When Liverpool won the title of European Capital of Culture five years ago, many a metropolitan lip curled. Even this year one broadsheet writer sneered that it should hardly celebrate keeping company with the likes of Luxembourg and Sibiu in Romania, last year’s holders of the crown.
At first they appeared right. On the eve of the launch Jason Harborow, chief executive of the Liverpool Culture Company (LCC) organising the year, left after falling out with two councillors responsible for the programme. Up stepped Phil Redmond, the media entrepreneur and professor at Liverpool John Moores University, to act as bridesmaid. Joining LCC as creative director, he compared the fuss with a Scouse wedding, where squabbling about who to invite and where to sit them gives way to a great knees-up on the day.
