PHIL Redmond is back, hoping to spinkle some of his Liverpool 2008 Culture Year magic across the rest of Merseyside.
Mayor Joe Anderson, who is also chair of the Liverpool City Region combined authority, has persuaded the king of Brookside and Hollyoaks to head a new cultural partnership.
His mission, to make the city region the cultural and creative powerhouse of the north.
It’s an unpaid job with Professor Redmond planning to assemble a collection of people and organisations to use their combined energies and strengths to support a so-called “common cultural strategy” to stimulate creativity in all of its forms.
The aim is to maximise the promotion of existing activity, events and initiatives so they reach as wide an audience as possible and, for example, encourage exhibitions to tour the city region rather than being based in one location.
In the eight years since Liverpool was European Capital of Culture, the city has become a major world tourism destination, frequently riding high in traveller “must-see” league tables.
Much of the success of 08 has been credited to Redmond and the team he led.
He took over the reins relatively late in the day and it was, in his words, like organising a fractious “scouse wedding”.
So why has he decided to jump into a hot-seat that will involve working with Liverpool’s often squabbly neighbouring boroughs?
“It comes out of witnessing what the culture company partnership did in 2008, as a coordinating body getting everybody to talk to each other,” he told Liverpool Confidential.
The European Capital of Culture launch in 2008“Out of 08 came the UK City of Culture project, which I chair, and again saw the change that happened in Derry which saw people pull together focused on one common end. The same is happening in Hull, so when we were thinking about Liverpool,and 2018 being the 10th anniversary of our 08 year, I thought why don’t we resurrect the idea of a local cultural partnership?”
When I came back to Liverpool in 1981 to set up Brookie I wouldn’t have projected forward and seen the city as it is now
He added: “It comes back to the question what happened to Merseyside and why can’t we be that again. It’s not pulled together, with everybody trying to do their own thing.
“I have described it by saying if you grow up a scouser you understand Iraq because it is an area of war lords and what you need to do is to get all the war lords in the same room, around the same campfire, sacrifice a goat, agree an agenda and move on.”
“Try to explain if you are coming into Liverpool where the assets happen to be Historically, most of the audiences who visit, as well as those who organise, perform etc, come from outside the city.
“So why don’t people stop at the World of Glass or the face in St Helens, look at the Gormleys in Crosby, if you are coming in from Cheshire, buy a jumper at Cheshire Oaks and then stop at the Lady Lever Gallery in Port Sunlight.
“It’s about making it more of a strategic coordinated thing, so if something is going on at the Tate it can be supported across the whole area.
Redmond said the area doesn’t do enough to tap into tourism and needs to target the tens of thousands of conference delegates who pour into the city every year since the BT Convention Centre was built.
“I don’t care if our hotels are filled with dentists or archeologists, as long as it’s paying the bills and keeping the restaurants busy, with people going to the theatres. That’s what happens in New York or Barcelona, so when you are planning conferences, thinking about what people are going to do at night. It is an untapped resources.
“But,” he added, “We also need to get away from the lexicon of tourism and visitor economy, so that it’s just part of what we do.”
Eight years on from Capital of Culture, Redmond “When I came back to Liverpool in 1981 to set up Brookie I wouldn’t have projected forward and seen the city as it is now. In 2008 we were only 20 years away from what in Liverpool had been absolute political and economic dysfunctionalism.
2008 seemed a different time and 10 years on the city has moved way ahead. That’s why I think it is time now for everyone to just grow up, pull together and make the city region work for what the people on the ground always knew it was. We can use culture to bond everybody together.
“The thing about trying to impose things on the region from afar is what the problems is, and everyone has been reacting to that. When they formed Merseyside in the first place it was a political carve up and a big fight, Knowsley only existed at the last minute to get the legislation through, St Helens got cut in half which they have always resented. When they abolished Merseyside we had exactly the same arguments. Everybody is there trying to protect their own thing. So whether it is the best thing or not, it is the region so why don’t we all work together and make it happen?
Is it a permanent partnership?
“I have said I want to do it for two or three years to get it established, embedded and moved on. I’ve also said I just don’t want it to become just another bloody organisation and talking shop. It’s a cultural partnership and it will survive if everyone buys into it. It's not there to tell the Phil, or the Tate or the Atkinson what to do, it’s about getting them to tell us what they are doing, and well try to make it all better."
He added: “I suppose after 08 I could have retired, but 10 years later things are more stable. There are a few daft things around the edges, but we, the people, should just brush them away.”
