Monday, January 21, 2008

With A Little Help From His Friends (& Making A Living Out Of It)

Liverpool, I Left You, & Your Name Is Just A Noun

Synthetic outrage is manufactured on BBC Radio Merseyside this lunchtime over Ringo Starr's "anti-Liverpool" cracks on the Jonathan Ross chat show. Wading in with his own stab at civic anguish is Liverpool Echo columnist & cultural commentator, Joe Riley:
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/views/our-view/2008/0121/starr-falls-from-lofty-position- .
Riley bleats, "Anyone expecting a glimpse of the cheeky, chirpy Beatles' drummer of old was to be sorely disappointed."
Anyone actually expecting that is gullible with a capital "G".
Ringo got £35,000 in "expenses" from the council taxpayers of Liverpool for his wobbly warbling. Starr openly admitted it was business.
My beef doesn't lie with a Los Angeles-based millionaire turning up just because he was he got lucky in the 60s. Instead, the shambolic farce masquerading as the opening ceremony on the Friday evening should have focused on today's Liverpool music scene. By all means, feature the Fab Four's legacy, but it would have been a statement of intent for the city to give today's acts the sort of exposure which a sad, semi-forgotten figure from the past received.

No comments: