And the throng converged on the Adelphi to hear the man described as the new Messiah of British politics deliver his sermon on Brownlow Hill.
Liverpool’s largest hotel had seen nothing like it since Roy Rodgers rode up those granite steps on Trigger many years ago.
“They asked for a room for 700 and there’s already 1,700 here and they are still coming,” said a bemused lady on reception.
This, though, was no cowboy, but a man who would be king of the Labour Party, feeding the people with the kind of hope they have been starved of for far too long.
To dismiss the audience as Trots, Communists or deluded lefties would be an insult
On Saturday night, Jeremy Corbyn was the only show in town and the turnout made the Liverpool rally his most well attended yet as his campaign to lead Labour gathers momentum.
“It is not about me, it is about all of us together,” he later told Liverpool Confidential.
And “all of us together” it certainly was. Hundreds of guests of a wedding reception and an anniversary party at the hotel unwittingly found themselves sharing the limelight and the chock-full corridors with the biggest political rally of its kind that Liverpool has seen in a generation, perhaps for over 30 years.
To dismiss the audience as Trots, Communists or deluded lefties would be an insult. The overflowing room was crammed with men, women and children from all walks of life. Some were political stalwarts and familiar faces.
Many more were alert young people who will never, ever, in their lives have witnessed anything like this.
Something in Corbyn had galvanised them to give up their Saturday night out to sit on a hard chair in a harshly lit room.
They wanted to hear his views on human rights; where he stood on university tuition fees (he told them by raising Corporation Tax 0.5 percent he would, as a future Prime Minister, abolish them).
What about gay rights and equal pay for women? On social inclusion, the NHS, Europe, immigration, defence, the young, the elderly, he presented credible answers for everything.
“He talks about ‘we’ and ‘us’,” said Ritchie O'Brien, a Liverpool Community College lecturer. “There is a feeling that this is a genuine movement, and we are all part of it.”
On austerity measures, Corbyn reminded people that the financial collapse was “not caused by the overpayment of nurses”.
When addressed by a woman campaigning against the closure of five Liverpool libraries he recalled how the 19th century Conservatives had tried to block the creation of public libraries because they were afraid of the social transformation it would bring. “Once they are gone, you can’t bring them back,” he said, urging local authorities to unite to fight Tory imposed cuts.
Corbyn has played all the right notes, in the right order and, despite the very best efforts of careerist politicians and media to rubbish him, on Saturday night he was hero-worshipped for it.
He pledged the policies of fairness, asking the crowd to think about all the artists, musicians, inventors, doctors, scientists who had never materialised because our structure had failed to give them the opportunity.
"A society based on respect and care for one another is a prosperous, happier and more peaceful society.”
Jeremy Corbyn addresses Liverpool: 'A society based on respect and care for one another is a prosperous, happier and more peaceful society'Liverpudlians are far too canny for hollow platitudes and, over two hours, this was all welcomed with enthusiastic rounds of applause as the mercury rose with the red hot mood.
For what Corbyn did was demonstrate, above all else, and perhaps above all others, that he was on their side, sticking up for them, an antidote for people who feel let down and betrayed by the party they love, both nationally and locally.
He told Confidential afterwards: “If I don’t win I will carry on doing what I am doing. If I do win I will carry on doing what I am doing."
Of the rapturous reception, he added: “I love Liverpool, it has been a great atmosphere, a great evening, and a great response. I loved it.
“The campaign has taken off in a way that is faster than we ever anticipated. We have now raised enough money to do a direct mail shot to all Labour supporters and members which we are very proud about."
Tony Mulhearn, audience member, at the foreground of a standing ovation in the overflowing room of the AdelphiActor Ricky Tomlinson said he had never attended a rally as good or as big in Liverpool.
“It’s really livened things up for the Labour Party and that’s no bad thing,” he said.
Another well known face in the crowd was Tony Mulhearn who admitted Liverpool had not seen the like since the days of the 1980s when Labour’s war was with Thatcherism.
Indeed, Corbyn’s arrival has unleashed an element in the Labour ranks not seen this century. He started off as a 200-1 outsider to replace Ed Miliband as leader and is now the bookies favourite.
There were people in the Saturday audience who would sooner see a Corbyn-led Labour Party go down fighting, than stick with what they see as a watered down version of the Tories.
Party faithful say if he wins it will destroy Labour, tear it apart. But isn't there already a wide chasm within the party? They say he will make Labour unelectable. But didn't it just lose the past two general elections?
The collective venom directed by the Establishment at Corbyn does little credit to the notion of a democratic process where it’s the wishes of one-person, one vote which will decide the outcome.
In a way the result is potentially immaterial. Maybe those who despise Corbyn and everything he stands for need a Plan B: how to react if and, very possibly, when he wins.
Earning a massive standing ovation and chants of “Jez we can!” from the back of the hall, Corbyn rounded off the night saying there was a thirst for an alternative.
“We want to live in a better world. This campaign is about democracy in our society,” he told the assembly, a slight quiver detected in the voice.
“Who would have thought after that defeat in the May general election that we would see such exciting summer?"
It could well be one for the history books.
*Reporting and pictures by Larry Neild and Angie Sammons.
