I NEVER will hide behind another name or whatever.So it's not me.
Glad that's cleared that up.Jeezus some people!!!!
I NEVER will hide behind another name or whatever.So it's not me.
Glad that's cleared that up.Jeezus some people!!!!
John, experience on the forum has shown that some member have set up multiple accounts and unfortunately abused this to post messages designed to upset etc.Originally Posted by John(Zappa)
I NEVER will hide behind another name or whatever.So it's not me.
Glad that's cleared that up.Jeezus some people!!!!
I regularly check the ip addresses.
I doubt you would ever do such a thing mate
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I thought it was brilliant
My vantage point wasn't so brilliant, there was a tree between me and most of the actionbut I thought the setting of the show was superb, using all the buildings in sight with a fantastic light and firework show. All the acrobats performing in mid-air being swung around by the cranes were brilliant! Especially the bit with the animation on the big screens and the people acting in front of it. It didn't take me long to realise the guitarists were faking it, but I didn't let it spoil the show - I was there to enjoy myself so I did
I must say though I didn't know the Wombats or Ringo were miming. Why give Ringo such a slating? Criticised for leaving Liverpool, and now criticised when he comes back! Everyone in earshot of me at least gave him a rapturous welcome back.
Yes it did cost our taxpayers' money. But how do you put on a show otherwise? "Nothing is ever free". Yes you could save hundreds of millions of taxpayers' £££'s by not having any of these events .... but what's the Capital of Culture without anything going on
Friday's show made me proud.
Well said. That's how we saw it - a superb and dramatic setting, and the absailers in front of the big screens were good - looking like they were part of the film.
.. and like you said, everyone around gave Ringo a big cheer.
(Yes, Ringo would have been slated if he wasn't there.)
as for the guitarists being mimed - well, we were too enthralled with all that was going on to notice - and who cares anyway ?? They were pretty dramatic. Maybe they couldn't play live for obvious reasons - - that they were blinkin' miles up on the top of such tall structuresLet the critics try playing guitar all the way up there and in the freezing wind and cold !!
Like you, we went to enjoy it too.
Too conveiniet for Gringo to return to Liverpool.
Granada just reported the show at the Echo arena and never mentioned who the Muscial acts where! It seems musical wise If your not a Beatle or not associated with them and from Liverpool theres no mention.
A 2nd rate church choir could of wrote what the Beatles did.
Gididi Gididi Goo.
Hmmmmmmmm that sounds nearly positive for you.
Go ed Max.Your awake at least.Nice one!
I think that on the whole this weekend has been a success for Liverpool
Me too.
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Why it matters...
To add my voice to the discussions on the CoC opening event...
It's a question of plastic culture. Of when culture is not really culture at all -- but a placebo culture, a Mackie-D's for the soul, all sugar and E-numbers, and no nutrition, simply designed to give you a quick and easy fix.
Such is the way of the world today, I guess; and the sad truth is that plastic concerts are more than good enough for the plastic people they are intended for. Fake as hell, but easy to put on, and easy to absorb. Nothing too taxing. If you're organising an event, the Lowest Common Denominator is the way to go - why make more work for yourself anyway trying to push back the envelope when you can slap a few cliches together?
For example, why bother getting together the most outspoken poets, bands and performance artists from Liverpool and giving them a platform to really tell the world what it is that Liverpool feels in it's heart, how it is that the people of Liverpool - poor, ill-treated Liverpool - really feel about the wider world around them?
No, no. Too much original thought required for that one. Far easier to wheel out Ringo Starr after two decades of sitting on a beach in Los Angeles -- he was in the BEATLES, did you know that?
And besides, everyone knows original thought is dangerous anyway. Why, if anything to controversial and/or insightful is said, you run the risk of alienating all those generous 'partners' - the sponsors, the private companies with their fingers prodded firmly and deeply into the pie (as always).
There is a fantasy to be maintained after all, an illusion to keep going -- of this plastic world that the plastic people live in, going to these plastic concerts in the first place, for a little plastic culture. A fantasty that maintains that this world of avarice and consumerism and market branding by mind-control from childhood isn't falling to pieces in front of our every eyes; and that the people who control its course, and benefit most from it, aren't shafting us with every waking breath.
To me, the CoC opening ceremony was nothing more than a feeble attempt at justifying all the damage this meaningless title has brought to Liverpool, thanks to the team of incompetents charged with its supervision. The Capital of Culture team have managed to finish the work Hitler's mob started back in the 1940s. Between all the different construction contractors and redevelopment agencies, half of the city's architectural heritage has been demolished to build DROSS in its place -- with it going much human-cultural heritage (ripping down Toxteth to build designer flats that most of the former residents can't afford, for example), not to mention much of the city's COUTER-cultural heritage (Quiggins RIP). Yes, for the privilege of a few more dull-as-dishwater, generic shopping malls like the Met Quarter, the city's council budget has been ransacked... handed, btw, over to those propety developers. Oh, thank goodness for them, and all those wonderful city 'partners', noble and selfless as they are, helping renovate our city for nothing more than massively in excess of the money it costs. Don't be fooled by the fact that not one of them lifted a greasy finger during all those years that Liverpool really needed a little helping hand -- you know, like doing something about all those buildings that have been fire damaged for decades, or even remained bomb-damaged from the SECOND WORLD WAR... Or providing jobs or investment of any form for a hopeless generation.
Sorry CoC staff, but it didn't work. The opening ceremony was banal and as fake ass as it gets. The perfect opening ceremony for the banal and fake ass "culture" this city shares with the rest of the twenty first century world. And on top of all that -- you were all friggn miming as well!!!
Oh, and as for the performers who wore construction-site safety gear as an 'hilarious' inside joke -- well it kind of reminded me of Tony Blair's equally 'hilarious' "Am I bovvered I've ****ed up the whole world?" sketch on Comic Relief.
As in, it was a slap in the face.
Exactly my point.
Btw, it isn't any harder to play a musical instrument depending on how far away you are from the Earth's core.
Unless you're in space.
Sorry you didn't like it but some people do. Capital of culture will also feature people like Simon Rattle and public lectures at the University so its not all gonna be about Ringo and the Beatles. As for construction workers are you saying construction workers cant be cultured or do you think only effete oxford dons who hate postmodernism are truly cultured?
Don't be so ridiculous. And stop trying to make me look like some sort of snob by misrepresenting what I write. You know full well what I'm talking about.
The decision by the organisers to make construction wear a constume theme for the evening, in an intendedly amusing reference to all the building work being done across the city, was an insult, when you bear in mind the realities of the situation.
As I said capital of culture is about more than the opening ceremony. Obviously the word culture is debatable, culture for one person is not culture for another. I have looked at the events and there seems to be a mixture of high brow and popular culture. Personally I thought there needed to be more local involvement and events but this has been a topic of contention for a while now and is not new to the opening ceremony. I thought the opening ceremony was a pleasant way to spend an evening but the fact is that if you don't like it dont attend--simple.
I take your point that there are events planned for the rest of the year that are likely to be more culturally rich. But lectures at the university are hardly going to be transmitted to 300 million people across Europe, and be the main focus of a night's event are they?
Besides, I didn't know it was going to be rubbish before I went, otherwise I wouldn't have gone. But having picked up the bill along with the rest of the people in the city, I feel pretty justified in criticising the quality of the product. As a consumer, you understand.
Look I'm not gonna get personal about this. as it happens I didn't go because its not really my thing. Opening ceremonies tend to be plasticy don't they whether its the olympics or commonwealth games. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic at the Echo arena though last night are an example of deep real culture and the fact that they played next to bands like the Farm or the Zutons --local lads shows how high culture and popular culture can interact seemlessly. I didn't see any references to the Met Quarter or shopping in the events. By the way I think it wrong that the council tax payer is picking up part of the bill for these events too, but when the elections come you have the chance to vote the people wwho make these decisons out! Part of the freedoms of living ina plasticy democracy.
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