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Lost weekend: September 12-14
Pirate Festival, new comedy night and more
Funny is is?
DID you know that Freddie Mercury made his onstage debut with Brian May and Roger Taylor in the basement of The Magnet on Hardman Street.
In those days it was called The Sink, the band was called Ibex and it led to bigger things.
A lifetime later and another debut: The Liverpool Comedy Cellar, "Liverpool’s newest and coolest comedy club", will open its doors on Saturday September 13.
It promises to feature the cream of the International Comedy Circuit “up close and personal” every Saturday night with Big Comedy UK, producers of the annual Southport Comedy Festival, behind it.
TV names including Gary Delaney, Rob Rouse and Justin Moorhouse, and international stars such as Peter White from Canada and Benny Boot from Australia, are just some of the artists lined up.
Peter White Brendan Riley (main pic), director of Big Comedy UK and one of the regular compères at the Rawhide Comedy Club, says: “I have always enjoyed performing in Liverpool and am very excited to be involved in this project. With its low ceiling and cool vibe, The Magnet is the perfect venue for comedy. It will be a joy to play!”
The opening night features a double headline bill with Canadian Peter White, Steve Royle and will be compered by Brendan Riley.
The Liverpool Comedy Cellar, The Magnet basement, Saturdays. Tickets £12.00 Call 0870 787 1866 or visit www.liverpoolcomedycellar.com
Sling yer 'ook
THIS weekend, Albert Dock will “sail back to a time when the seas were a treacherous, unpredictable and dangerous place to venture”.
No, the Duckmarines aren't back, but the Liverpool Pirate Festival is.
Throughout Saturday and Sunday the waterfront will resonate with cannon fire, sword fights and Russell Brand hair. For the kids, there will also be an appearance from CBeebies Swashbuckle's Cook and Line on Sunday at midday.
The festival highlight, both days, will be a live-action battle at the centre of Albert Dock between Pirate Brigantine ZEBU and Pirate Schooner VILMA using real cannons and gunpowder.
Many of the Dock’s attractions, restaurants and shops will be entering into the pirate spirit and plundering your wallets, offset by kids-eat-free offers at Tate Cafe, PanAm and Blue Bar & Grill. For the grown-ups, The Smugglers Cove will be showcasing flights of rums as well as a special pirate-themed cocktail at Revolution.
If if that wasn’t enough, the creative talents behind the special effects of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies - and Doctor Who - will be setting up shop inside Circo, showcasing live pirate models, amazing “prophetic” make-up techniques. Maybe they mean “prophylactic”. Or maybe they don't.
Liverpool Pirate Festival, Albert Dock, Saturday and Sunday, September 13 and 14, 11am-5pm. Live battles, 2pm both days. Free.
Story of the Bluecoat
IN 2017, the Bluecoat arts centre will be 300 years old. So this is a good time to contemplate the School Lane building's transformation from charity school to venue with a weekend of guided tours, family activities, archive displays and talks.
As part of the Heritage Open Day initiative, discover some of the Bluecoat's fascinating history, they say, including a display about architect Herbert Tyson Smith in what was his studio - now the empty shop on College Lane.
*Heritage Open Weekend, Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool, Saturday and Sunday, September 13-14. Free.
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15 comments so far, continue the conversation, write a comment.
Is the Bluecoat still there? I haven't heard of anything going on there for years, since before they wrecked the garden and turned the well-loved and popular arts centre and landmark into an expensive and cold centre for corporate entertainment.
Is that astronomically-priced and utterly unpleasant failed restaurant in the former concert room still limping on?
It had to. No-one else would employ that barman.
The restaurant is truly terrible.
Remember that cool bistro they had that was run by the Everyman Bistro?
The Bluecoat Chambers really was a great rendezvous when meeting friends in town for people of all ages. Take in an exhibition, visit the bookshop, find out about the local and national arts events that were going on, visit the convenient and very pleasant café they used to have and of course that beautiful garden they had. Performances in the concert room, artists at work in their studios, musicians and singers using practice rooms; the place was so vibrant! Now it is dead.
Of course there is the possibility that the whole restaurant is an absurdist-situationist performance art installation? Diners wanting admission to the huge empty room are kept waiting and ignored on a dark staircase, customers going to the bar for a drink are kept waiting and then are intimidated by a slow, inefficient and opinionated barman. And those prices! This place would have been right at home in the Cabaret Voltaire.
No words
Will there be proper, Robert Newton-style pirates, or just girlie Johnny Depp-style mountebanks?
There was a time when the public could stroll around the Blue Coat unimpeded, but that was before the hideous changes.
You flakey old farts really don't like change do you?
That's what Hitler often said
Go on then, offer some quotes that reference that one?
The Bluecoat does now house Brian Kernaghan's excellent bookshop.
True, but his trade must suffer as a result of the unwelcoming surroundings.