- Liverpool
Historic
- Pier-iod
Piece Sinks!
LIVERPOOL’S
historic seafront changed in hours as the world famous Mersey
Ferries landing stage on the Liverpool Pier Head sank into the river
on Thursday 2 March 2006. No one was injured in the loss of the
Landing Stage. The loss was put down to the freak weather and a
freak low tide which put strain on the 34 year old structure. The
structure was built in 1972 to replace the century old Princes
Landing Stage. As the structure sank it also lost the home of Mersey
Inshore Rescue, who were based on the Landing Stage. The staff and
lifeboats were evacuated as the stage became unsafe and a collapse
seemed imminent. The MIR was introduced in 1984 and became the first
full time river *rescue service working in the UK. The service has
now been moved to the Seacombe Ferry Terminal for the foreseeable
future. It had been hoped that the ferry service would be back up
and running the following day. Unfortunately services to the
Liverpool side remain suspended. It is hoped that accommodation at
the adjacent landing stage, used by operators of the Isle Man Steam
Packet Company, might allow services to resume soon from Liverpool.
Councillor Mark Dowd, Chair of
Merseytravel said:- "The safety of passengers must come first,
so we have had to suspend Mersey Ferries Cross River Service to
Liverpool again this weekend. The normal cruise service will be
running on the river from Seacombe and Woodside, but will not call
at the Pier Head.
We remain in close discussion with Mersey Docks and Harbour Company
and the Isle of Man Steam Packing Company about shared use of the
Isle of Man terminal. We’re aiming to have all services back up and
running by the early part of next week.
We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused."
For the latest information about the
service please log onto:-
www.merseyferries.co.uk/
or call Mersey Ferries on 0151 330 1444.
* More about MIR = got to our fact file page...
FACTS
V Festival 2006
is a Sell out Already!
OK Tickets went on
sale at 9am On Friday 3 March 2006 in the morning, but by 1:30pm the
same day, organisers put out a statment saying that "We can
now confirm that V Festival 2006 is a sell out across both sites!"
Tickets for the festival, sponsored by Virgin Mobile flew
out in just 3 hours, smashing all past records!
The impressive line up announced this week, including mainstage
headliners Radiohead, co-headliners Morrissey and Faithless – plus
Paul Weller, Razorlight, Kasabian, Hard-Fi, Keane, Groove Armada and
The Magic Numbers will appear at Hylands Park, Chelmsford and Weston
Park, Staffordshire over the weekend of 19 August to 20 August 2006.
Festival Director, Bob Angus commented:- “As delighted as we
are that the festival has sold out, we are not shocked that it has
happened so quickly, it really is testament to the line up we’ve
managed to secure this year. V has grown massively in the last few
year’s and we’re very very proud of it.”
BUS COMPANY CALLS
FOR TOP TALES
ARRIVA North
West and Wales is appealing for customers to share funny anecdotes
and extraordinary real-life stories about travel on its buses to be
published in a national book of short tales.
Bus Tales will be published in September to celebrate Local
Community And History Month. Arriva hopes that the best anecdotes
from the North West and Wales will be recorded for posterity so that
bus passengers from across the UK will be able to enjoy them on
their travels. MF Nick Gordon, marketing manager for Arriva
North West and Wales said:- “Thousands of people in the
community use Arriva buses and we’re sure that they have some
interesting tales to share.
We’re looking for any anecdotes that are bus related, so the scope
is really wide. It might be that a couple found love on the bus,
discovered a long lost friend or simply witnessed something amusing
or remarkable that they would like to tell us about.”
Anyone with a tale to tell can submit their anecdote before the
closing date of the 31 March 06, via email at
bustales@arriva.co.uk or call the Bus Tales hotline
on 0845 270 1660 for more information and should include their name
and contact details.
The story should be no more than 150 words and any supporting
material that contributors would like to share with the Bus Tales
editorial team will be gratefully received. The limited edition Bus
Tales book will be available free, and is expected to be the perfect
traveller’s companion. Those interested in receiving a copy can
phone the Arriva hotline and register their interest later this
year. |
- Liverpool
Reporter CD Reviews…
- Jill
Fielding Band & Shmoo
Review by Patrick
Trollope BA(Hons) LBPPA !
FIRST off all
this is the first of we hope many CD reviews we will be doing. The
first two bands we are looking at are due to be added to our live
playing online radio and TV station Liverpool Reporter very, very
soon. If you have a band and want us to review and add your CD to
our play lists please feel free to contact us.
The Jill Fielding
Band
THE first band to get the
Southport Reporter and Liverpool Reporter review is the “The Jill
Fielding Band” who are from Aughton, in Ormskirk. This band is a
very suppressing one for us to pick, as one of the first to review.
The reason for me picking it is that I am so taken back by the crisp
quality and the soothing feel of the music. It is refreshing to sit
back and listen in a quiet office late at night or in a bathroom, in
a warm bath with the lights out… after a hard day at work. I thought
we should give them a push also as the art of traditional music
landscape is being pushed out more and more by the modern pop and
rock world. Culturally we do not want to loose this art form for
ever to the mass of cheap throwaway music of today and we need
artists like these to keep it alive. The band has played live on the
BBC many times and on stages across the UK and US. They are also no
stranger to the internet, as they have no less than four stunning
CD’s on sale on their website! The group has used a very traditional
approach to folk music on the suffice, but they have blend
seamlessly instruments that are less untraditional into their
instrumentals. Yes, they are sinners and not traditionalists when it
comes to instruments as they have used electronic instruments with
traditional instruments, to produce a very relaxing and well
polished, contemporary set of songs and tunes. The approach they
have taken to what is a dying art, has been pulled off extremely
well. I can’t stand lots of country music for very long, unless it
has sweet young Irish lass, dancing in short dresses, but this has
something that just captures your attention very quickly with out
the lass. This is not; I will point out, Irish music, but
traditional English country and English seafarer folk. Some of the
words and tunes are very haunting and even when you do not know the
words; you find your self humming to the tunes. The band is
extremely tight, with good rhythm and well thought out words, often
lacking in most main stream pop music. They are what I would class
as a very refreshing addition to our play lists. Thanks for sending
your CD’s in to us. We are adding them, with out any doubt! But if
you readers can not wait for our site overall on Liverpool Reporter
and the addition of the CD’s then please log onto their web site at
www.jillfieldingband.co.uk Also
please go and see them live at Chapel Court in Ormskirk on Friday 17
March 2006.
Click here to here a
sample... CD’s
to be added onto our play lists are ‘Triplicity’ £11.00 + £1.00 p&p
from their website and ‘Once upon a Dream’ is priced again at £11.00
+ £1.00 p&p from their website.
OK, this band is not from
Merseyside, so why are we adding it to them play list. The band is
circulating around Manchester, so it is not to far away, unlike some
we have got on our lists already. Well when I got the CD, it just
was like all the others we get, week in, week out, no cover, just a
CD with a logo on it. Nothing to grab the eye and a letter attached
with the normal bad reprinted photocopied photo of the band on it. I
took a quick look and spotted the band was not from Merseyside, so
it got stuck in the to do list and well sat the file for a few days
until I got board one night. Yes, sorry lads and lass, you nearly
did not get me playing you… That would have been a shame as well. I
was in the office waiting for an interview on the phone from the
good old USA. Funny thing was it was a model I was going to
interview. I was not in the mood for the interview and wanted to get
something to cheer me up before the call came in. Well I put my hand
in file and pulled it out. The
CD that is! Sorry, just checking…!
Not thinking about it I pushed the CD
into the player and as soon as it went on, I thought, “Dance
music… brill… Ah’well…” After the first shock of the opening
80’s revival dance floor beat, it soon got me impressed. The CD is
the band’s debut single from called ‘Plaything’. The single
is out 27 March 2006, in record shops, like Virgin Megastores, on
the Fat Northerner Records label and well worth getting. Well in my
view it is.
The band members have really done
something fun with a unique sound that echoes back from the 1970’s
and early 1980’s music seen. The style and sounds reminds me of the
great ‘Kraftwerk’ album, ‘Computer World’ released
back in 1981. Sadly the frustrating aspects of ‘Kraftwerk’ is
their distinctive their lack of musical creativity. I do hope this
band does not do the same… To be more precise have long gaps in
releases. The CD we got sent has two sounds to it, the modern feel
of a dance CD that you expect in most dance clubs, with powerful
female vocals from the good looking Rowena who also fronts the band.
The blend of classic dance sounds from traditional, that is if you
can call them traditional synthesizers and electronic keyboards and
the modern approach using the modern computer synth/jazz base lines,
artificial drums etc. A truly stunning sound and I can not wait to
see them live. I am adding them also onto our play lists!
One down side, please
'Shmoo', get a more interesting photo!
Good luck and you have now got most of
our office as fans, and that is not normal as most are hardcore
rockers! We look forward to our audio interview with you very soon
on Liverpool Reporter!
Click here for a sample of the tracks ‘A
Plaything’ and ‘AA She Machine’.
Fat Northerner Label’s web page:-
www.fatnortherner.com |
