David Gwilliam
Well-Known Member
Time for another long very long piece of provocation.
Leicester are about to play Everton who are 7th in the table while Liverpool are currently 3rd. Meanwhile Birmingham does not have any club in the Premier League. In terms of population Birmingham is the second city but it consistently underperforms not just in football but in other areas.
Most people can name a number of Liverpool singers from the 1960s. However, music flourished in Liverpool in the 1950s Billy Fury was arguably the nearest thing to a British Elvis. Michael Holliday was a massive star and Frankie Vaughan even bigger. Liverpool also produced a top female vocalist the glamorous and talented Lita Rosa (1) No doubt Birmingham has produced some famous singers but I can not think of one.
The biggest comedy star of the 1940s was Tommy Handley(2) who was a scouser (3). Liverpool also produced such greats as Arthur Askey, Ken Dodd (4) Stan Boardman and Jimmy Tarbuck. Here Birmingham has not done badly with Tony Hancock and Jasper Carrot.
Birmingham produced one great politician in Joseph Chamberlain (5) Liverpool produced the greatest politician of the Victorian Age in Gladstone. More recently Harold Wilson (born in Yorkshire) was a Liverpool MP as was Bessie Braddock a legendary battle axe. .
I cannot knock Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery since in the 1990s I suggested with my usual tact that the Leicester art gallery at New Walk should get somebody from Birmingham to show them how to hang paintings properly. (6) However, I would argue that the Walker Gallery in Liverpool is even better than Birmingham and Liverpool also has a branch of the Tate. There is also a Slavery Museum (7) and a Maritime Museum.
My passion is architectural history and there are some fine buildings in Birmingham. When I was young they had one of the great spaces in Britain called Chamberlain Square. In the 1960s and 1970s when Victorian architecture was despised by the planners they quite deliberately vandalised it by a statue of appalling banality and a piece of extreme brutalist architecture. Liverpool is full of wonderful buildings culminating in St Georges Hall which is far better than anything Birmingham or Manchester (8) has got.
Birmingham has no river. They like to boast that they have more miles of canal than Venice. I can only think they have not seen the canals of Venice. Liverpool has a magnificent river and is a great port. It has done a wonderful job with the Albert Docks. It is interesting that London's docklands which is full of wonderful architecture is about money whereas the Albert Docks is about people.
Birmingham Cathedral is no better than a good parish church. Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral is arguably the greatest Victorian church in England. The Catholic Church nicknamed The Wigwam is more controversial and there are those who see it as great.
Liverpool people have always seemed proud of their city which is certainly not true of Leicester. (9)Perhaps it is the spirit of Liverpudlians that I like. My experience is that a night out with Scousers like one with Geordies or Aussies is always fun.
(1) Lita Rosa is most famous for "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window". This is unfair as it was a song she rightly despised as rubbish. She was a rarity - a singer who refused to perform her biggest hit.
(2\) Tommy Handley is now forgotten. However, his radio shows ITMA (Its That Man Again ) was as popular in the 1940s as Morecombe & Wise in the 1970s.
(3) Scouse is in fact a form of stew. It is difficult to get it in todays Liverpool as it was seen as a poor man meal. However, if you are in Liverpool you can get it at St Georges Hall.
(4) Do not judge Ken Dodd by his TV performances with the diddy men. You need to see Ken Dodd live.
(5) This was the father of Neville Chamberlain . Joseph Chamberlain was described as "a Birmingham businessman with the vision of a Caesar"
(6) In fairness the paintings have recently been hung properly
(7) The Slave Trade is a great stain on Liverpool's history but in recent years it has not shied away from confronting its past.
(8) I have only visited Manchester twice which means I do not know enough to judge it as a city.
(9) Leicester has honoured Nelson Mandela with a park and Gandhi with a statue. They were both admirable but neither showed any interest in Leicester. Most bizarre is naming a garden after Jesse Jackson who has never had anything good to say about this country.
Leicester are about to play Everton who are 7th in the table while Liverpool are currently 3rd. Meanwhile Birmingham does not have any club in the Premier League. In terms of population Birmingham is the second city but it consistently underperforms not just in football but in other areas.
Most people can name a number of Liverpool singers from the 1960s. However, music flourished in Liverpool in the 1950s Billy Fury was arguably the nearest thing to a British Elvis. Michael Holliday was a massive star and Frankie Vaughan even bigger. Liverpool also produced a top female vocalist the glamorous and talented Lita Rosa (1) No doubt Birmingham has produced some famous singers but I can not think of one.
The biggest comedy star of the 1940s was Tommy Handley(2) who was a scouser (3). Liverpool also produced such greats as Arthur Askey, Ken Dodd (4) Stan Boardman and Jimmy Tarbuck. Here Birmingham has not done badly with Tony Hancock and Jasper Carrot.
Birmingham produced one great politician in Joseph Chamberlain (5) Liverpool produced the greatest politician of the Victorian Age in Gladstone. More recently Harold Wilson (born in Yorkshire) was a Liverpool MP as was Bessie Braddock a legendary battle axe. .
I cannot knock Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery since in the 1990s I suggested with my usual tact that the Leicester art gallery at New Walk should get somebody from Birmingham to show them how to hang paintings properly. (6) However, I would argue that the Walker Gallery in Liverpool is even better than Birmingham and Liverpool also has a branch of the Tate. There is also a Slavery Museum (7) and a Maritime Museum.
My passion is architectural history and there are some fine buildings in Birmingham. When I was young they had one of the great spaces in Britain called Chamberlain Square. In the 1960s and 1970s when Victorian architecture was despised by the planners they quite deliberately vandalised it by a statue of appalling banality and a piece of extreme brutalist architecture. Liverpool is full of wonderful buildings culminating in St Georges Hall which is far better than anything Birmingham or Manchester (8) has got.
Birmingham has no river. They like to boast that they have more miles of canal than Venice. I can only think they have not seen the canals of Venice. Liverpool has a magnificent river and is a great port. It has done a wonderful job with the Albert Docks. It is interesting that London's docklands which is full of wonderful architecture is about money whereas the Albert Docks is about people.
Birmingham Cathedral is no better than a good parish church. Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral is arguably the greatest Victorian church in England. The Catholic Church nicknamed The Wigwam is more controversial and there are those who see it as great.
Liverpool people have always seemed proud of their city which is certainly not true of Leicester. (9)Perhaps it is the spirit of Liverpudlians that I like. My experience is that a night out with Scousers like one with Geordies or Aussies is always fun.
(1) Lita Rosa is most famous for "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window". This is unfair as it was a song she rightly despised as rubbish. She was a rarity - a singer who refused to perform her biggest hit.
(2\) Tommy Handley is now forgotten. However, his radio shows ITMA (Its That Man Again ) was as popular in the 1940s as Morecombe & Wise in the 1970s.
(3) Scouse is in fact a form of stew. It is difficult to get it in todays Liverpool as it was seen as a poor man meal. However, if you are in Liverpool you can get it at St Georges Hall.
(4) Do not judge Ken Dodd by his TV performances with the diddy men. You need to see Ken Dodd live.
(5) This was the father of Neville Chamberlain . Joseph Chamberlain was described as "a Birmingham businessman with the vision of a Caesar"
(6) In fairness the paintings have recently been hung properly
(7) The Slave Trade is a great stain on Liverpool's history but in recent years it has not shied away from confronting its past.
(8) I have only visited Manchester twice which means I do not know enough to judge it as a city.
(9) Leicester has honoured Nelson Mandela with a park and Gandhi with a statue. They were both admirable but neither showed any interest in Leicester. Most bizarre is naming a garden after Jesse Jackson who has never had anything good to say about this country.
