LIVERPOOL MAY BE THE CITY OF CULTURE,BUT TIM LEATHERBARROW IS THE CARTOONIST OF CULTURE .

Last week 'yours truly' and his beloved missus went to theROYAL LVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC HALL.(Incredibly totally bypassing the PHILHARMONIC pub..Thats culture for you.) To watch the a ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 'gig'. They played a couple of tunes ,one called the ENIGMA VARIATIONS, which i'd actually heard of.(even if i did think it was a YES track.). I'd never seen a full orchestra before and i must ad mit i was quite impressed. The violinists were hammering away all the way through, as were the brass and various wind instruments. I had a little titter at the big bass drum at the back ,he sauntered on gave the drum a good whack then sauntered back off to finish his book ,watch Vera Duckworth die on CORONATION STREET,or just put the kettle on. I reckon i could be a classical musician, just hand me the drum . Some Oriental violin player(i'm irish ,so it's a fiddle.)..But she did some solo that went on for about three n' half hours. She was absolutly amazing. The tune ,it has to be said wasn't one you'd have trouble getting out of your head and find yourself humming nonstop for the next fortnight,until it drives you or your (previously) loved/ close ones absolutly nuts.... But now i'm cultured ,instead of leaping around the living room accompanying mr PETER TOWNSHEND on the AIR GUITAR, i have adopted the role of standing in the centre of the living room waving a plastic 12 inch ruler and a wooden soup spoon as a classical conductor to the classics...(QUADROPHENIA ,LIVE AT LEEDS,etc,etc...) Good stuff this culture!