PERCEPTION OF LIVERPOOL PRE late 1980s AND POST 1990s EVENTS WHICH HOLD EVERLASTING IMPACTS ON THE PERCEPTION OF THE CITY OF LIVERPOOL AND ITS PEOPLE PROFOUND MOMENTS OF LIVERPOOLS HISTORY WHICH TO THIS DAY HAVE AN IMPACT ON HOW THE CITY AND ITS PEOPLE ARE PERCIEVED TO THIS DAY

INTRO Liverpool is a city which is rich in history and culture. Throughout its history it has had its pitfalls and triumphs. In the space of 100 years the city went from a thriving industrial port city to a cultural and youth hub to a city of decline. Each of these moments in history having a profound impact on how the city is viewed to this day.

IN 1960s THE BOOM OF THE BEATLES AND THEIR IMPACT There is no doubt that The Beatles have had a major influence on how the city of Liverpool and its people are perceived. To this day people around the world associate the city of Liverpool with The Beatles. Considering the many things that Liverpool has been through over the years this is a pleasant and comforting thought as a Liverpudlian myself knowing that most of the world have a positive association when thinking of this city. In the late 1950s Liverpool’s port was still thriving. However, it had suffered considerable damage due to World War II. All over the city there were still undeveloped bomb sites. Lime-Street station was still in terrible condition following the war. The Beatles were an integral part of the explosion of Liverpool as a cultural hub in the 1960s. Liverpool also became the centre of youth culture in the 1960s. During the 1950s there was no place for teenagers in society. Once they were old enough, they started to dress and act like their parents as soon as possible. On TV there weren’t anything for them to watch or relate to. There were some cartoons and programs suitable for children and then it switches straight to programs for the adults. So, during the 1960s teenagers thrived through Beatlemania and the music which was also able to thrive thanks to the part in which The Beatles played.

https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/museum-of-liverpool/beatles The band members, John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met in 1957 at a Woolton church fete where Johns band, The Quarrymen were playing. A year later George Harrison joined, and The Beatles’ journey began. In 1962, the fourth and final member, the drummer, Ringo Starr joined the band. The Beat Goes on: Liverpool, Popular Music and the Changing City by Spencer Leigh https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Zx_OpMptTFQC&oi=fnd&pg=PA28&dq= BEATLES+LIVERPOOL&ots=8ZFqGEz3F&sig=kj97tM59PA02VJJV2ewpM0ewjZo&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=BEATLES% 20LIVERPOOL&f=false The Beatles had a great influence on the world’s perception of Liverpool. They always spoke highly of the city of Liverpool and portray a great image for the representation for city and the people of Liverpool. In February 1964, The Beatles had their first ever American press conference. At the conference they were asked “Can you explain your strange English accents?”, George Harrison replied “It’s not English. It’s Liverpudlian.” Before The Beatles, Liverpool was never nationally recognised as having its own accent at all. In 1950 in a film Waterfront, the actor Robert Newton played his Merseyside docker with a Cockney accent. ^^ Liverpool - Wondrous Place: From the Cavern to the Capital of Culture https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=20CfjILnQ9cC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=cultur e+liverpool+1960&ots=ne3q1jeUke&sig=1F72AytCKfapLe9McwJCygOeQBw&redir_esc=y#v= onepage&q=culture%20liverpool%201960&f=false

In saying this they helped the image of the city of Liverpool and projected the city once again on a worldwide scale in a positive way. Following this the terms “Merseybeat” and “Beatlemania” were formed giving a sense of identity and pride for the city.

2009 a movie was made called Nowhere Boy which depicted the relationship between John Lennon and his mother. The movie painted Liverpool in a friendly light which will have added to the desire for tourist to want to visit Liverpool and experience the city for themselves.

More recently a movie called Yesterday was released in 2019. Which featured music from The Beatles, reigniting the buzz around The Beatles while simultaneously shining a positive light and interest back to the City of Liverpool and its people. MURALS & STATUES Throughout the city there are many forms of art to celebrate the connection to the Liverpudlian band, The Beatles. These bring in many tourists who wish to really explore and be engulfed by the rich history and culture that the city of Liverpool has to offer, thus creating a positive association to the city. Mural of The Beatles near the Seaforth docks. The Beatles statue on the Liverpool waterfront.

1970, early 80s - The Mersey Militants The English city that wanted to 'break away' from the UK https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29953611 Between 1972 and 1982, the docks closed, and its manufacturing sector shrank by 50% resulting in 80,000 jobs being lost. The Militant Tendency group, an ultra-left-wing movement with goals including widespread nationalisation and massive programme of public works. “Screenwriter Jimmy McGovern recalls typing a CV for his brother in the early 1980s. ‘From 1976 onwards it was this litany - Birds Eye, [Fisher] Bendix, Leyland, every one of them - reason for leaving: factory closed, factory closed, factory closed.’” Derek Hatton, a former firefighter, was an important figure during this time. He was elected to the city council in 1979. "There was a lot of anger around," Hatton remembers. "Thatcher had come to power and was taking more money off the local authority. So there was a mood in city, which was saying, 'Hang on a minute! What's going on here?'"

Tony Mulhern (center left), and Derek Hatton.

Militant supporters were elected to key positions in the Liverpool Labour party and, in 1983, the same year Margaret Thatcher won her second

general election by a landslide. Labour won in the city of Liverpool on a radical socialist manifesto. Roy Gladden, a non-Militant Labour councillor both then and now, says the council was confident it could secure the funds it needed. The Secretary of State for the Environment, Patrick Jenkin, visited Liverpool and was so shocked by the poor housing he saw, he awarded the city an extra £20m. The following year the council asked for more money, the answer they got being no. "They didn't seem to have the right kind of feeling," says Gladden. "They were happy for us to have the factories and make the money that then got shifted to the south, to London. But when it came for that to be returned it didn't happen." the musician Peter Hooton, who was then a youth worker on one of Liverpool's poorest estates, Cantrill Farm. "When Thatcher was in power, we felt that she looked at Liverpool and thought: 'Well, they're not really English, are they?'. "Liverpool has always seen itself as separate from the rest of the country. As a city, it has more in common with Belfast and Glasgow than it does with London. There was the big influx of Irish and, because it's a port, it's always been international. We look to America and Ireland - to New York and Dublin - more than we look to London." ^^^Scouse not English.

LIVERPOOL ON THE BRINK Michael Parkinson

https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3115345/1/Liverpool%20On%20The%2 0Brink.pdf THE ORIGINS OF THE BUDGET CRISIS – 1974-1983 P9-36 MANUFACTURING CORPORATIONS AND UNEMPLOYMENT FIGURES 70/80s P12. By 1975 only 70 per cent of the manufacturing firms were locally controlled and in the 1980s just one of the twenty largest manufacturing companies on Merseyside were locally controlled. The rest being controlled by national or multi-national corporations meaning that many of the decisions were made in the interest of national or international markets, not local. The companies being controlled by national or multinational corporations did not really have any kind of obligations or loyalties to the city of Liverpool or the people of Liverpool meaning that they were particularly susceptible to the loss of jobs as they rationalise and restructure production during recessions. “Between 1979 and 1984 almost half its manufacturing jobs, 40,000, were lost in this way as Liverpool became known as the Bermuda Triangle of British capitalism. In the mid 1980s, the city had lost control of its economic destiny.” “From 1971 to 1985 total employment in the city fell by 33 per cent in contrast to the national figure of only 3 per cent. And this brought heavy rates of unemployment.” “But the position worsened considerably during the 1970s as the rate of unemployment in Liverpool quadrupled from 5 per cent to 20 per cent.” Unemployment also lasts longer in Liverpool than elsewhere. In 1979, 37 per cent of registered unemployed people in Liverpool had been out of work for more than a year compared with only 24 per cent nationally.

LIVERPOOL PERCEPTION DUE TO WORKERS STRIKES - 1970

Liverpool Strikes | Trade unions | Striking workers | 1970s Liverpool | Have your Say | 1978 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc5VuXX7igU A local woman was asked whether she thought that Liverpool workers were lazy, her response being “they are damn lazy, damn lazy!” to which the interviewer responded, “what makes you say that?”, the strikes being the reasoning behind her thoughts. The interviewer then goes on to ask, “has your husband ever been out on strike?” to which the woman responded, “yes and I was disgusted with him.” Another local woman was proposed the same question, “has your husband ever been on strike?” she responded “no he’s out of work, he’s been out of work for two years. He can’t get a job, but he wants one.” – “But he’s starting to go lazy with no having a job.” “The area has a reputation for militancy, gained when Liverpool was the country’s second greatest port and the unions ruled supreme in the docks.” “That militancy spread to other unions, strikes were frequent and Liverpool workers acquired a reputation for laziness that they haven’t been able to lose.”

LIVERPOOL RENT STRIKE 1970 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE7rYJSr9QI&t=79s On October 2nd, 1972, the Conservative government pass the Housing Finance Act. This raised council rents and brought back the means test for those unable to pay. Their elected labour councillors promised not to implement the rent rise. However, they went back on this once they were in office and personably liable for any uncollected rent. They summoned the strikers to court, and they did not appear. After 12 months criminal proceedings began. Out of the 36 tenants that received notice, only three attended court. Next the men and women were threatened with imprisonment. On October 9th, 1972, 3000 tenants went on a total rent and rates strike against the Housing Finance Act.

The interviewee states… “The working-class position could change, but it won’t change through the media” “It won’t change by films, television, papers, it will not change because as you’ve just said, you said it’s middle-class views. It’s controlled and owned by the middle-class. Who put across what is in their best interest.” “The only people that can change the working-class position is the working class themselves.”

2008 CAPITAL OF CULTURE

LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB AND THEIR CONSISTENT SUCCESS Liverpool Football Club is another integral piece of Liverpool’s History and Culture. The city celebrates its victories and successes while also not forgetting the clubs past and events. Liverpool Football club alongside The Beatles places the city on a world-wide platform. The club have fans all over the world which are dedicated to the club and are welcomed by the city. 1960s While the Liverpudlian band, The Beatles, were taking the world by storm Liverpool Football Club also began to have some success of their own. Bill Shankly took over the club and lead them to many victories over the years.

1980s 90s Hillsborough disaster in 1989 is a moment which will forever have an impact on the city of Liverpool and how the city is viewed. - Could again write about this and include the stereotypes surrounding scousers being hooligans and robbers.

2000s onwards The success of winning the champions league on a global scale. Most recently at the champions league final in France. People outraged painting Liverpool and its fans as rowdy people and blaming it all on Hooliganism. Consequently, showing Liverpool in a negative light. The city of Liverpool and its people yet again finding themselves back in the position of falling victim to false news and policing People on social media and the media linking the event to Hillsborough people saying, “have they learned nothing from Hillsborough”. Feeling like a step backwards for the city of Liverpool putting them right back in 1989 during the Hillsborough disaster.

NEWS – stabbings, shootings.