By James Wilson

Sir Paul McCartney on Thursday was handed star billing in a programme of events to mark Liverpool’s selection as European Capital of Culture next year – with organisers hoping to put the showcase firmly back on track after mounting problems threatened to overshadow the build-up.

The most famous surviving member of Liverpool’s renowned pop group is an uncontroversial choice to appear with other acts at a rock concert in June, which will be broadcast on television and online. Ringo Starr, the other surviving Beatle, will feature during the programme’s opening event in January, when other rock stars joined by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra will appear in Liverpool The Musical
Sir Simon Rattle and Sir John Tavener are among the other well-known artists and musicians appearing or presenting new work during the year-long festival, which organisers promised would put public participation at its heart with a big free events programme.

Liverpool hopes the events in 2008 will introduce a global audience to the city’s regeneration and believes it is already attracting more jobs, visitors and investment to one of the UK’s poorest cities. The title of Europe’s Capital of Culture is awarded each year to a different city and has previously been used by Glasgow to improve its image and economic prospects.

Warren Bradley, leader of the Liberal Democrat-controlled council, said Liverpool had to be “on the world stage”. He said: “No other city is going through the pace of change that Liverpool is at the moment.”

Liverpool won the UK nomination to host the cultural festival in 2003 but organisers have had to fend off local frustration at their seeming lack of progress in lining up acts, as well as dealing with internal squabbling. Last year the event’s Australian artistic director quit, accused by critics of not spending enough time in the city, while the chief executive and leader of Liverpool city council, the biggest financial backer, have also both changed.

Culture beat
Liverpool’s 2008 line-up includes:
• Sir Paul McCartney headlining the Liverpool Sound concert
• Gustav Klimt exhibition, along with Viennese season
• World premiere of Sir John Tavener’s Requiem in the Metropolitan Cathedral
• Three Sisters on Hope Street – Chekhov relocated to Jewish community in Liverpool in the 1940s
• Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts EU Youth Orchestra
• The Beat Goes On – exhibition of Merseyside music from Billy Fury to the Zutons

Further doubts were cast on the city’s organisational capacity when significant parts of a big annual music event were cancelled at short notice last month. This month the board of the organising Culture Company was reduced and reshuffled but organisers said it was an expected move and not a response to concerns over how the event was being run.

Mr Bradley said: “The issues have not been any different to what happens in organising any three-week festival. This is a 12-month festival and it was bound to have its highs and lows.”

Phil Redmond, the television writer and entrepreneur who was brought on to the board, acknowledged the sense of “chaos” but observed that much of the fuss was like the last-minute panic on the eve of a Scouse wedding. “Now the invitations have gone out,” he added.

Liverpool council has also still to decide how to meet £20m of running costs for the programme, whose total budget is put at £90m.

Liverpool already stages a biennial arts festival that will coincide next year with the Capital of Culture events. This year’s Turner Prize exhibition is also moving from London and will open at Liverpool’s Tate gallery next month.

The opening Capital of Culture event will inaugurate an 11,000-seat waterfront arena and conference hall, under construction at a cost of £146m, while a cruise terminal has already opened and the city’s hotel and apartment stock has increased.

Source: The Financial Times Limited