Author: Ollie Cowan

St Helens’ year as Liverpool City Region’s Borough of Culture enjoyed a fitting finale as the title was handed to Wirral at a spectacular event on Saturday 8 December, as a dazzling light projection brought St Helens Town Hall to life.

Speaking about the handover, Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram said: “It is very exciting to see Wirral officially take over as our Borough of Culture for 2019. I know that they have a very exciting programme of cultural events planned for the year ahead.

“It has been a great year for St Helens, as they have celebrated their 150th anniversary, and this event was a fitting finale.

“Culture and creativity are an integral part of our city region’s DNA. They are what we are known for and integral to achieving our vision for a prosperous, fair and exciting place to live, work and invest. The Borough of Culture celebrations are just one element of boosting culture and creativity across the whole of the city region.”

Speaking at the event, Phil Redmond, Chair of the Liverpool City Region Cultural Partnership, said: “The beauty of the Borough of Culture programme is that, as well as giving all areas of the city region the opportunity to showcase their cultural highlights, it also stimulates creativity by giving people the chance to join in and get involved.”

Commenting on the past year, St Helens Council Leader Derek Long said: “We’re proud to have been Liverpool City Region’s first Borough of Culture.

“Our 150th anniversary year has been packed with award winning cardboard castles, a tribute day to commemorate the unsung heroes of the borough, and a tasty International Food and Drink Festival attended by thousands of residents, as well as a 70 strong delegation from Stuttgart to celebrate 70 years of a successful twinning partnership. I’m sure our friends in Wirral will have as great a year.

“This experience will certainly leave a lasting legacy in St Helens, and as a council that is looking to capitalise on the borough’s growing reputation as a centre for excellence for arts and culture, we will now build on this success and lay the foundations for a thriving future.”

Cllr Phil Davies, Leader of Wirral Council, said: “We are thrilled that Wirral has been awarded the title of Borough of Culture for 2019. We’ve had a fantastic response to the highlights we’ve revealed so far but we know that there is so much more to come and we’re looking forward to unveiling the full programme in the new year.

“We have set ourselves a high bar following the success of this year’s Imagine Wirral programme but I am confident that 2019 will be bigger and even better.”

The Borough of Culture title is awarded by the city region’s Combined Authority to one of its six local authorities (Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral) on a rotating, annual basis.
The title is part of a £300,000 funding package to support cultural events through the year, delivered as part of the city region’s pioneering 1% for Culture programme.

The 1% for Culture programme saw Liverpool City Region become the first in the country to commit to spending the equivalent of 1% of its annual £30 million devolution funding from government to support cultural activities.

A competition has just been launched to find a winning design for the official logo for the Borough of Culture to be used by each borough in their year of the award.

The competition is open to anyone aged 16 years or over, amateur or professional, living in the Liverpool City Region. More details on the logo competition and how to enter are available at http://liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk/logo-competition

Sweeney Entertainments presents their brand-new concert show, Respect to Aretha at The Atkinson in January 2019.

Life-long Aretha Franklin fan and power-house vocalist, Letitia George stars in this heartfelt and uplifting dedication to the Queen of Soul.

Aretha Franklin’s extraordinary career as a singer and songwriter spanned over sixty years. She rose from church gospel singer to international stardom at a young age and is widely accepted as the finest female soul singer of our time. Her talent has always been unequalled. Massive hits including A Natural Woman, Say A Little Prayer, Chain Of Fools, Until You Come Back To Me, Think, I Never Love A Man, and of course Respect, will ensure that Aretha’s legacy will continue forever.

Life-long Aretha Franklin fan and power-house vocalist, Letitia George, rose to the spotlight after featuring on series 4 of BBC 1’s The Voice UK, where she became a member of Team Ricky and soared her way through to the knockout rounds. Letitia also presents the radio show ‘The C Word’ on BBC Radio Coventry every Monday evening, which discusses the issues affecting young people in Coventry and Warwickshire.

Whilst Letitia George will always be remembered for her breath-taking performances on series four of The Voice, she has gone on to forge an enviable reputation as one of the most passionate and hardworking soul singers around. Aretha’s sad passing has inspired Letitia and her outstanding backing band to attempt the seemingly impossible. Very few singers could ever do justice to the Aretha Franklin songbook… but Letitia George manages to capture the very spirit!

Sweeney Entertainments, co-founded by Julie and Peter Sweeney, has been providing a wide repertoire of top-quality touring shows for theatre and corporate events for over eighteen years both in the UK and internationally and now boasts a repertoire of fourteen touring productions.

The company saw its busiest year to date in 2018 and now has even more performances on offer, at a growing number of venues, and with the strongest audience figures to date. Julie Sweeney, who has been a life-long fan of Aretha, was one of the lucky ones to see Aretha Franklin perform in New York last year. It had been a lifelong dream to see her live. Julie says “This is my most passionate project in 18 years! I am so delighted to be producing this show. Nobody will ever replace the Queen of Soul but this is our way of paying tribute to the greatest Soul singer of all time.”

Book your tickets to join Letitia and her fabulous band for an evening that fully captures the great music of Aretha Franklin on Thursday 31 January at 8pm.

Ticket are £22.50 – to book call Box Office on 01704 53333 or by book online at
https://www.theatkinson.co.uk/events/respect-to-aretha/

Visit the website theatkinson.co.uk and join our mailing list to keep up to date with the full programme of events coming to the venue soon.

Talented members of a unique Sefton drama company scored a seasonal success with their ambitious festive production this week.

The Spirit of Christmas, presented by New Centre Stage, was the first show to be staged in the group’s new studio theatre at its HQ in the David Brown Centre, Magdalen Square in Netherton.

The production featured a large cast of more than 25 performers with support needs from across the borough who belong to the group, which is run by Sefton’s leading adult social care provider, New Directions.

The show took as its theme the age-old question – what really is the true meaning of Christmas?

In a bid to get to the bottom of this question in the play, each member of a fictional family explained what the festive season means to them, with the help of song-and-dance support from members of the cast.

The answer was revealed at the end of the production, but only after the audience had been treated to a hugely entertaining series of scenes based on classic Christmas stories from the nativity to Dickens and Cinderella.

The Spirit of Christmas was directed by New Centre Stage Co-ordinator Vicky Bennett with colleagues Denise Airey, Veronica Morrison and Pam Pickford.

It was the latest in a series of successful productions from the group, the most recent being The Wizard of Oz in the summer.

Members are now looking forward to performing with the In Another Place Gospel Choir and at the Feelgood Factory Christmas fayre in the coming weeks.

Vicky Bennett commented: “The Spirit of Christmas was another outstanding success for the members of our group, who came up with many ideas for the production themselves during our initial discussions.

“Once again, the show in its final form was the result of many weeks of hard work by the cast, and I would like to thank them all for their input and their commitment.

“As well as being a thoroughly entertaining evening, I hope the show provided audiences with some food for thought as we prepare to celebrate this very special time of year,” added Vicky.

Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram will announce that the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, along with bus operators Arriva and Stagecoach, will provide 3000 bus tickets – 500 for each of its six local authority areas – for the city region’s foodbanks to use to help those with the greatest transport needs.

The announcement comes ahead of Sunday’s Merseyside Derby, as Fans Supporting Foodbanks are calling for more support for the city region’s foodbanks, which are dealing with unprecedented demand.

Fans Supporting Foodbanks is a unique partnership between Everton Supporters’ Trust and Spirit of Shankly, who have come together to tackle foodbank shortages.

Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “As the UN special rapporteur Philip Alston said earlier this month, this country’s foodbanks are acting as a safety net, literally saving people living in abject poverty from starving to death. It is an affront to common decency that this should be the case in the fifth richest country in the world, but while this is the reality we will support those committed volunteers who provide this service across our city region.

“This weekend the whole city region is coming together to support our foodbanks and I am proud that we are playing our part by making 3000 bus tickets available across all six of the city region’s local authority areas. It’s heart-breaking that we should have to do this but this is a duty that we cannot shirk.”

Half of the cost of the 3000 bus tickets will be paid for by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, with the other half paid for by Arriva and Stagecoach. The tickets will be distributed to foodbanks across the city region, who will distribute them, at their discretion, to clients with the greatest transport needs.

Howard Farrall, managing director, Arriva Merseyside, commented: “Christmas can be a very difficult time of year for many and so it is more important than ever to reach out and help those in need. We’re proud to be supporting this initiative and hope to make things easier for those looking to travel to food banks around the Liverpool City Region.”

Rob Jones, managing director of Stagecoach Merseyside, Cheshire and South Lancashire, said: “We’re delighted to be working in partnership with the Metro Mayor and our city partners to provide free bus tickets to make it easier for people living in poverty to get around. We know access to transport is vital and helps to connect communities and enable people to take up opportunities they may not otherwise be able to.

As an Everton Football Club sponsor, we already work closely with the Club and their charitable arm, Everton in the Community as well as supporting a range of charities and community organisations across the city region, and it’s wonderful to see that the spirit of community is so alive in our city.”

Dave Kelly, Chair of Fans Supporting Foodbanks, said: “We applaud Steve Rotheram for his actions and for his help, advice and support.

“The impact of austerity and the migration over to Universal Credit on the 5th of December will have a profound effect on the most vulnerable people within our communities.
“Our statistics indicate that on average a Foodbank user will have a six-mile round trip to collect a three-day emergency supply of food.”