Capital of Culture Update: Liverpool celebrates the local boys

The people of Liverpool will be delighted to know the money they've spent underwriting the Paul McCartney celebration of all things Liverpool is going to be well spent promoting local talent, like, erm The Kaiser Chiefs. There are a million bands in Liverpool, and for some reason they've had to ask a Leeds act to be the support. Funny that.

Meanwhile, a bunch of extra tickets are being made available for the gig:

Five hundred of the tickets - dubbed the best seats in the house - are being made available to charities and community groups in the city.

Organisers hope the £75 tickets could be offered as competition prizes to help the groups raise money.

Well, that is a fine gesture - giving a bunch of tickets to charities and communities to help them raise funs.

Sorry, did we say "give"? It turns out the phrasing of "made available" was carefully chosen:

Phil Redmond, creative director of the Liverpool Culture Company, said the tickets could not simply be given away.

"We just have to make sure that the box office numbers stack up," he said.

"We are actually offering the best seats in the house for community groups to buy and then they should be able to sell or raffle them off."

Yes, having screwed up the money so badly that local council tax payers are having to put their hands deeply into their pocket to keep the thing going, now they've decided they need to try and balance the books by taking money off charities for the tickets. Charming.

[Thanks to Jim M for the link]

How much trouble is Liverpool 2008 in?

The crisis after crisis that has beset the planning for Liverpool's Capital of Culture year has resulted in a panicky change at the "Culture Company" overseeing the, uh, celebrations. Most notably, Phil Redmond and North West Development Agency chair Bryan Gray are now heading up a team of six, replacing the fourteen-strong board:

Phil Redmond will spearhead the artistic side of the 12-month cultural extravaganza, with NWDA chairman Bryan Gray in charge of the purse strings. Council leader Warren Bradley will be the link with the council and communities.

They're denying this is as a result of the embarrassing cock-up when the Mathew Street Festival was axed:

[...T]here were denials today the shake-up was the result of last month’s festival fiasco, with members saying there had always been plans to wind down the culture board when the full 2008 programme was announced.

Oh, really? If this a planned administrative change, then why is Liverpool Council's Warren Bradley going down to London next week to explain the DCMS about the changes? And why is Redmond effectively starting the planning all over again:

The former Brookside supremo will target greater community involvement and question the value of some setpiece events. He also wants a greater Liverpool “feel” to 08.

And what better time to start thinking about these issues after four years of burning through pots and pots of public cash, with just three months to go?

Oh, and:

Members have not ruled out reallocating money or finding cash to fund changes in the programme.

So, even if you think your event has been funded, the cash might be whipped away to fund something else. That's going to leave everyone able to finalise their plans, then.