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Sir Paul McCartney At
LIPA: 30 Jan 06
Sir Paul bounced in - stage right - accompanied
by the Leader of Liverpool City Council Warren Bradley, Liverpool
Culture Companies Artistic Director, Robyn Archer and LIPA’s
co founder Mark Featherstone-Witty.
He was really buzzing with enthusiasm
and obvious affection - having just been entertained, in the
company of his wife Heather and brother Mike, by LIPA students
at nearby Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall.
Sir Paul of course the focus of attention
- holding the stage for most of the 40 minute event. When
asked about a performance during Liverpool’s 2008 Capital
of Culture celebrations, he stated that he had “…Not
yet decided, but had been approached by The Culture Company
- “ a fact that Robyn Archer seemed to confirm, as the
smile on her face got bigger.
He continued “I have just finished a tour in America
and I normally lie low for a while afterwards. I have not
got any plans. We will see, it is obviously very early days.”
When asked if LIPA would ever produce another Beatles he answered
“We decided to not to make that our aim. We have to
give up on that, if it happens great.”
“When we started the school I was
working with the Liverpool band The Christians on a charity
record and they said to me that you couldn’t teach what
we did. I agree with that - a great band probably comes about
naturally “.
“ Whenever I come up here to LIPA
I get a feeling of great pride. I am very proud of this school
and what it did for me; It gave me a free education.”
And so after the fastest fourty minutes
I have experienced, the conference was brought to an end as
Paul announced “ We’ve got to go for a bevy “……a
drink as we say in Liverpool
Liverpool
Performs As LIPA Turns Ten: 30 Jan 06
THE WORLD-RENOWNED
Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) will celebrate
its tenth anniversary next week, with a joint event that will
also launch Liverpool Performs 2006 the fourth Capital of
Culture themed year.
. LIPA celebrates 10th Anniversary with
co-founders Sir Paul McCartney and Mark Featherstone-Witty
. Anniversary gala will also launch latest
Capital of Culture year Liverpool Performs 2006
On Monday 30 January - ten years to the
day since LIPA’s inauguration - nearly 250 LIPA students
and graduates will take part in a gala performance at Liverpool’s
Philharmonic Hall.
The performance will also herald the official
launch of Liverpool Performs 2006 - a twelve month celebration
of Liverpool’s outstanding track record in the arts,
sport and business - the latest in a series of themed years
leading up to European Capital of Culture in 2008.
LIPA itself is one of the city’s
best known success stories, committed to its aim of providing
high-quality teaching to prepare students for sustained careers
in the industry, either as performers or those who make performance
possible. Currently, 1,250 people are taught at LIPA each
year.
Sir Paul McCartney, co-founder of LIPA,
will be taking part in a joint press conference to mark the
event. He said: "I always feel great pride in LIPA -
sheer pride in the students and their talent.
"The dream we had to save my old
school and turn it into something really worthwhile has happened.
I find it very moving."
Cllr Warren Bradley, leader of Liverpool
City Council, said: "It is extremely fitting that we
launch Liverpool Performs on the tenth birthday of LIPA -
a national institution which is now a standard bearer for
the way the new Liverpool invests in and trains talent to
enable people to perform at the highest level.
"Liverpool Performs 2006 will be a year-long celebration
of the city’s tremendous achievements in the field of
performance. The programme for the year includes the first
artistic works to be produced by the Liverpool Culture Company
which will appear under the theme of City in Transition (CiT),
taking inspiration from the tremendous changes currently taking
place in the city.
"It promises to be an action-packed
twelve months."
Key events for 2006 include the launch
of 08 businessconnect - a new Capital of Culture business
forum designed to help local companies get involved in the
build-up to 2008; Liverpool's first Disability Sports Festival;
the Open Golf Championship returning to Royal Liverpool for
the first time in nearly forty years; and the fourth Liverpool
Biennial International Festival of Contemporary Art.
Professor Drummond Bone, chairman of the
Liverpool Culture Company said: "Liverpool Performs 2006
will be a chance to focus on how the city is developing in
arts, sport and business."
"The regeneration of Liverpool is
seeing a resurgence of activity in all three spheres - on
the stage, the field and in the boardroom."
"LIPA’s success over the last
decade is testament to Liverpool’s status as a centre
of excellence for performing arts, and we are delighted to
be launching our activity for 2006 with such a thriving member
of the city’s cultural community."
Mark Featherstone-Witty, LIPA’s
founding principal and chief executive, said: "For Paul
McCartney and myself, this is a moment we could only but imagine
ten years ago."
"We remember when we had to describe
and enthuse people about a reality that didn’t exist.
Now ten years on we have one of the highest application rates
of any UK Higher Education Institution (HEI). People come
to us from some 38 countries and make up a third of our student
body - the fourth highest percentage of any HEI in the country."
"For me though, it is the graduates’
achievements that make me most proud. With three-quarters
of any leaving year still traceable still working in the arts
and entertainment economies three years after leaving."
"As Churchill once said, ‘It’s
the end of the beginning’."
Courtesy Liverpool
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