great horn player. 

His trumpet layering, gritty Stax riffs, smoothly orchestrated 

West Coast pop, or a hint of Mariachi which adds so much colour 

to the overall palette and on the gorgeous slow burn of Where 

Are You Sonny? – the kind of joyful chord progressions that build 

and build towards a euphoric climax. 

The Delines are never afraid to take their time over a song, 

to reach out for the music, allowing Boone’s compelling voice 

the time and space to work its magic; almost spoken, almost 

whispered at times, she projects both vulnerability and defiance 

in equal measure. Jazzy, bluesy little guitar and keyboard licks 

flicker at the edges of her voice. Trujillo’s bass bubbles groovily 

beneath the surface, Oldham’s drums impeccably unfussy, totally 

on the money. 

The rapport with the audience is tangible. Boone 

acknowledges the “first church to let women preach”, as well as 

tipping her hat to her own recovery: “It’s so great to be back on 

stage with the coolest dudes in the world.” There are some great 

asides throughout the night, as she laughingly tries her best 

not to swear in church. “This one’s for Paul,” Boone announces, 

doffing her cap to the night’s promoter. “He asked us to play 

this. Thanks for putting us on in this beautiful place.” They go 

on to deliver a poignant The Oil Rigs At Night, which shimmers 

evocatively in the pin-drop silence, its protagonist gazing out at 

the lights in the Gulf where her man is working as she plots her 

escape. Pop, soul, country, gospel – call it anything you want, this 

is pure class. Come the end, the congregation are on their feet, 

applauding rapturously and calling for more. 

The band duly oblige, and Cory Gray disappears into the 

organ loft to add an audacious on-the-fly flourish to a sublime I’m 

Just A Ghost, truly grasping that opportunity with both hands. 

The growling sustain at the end of the song heads off the deep 

bass register, both band and audience smilingly holding their 

breath wondering how long he can keep this going. 

Now it’s the applause that’s sustained. Gray returns and the 

band play us out with two more gems, two more nuggets about 

lives lived on the wrong side of the American tracks. The band 

finish with the redemptive and achingly beautiful Let’s Be Us 

Again, the circle complete as Boone sings “I can’t wait to be, like 

I used to be”. 

We float back out into the cold January night. We’re warmed 

from within by a glow known to each visiting preacher of this 

chapel felt when they deliver their Sunday sermons. 

Glyn Akroyd / @glynakroyd 

REVIEWS 41

REVIEWS 

Leonardo da Vinci: 

A Life In Drawing 

Walker Art Gallery – until 06/05 

To commemorate 500 years since the death of LEONARDO 

DA VINCI, the Royal Collection Trust have released 144 of the 

Renaissance master’s pieces to be shown across 12 UK venues, 

before being brought together for the largest exhibition of his 

work in 65 years, to be held at Buckingham Palace from summer 

2019. 

It is a rare moment for these works to be allowed to leave 

the Royal houses by the RCT. The trust’s overall wish that their 

Da Vinci 500 (Gareth Evans) 

collection of over a million objects collected over 500 years can 

be viewed and enjoyed by the people is hampered somewhat by 

the fact that they are confined usually to the Royal palaces and 

estates in the south of England. So, to have the Leonardo pieces 

travel north, or indeed anywhere, is an event worthy of some 

celebration. 

Leonardo 500 is a study in study. What we see in these, 

the private notations of the master never intended for public 

view, is the meeting point of artist, scientist, mathematician and 

philosopher that formed the genius of Leonardo. A place where, 

in his quest to visualise and enrich his own knowledge, detailed 

notation and instruction works alongside the drawings with equal 

importance, highlighting his profound world vision of limitless 

interpretation and endless possibility. 

These are not paintings, but moments of intense inquisition 

delicately expressed through chalk, ink and quill. He used 

drawing to think, it helped him converse with the world 

around him, to see more and to be more by seeking a better 

understanding of the elements and how natural processes affect 

us. His fascination with botany, architecture, the human form, 

engineering and cartography are shown here in this collection of 

delicate fragments of genius. There is a deep and rich purity to 

these images held, for instance, in his vital need to understand 

the mechanism of muscle and bone in a piece such as The 

Muscles Of The Upper Spine (from 1510-11). Working at the 

medical school at the University of Pavia for an entire winter, 

dissecting and drawing human bodies, each muscle, every sinew 

and bone became an individual study, forming a quest for deeper 

understanding. This was a process Leonardo enjoyed hugely, 

until his mentor, anatomy professor Marcantonio della Torre, died 

from plague, at which point the artist was forced to move on to 

other projects. 

The preparatory materials for an ambitious work depicting 

the Battle Of Anghiari in 1503, a work which would later be 

destroyed as were so many of his pieces, is another search for 

detail. His attempts to capture the hellish fury and rage of war 

in the flared nostrils and bared teeth of a horse’s head, repeated 

on this one piece, with a lion’s head pictured for comparison, 

are further example of the urgency of his study, the repeated 

attempts to perfectly define the form, scrupulous and absorbing. 

There is added context given to the Walker’s Leonardo 

500 exhibition by a display of the links between the artist and 

gallery. William Roscoe was a renowned collector and donator 

of work from the Italian Renaissance – as well as writing the 

first biography of Lorenzo de’ Medici – and donated many prints, 

drawings and paintings from before and during this period. 

Because of this, the work of Leonardo’s many peers and mentors 

are represented on permanent display in the Walker. 

This is a unique opportunity for art lovers in Liverpool and 

beyond (there are a further 12 of the Leonardo 500 pieces, 

focusing predominantly on his anatomical work, currently at 

Manchester Art Gallery). With the Walker welcoming a collection 

of over 250 pieces of work from Charles Rennie Mackintosh and 

his contemporaries in The Glasgow Movement in March, and 

Tate Liverpool given over to a Keith Haring retrospective in the 

summer, Leonardo 500 should be celebrated as much for its 

beauty as for the fact that it has been allowed to leave the Royal 

Collection if only for as little as three months. While the sheets 

that make up Leonardo 500 are on paper, so easily damaged 

by exposure, there must surely be a need for more of the Royal 

Collection’s million plus items being on permanent display 

somewhere outside of the English or Scottish capital cities. 

For the people, and for all time. 

Paul Fitzgerald / @NothingvilleM 

Jah Wobble And The Invaders Of 

The Heart 

Philharmonic Music Room – 01/02 

A packed-out Music Room awaits the arrival of the enigmatic, 

genre-mashing JAH WOBBLE, whose 40 years in the music 

business have produced one of the most distinctive oeuvres in 

the post-punk pantheon. There’s a “we love this guy… but what 

the hell are we in for tonight?” kind of vibe in the room tonight. 

Wobble walks onstage alone and begins to describe how 

the evening will pan out: “I’ll do a song and tell you about it, the 

band will come on, they’re pretty good, we’ll do some music, I’ll 

make some self-deprecating comments, which is really me being 

smug and… OK, I’ll get on with it.” Upon which he sits down 

and proceeds to get into a solo bass groove which immediately 

has heads nodding. After a while he is joined by drummer Marc 

Layton-Bennett who picks up the rhythm, then by guitarist 

Martin Chung, and, eventually, keyboard player George King 

who begin to lay down some jazzy, proggy flourishes over the 

trademark throbbing bass. 

“That was the jazz workout to show you how good we are,” 

quips Wobble, before they launch into a dub version of Harry 

J Allstars’ ska classic The Liquidator, which, under Wobble’s 

mimed mixing desk direction, they deconstruct and build back up 

again. As the evening develops it becomes obvious that there’s 

no planned setlist. Wobble seems to go wherever his heart tells 

him, and he has a bountiful orchard from which to pluck. There 

are about 10 Invaders Of The Heart albums to start with, not to 

mention PiL, the English Roots Band and a list of collaborations 

as long as your arm. 

The band members are constantly looking at him and at each 

other for clues and cues as to where the music could go next. It 

takes musicianship of the highest quality to pull this off, but that’s 

what we get. The band is absolutely top notch, whether playing 

a pared back skank or in full improvisational jazz flow. Chung and 

King’s ability to sit on the groove or to embellish it with technically 

brilliant but empathetic soloing is masterful. 

“I feel like Nietzsche staring into the abyss… the abyss stares 

back.” He’s off on another stream of consciousness ramble, which 

he directs at both audience and band, who play the straight men, 

nodding with amused, heard it all before tolerance. It’s part music, 

part musical theatre – I half expect Wobble to doff his trademark 

fedora and don a fez before going into a comedy magic number. 

His wife, guzheng player Zi Lan Liao, and son (percussion) 

have joined them now. The harp-like Chinese instrument is 

played in a flurry of circular hand motions, but its delicate swirl 

is at times lost in the mix when the band are in full flow. Wobble 

acknowledges Augustus Pablo as having turned him on to Eastern 

music, saluting him with a version of Java before concluding the 

first half with a leftfield version of Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain. 

The second half of the evening progresses in a mixture of 

laughter, musical virtuosity and versions of older material stripped 

of any hint of nostalgia by dint of their updated interpretations and 

dynamic delivery (not sure how Wobble manages to sound dynamic, 

spending much of the time in a seated posture better suited to 

holding a TV remote than a top end Yamaha bass, but he does). The 

band, now just a four-piece, play spellbinding versions of Visions Of 

You and Becoming More Like God. Elsewhere Every Man’s An Island 

perfectly suits Wobble’s deadpan spoken word delivery. 

PiL’s Public Image, Poptones and Socialist make it to the 

table, but not as we know them. The former morphing into 

Jah Wobble And The Invaders Of The Heart (Glyn Akroyd / @glynakroyd) 

a spacey dub, while Poptones, delicate at first, building to a 

hypnotic, extended crescendo. 

We get dialogue from 1971 crime thriller Get Carter 

preceding a jazz-fusion version of its theme tune. We get a 

comedy, contemporary dance routine, we get poetry, we get 

discourse on the hierarchy of musical instruments: “The bass is 

the King of the Jungle – grrrrrrrr.” What next? 

“Oh, we haven’t done any drum and bass.” Wobble turns 

to drummer Layton-Bennett – “and don’t you try cheating, 

playing half-pace” – before driving the poor guy to the edge of 

exhaustion as he pushes the tempo faster and faster. Layton- 

Bennett responds superbly, laying into his kit with controlled fury. 

The evening passes all too quickly. A musical kaleidoscope 

of differing styles, brilliantly delivered, which is somehow held 

together under the direction of the MC, the one-off that is Jah 

Wobble. An East End geezer making the King of the Jungle dance 

to his own tune. The audience are on their feet, the applause is 

long and loud. 

Glyn Akroyd / @glynakroyd 

42

Mark Leckey: We Are Untitled 

Output Gallery 

Over the last 20 years, Wirral-born artist MARK LECKEY 

has made a career out of interpreting cultural movements with 

honesty and a subtle depth. While his work is often fun on the 

surface, Leckey’s talent lies in capturing the mood of the subject, 

offering the audience a chance to analyse as much as revel. 

We Are Untitled, the 2001 film being shown in Output, is 

a classic example of how Leckey makes this work. The concept 

appears simple – footage of a party in a London flat. At the 

initial level, this is a document of a time and place. The fashion is 

comment-worthy in its own right; beanie hats and red PVC mark 

this out as being from another era. Leckey wanted the film to act 

as an opportunity to look back on a moment. But 2001 was 18 

years ago, and this passage of time has made it a record of what 

is, to an increasing number of people, a time out of memory. 

We Are Untitled’s success for today must therefore be to act 

as more than a piece of retro memorabilia, but as a document 

of the feeling of the time. So, while the fashions might be an 

initial talking point, it’s really a marker of what Leckey’s truly 

interested in. There’s a performativity to the characters and their 

actions. The outfits, and indeed the entire party, comes across 

as a codified activity. The players are a mix of Leckey’s friends 

and hired actors, which creates another tension. Everyone’s 

acting casual, but with that slightly awkward air of playing to 

an audience. A party may be a collective activity, but the effect 

of We Are Untitled is that everyone is playing as individuals. 

The only time there’s a sense of anyone truly letting go is in the 

strobe flashes – the darkness and indefinability perhaps giving 

confidence to self-expression. 

Leckey’s next show after Output will be a major exhibition 

at Tate Britain. It’s a recognition that, over the last 20 years, 

there’s been a real admiration and appetite for his cultureencapsulating 

work. Acting both as a nostalgia trip for those of 

us old enough to remember 2001, and an honest fragment of 

Mark Leckey: We Are Untitled (Gabrielle de la Puente) 

time for those who don’t, We Are Untitled is a perfect example 

of what this reputation has been built on and why it’s so 

deserved. 

Julia Johnson / @messylines_ 

White Lies 

I Love Live Events @ Eventim Olympia – 

07/02 

Longevity in music really is a good thing. While the joy 

of discovery will always be a remarkable thrill, there is still 

excitement in taking a glance back over the shoulder. Reverence in 

memory is the warm glow that is just a lovely and snuggly feeling. 

The glow that accompanies thoughts attached to albums or 

shows that left an impression on you at some point in your past. 

There’s loads. We all possess these moments, these memories, 

these times. As life moves forward some of these vignettes fall to 

one side and we plough on, usually because something new has 

turned up. New is everything. Old is just, well, contrite when it’s 

about music. Don’t look back. Forward. Forward. Forward. 

Nope. Go back 10 years and indie landfill corporates WHITE 

LIES released their debut album and it was magnificent. The 

shows were magnificent, even the remixes were good. Then there 

was the second album. It, too, was magnificent. The shows were 

also magnificent and these young lads from the posh bit of Ealing 

buzzed around the world to packed houses and an addicted fan 

base. Yet the press was never that convinced. Was it class based? 

Was it a timing issue? The band don’t know and don’t care. Six 

days after the release of their fifth album the three-piece are back 

in Liverpool, one of the cities on this massive European tour that 

has been very loyal to WL. They’ve played here on every tour. 

Twice the venues have been upgraded and once the venue was 

downgraded. Anybody in The Invisible Wind Factory last year 

would testify to it being a health hazard, you couldn’t breathe, let 

alone dance. A shame, then, that there’s a bit more space here 

tonight as WL are on absolutely stunning form. There’s no grand 

entrance, just a dimming of the lights and the not very rock ’n’ roll 

amble on stage. It seems the band do not decry expectation with 

age, just get on with it. As individuals they are wonderful human 

beings, no pretence, no attitude, just humbly great musicians with 

a real knack of evoking some acceptable 80s licks and burying 

them with such huge choruses that you don’t feel the need to visit 

the bar every three songs. 

There’s a small ruck of bands that define the White Lies 

discourse and those acts are currently doing the rounds. Tears For 

Fears were down in town the other day, Snow Patrol were visiting 

our Mancunian brethren earlier and the Bunnymen will forever live 

long in our hearts. The fact that these acts are mentioned in the 

same breath is testament to how revered WL are in here tonight. 

The crowd are absolutely loving it. There’s singing and shouting 

and shape-throwing that isn’t hysterical but, by gosh, it’s intense. 

As is the show. The band are tight as you like. Every song is a 

lesson in professional synth-driven arena rock. The old songs are 

a reminder of good times past. The new ones are greeted with 

such fervour that it feels like they’ve been around for six years, 

never mind six days. Time To Give especially gets the thumbs up 

for its instrumental break that brings to mind a more fluid Mr. X 

by Ultravox, another act that WL espouse, no more so than in the 

single Tokyo. While radio play was poor, the crowd are bouncing 

around to a chorus that Midge Ure may well have written for his 

new electronica side project. 

The fact is that White Lies are tremendous, yet society 

doesn’t seem too sure. No idea why, as all of the constituent 

parts are there. All lined up and all polished finely. The back 

catalogue is so pop and affecting that some people’s attitude 

towards them is a crime. Go and Spotify the fuck out of them, 

then wonder why you didn’t bother earlier. 

Ian R. Abraham / @scrash 

White Lies (John Middleton / johnmiddletonphoto.co.uk) 

REVIEWS 43

REVIEWS 

“It feels like the 

beginning of an 

adventure in to an 

unknown world of our 

own potential, one we 

are equally rubbing 

away from any 

possible imagination” 

Cascade by Yunchul Kim (Rob Battersby) 

Broken Symmetries 

FACT – Until 03/03 

Marrying science and art has its precedents. However, 

particle physics coupled with art may not seem like the most 

accessible subject matter for the casual gallery-goer. These 

seemingly unlikely bedfellows set up camp happily at FACT in its 

illuminating BROKEN SYMMETRIES exhibition, a collaboration 

between Arts at CERN and FACT. It attempts to blur the solid 

lines between the two practices. The partnership works. 

The 10 works by international artists are commissions in this 

three-year collaboration and take over the galleries and foyer 

space. They inform, inspire and entertain, and use a range of 

artistic techniques – sculptural elements, documentary film of the 

work at CERN (the nuclear research laboratory in Geneva) and 

installations. As with all endeavours, some are more successful 

than others. 

Gallery 1 greets visitors with Juan Cortes’ interactive 

Supralunar which “proposes a poetic approach to dark 

matter”. Visitors hover round waiting to place their eyes against 

a lens which “acts as an amplifier for the sound produced by the 

electromechanical gears inside” and watch optical fibres move 

round with hypnotic effect. 

It makes sense to start with the adjacent exhibit, The View 

From Nowhere by artistic duo Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt. The 

video takes us through scenes at CERN with accounts from some 

of the scientists who explain with humility that not even they 

fully understand the complexities of the work they’re doing. The 

scientists state that these very complexities can be “explained 

with fairly well structured symmetries”. They go on to ponder that 

we have plenty of discoveries to look forward to in the next 50 

years, before stating that “nature doesn’t care about our wishes”. 

It’s a haunting entry point, and it goes some way to underline 

the themes of the whole exhibition. It feels like the beginning of 

an adventure in to an unknown world of our own potential, one 

we are equally rubbing away from any possible imagination. The 

artists act as conduits between science and art, guiding visitors 

round the subject matter with reverence and humour. 

Anything 3D is thrilling, especially when you get to sit down 

for a moment and find yourself zoomed across seemingly endless 

galaxies. Lea Porsager’s Cosmic Strike is a “superposition of hard 

science and loopy mysticism” which meets its aim to invoke a 

repetitive, occult and oddly interstellar scene. It’s hypnotic and 

highlights just how insignificant we are in the space of seconds. 

For the uninitiated, Cascade by Yunchul Kim “explores 

matter by capturing the pattern of muons”. A little elaborate if 

you will, but nothing about this exhibition holds back in its levels 

of abstraction. The piece is comprised of wires and chambers 

holding a viscous fluid which is then pumped through transparent 

wires and in to different chambers. It’s a contraption from 

science-fiction which wouldn’t look out of place on an extraterrestrial 

stage. Visitors are drawn to it, contorting themselves to 

examine it from various angles. It’s eerily beautiful. 

We Aren’t Able To Prove That Just Yet, But We Know It’s 

Out There by Yu-Chen Wang traces scientific advances back in 

history through a poetic narrative. Photographs are projected 

from above on to delicate drawings on a flat screen tracing 

the experiments at Liverpool University in the 1960s. It brings 

romance and a human element to the scientific focus showing 

Liverpool’s place in all this progress. 

Walking in to Gallery 2, you are met by two screens at right 

angles to each other upon which flash videos. Scalar Oscillation 

by Diann Bauer “explores the significance of the extremes of time 

and scale operating in much of modern physics”. It’s based on 

Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. The only trajectory 

through to the next exhibit means people have to traipse past 

the screens, moving in front of those enjoying the films. It could 

be part of the experience or just down to logistics, but it’s quite 

off-putting. 

The next room along houses Suzanne Treister’s The 

Holographic Theory Of Art History. Sitting on the floor on large 

cushions in the dark, the visitor’s gaze is held by a screen onto 

which 25,000 images from the beginning of art to the present 

day appear at the rate of 25 per second (the rate at which the 

neutron travels around the Large Hadron Collider). Through 

headphones you can listen in to interviews with scientists at 

CERN. They give it a good go at explaining the intricacies of the 

holographic universe principle while art history counts down the 

minutes to the near future 

The final exhibit in Gallery 2 is by artist studio 

hrm199. Entitled one1one, it questions how we use language 

to describe the world. This philosophical question is then 

transferred to the year 4250. This is an interesting concept which 

is much better on paper than real life: it’s uncomfortable the first 

visit and unbearable after that. It is comprised of a circular carpet 

surrounded by speakers, lights above and a screen on which 

there is an individual sporadically interjecting with spaced out 

aphorisms. What they term “sensorial stimuli” is a painful sound 

which, at eight and a half minutes, people do well to sit through. 

Inside a cube placed in the foyer is Julieta Aranda’s Stealing 

One’s Own Corpse. This is the final part of a trilogy that has 

taken 10 years to create. In the cube is a screen showing footage 

from CERN, among other things, phrases painted on the wall 

which glow faintly in the dark such as “there is no way to predict 

how any of this will be read over time”, with models of bones on 

the floor, all of which encourage us to think about the planet’s 

“destruction and what a post-planetary future might look like”. 

Cheery stuff for a Saturday afternoon out. These are ideas, 

however, which have never been more pressing for us to consider. 

The exhibition seems to suggest that scientists, artists and 

visitors have the same awe when approaching the subject and 

the same predicament – not fully comprehending how far there 

is still to go. It deals with a massive and demanding subject with 

creativity, flair and a keen eye for how to engage the visitor. 

Jennie Macaulay / @jenmagmcmac 

44

Bang Bang Romeo 

+ Young Monarch 

+ LUNA 

Vinyl Junkie Live @ Jacaranda Phase One 

– 18/02 

Imagine going from being accompanied by a three-piece 

band to standing solo on a stage, and still absolutely smashing 

it. Step Forward LUNA. With a laptop to hand and various other 

bits of kit, Luna’s solo electronic set offers something new to 

the traditional one-(wo)man performance. No guitar and loop 

pedal, but instead a beautiful vocal accompanied by samples and 

tracks. With her more classically suited vocals paired with her 

broken down electronic beats, Luna is refreshing. Her powerful 

self-reflection 5AM sees her declare, “I don’t recognise myself 

anymore”. It breaks down further barriers. Lana Del Rey comes to 

mind, a striking artist that is hard to place into a box. The music 

industry screams for new, for different, and for things that can’t 

be placed under a boring old genre. 

It feels as though the dial is slowly being turned up on the 

vocals when YOUNG MONARCH step on stage. This four-piece 

from Jersey possess the ability to interact directly with subjects 

of real weight, though still make the show enjoyable. They allow 

for self-reflection, but don’t rip you apart. They don’t judge, they 

relate. Genetics grabs my heart strings, a song about vocalist 

Becca’s relationship with her mother. “No-one makes me mad 

like you.” How many can relate here? It’s about love, growing up 

and potentially not living up to expectations. With a killer guitar 

backing and harmonious vocals, this is the most enjoyable kick 

in the teeth for anyone that feels similar. Travelling to the more 

relaxed Find Me, the band observe perception and internalising 

struggles. As open advocates of mental health awareness and 

support, this song offers much needed understanding. Once 

again, it’s another fine example of Young Monarch interacting 

directly with subjects that aren’t pretty. Somehow, they still 

manage to provide a take that’s breathtakingly beautiful. 

As Anastasia Walker steps on stage I hear “Yes, star!” 

screamed from the crowd. It fits. BANG BANG ROMEO’s lead 

singer is undeniably that: a star. With a powerhouse vocal and a 

stage presence that debunks the tradition of female vocalists – 

standing still in long floating dresses with a fixed mic stand – she 

rips apart norms and expectations. I and everyone around me fall 

in love. The first song by BBR I ever heard was Shame On You. 

Seeing a song you love so much live is always a worry, but worry 

I need not. Live, the chorus is something else, the energy that 

the band produce not only shows their love of music, but their 

justifiable pride in the song. This band have perfected the idea 

that sometimes less is more. Their lyrics pack a punch but do not 

require a dictionary ready in waiting. They only ask that you sing 

as loudly as possible. What’s left of my voice is a glaring example. 

Megan Walder / @m_l_wald 

Seatbelts 

+ Strawberry Guy 

+ Roy 

+ Sara Wolff 

Harvest Sun @ 81 Renshaw – 15/02 

SEATBELTS carry their artistry with a defined purpose. You 

happily consume the notion that this is exactly what they should 

be doing. All the traits are there. The seeming ease, the incessant 

observation, the joviality, the pomp. They rest in the reflection 

of society which punk wishes to dance, but all too quickly it 

breaks the mirror. If left untouched, beaming back at you are 

those arty types – the Bowies, the Byrnes – gliding through their 

shapes with the shades of understanding you’ve been looking 

for. Ones more abstract, but no less profound, or devoid of 

feeling. Seatbelts find themselves taking the early footsteps to a 

similar position. They’re plugged in and phased out. Perhaps by 

accident, perhaps by purpose. Either way, they find their stride by 

remaining loose in seemingly discordant times. Times that appear 

miles away from here, in Liverpool, where the band is sketching 

out a momentary escape with help of a finely tailored line-up. 

It’s far from a cold reception, but SARA WOLFF is first to 

face a room that is still yet to arrive. She’s composed, her band 

knitted tighter than the garments lining her lyrics. It’s a steady 

opening. Her music gently floats around the consciousness, 

attentively nudging the brain into short spells of introspection. 

Your attention is subtly requested rather than forced. Those 

already in attendance oblige, happy to take the extra share of 

bourgeoning folk talent centre stage. The sense of dreaminess 

weighs a little heavier when STRAWBERRY GUY enters the fold. 

His brand of fluffy synths and weightless vocals is diffused with 

an effortless charm. It’s Febreze in musical form. A sweetness 

overlaying raw feeling. It’s all in there, just beyond the first line 

of cosmetic appeal. Think Mac DeMarco midi keyboard melodies, 

more spaced out, heartfelt, and free of whimsicalness. It’s a short 

but sweet set. 

Before Seatbelts, the bard of the County Road Kwik Save, 

ROY, delivers his second prosaic account of the night. With guile 

and humour, he tussles with the hollow absence of ignorance 

when surrounded by lives of no shame. His passages are stirring. 

His observations are warm and familiar, to start. Places, names, 

smashed glasses and abundant cheers. The ridicule is comedic, 

but the stories don’t merely just glaze across the slippery cobbles 

of Concert Square. You’re brought into contact with the fine 

details of existence where normality and the absurd become 

bedfellows. He moves from these settled scenes to join the dots 

with more chilling happenings. All initial comfort is dispersed 

come his closing lines. It’s like the darkest hours of the morning 

shading your night before. When you’re left to square up to 

normality, searching, aimlessly, for the safety of four new walls. 

From pin drop silence to mid-winter fiesta. A mannequin 

leg turned reading lamp rides a wave of bodies to reach the low 

sitting stage, sort of like an arty Olympic torch passed down to 

announce the beginning of the main ceremony. The jump from 

attentive listening party to party atmosphere only serves to 

enhance Seatbelts’ arrival into the fray. They’re off flying into A 

World Drained Of Wonder. It’s a fitting place to start, nailing in 

their musical signposts as a band caught in a continuing state of 

wonderment – sort of in their own channel, resting in perplexity 

by all that’s surrounding. 

Working as a front three, there’s no shortage of flexibility to 

the performance. Swaps of instruments, lead vocals, harmonies, 

you name it, it’s all dished out in equal measure without a dip in 

the groove. Not once. It’s got all the rumbles of New York postpunk 

with the intelligence of Massachusetts, literary references 

and all, dreamily underscored by this evening’s rendition of 

Songs For Vonnegut. The freshly released Spanish Songs even 

works two new vocalists into the fold for its live outing. The track 

typifies the joyous feeling the band radiate around the room. 

This has become a full-blown celebration of Seatbelts’ cerebral 

oddities and expansive musical talent. Content Crush rubber 

stamps it all. A real jumping off point, a measure of quality, for 

what Seatbelts have in store for us this year. 

Elliot Ryder / @elliot_ryder 

“It’s got all the 

rumbles of New 

York post-punk with 

the intelligence of 

Massachusetts, 

literary references 

and all” 

Seatbelts (Tomas Adam) 

REVIEWS 45

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SHARING 

STORIES FROM 

THE CITY 

Download the brand-new 

Bido Lito! Arts + Culture Podcast 

A monthly show unearthing stories 

that deserve a second look. 

Available from 

bidolito.co.uk/podcast 

and all major podcasting platforms

ARTISTIC 

LICENCE 

For the latest instalment of our series focusing on poetry and creative 

writing, we bring you a student’s perspective on the nature of home, 

compiled by the University of Liverpool’s Eddy Turner. 

As a student, it can be quite easy to lose touch with your creative outlets, especially in the hustle and bustle of university 

life. Between adjusting to independent living, juggling work and social pressures, the anxieties that surround these 

themes can make it a challenge to really get those creative juices flowing in a direction separate to the ‘uni bubble’. 

However, Liverpool is a fantastic student city that never fails to impress its annual influx of university dwellers with 

history, culture and a damn good night out. 

‘Liverpool as a home away from home’ seemed to be the perfect theme to address, to encapsulate the transience of student 

life when moving away from home for the first time and adopting some of the unique DNA of your temporary home. For this series, 

I reached out to my fellow students at the University of Liverpool and asked them to respond to this phrase through their creative 

writing; the pieces below explore a varied insight into some of these students’ experiences. 

Lisa Haglington 

Untitled 

When you’ve traded the familiar for the unfamiliar, 

In a city far from home. 

White flashes, screaming and vomit 

Are the new sights and sounds that surround you. 

You’ve exchanged your mum’s Sunday roast for chips 

every night, 

And cups of tea become cheap tequila shots that you 

pretend to like. 

The only running you do is for the 699 bus, 

And your human interaction is with people you’ve known 

for 48 hours. 

But then something changes… 

The white flashes are your friends capturing memories 

with their phones, 

And you become the person excitedly screaming at predrinks. 

The excessive amounts of vomit remain, 

But they become funny stories you’ll never tell your family. 

Strangers soon become friends 

That talk about existentialism after arguing about the 

washing up. 

You realise that comfort and grief are interchangeable 

As you experience extreme highs and lows within hours of 

each other. 

And in this city far from home, 

The unfamiliar has become the familiar. 

Phoebe Train 

From Home To Home The Train Takes Me 

From home to home the train takes me, 

Countryside to city skies, I see, 

The way to home from home and back 

Running down the railway track. 

The air is fresh down by the docks 

Helps clear your head, helps to unbox. 

Never walk alone, let it be, 

Just close your eyes, face the Mersey. 

I need to get back to my roots 

To find and grow my attributes. 

For that, there is but only one place... 

...Liverpool will serve as my showcase. 

52

Maria Andreou 

6:30am 

Utter stillness dominates the vast distance of this city I 

now call home. 

I listen to the song of birds chirping in the distance, 

The sound of the water hitting the ships trapped in the 

dock, 

Tied to a pole, grasped tight by the beauty of this place. 

I remember when I set foot for the first time on this earth, 

And felt a slight warmth surging through me, 

I knew, at that exact moment, that it would not take long 

for me to call you home. 

Almost three years later, and I cannot fathom the thought 

Of leaving you for something else, the rest of my life. 

You taught me so much, you opened my mind to 

possibilities, 

You opened your arms to me, did not hesitate to show me 

your heart. 

You, after such little time, managed to make me a better 

version of myself, 

And I cannot think of a possible way to repay you, 

Nothing seems to be enough. 

You have been immensely kind to me, 

Something that my past failed to be, 

And I will forever be grateful to you for what you have 

unselfishly offered. 

You are my home, 

My home away from home. 

Umut Tugay Temel 

The Tears Of Adagio 

here instruments grow in the earth 

as the sunshine strums them out of the dirt 

clairaudience of the melody brew out from the moonlight 

as I’m walking down the Bold 

I knew I had a right— 

eventually to see it in a visible form 

—to spill out all 

like marbles Symirnian 

the warm breeze of the Mediterranean 

is formed in eighty one keys 

—in monochrome! 

and does vibe casually by the 

Quarter Georgian 

neat and messy at the same time 

just like that decent game 

—once I’d say mine! 

the home I built with stoves as brickets 

-not another one in the wall thoughwill 

dry the tears of adagio, as takin’ them some licks to 

examine 

So, the story of turning a ballad warrior 

once from that dedicated worrier 

happens on a timeline 

with a fellow flute for Gaia, cries on 

“obla-di, obla-da, et cetera life goes on!” 

as simple as it’s interface 

—and I bet, quite cool! 

as much as it’s nest: ecstatic Liverpool 

Eddy Turner 

Liverpool As A Home Away From Home 

A 55-minute train ride from home, 

Stepping off into the open aired station, 

Nothing much has changed since I left, 

“Is that another student accommodation?” 

The push and pull of Liverpool City – 

It keeps me on my toes, 

University Square and the Baltic Triangle – 

Shapes I have come to know every corner of, 

The bitter-sweet balancing of the two, 

Forever losing marks in ‘time-management’, 

Whilst studying here hasn’t made me any more organised 

– 

Living here has taught me more than I could imagine. 

A 55-minute train ride from home, 

A timeless city. 

53

SAY 

THE FINAL 

“We should not 

shut people out 

simply because we 

have decided their 

voices and their 

contributions are not 

worth anything” 

As the clock ticks down to the UK’s scheduled divorce date with the 

EU, Wirral South MP Alison McGovern considers how much value we 

place on all members of society, and questions how we can continue to 

grow when shutting people out. 

How do we decide certain things are worth more than 

others? Who decides that care home staff who look 

after our parents and grandparents day and night are 

worth £7.36 an hour? How can it be right that the 

people we trust to look after our children while we go to work 

are paid an average of £7.09 an hour? Our notion of value seems 

arbitrary at best and unfair at worst. And it certainly does not 

reflect the way so many people in our community enrich our lives. 

So many of the people carrying out the jobs that make our 

lives possible are EU migrants and it is no coincidence that they 

are not valued – in more ways than simply the money they earn. 

The government recently proposed that immigrants should earn 

£30k before they are able to come to the UK. What does that tell 

us about how we see value? Our ageing population needs carers, 

our hospitals and schools need nurses and teachers and our open 

mic nights need musicians. None of these people would be likely 

to hit that threshold. According to CBI data published this month, 

the average wage for our region is £22,564. In a sense, it is 

absurd to suggest that people are worth the wages they receive. 

The sense that we must interrogate our notion of value has 

been chiming louder and louder in my ear as I have sat through 

the government’s Immigration Bill. I am on the bill’s committee, 

which means I am tasked with scrutinising the plans to end free 

movement of people from the European Union along with my 

other Labour colleagues. 

This task has been infuriating and it has barely begun. There 

are 3.5 million European citizens in the UK. They are working, 

contributing to our economy and our community. They improve 

our lives immeasurably every single day. Yet it feels like we have 

simply decided not to value what they do. Not only does the 

Immigration Bill seek to rescind free movement, it does not make 

any clearer what rights EU citizens already living and working 

in the UK will have after playing a crucial role in their jobs, 

neighbourhoods and amongst their family and friends. 

The immigration question has fallen prey to the familiar 

human tendency to nostalgically look back when we are facing 

major challenges. Our vision for the UK’s place in the world, how 

we should run our country and whether we should be outward 

or inward-looking are issues, which unsurprisingly to those of us 

that live outside of the Westminster bubble, do not seem to be 

resolvable by politicians and commentators. No one can agree 

on either a pathway forward, or on what our priorities should be. 

The answer to these questions cannot be to undo decades of 

globalisation in the hope that we can return to how things were. 

Or how we think they were. 

Indeed, our memory, though a crucial part of what makes us 

human, is not always reliable. The musicians and artists featured 

in this magazine’s pages will tell you that reminiscence and 

collective memory are fundamental to so much of our cultural 

imagination. We remember what we want to see and not the 

whole picture. Again, this is a question of value. We need to value 

the future as much and as easily as we seem able to value our 

past. 

To confront challenges and grab opportunities, we must 

look forward and consider how we want our world to be. And 

first we need to understand where we are today. There is no 

significant impact of EU immigration on employment prospects 

for those born in Britain – when rates of EU immigration are 

compared with unemployment rates amongst those born in the 

UK, a 10 percentage-point increase in the share of EU immigrants 

is associated with a 0.4 percentage-point reduction in the 

unemployment rate in the same area. What’s more – there is not 

a fixed number of jobs in an economy. When people receive good 

wages for good work, demand grows and jobs are created. We 

all benefit – it is as simple as that. 

Facts and figures are important but they do not tell the 

whole story. Our feeling and perception of our place in the world 

count equally as much. I know that many of us see our city as a 

community that embodies openness and warmth. That’s what I 

felt when I went to Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year. It’s 

what I feel each time I walk into Anfield or when I hear buskers 

on Bold Street. I want as many people as possible to know 

Liverpool’s true spirit and character. Let’s welcome people to be a 

part of it and value what everyone can bring. We should not shut 

people out simply because we have decided their voices and their 

contributions are not worth anything. Who are we to make that 

decision? 

Liverpool has always been a city with a creative soul. I 

am sure many of Liverpool’s artists will vouch for the fact that 

creativity evolves when people welcome others and work 

together to make more noise. And just like the most obvious and 

well-known examples of this happening in our city – Capital of 

Culture and the Giants Spectacular – the sound is louder, more 

people hear it and more people want to know what’s going on. ! 

Photography: Matteo Paganelli (via Unsplash) 

54

L I V E 

The region’s most exciting new artists 

play live at Liverpool Central 

Featuring… 

Cosmic Shepherd 

Eli Smart 

Gallia 

Jazmine Johnson 

Munkey Junkey 

Pale Rider 

Podge 

Rachael Jean Harris 

Salt The Snail 

StyerS 

The Indica Gallery 

Wild Fruit Art Collective 

Friday 29th March / 3pm-9.30pm 

The festival is part of the BBC 6Music Festival Fringe 

& celebrates the culmination of Merseyrail Sound Station’s second semester.

DAYTIME PARTY 2PM - 11PM

Issue 97 / March 2019

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