The Catharine Street pub was mooted to be yet another student flats development, and the mysterious new owners offered Laura just 28 days to find a new home, when the pub’s owners Admiral Taverns agreed to let the property go as a ‘vacant possession’.

Following a concerted campaign from the city, including Joe Anderson’s mooted involvement, and talk of the pub becoming, retrospectively, an Asset of Community Value, the pub’s been granted an 11th hour reprieve.

“I feel like I want to sleep for two months,” Laura tells SevenStreets.

“The new owners had no idea it was so well loved. They’re a local property investment company, from Liverpool. They just didn’t have a clue who we were. They bought the place off paper, without visiting us. As soon as they came, they saw we were not a shitty little pub.” Quite.

“Admiral Taverns didn’t give a damn, they just wanted to get shut,” Laura tells SevenStreets. “But as soon as the new owners came to see us, they could see we were worth saving.”

Now, when they exchange keys at the end of the month, the new owners promise to keep the pub on as a going concern.

“It’s brilliant news, power to the people!” Laura laughs. Pints all round.

The Caledonia
Catherine Street

Let’s get one thing straight. We never promised the internet we’d be faithful. And, if we’re really honest, our first love has always been paper. Crisp, white, thick paper. With bright print, information-loaded graphics, big, bold illustrations and gorgeous photography.

So, for our third birthday (it’s today. Yeah, thanks) we’re giving you a little gift. The SevenStreets Almanac is born. The first issue, of our first ever print newspaper.

Within its huge pages you’ll find our favourite pieces from the website, as well as exclusive-to-print features, specially commissioned graphics and a sprinkling of recommended city events. And Issue 1 is just the first chapter of our new urban adventure.

It’s the same formula you’ll find on here but, thanks to our continued investment in technology, our all-new ‘mobile application’ comes with 70gsm wi-fi paper, a glare-free interface and (local) intel inside.

From now on, we’re changing. SevenStreets Almanac and SevenStreets.com will work together to map out the city beneath our feet: but where we think a feature works better with juicy graphics, or supersized photos, we’ll give it the full Almanac treatment. And when it’s something new, now or notable it’ll go online first. If it’s a listing for somewhere we think visitors to the city need to know about, it’ll be added to our tourist site, www.liverpoolunderlined.com. Together, we’ll have this city covered. And you’re joining us on the adventure.

Liverpool’s printed indie media has never been stronger, or move vibrant. We hope SevenStreets Almanac can add to that, and occupy a space for longer-form features, frank opinion and short stories from the restless city. We’re learning. Issue 1 isn’t perfect. Which is good. It means issue 2 can be better.

As you read this, 10,000 copies are being disseminated around the city’s culture, leisure, retail and office spaces. You’ll be able to pick up a copy in hundreds of places of over the next couple of months. And there’ll always be a fresh supply, every morning, at Unit 51 Coffee, at the Baltic Creative Campus, Jordan Street (our home, come say hello).

We remain curious, and we remain committed to unearthing the best that Liverpool has to offer, showcasing Liverpool’s most creative, enterprising and brilliant businesses and people.

The Almanac will feature our best writing, on the city’s best bits.

It’s our love letter to Liverpool.

SevenStreets would like to thank all our lovely contributors for their help in delivering our first born into the world.

Three consecutive weekends of events will celebrate three special maritime weekends, starting this Bank Holiday weekend with the 70th – and final – anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Atlantic.

Celebrations on the river and riverside will continue in following weeks with Happy Birthday Albert Dock, coinciding with the Tate Gallery’s 25th anniversary event, with a grand finale in the Music on the Waterfront concerts and the Mersey River Festival.

We can’t mention everything, but over the weekend you can expect songs, dance, film, marching, theatre, art, photography, amateur radio, ships, helicopters, areoplanes and much more. And don’t forget that there will be Royal Navy, Merchant Navy and foreign naval ships at the waterfront that will be available to explore.

For now we’ve picked out seven highlights from this weekend – no easy task given the wealth of great activities in the city this week. Liverpool is one of the the focal points for the this commemoration – and the last official events in memory of The Battle of the Atlantic.

It’s a valuable reminder of how important Liverpool was in the war effort, particularly with reference to Western Approaches, the major operational command of the Royal Navy during World War II. Our connection to the river and sea – in trade and leisure and war – is a huge part of what made the Liverpool the city, and Britain the country – it is today; the breadth and depth of events this weekend is a fitting reflection of that, for one last time.

The Battle Of The Atlantic Concert

The Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines, plus local artists, with their musical commemoration of the Battle of the Atlantic Don’t miss this special and superb concert in what promises to be a night to remember. Book on 0151 709 3789

The Battle Of The Atlantic Concert
Saturday 25 May
Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight

In commemoration of the Battle of the Atlantic, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight will take place over the River Mersey – with a Spitfire and a Hurricane in attendance. Anywhere along the Liverpool waterfront will provide a great vantage point to watch the aircrafts – put your iPhones away and enjoy the spectacle.

Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight
1.30pm, 25 May
River Mersey

Commemorative services and parades

A Merchant Navy Commemorative Service to celebrate of the ending of the Battle of the Atlantic will be held at the Pier Head on Saturday 25 May. Led by Chinese Lion dancers, China Pearl dancers and 24 Festival Drums, a procession will leave the Cunard Building heading to the Merchant Navy Memorial and the Merchant Navy memorial on the Pier Head for a poignant wreath-laying ceremony.

A private commemorative service will take place at the Anglican Cathedral, followed by a parade, which includes platoons from the Merchant Navy, Royal Fleet Auxiliary, Regulars, Reservists and Cadets from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force. The route is along Rodney Street, Mount Pleasant, Hope Street, down Upper Duke Street finishing at the Anglican Cathedral.

Merchant Navy 70th BOA Anniversary Celebration
11.30am, 25th May
Pier Head

Commemorative Parade
12.30pm, Sunday 26 May
Georgian Quarter, Anglican Cathedral

Thank You Light Projection

Two high intensity lasers projected from the Liver Building will transmit the phrase Thank You into the skies in Morse Code, as a tribute to Bletchley Park genius Alan Turing, who helped crack the Enigma Codes that allowed the Navy to read U-Baot ciphers during the Battle of the Atlantic.

This promises to be an emotional, visual highlight of the weekend and a pleasingly apt memorial.

Thank You Light Projection
9.30pm – 12am, 25th May – 26th May
Royal Liver Building, Pier Head

GB70BOA

Imagine trying to contact 2,800 radio amateurs from around the world. Well, that’s what the Maritime Marine Radio Museum at Fort Perch Rock will be doing with the help of several local radio groups. The number is significant – representing one for each ship lost during the Battle of the Atlantic.

For this last official commemoration visitors will be able to see the amateur radio stations at Fort Perch Rock New Brighton.

GB70BOA
22nd May – 27th May
Maritime Radio Museum, Fort Perch Rock, New Brighton

Battle Of The Mersey

The armed forces will stage a display of military force when pirates attack a local vessel on the Mersey. Royal Marines will swoop in a Sea King helicopter, supported by assault ships and patrol craft of the Royal Navy, performing a fast-roping rescue exercise as the ship is recaptured and Pugwash and company are brought to justice.

Something of an overreaction? Perhaps, but we’re sure that kids and adults alike will love the spectacle

Battle Of The Mersey
1pm Saturday 25 May, 2.30pm Sunday 26 May, 3pm Monday 27 May
River Mersey

40s Flash Mob

Merseyside Dance Initiative will organise a 40s flashmob on Saturday and Sunday, with dance performances focusing on lindy hop, jive and swing – with a contemporary twist. The high-energy Lindy Hop, a jazz dance started in the dance halls of 19202 and 30s Harlem, was brought across the Atlantic by US troops and banned in Germany.

A veritable feast of local dance groups will be performing regularly in the Pier Head and Albert Dock area.

40s Flash Mob
26th May – 27th May
Albert Dock / Pier Head

Veterans In Pactice

Veterans in Practice (VIP) – a group of ex-military aged between 23-77 years – have produced series of artworks to record the stories and memories of Atlantic Star Veterans.

Additionally, evoking the style of Edward Chambre Hardman, this series of portraits of the Atlantic Star veterans were taken at Liverpool Town Hall by photographer Stephen King and Veterans in Practice.

An exclusive soundscape, made from voice recordings of the Atlantic Star veterans, will be heard over the tannoys of two battleships on the river.

Finally VIP’s First Tuesday Film Club will host a screening of classic war film The Cruel Sea for just 25p – the price a cinema ticket would have cost in 1953 when it was released.

Star Gazing
14th May – 16th June
Merseyside Maritime Museum Foyer

Star Gazing
14th May – 16th June
Merseyside Maritime Museum Foyer

Star Men
26 May – 6 June
FACT

The Cruel Sea
28 May
FACT

Want more?

There are ongoing exhibitions at the Mersey Maritime Museum and Liverpool Cathedral relating to the Battle of the Atlantic.

Five ships – HMS Edinburgh, HMS Pembroke, Kulakov, Iroquois and Groemitz will be accessible to the public in various docks. The visit will be one of the last engagements for Edinburgh – the last Royal Navy Type 42 destroyer, launched at Cammell Laird in 1980 – as it will be decommissioned next month. The Royal Navy’s Fleet Flagship, HMS Bulwark (pictured, top), will be berthed at Alexandra Dock over the weekend.

Western Approaches, Mersey Ferries, Spaceport and the U Boat Story will all have extended opening hours for the Battle of the Atlantic commemorative weekend. Ferries over the river will also have live commentaries during trips.

Mersey Ferries will also offer an opportunity to take part in the 70th anniversary commemoration flotilla – the greatest gathering of Naval and Civilian Craft seen on the River Mersey in recent years – as the visiting vessels set sail from Liverpool. Pre-book your tickets on 0151 330 1444.

Happily, this upcoming Bank Holiday weekend is the last one until August so we’ve got a whole summer of 5/2 regularity to look forward too. Please don’t remind us of the previous sentence when we’re midway through July and crying out for a holiday, we won’t thank you for it.

As it’s the last one for a while, we’re going out big guns for it, as are the crew at Circus. Happily enscounced back in the surrounds of the East Village Arts Club (or EVAC as we’re insisting on abbrivating it to), they’ve pulled together a mega cast of a line up to entertain you; or at the very least distract you from the fact that yes, it is nearly June and we’re all still wearing our coats.

They’ve got Marco Carola back before he heads off to spend the summer in Ibiza, hosting his Music On parties once again. He’ll see Circus supremo Yousef over there too, he’s taking the club over to the White Isle for the summer – not bad, eh.

Also is Deetron, a man who is as talented as he is good looking (judge for yourself, r). He’s just about to launch his new single ‘Out of my Head’ and he’s cruising on the wave of a stellar 2013 thus far so we reckon his set will be unmissable. Completing the bill are Butch, Gorgon City and the Circus ressies Lewis and Scott.

If you fancy going down but you’re just as skint as we are (very), we’ve got two pairs of tickets to give away. The usual social media set up – RT us on Twitter or Like us on Facebook, or if you don’t have either then stick your name in the comments below and we’ll draw the two lucky winners by 5pm on Friday.

Circus
Sunday May 26th
East Village Arts Club
90 Seel Street
Liverpool
L1 4BH


Marco Carola, Yousef
, Deetron, 
Butch, 
Gorgon City, 
Lewis Boardman

10pm – late

Price £16
Info – 0151 706 8045


We remember when it opened. When Carl Andre’s bricks (Equivalent VIII) were plonked, teasingly, into the newly-opened gallery’s gorgeous, brick vaulted halls. We feel sure the Daily Mail (possibly even The Echo) obliged with the necessary ‘but is this art/my five year old could do that’ knee-jerk nonsense.

But Liverpool knew better – Andre’s piece is among the most popular exhibits ever shown in the city, according to those silent, ever-watchful gallery assistants. And you argue with them at your peril.

There was a rope, too, we seem to remember. A sinewy sculpture representing something dreadfully important – our guess is the River Styx, that’s gotta be worth a shot hasn’t it? – that, a friend of ours who worked at Tate told me, was routinely shuffled around by the Hoovers of the cleaners. We hope that’s true.

This weekend Tate celebrates its first quarter century with a series of events and exhibitions. Tate Gallery, as we know it today, exists thanks to Liverpool-born sugar magnate Sir Henry Tate. A philanthropic chap, Tate donated his collection of 65 contemporary paintings to the nation, helping to fund a new gallery – the National Gallery of British Art, now known as the Tate – which opened in 1897 in Pimlico.

So it’s fitting that the warehouses that once stored Tate’s sticky sugar have been scrubbed up to house the Tate’s national collection of modern and contemporary art in the north. Sweet.

Nothing symbolises the city’s reversal of fortunes more than those before and after pictures of the Albert Dock – and nothing symbolises the city’s surefooted stewardship of contemporary culture better than this handsome waterside huddle of city museums, maritime displays, and Andre’s bricks. A free family day out, with culture, fish and chips and Elvis’ fingerprints (whatever they are).

Over the years, we’ve been gladdened by the sight of sunny, super-sized Hockneys, walked through forests of paperbacks dangling from the ceiling, crawled through multi-coloured installations in the Summer of Love exhibition, and gasped at the golden fleeces of Klimt. And we never tire of that sudden, surprising view of the Mersey, glinting on the other side of those deep set windows. And we’ve done it all, just five minutes from the bacon butties of the San Francisco cabin.

And we’re seldom alone. We’ve been with 15 million others – the gallery’s the most visited modern and contemporary art collection outside London, in a city which has more galleries and museums per square mile than any UK city other than the capital.

What Tate shows – especially latterly, as its really got into its stride – is that you can curate Big Ideas with a lightness of touch, and that, by doing so, you really can join the dots between Twombly (who we’d never heard of) and Turner (who we had), and show that a good gallery isn’t constrained by its walls (even if they’re bloody thick ones, like they are down at the dock). A good gallery is one that relates to the world around it, and isn’t afraid to hang yellowing posters of Marc Bolan culled from The Sun (Glam!) next to original Lichtensteins. It hasn’t always got it right (Glam!), but isn’t it more fun to try?

In Liverpool, we don’t ring fence or segregate. We don’t kettle culture. We prod it and poke it, and take it somewhere new. So it’s great to shout about Tate being 25. Because it shows that the Daily Mail doesn’t have a mandate around here. And we love that Tate held its nerve when the Mail kicked off about Kerry Morrison’s Bird Sheet Music earlier this year. Even if we don’t particularly want to hear the sound of shitting seagulls again, too soon, we’re glad we were given the chance.

Arts institutions are buckling themselves up for a bumpy ride. We need Tate more than ever. And we still love the shock of the new. Keep it coming.

Tate is 25 – Birthday Events

The Tate Liverpool is 25 display is inviting visitors to find out more about the gallery’s history, with a timeline containing exhibition posters, gallery facts and memories and birthday wishes submitted by artists, staff and friends of the gallery. Tate Liverpool is also encouraging visitors to tweet their memories and birthday messages to @tateliverpool using #TL25 or on Facebook.

From Monday 27 May – Sunday 2 June families can create silvery sculptures from a selection of shiny materials in its Art Dock Studio with artist Fiona Smith.

Tate Liverpool’s activities form part of wider celebrations on the Albert Dock across the weekend of 31 May – 2 June: a weekend of free family fun and entertainment, with street theatre, choirs, face painting, live music and special “kids go free” offers across the restaurants and attractions.

Tate Liverpool
Albert Dock
Liverpool

(Twombly and Klimt pics: copyright Tate)

How good is this? Harvest Sun have secured what’s gonna be the gig of the festive season, as Duluth Minnesota’s Low head to the Anglican Cathedral this November. We’re promised a seated, intimate affair, in the vein of the stunning Edwyn Collins show. And we can. not. wait.

Few bands still sound as vital, twenty years down the line, as Low do right now; we’ve not had their latest album, The Invisible Way, off our dodgy wifi speakers since we moved into our shed. Haunting, soulful and poignant, it’s the sound of a band hitting their stride and, with the help of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, finding a new studio sheen: it’s a return to what they do best, pop with a sider order of melancholic grandeur.

“While driving though Chicago, on tour, we stopped finally to visit Wilco at their studio, The Loft,” says Low’s Alan Sparhawk, “They had invited us to come check it out several times over the years, but this would finally be the day. It’s a great place—a sea of instruments in a relaxed, open working environment. It’s cool, but what really converted us was hearing the new Mavis Staples tracks they were working on: big, simple, raw, and intimate. Plans were made then and there…”

“We have worked with many of the great engineer/producers. Jeff Tweedy has been on our side of the microphone for over 25 years, and he spoke a language we understood, but then took us effortlessly into the mystery.”

And, as it’s close to Christmas, dare we hope that they might play something from their festive album? That would be nice, wouldn’t it? Preferably not Taking Down The Tree, as that would be a tad premature.

LOW
18 November
Anglican Cathedral

Tickets £19.50 from Seetickets and Ticketline

SITE

Inspired, they say, by The New York Times Magazine’s “There Should Be a Word for That” feature, The Emotionary offers users “an emotional toolbox that can help you figure out exactly what you’re feeling” – or, in other words, it makes up words for those complex emotions that, as yet, are nameless. Words that don’t exist, for feelings that do. The sort of words that the Germans are so good at creating. Like schadenfreude. Or ‘flopilism’ – being the futile advice you give someone, knowing the recipient’s plans are doomed to failure. More: http://www.the-emotionary.com/

Nerdist’s Writers’ Panel

PODCAST

From the people behind the Nerdist’s geek/pop culture site, the Nerdist Writers Panel series is an always-on-the-money podcast about the process of writing. Its remit takes in TV, film, graphic novels and blogs. Heavy hitting guests include the recent round table with Liz Meriweather, Brett Baer and Dave Finkel, creator and showrunners of New Girl discussing how groundbreaking TV series are developed. More: http://www.nerdist.com/podcast/nerdist-writers-panel/

The Wild and the Wise

EXHIBITION

For LOOK/13, Open Eye Gallery presents the work of Charles Fréger and Eva Stenram. Both exhibitions are institutional premieres in the UK. Fréger and Stenram reflect on how identity is constructed and performed in front of a camera. French photographer Charles Fréger (b.1975) uses his portraiture to question what is truth, while Stenram (b.1976) uses found images, such as the negatives of pin-up shoots and thumbed centrefolds taken from old magazines, as a jumping off point for her inspiration. (pic: Charles Fréger)

Open Eye,
Mann Island

Josh Rouse

GIG

American folk/pop singer-songwriter Rouse is always great value live, blending his rootsy Americana with his (latterly) Iberian-influenced, sunny and smart back catalogue. With his deft turns of phrase and playful, buoyant melodies he makes it look all so easy, but make no mistake, this is a master at work. Catch him.

23 May
Leaf
Bold Street

Email Triage

APP

Cut through the clutter of your in-box on-the-go. Triage helps nudge you ever closer to inbox state Zero a little easier. When you have a few minutes, open it up and it’ll show you a stack of unread messages. Flick up and the message is archived. Flick down and it’s kept (and remains marked unread). And if you want to reply, tap and go. Sounds ridiculously simple. Is. But it clears out a clogged-up inbox a treat. More: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/triage-email-first-aid/id626094320?mt=8

My I, Your Me

EVENT

Liverpool’s photographic collective, FAB, want to curate an exhibition of your images, under LOOK 13′s ‘Who do you think you are’ theme as inspiration. Simply get your snaps to them by 24 May, or take them in person to the Domino Gallery on 25 May between 12-5pm. The exhibition opens that evening, at 6pm. More: https://www.facebook.com/TheFabCollective

From May 25
Domino Gallery
Upper Newington

Beer Festival

EVENT

What better way to spend a Spring Bank Holiday weekend than down at Otterspool prom, enjoying the produce of one of Liverpool’s newest micro-breweries, Mat Hatter, at their debut Mat Hat Beer Festival. Cask ales, barbeques and lots of family fun. More: http://madhatbeerfestival.eventbrite.co.uk

One for filth followers everywhere. Homotopia has secured quite the coup this year, with John Waters confirmed to deliver his one-man show at the LGBT arts fest’s tenth anniversary celebrations this Autumn.

Waters, who directed cult films Pink Flamingoes and Crybaby and crossover hit Hairspray and has worked in various media over six decades, will be performing his one-man show, This Filthy World, which is pitched as a vaudeville act that examines his early influences and his fascination with true crime, exploitation films and fashion.

Said Waters: “Congratulations on 10 years of gay lunacy ! I can’t wait to see Liverpool, the town I’ve always wanted to come to but never have. I bet it’s as extreme as Baltimore!” Well, we’d like to think so.

Homotopia’s artistic director Gary Everett said: “From modest beginnings in 2004 Homotopia has grown into an international flag-bearer for high quality queer culture consistently punching above our weight.”

Homotopia features theatre, dance, comedy, art, photography and literary events and is currently in its tenth year. A centrepiece of this year’s festival will be a year-long exhibit about the life of April Ashley, a 1960s model, actress and transsexual, in the Museum of Liverpool.

Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased through the Philharmonic’s box office on 0151 709 3789.

John Waters in This Filthy World
Friday 8 November 2013 8:00 pm 
Philharmonic Hall

We’re a huge fan of Light Night – an evening where the city’s cultural institutions and good places all leave their doors open a little bit longer. It makes a real difference. Rather than scrabbling around after work to catch an exhibition before closing time, the city comes alive with moochers and explorers. It’s one of the best evenings to just take your time and discover. Oh, and eat.

This year’s programme is fantastic – as well as the usual Light Night adventures in museums and galleries, it’s also the launch of the LOOK/13 Photography Festival and the re-opening of the glorious Liverpool Central Library. You’re going to be busy. Here’s 7 of our favourite things going on across town.

Samba In The City

MUSIC & MORE Convince yourself you’re from Brazil and not Birkenhead, with this evening-long celebration of everything energetic. Expect samba drumming, dance, acrobatics, freerunning and numerous workshops in the handy confines of the Black-E. If you’re looking for a dose of samba and are on the other side of town, there’s a Pier Head Party down by the Queen Mary 2, making a lovely racket from 5pm. As well as that, Brouhaha give a taster of this summer’s carnival across Ropewalks from 4pm. Later in the evening, Brazilica make things loud and lovely with drummers and percussionists in St Peter’s Square, from 9pm.

Vintage Games at the Brink, 6pm – 7.30pm

FUN STUFF If you’re feeling a little retro, booze-free bar The Brink is being turned into a den of vintage fun for the evening. There’s Kerplunk!, Mousetrap and more to destroy your friends and family with, as well as a suitably throwback soundtrack. Later on, they host the LightNightees women-only sleepover (ticketed, £25), which screens a chick flick, art workshops, nibbles and a whole lot of yummy pampering and manicures. More information

Baltic Triangle Brilliance

FUN STUFF Don’t forget the Triangle is just a short walk from the city centre, and you’d be a fool to avoid that end of town in your route. At the Baltic Creative Centre there’s a made-here crafty pop up shop and live music, Shiverpool’s ‘human table’ (we’ve no idea either), artwork, tapas and other goodies. The Baltic Bakehouse has some cross-media art to exhibit, as well as serving up a menu of old-school classics and drinks. From 10pm, they host Dilettante Disco, playing out vintage vinyl and retro hits. Over at the Camp & Furnace, they’re hosting one of their weekly Food Slams, and the official launch party of the LOOK/13 event, too.

Memories Of Mr Seel’s Garden at the Bluecoat

EVENT Pop into the Bluecoat from 6pm to celebrate the launch of a fascinating new smartphone app – one where you can scan food barcodes and accesses a bulging database of local history, archive material and stories relating to said item. You’re able to uncover a new world of Liverpool’s food heritage at the touch of a button. Sounds good to us.

Liverpool Central Library re-opening

EVENT We previewed it a couple of weeks ago, and this big celebration of the Central Library’s refurbishment looks like a must-see. After a million years of DIY inside (which, as we saw earlier in the year, is pretty bloody impressive), the literary hub of the city is reborn. Outside on its huge facade, there’s an evening of big multimedia projection fun.

Mark McNulty’s ‘The Libraries Gave Us Power’ at Bold Street Coffee

EXHIBITION We don’t need any excuse to pop into Bold Street Coffee, and now Liverpool photography powerhouse Mark McNulty’s got an exhibition there. Part of the LOOK/13 photo fest, Mark was granted special behind-the-scenes access to the Liverpool Central Library refurbishment, which he’s documented in a series of exquisite images. As well as that, he’s started a new portrait project (the beginnings of which will be shown here) of people and the books that have shaped their lives. A perfect companion to the Library’s re-opening weekend. More information

Pete Carr’s ‘Leaves’ at Leaf

EXHIBITION Another one from this year’s LOOK/13 programme, brilliant local snapper Pete Carr documents a day in tea shop-slash-community space Leaf. Holing himself up in the venue last summer, Carr spent the day taking images of some of the people who passed through its door. A lovely snapshot of one of our favourite places in the city. More information

There loads, loads more we’ve had to miss out here – but you shouldn’t. Head over to the Light Night website for a full schedule. We’ll see you around town.

Light Night Liverpool
17th May 2013
Free

The Kazimier is rapidly becoming one of the best venues in Liverpool to watch live music, not just because of the staggered layout, ales and vibe, but the great shows it stages. Matt Berry was another such quality night, ripping through his back catalogue and weaving in tracks from his latest album, Kill the Wolf.

Better known for his roles in The Mighty Boosh, Snuffbox and The IT Crowd, Berry’s musical timing is as impeccable as that of his comedy. These aren’t joke songs – many feature a dark edge with an ethereal folk vibe, with references to death and the devil – but there is humour, which instead comes through in the joy the band have performing together.

Special mention must go to Berry’s backing band the Maypoles, including Cecelia Fage and ex-Bluetone Mark Morriss. They switch effortlessly from the hypnotic Rosie to a full-on funk-folk-prog-rock breakdown in the superb extended version of the theme from Snuffbox.

Extra support came from Thomas Walsh – lead of the equally able support band Pugwash – who joined them on stage to skank a cover of Live and Let Die, which is appropriate as McCartney features on the new album. Should you get it? YES! YES! YES!YES!

Kill the Wolf is released on 1 July 2013

Matt Berry

Article by Che Burnley

Image courtesy of musicmafiauk