Conchy and Bolshy
For a legendary Liverpool bookshop, Mayday 2014 will see life finally begin in earnest for News From Nowhere as it clocks up 40 years of bookselling in the city centre.
This dogged enterprise has seen four different locations and survived political attacks, multiple recessions, and dodgy landlords. Not to mention the near-decimation of the booktrade by a certain online entrepreneur, as the bookshop’s women’s cooperative (the real Amazons) continue serving Liverpool and beyond with the best in radical, grassroots literature and information, in the Bold St building they now own.
(Click here to read properly)To celebrate, they are holding a number of flagship events starting this Saturday at the Adelphi with the WeBe40 Birthday Party. It features an impressive international roster of music from Dead Belgian doing their Jacques Brel thing, Saytr Play, Bolshy (Liverpool’s very own street ska darlings) and the River Niger Orchestra playing majestic West African grooves, all rounded off with DJ Andy Healey’s global beats.
It kicks off at 5pm, following on from the Liverpool Trades Union Council’s “Liverpool: City of Working Class Resistance” Mayday event in the Adelphi, and will see NfN’s (peaceful) army of supporters and friends dancing late into the night.
News From Nowhere's WeBe40 Party, Adelphi Hotel, Ranelagh Place, Saturday May 3, 5pm-late. Free!
Crazy name, crazy guy
Crispin Glover is known for creating many memorable characters on scree and does not disappoint fans of his offbeat sensibilities and eccentric taste as a film director.
The original George McFly in Back to the Furure, he has appeared in over 30 films, including River's Edge, Charlie's Angels, The Doors, Willard, Dead Man, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Wild At Heart, The People Vs. Larry Flynt, Beowulf & Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland.
He directs and does books too and anyway he is actually here in Liverpool at the weekend, at FACT to present Crispin Hellion Glover's Big Slide Show, a one-hour dramatic narration of his books that are profusely illustrated and then projected behind him. In two parts, Part 2 will be performed at Picture House this Sunday before a screening of his film, It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine.
It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine goes into uncharted cinematic territory, with screenwriter Steven C. Stewart starring in a semi-autobiographical, psychosexual tale about a man with severe cerebral palsy and a fetish for girls with long hair. This is part horror film, part exploitation picture and part documentary about a man who cannot express his sexuality in the way he desires. The fantastical and often humorous tale is told completely from Stewart’s point of view.
After the film follows a Q&A and a book signing.
Crispin Hellion Glover's Big Slide Show plus Film, Picturehouse at FACT, Wood Street, Sunday, May 4, 7pm. Tix £18 here
