Welcome to Liverpool

My first weekend volunteering for City Stars, the volunteer ambassador programme working alongside the International Festival for Business which is running throughout June and July across the Liverpool City Region.

Naturally most of the business events are running during the working week, so weekends is mostly focused on the cultural programme and aimed not just at visiting business leaders, but also our thriving tourism sector.

The idea is to generally be out and about, making sure that visitors to the city have the information and directions to make the most out of their stay, and of course tell their friends back home how wonderful Liverpool is.  The scheme is obviously paying dividends, for instance cruise passengers especially rate Liverpool as one of the top European ports of call and their feedback has encouraged the cruise companies to bring more ships to the Mersey.  Ship calls have increased from 28 last year to 52 this, with even more ships booked in for 2015, including maiden calls by Princess's Royal Princess and P&O's Britannia.

 

So back to this weekend, the focus for the volunteers was to be around the Waterfront, Albert Dock and Liverpool One areas.  Albert Dock is the dropping off point for the many coach day trips, and the time between 10am and 11am especially saw dozens of coaches arriving.  And with most visitors only having a few hours here, its important to ask them what their interests are and make up a quick itinerary for them.  For instance I spoke to a woman at lunch time who was interested in Georgian and Church architecture and was catching a 5pm train back to London, so we worked out a route so she could see the Bluecoat, and the Lower Duke Street World Heritage area, before heading for Evensong at the Cathedral.

I met some wonderful visitors over the weekend from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, the USA, Poland, South Africa, Ghana and Israel amongst others and of course from all corners of the UK.  The weather was also being well behaved so suncream and sunglasses were called for, although I find it best to take glasses off when you're speaking to our guests as eye contact is so important.

 

I also took the time to do some exploring myself, and visited the Carpathia Bar, situated on the top floor of the former White Star Line head office at 30 James Street.  What a superb venue, really friendly staff, and a fantastic view across to the IFB Hub building and Canning Dock beyond. 

Back to work tomorrow, and then on Thursday, it's all systems go as thousands of athletes descend on the city for the World Corporate Games.  I can't wait!

Young Musicians at the Brink - June 2014

I'd been doing ambassadorial things in the morning for IFB and CityStars so a quick change of clothes out of "wheelie bin purple" (although I've just noticed I'm in Liverpool Pride purple instead) and down to the Brink for this month's Young Musicians Showcase.

To kick things off this afternoon we had Joe Abraham with some of his own compositions. A talented young lad, I couldn't tie down his style, the first which came to mind briefly was Noel Gallagher, but Joe has really got his own style, with a clear singing voice - yes I could hear the words, and that's a good thing when a story is being told. One to look out for as he gets more gigs.

Next up, a duo, Jess and Shannele, with some class cover tracks, leading off with Cher's "Believe". The girls have strong, clear and distinct voices, and great harmonisation.

They continued their set with "Don't You Worry Child" then "We're In Heaven". Three well chosen tracks which showed off their vocal talents well. You can check the latter two tracks out here on their Soundcloud page.

 


Back to our "Solo Male" category - actually we don't have categories, I just made that up.Sam Caldwell who is a 16 year old singer/songwriter.

Sam's first song, they were all his own material, was about growing up - didn't we all want to be a pirate when we were 8, (well actually I wanted to work on the Dublin ferry - I knew my sailing limitations). His lyrics have good stories and contain a fair bit of humour too - I loved it!

Next was, as Sam put it, a cheesey love song piss take; again a really good song which doesn't take itself too seriously, its a style that suits Sam well, he then finished with the song which got him a gig at the O2 arena in London last year "Myself". Check out his Facebook page and download the Myself EP.

First in our newly formed "solo female" category (this category thing isn't working is it..) Zoe West with her slightly out of tune guitar (her words not mine) whether it was just the heat this afternoon, but I was getting great Glastonbury vibes from Zoe. Good selection of 3 very different songs of her own today. Check her out online, she is well worth a listen

Time for a new category, although I don't whether to make this "group" or "male trio"... I might just stop this category nonsense cos I'm confusing myself, besides "band" is better. Anyway enough of me waffling on.Intoxicated are an electro/acoustic band consisting of John Roberts on Vocals/Rhythm Guitar; Kieran McTigue Lead Guitar and Sam Burke Bass Guitar.

The boys including in their set John's own songs "Time Will Tell" and "Day Off", which was written on a day off, hence the name. If those of us a bit older had written it it would have had the far less catchier title "working from home"

Back to the solo artists with Dan Astles (check him out on Facebook or Twitter. This was Dan's first gig in Liverpool, having travelled in from the wilds of Southport (a seaside resort where legend has it the tide once came in as far as the pier..)

Dan,who I think is only 15, has a very distinctive style, which I liked but wasn't expecting at first. Here's a clip from his YouTube channel - have a listen for yourself

 

 

Dan sang a couple of his own songs, then a slowed down version of Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" before continuing with a couple more of his own compositions, leaving the audience perfectly chilled out, just right for a summer's evening


Last up for the Showcase for this month was John Riley - a rapper with a guitar - that's like actual multi-tasking. John gave us a mix of covers and original material. A pretty cool guy and I liked his rapping. If you look back over the last few blogs, you'll see my steady conversion into the world of rap and grime. Amongst his set this evening was "Run Away" a new song and this was only its second performance. He gave a boss version of Oasis's "Maybe" before rounding the show off with his own rap track "Forever Begins"

Another superb selection of new and emerging artists that we are fortunate to have in and around the city, brought together by Dominic Dunn. Pictured back stage (well in front of it actually) with Sam Caldwell (he hates me putting up sneaky pics but it was either this or the one of him demolishing a dirty big burger)

Thanks to the Brink as usual for hosting and James for doing the techy stuff on the mixing desk. Follow Dominic or Brink and look out for details of the next Showcase.

Alien

House on Bold Street was the venue for Saturday's Alien EP launch with ROSH and guests.

Rosh has impressed me massively over the last year since I first saw his video for Cemetery Wealth:

 

 

I'd heard Alien back in November at the Brink so I couldn't miss the EP launch.

The night was lead off by Locco Artist who was joined on stage by Josh Robinson and D-Boii

Royzy was next up and smashed his set, including some real lyrics from the heart about being torn away from his kid.  This sums up what I'm now appreciating about this style of music, its a story, and you have to listen.

 

His version of Adele's "Save me" is boss:

 

Next up it all went international :-) with a Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Liverpool  stage with Tommy Oliver and his guests including No Ego.

I've been waiting to see Kerr in the flesh for ages, and he didn't disappoint. The boy has immense stage power to take his audience up a level.  The reaction from everyone around me was simply "WOW!"

Yet more of this city's amazing talent took to the stage including HollaMan; F.M.K. and on his stage debut (not that you'd know it) Acko - who had the audience bouncing before Jamie Broad rounded off the support acts in style.

Also need to mention D.j. Twokind who did the business throughout the night on the decks.

So, time for the main man.  Rosh opening his set with his autobiographical Enter The Dragon Pt.II, the was joined by Dominic Dunn and Kerr for their colloboration from earlier this year Keep Me Down

 

 

After playing another smash with Shana Tova, Rosh rounded off a BOSS night at House with the headlining Alien (download via the link).

A brilliant night with amazing talent.  You've heard me go on before about the crap that TV pushes out. If you want to hear real music, from the street, check out the guys above.

I'll sign off with some sound advice from HollaMan (Chris Holland)
You don't have to explain yourself to anyone, you walk in your own shoes. nobody gets to see what you see but you, so forget these people who hate on others to cover up their own depression and get on with what you're doing.