Chamber Music (and the Spoken Word)

I had a rather anxious morning at work today.

We hosted a bit of a ‘do’ in the Council Chamber at the Town Hall, providing a briefing about the huge programme of events we’re co-ordinating for World Mental Health Day on Oct 10th, sharing facts and figures about why this matters in Liverpool alongside examples of the creative ways we’re trying to address stigma and reach diverse communities.

We had the Lord Mayor, Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner, local councillors from the ruling Labour Party, opposition Green Party (politics in Liverpool has rarely been known to reflect politics in Westminster!) and all manner of people from legal firms, the court service, health and social care services, housing providers and community organisations in attendance and it was all rather daunting.

I’ve never been a great one for pomp and circumstance or for wearing a suit… but I dusted one off today as I had to act as compère for the event at rather short notice, as well as give the main presentation. Hence my nerves! But the feedback was genuinely positive and I feel that we’ve got some important information out to people who maybe weren’t aware of it before.

For me, the best parts of the event were, naturally, the parts where I wasn’t speaking! In particular a fantastic performance by The Choir With No Name (a choir consisting of people who are currently homeless or have previously been so) and incredibly powerful and moving readings from the ‘Mental Health and Me’ anthology which we published last year with our colleagues at Writing on the Wall.

One of the readers was my Blip subject for today - local poet, musician and cultural activist Tom George, who read his piece ‘Talk to the Guitar’. You can find out more about Tom on his blog where you can also see a video (featuring many a Liverpool landmark!) which he’s made for one of his excellent songs.

Thanks to Tom and to everyone involved in making this morning a success.

This evening, Spokes and I wound down with a trip to The Playhouse to see a terrific production of 'The Hudsucker Proxy', adapted from the Coen Brothers' film and directed by Simon Dormandy and Toby Sedgwick. Not only were the performances uniformly excellent but the set design by Dick Bird (who also designed the sets for Kate Bush's recent return to the stage) was amongst the best I've ever seen.

On another note… if, like me, you’ve got a fondness for the great music photographers of the ‘70s and ‘80s (people like Sheila Rock who I blipped recently) then do check out this documentary about Chalkie Davies –  available on the BBC iPlayer for the next 23 days…