You got it. Apparently Troyer checked out the Atlantic Tower after a day of checking out the Beatles Story, Mathew Street and Cavern Walks.

The diminutive actor and womaniser was in down to do a public appearance at Club Coco., which is some sort of night-club, apparently.

• Image by Dave the Pap

Liverpool Culture Blog’s paparazzi desk has received this image of Il Buble wearing a cap and, er, some glasses while in the city this week.

The Culture Blog finds Buble’s own unique brand of hardcore thrash a touch loud these days, but no doubt the coolest kids in town will be heading down to see the singer destroy a drum kit with his electric guitar.

The Echo had this scoop on Buble’s visit to Liverpool:

The singer was spotted taking part in the Beatles tour taking in all the famous sights including the Beatles Shop where he picked up a couple of souvenirs.

He then decided to treat himself and a friend to a night out at the Odeon cinema at Liverpool One.

One shopper who saw him reports: “We were just walking through Liverpool One and we spotted Michael who was more than happy to pose for a photo.

“He didn’t even have any security guards with him which is unusual for such a big star.”

Whattaguy! It was obviously all too much for one crazed fan, who was spotted sporting a delightful MB tattoo.

• Images by Dave The Pap

Liverpool Culture Blog is being deluged with fan mail, and objects to be signed. So I’ve drafted in a colleague to explain to it you in no uncertain terms.

NO MORE SODDING FAN MAIL.

Peace and love.

Others have been more forceful in their views, and now the building has won the Carbuncle Cup, an architecture magazine’s award for the worst new building. Incidentally, One Park West – a building I think may be worse – was also nominated.

The ferry building is described as ‘a shining example of bad architecture and bad planning’ on the Building Design website. As I’ve said before, what constitutes bad architecture is open to debate and not something I’m qualified to judge.

But it should have been clear all along that the siting of the building as it has appeared was problematic at best: in front of the three graces and slap bang in the middle of a UNESCO World Fricking Heritage site.

Anyway, for the record, here’s what some of yer actual architects think:

“The winner is the building that shows how bad architecture and bad planning can combine to produce something truly awful — a building so ugly it can turn human flesh to stone or at the very least make grown men cry.”

“…in thrall to some horribly misconceived idea of the avant–garde.”

“It is such an amazing site, directly in front of the Three Graces, but the architects seem barely to have noticed. It is like letting a bad second-year student build next to St Peter’s.”

“This is bad patronage by an ignorant council which thinks having jazzy architecture is putting the city on the map again.”

And there you have it. Another finger levelled at the council, or at least the collection of QUANGOs, lobby groups and other interests that seem to have a hand in deciding what gets built and where in the city. Once again, Liverpool looks like a basket case thanks to its leaders.

I’ll leave the last word to Building Design:

“When you go there you think: oh no, I can’t believe they’ve done that.”

Quite.

 However, a new Tesco store on Hope Street – slap bang in the middle of the ‘cultural quarter’, connecting two astonishing cathedrals, host to the iconic Philharmonic Hall, Everyman Theatre and Philharmonic pub and blessed with its own street festival – is a bloody awful prospect.

Announced at a time when the city council has somehow, disgracefully, allowed a developer to destroy Josephine Butler House with the promise of a car park, the prospect of another sodding Tesco store blighting the otherwise-charming thoroughfare is a depressing one.

I think there’s an important caveat to this discussion though. Tesco isn’t ‘evil’, as Liberal Democrat Berni Turner says, and I don’t think such contributions are helpful.

There’s certainly questions to be asked in terms of Tesco’s attitudes towards its suppliers and, like any megalithic international organisation I’m sure there are question marks over its social and environmental records.

But this debate should focus purely and squarely on the prospect of one of its gaudy stores, and accompanying footfall and congestion, destroying the character of one of the city’s more pleasant and historic streets.

In that context I don’t know why this is even being debated – is there anyone in the entire city who would vote for such a blot on the landscape? And what of the colossal over-supply and impact on other retailers in the area?

For the record Tesco wants to build one of its Express outlets in the building that was formerly Roadkill, just along for the Philharmonic pub. It would be, by my reckoning, the ninth in the city centre alone after the new Old Hall Street store opened recently.

Normally residents associations would step in and tell Tesco where to shove it, but I fear the transitory nature of the residents – including plenty of students – is likely to mean a lack of dedicated opposition in the area.

And I don’t see how the council has the power to stop the store opening, as it falls within the proscribed use of the building. At best there can be some horse trading over what the store looks like.

Maybe some form of protest may give cause to Sir Terry Leahy – son of Liverpool, Tesco head honcho and Liverpool Vision board member – cause to step in.

It’s the only way I think we can avoid the prospect of yet another fucking Tesco opening up in the city centre.

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• Image by Sam the Sham via Creative Commons

Macca was speaking at a graduation ceremony for LIPA, er, graduates last week – with Will Yojng and Joe McGann also in attendance.

Presumably Paul got a better reception than Ringo the last time he was here.

• Image by Dave Evans

I’ve just returned from The Beatles Story’s White Feather: The Spirit of Lennon press launch at The Beatles Story Pier Head, where Julian Lennon gave the closest thing to an interview he’s provided in years.

Lennon and mother Cynthia were answering questions on the exhibition, created with mementos and artifacts they’ve largely collected themselves over the years.

A such it’s an intriguing and invaluable insight into a man frequently described as ‘difficult’ and ‘infuriating’ – it’s hard not to come to the conclusion having read various accounts of John Lennon that these were not simply euphemisms for ‘nasty piece of work’.

Of course, behind every nasty piece of work is often a rather vulnerable character, and the anecdotes and notes from the Lennons paint a portrait of John as a man equally difficult and easy to love.

• Image by Dave Evans

They go beyond what one might generally expect to see at an exhibition: beyond the Beatles memorabilia; beyond the obvious stories; beyond myth and legend.

I admired the fact that a lot of that extremely personal memorabilia had been thrown open to the public, and Julian claimed that nothing had been left out that was deemed of interest for those reasons.

Of particular interest to me were a picture of John holding a very young Julian looking like nothing more or less than a scal, and the origins of the White Feather Foundation – the story of which is oddly touching.

Elsewhere in the exhibition is a clip of John from That Was The Week That Was reading a poem of his; Macca’s notes for Hey Jude; and a handwritten photo album by Cynthia, the latter especially intriguing.

I felt rather sorry for Julian at the Q&A, assailed as he was by a number of questions you’d blush at asking a close friend. But he shrugged it off and gave frank, self-deprecating and amusing answers.

Perhaps the exhibition serves as a final conclusion to a difficult part of the man’s life, a coming-to-terms and a farewell to the father with whom he had such a troubled relationship.

A friend of mine was once curator at Mendips – John’s early home in Allerton – which is now kitted out in the decor and furnishings of the time. It was interesting, but rather theme park-y and vaguely pointless.

Yoko Ono bought the house and donated it to the National Trust, but had insisted on having the final say about the way things looked. This was absurd, as she had never visited the house when John was young.

As such, the White Feather exhibition is much more valuable as a document of John’s early life, and I admired Julian and Cynthia for creating it, along with their obvious bond.

• Image by Sakura

I’ve been pondering Ringo Starr’s latest advert, in which he suggests that all of his fame and fortune are down to him changing his name from Richard Starkey to Ringo Starr – rather than the songwriting genius of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.

Perhaps it’s unfair to have a pop at the the Scouse drummer. He’s been the butt of jokes about his rubbish drumming for donkey’s years, regardless of the fact that he’s actually an excellent drummer and we have his appearances in the likes of That’ll be the Day to prove that he had more than one string to his bow.

And could Thomas the Tank Engine ever be as enjoyable with Ringo’s ‘Is-he-drunk?’ Liverpudlian drawl.

It’s become rather fashionable and easy to knock Ringo over the course of the last year, what with his feeble Liverpool 08 single, ridiculing (not unfairly) the idea that he’d return to live in Liverpool and his bizarre Youtube appearance to demand that no more fanmail should be sent to him because he was too busy to sign any more Beatles crap.

A quick search on the net reveals exactly what Ringo is busy doing: earning cash from anyone who’s willing to throw it at him.

What the following adverts prove is that Ringo was, once upon a time, the funniest and coolest Beatle, who wasn’t bothered about sending himself up. In the light of Ringo’s disasters in 2008, I prefer to remember him like this.

And here’s the excellent Peter he’s-also-a-scouser Serafinowicz with his take:

Merry Christmas!

They could only think of seven they particularly liked, so the (shortened) list is in full below. If you’re outraged by the lack of Gerry and the Pacemakers, Badfinger, The Swinging Blue Jeans, The Scaffold, Billy Fury, The Real Thing, Deaf School, Echo and the Bunnymen, Might Wah!, Elvis Costello, Icicle Works, A Flock of Seagulls, China Crisis, Teardrop Explodes, Big in Japan, It’s Immaterial, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Dead or Alive, OMD, The Christians, Black, The Lightning Seeds, The KLF, Benny Profane, The Farm, The La’s, The Boo Radleys, Ooberman, Cast, Space, Atomic Kitten, Amsterdam, The Bandits, Tramp Attack, Odega, The Stands, Ladytron, The Little Flames, The Zutons, The Basement, Dead 60′s, Flamingo 50, Zombina and the Skeletones or Candie Payne, then vent your fury below.

If you’re annoyed about the absence of The Wombats, don’t be – they’re terrible.

The Magical World of The Strands – Michael Head

Jazz/folk smacked out brilliance. On first hearing this it may motivate an musician/artist to use heroin as their muse but one must quickly acknowledge that you do not have Mick Head’s genius to pull this off.

Faves are Queen Matilda and X Hits the Spot, something hazily beautiful born out of the fog of addiction.

Help! – The Beatles

People say Gram Parson invented country rock or cosmic American music but do they remember McCartney’s I’ve Just Seen a Face here from 1965, such a country influenced song that genuine American bluegrass legends The Dillards covered it?

More countrification with the Ringo sung Buck Owens cover Act Naturally, a great vocal and due credit to the much-maligned Beatle.

Lennon tries to be Dylan on the stoner song You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away which is always played on documentaries when discussing Brian Epstein so we remember, by subtle implication, that he was a homosexual.

Revolver – The Beatles

Acid rock! The Beatles chiming Epiphone Casinos harmonise beautifully on And Your Bird Can Sing, an “elegantly classical/Baroque leitmotif” (Alan W Pollock ‘Notes on The Beatles’).

Someone said this was about Mick Jagger because his bird, Marianne Faithfull, could sing. But she couldn’t really and surely Lennon would have known this so I am not sure about this anecdote.

This album followed on from Rubber Soul and I think George Harrison said they were like Volume 1 and Volume 2. You can almost smell the marijuana smoke but, like Mick Head, don’t try this at home unless you are already a genius.

Remember, if you are genetically predisposed to mental illness marijuana might just give you paranoid psychosis or schizophrenia.

Greatest Hits – The Coral

As good as Alan Partridge’s Best of The Beatles, these less indigenous scousers write scores of catchy tunes with beautiful country influenced guitar by erstwhile member Bill Ryder-Jones. Jacqueline is lovely and, if she exists, I would like to meet their muse.

Unfortunately, Noel Gallagher’s endorsement of the band is the kiss of death which I hope they survive.

Paul and Linda McCartney – Ram

Hope this still counts as they probably were living on a big farm in Scotland when this was made. Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey is another great example of McCartney’s knack for two songs in one, like Day in the Life or Band on the Run. 

This song was used very aptly when Del Boy and Rodney fall out with Uncle Albert and lose him in a Christmas special of Only Fools and Horses, in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if John Sullivan wrote this specifically to use the music.

3 EPs (Voot/Cement Mixer/Monkey On Your Back) – Clinic

Not strictly an album but it was the first long playing release from those edgy doo wop punks Clinic. A great two fingers to scouse musicians’ obsession with everything 60s and Clinic don’t even play in Liverpool. So fuck you scousers!

Achtung Bono – Half Man Half Biscuit

Haven’t actually ever heard this album but it beats The White Album to this top ten for the title alone.

Charnock and Russell are not a firm of solicitors but an almost Liverpool-based country rock outfit