The 45 minute show at St Georges Hall, which opened Capital of Culture 2008, cost an astonishing £4.5million.That's the shocking tab which will now have to be picked up by Liverpool's council tax payers.
It works out, by our calculations, at about £112,500 per minute (£4,500,000 divided by 40).
Or £118 for every man, woman and child in the audience! (£4,500,000 divided by 38,000)
The show, which police estimated drew 38,000 people in front of Lime Street, featured Ringo as the special guest star with his 'Liverpool 08 - I Left You" dirge.
Other highlights included:
- some non-Liverpool bearded bloke providing the commentary
- quite a lot of people standing on roofs pretending to be playing guitars
- a parade of 'C' list celebs, including the Lib Dem Lord Mayor and Our Lord Redmond, who came on and waved at the crowd
- and the quip from one bloke in the audience as he was showered with paper confetti: "that's my council tax money".
The £4.5 million cost is double the amount which was forecast - no surprise given the appalling incompetence of the Culture Company, overseen by the worst council in the country.
The cost escalated after Fireman Bradley told CoC chiefs:"The show must go on - whatever the cost."
He warned them that he would not tolerate a repeat of the Mathew Street fiasco.
Culture Company bosses, including the holidaying Kris Donaldson and Our Lord Redmond, have been desperate to try and keep the final cost covered up.
To no avail.
We expect them to do everything possible to avoid answering a potential Freedom of Information question, clearly and directly.
Never mind truthfully.
But we would encourage our loyal readers to ask that question.
Meanwhile our Lib Dem run city council is £62million in debt, closing old folks homes, leisure and sport centres, raising charges and increasing the council tax by the maximum allowed - almost double the rate of inflation.
The cost escalated after Fireman Bradley told CoC chiefs:"The show must go on - whatever the cost."
He warned them that he would not tolerate a repeat of the Mathew Street fiasco.
Culture Company bosses, including the holidaying Kris Donaldson and Our Lord Redmond, have been desperate to try and keep the final cost covered up.
To no avail.
We expect them to do everything possible to avoid answering a potential Freedom of Information question, clearly and directly.
Never mind truthfully.
But we would encourage our loyal readers to ask that question.
Meanwhile our Lib Dem run city council is £62million in debt, closing old folks homes, leisure and sport centres, raising charges and increasing the council tax by the maximum allowed - almost double the rate of inflation.
- No 38 in a Liverpool SubCulture series 'Stories you won't read in the craven Echo'.
