Back to index of Nerve 8 - Spring 2006

It’s a Stick-up

Flyposting as an issue seems to have become separated from the main argument over the Capital of Culture. However, the City Council's desire to co-ordinate flyposting in the manner they have is an indication of how short-sighted, and potentially highly damaging, their preparations for 2008 are.

By Paul Tarpey

I always imagined that those in charge of the plans for our stint as Capital of Culture would analyse a city in need of urgent medical attention and then fluff up its pillows. As it is they've attempted to move the pillows, banged the patient's head, and pulled some emergency equipment out as they leave.

Okay that's a clumsy metaphor, but it's suitable enough for the clumsy approach we've been witnessing. There even seems little point running through the arguments about flyposting again because who’s listening, except those who already know what's going on. The voices so heavily against it are spouting something we've heard so many times before anyway. Ever since Thatcher's dirty mind started to whisper it to us all.

Well we're not going to witness what was becoming a healthier cultural scene in Liverpool, destroyed by the idea that if we trust these people, who have no understanding of what sparks peoples' confidence and imaginations, then a few benefits will 'trickle down'. Maybe temporary jobs in the service industry will trickle down, as long as we turn a blind eye to the thousands being spent on pointless showpieces, ineffective administrators, and the siphoning of the rest out to predatory organisations that are not even sure where Liverpool is. It's not even the money going missing that we object to, it's that all those genuinely encouraged to go out and provide a platform for the creative process in Liverpool will be outlawed. Especially if you are doing it for the love of it. This is where flyposting is central to the argument. No-one believes that we have a right to make the city scruffy, but we want to know what alternatives they will be providing for people who have been getting on with the job of putting on gigs, theatre, art shows etc. with little money or support, and now find themselves being penalised for doing it.

In my opinion there have been institutions set up in Liverpool that have understood the needs of the city, and without exception they have worked primarily because they don't announce their arrival as the answer to everyone's prayers. And they don't then proceed to judge who is worthy of this help within the context of a few buzz words, getting annoyed when they can't dictate how and when we learn our lessons. The experiences and opinions we have already collected from people indicate that they just want to have places and resources that mean they can learn, communicate, develop and eventually promote what they are doing. This usually requires a minimum of resources well-distributed across the city, and people who can pass on their acquired knowledge after listening to the needs of those they are passing this information on to. The problem is that the value produced from such organisations can be diminished, in the eyes of the authorities who tend to pull the plug on them, by the fact that the benefits are usually far-reaching but not that easy to quantify over a limited short-term time-scale.

Will the Culture Company provide any of this support? Well my highly prejudicial but considered viewpoint is re-enforced by one particular employee of the Culture Company. The Head of Creative Communities for the Culture Company, I was shocked to discover, is the same person who once told me that, "No-one in Garston would be interested in that kind of thing" on an initial approach to bring a comedy play, that had been successful in the city centre, to an area she was paid vast monies to represent.

Of course, this just deals with the inefficiency of the system. I'm sure you can read elsewhere of the outright corruption and greed that means a city that has always felt ghettoised and alienating to many people is likely to lose what is left of its individuality and soul. But, I almost think it’s outrageous to dwell on this too much in terms of culture when housing, health and education continue to be so badly damaged by the regeneration of the city. That's not to undermine the importance of culture in people’s lives, I just believe it’s attitude rather than money that is the source of the problem.

Getting back to the main point of this article, flyposting, along with so many evolved methods of promoting what is going on in the city, is now on the verge of being wiped out as an affective tool, with several young bands, promoters and venues being badly affected already. People I know whose main focus has always been to encourage and showcase what is good about Liverpool, are on the verge of giving up after being either threatened by one authority or another, or finding all means they have of communicating with their potential public eradicated. Yet the council is happy to promote and wallow in the success of several artists, venues and events whose initial methods were exactly those of the people now threatened with fines and extinction.

This isn't just a pointless whinge, however, as there is a group of people who plan to arrange to meet or lobby (their choice) the council with a set of proposals that will allow events that mean so much to so many people, and provide the key to a healthily creative city, and actually involve as many people as possible, to flourish way beyond 2008. Below is a statement from Gina Shaw, one of the organisers.

"The Council has stated that all flyposterers in Liverpool will be prosecuted, but an article in the Echo alerted me to their offer of an alternative for local bands in the form of official poster sites and a mag. I called the Council to investigate and found that, despite some initial difficulty, the person I spoke to did listen and acknowledge the issues.

“The Council proposal is that local bands/artists pay for up to three A1 posters on three official sites in the City Centre as well as paying for an entry into Live Magazine. I suggested that this was too costly and would cover a very narrow area. Eventually he offered a deal - we try his method and he will allow us one free set (poster+mag), then we meet to compare the results with our flyposting method.

“I can include multiple gigs on the one advert/poster so my proposal is that we evaluate the cost of flyposting on average against the Council method. Any bands etc. who are interested or have other comments or ideas for us to take to the Council can send them to us at flyposter@merseymail.com and I intend to set up a meeting as soon as the interest can be representative. So over to you all, get involved, let’s get out there and do something instead of sitting around moaning about it!!!"

Contact: flyposter@merseymail.com

Do you feel alienated by the Council's approach to 2008? Well one organisation in particular has decided to literally take the law into their own hands. Read more