Hull, City of Culture

[MrGongGong]

Lets hope there are plenty of fish related gigs

Watching the news on TV last night (a big mistake ? ) they said that "Hull wasn't on the way to anywhere" ....... which is rather odd as I know it's on the way to Rotterdam for a start ..... or is it that we only count places on the Northern Line ?

Lets hope they don't mess it up like they did in Liverpool

[teamsaint]

Lets hope there are plenty of fish related gigs

Watching the news on TV last night (a big mistake ? ) they said that "Hull wasn't on the way to anywhere" ....... which is rather odd as I know it's on the way to Rotterdam for a start ..... or is it that we only count places on the Northern Line ?

Lets hope they don't mess it up like they did in Liverpool

Watching THEIR news with a less than very wary eye is indeed a big mistake.

As for Hull not being on the way to anywhere.......surely one of the most ludicrous and illogical statements imaginable?

Apart from that, Hull of course gave the world The Housemartins (and 3 better bands), a rather splendid physics department building, and is the only city whose football club has had 2 , count them, 2 new football stadia opened since WW2.

also a particularly notable Youth orchestra in days gone by?

[Anna]

Apart from The Housemartins and Everything but the Girl, Hull has given us: Tom Courtenay, Maureen Lipman, Stevie Smith, Mark Ronson, Anthony Minghella and Andrew Motion (!) plus of course Larkin and Marvell. I am of course sorry Swansea didn't get it, nor Dundee, but I think Hull was maybe, perhaps, a political decision, i.e., they needed it more.

[teamsaint]

Apart from The Housemartins and Everything but the Girl, Hull has given us: Tom Courtenay, Maureen Lipman, Stevie Smith, Mark Ronson, Anthony Minghella and Andrew Motion (!) plus of course Larkin and Marvell. I am of course sorry Swansea didn't get it, nor Dundee, but I think Hull was maybe, perhaps, a political decision, i.e., they needed it more.

excellent list. Did you know all that without further research? very good indeed if you did.
Shame about Swansea. That's the trouble with artificial shortages though, somebody suffers.

(Tracey Thorne is of course from Hatfield via the Marine Girls. ironically, Hatfield isn't near the sea, but is on the way to Hull. Well, depending on where you start, of course.)

Here is an awfully good Marine Girls song, that one might listen to on the way to Hull.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnNz7pvF25E

[jean]

Lets hope they don't mess it up like they did in Liverpool

But they didn't mess it up.

After an admittedly bad start, when they made a very strange choice of person to head it and people in general were deeply cynical about it, it all went very well indeed.

[Sir Velo]

Hull has given us: Andrew Motion (!)

Andrew Motion? I thought he was an Essex man!

[teamsaint]

Why is there only a City of Culture every four years?

Why not every year?

[Anna]

But they didn't mess it up.
After an admittedly bad start, when they made a very strange choice of person to head it and people in general were deeply cynical about it, it all went very well indeed.

On my first, and only, trip to Liverpool for a weekend a couple of years ago I was really impressed and wanted to explore more of the City, and its culture. I thought it very vibrant and not at all deserving of the reputation it had of being home to a load of scallies and scroungers.
Edit:

Andrew Motion? I thought he was an Essex man!

Sorry, got that wrong, he taught at Hull Uni.

[MrGongGong]

But they didn't mess it up.

After an admittedly bad start, when they made a very strange choice of person to head it and people in general were deeply cynical about it, it all went very well indeed.

Really ?
That's not what I thought
I do remember looking at the whole programme and thinking that it was the usual inward looking scouser attitude and not much that I would want to bother to go and experience ........which made me remember why I was relieved when I left merseyside aged 18

There are some wonderful things about Liverpool indeed but I don't think the City Of Culture was one of them
If you look how Glasgow used it to reinvent itself and the tremendous things they have built in other places that have had EU city of culture status (Porto for example )

I'm all for Hull though

"London 0,Hull 4"

[gurnemanz]

Very flat... I bought a bike there, but stopped short of the Larkin-style sensible raincoat.

[Alison]

Watching THEIR news with a less than very wary eye is indeed a big mistake.

As for Hull not being on the way to anywhere.......surely one of the most ludicrous and illogical statements imaginable?

Apart from that, Hull of course gave the world The Housemartins (and 3 better bands), a rather splendid physics department building, and is the only city whose football club has had 2 , count them, 2 new football stadia opened since WW2.

also a particularly notable Youth orchestra in days gone by?

Railway passengers will of course know that Hull is in the way to Beverley, Bridlington and Scarborough.

Oh yes, the Youth orchestra recorded Havergal Brian. Must google Geoffrey Heald-smith..

[teamsaint]

Railway passengers will of course know that Hull is in the way to Beverley, Bridlington and Scarborough.

Oh yes, the Youth orchestra recorded Havergal Brian. Must google Geoffrey Heald-smith..

They also recorded the Holbrooke PC #1 with Philip Challis, apparently.

[jean]

I do remember looking at the whole programme and thinking that it was the usual inward looking scouser attitude and not much that I would want to bother to go and experience ....

So...you know Liverpool 'made a mess' of it, but you didn't actually experience any of the 'mess' at first hand.

This'll give you something of an idea of what you missed. Not an inward-looking scouser attitude to be seen, and the article doesn't even mention the more memorable musical events - the Britten War Requiem for example, world premieres of works by Tavener and Peter Maxwell Davies.

...which made me remember why I was relieved when I left merseyside aged 18

I was too, of course. Aren't you supposed to be relieved to leave wherever you are when you're 18? It's a rite of passage.

But I came back after 40 years away, and I've never regretted it.

So good luck to Hull, but it'll be a hard act to follow.

[MrGongGong]

So...you know Liverpool 'made a mess' of it, but you didn't actually experience any of the 'mess' at first hand.

Actually I know several people who were involved in it
and YES there were some good things indeed
but so much McCartney nonsense zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and
(from the statements of Mr Redmond etc) a whole heap of scouse "we know how to throw a party" b*ll*x

[Padraig]

So good luck to Hull, but it'll be a hard act to follow.

Point of information, jean: the act Hull has to follow is that of Derry/Londonderry, the first UK City of culture.
I should not have to point that out, and I don't know why I bother.
Congratulations to Hull, and good luck.