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

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.

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