FERTILE GROUND: THE LONG STANDING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SEFTON PARK AND MUSIC FESTIVALS
We are in that time of year when for one glorious, and hopefully sunny, weekend Sefton Park is taken over by the wonderful Africa Oyé. Oyé is a completely unique event with an incredible range of music that always brings so much joy to so many people who make the annual pilgrimage to one of the city’s most beautiful green spaces. It is, for lots of people, the highlight of the musical year and we should all be grateful to Paul Duhaney and the whole team behind Oyé for their work in continuing to deliver this magnificent free event.
The park will be full of music again in mid July with the arrival of a new Live Nation event simply named In The Park. They’ve got a great line up including a Friday night featuring local hero Jamie Webster, who is moving ever onwards after conquering the On the Waterfront festival on the Pier Head last year. Headlining Sefton Park is another major statement from a lovely local lad who deserves all the success he is having. He is backed by what is effectively a mini festival on the day with a really strong supporting line up including Brooke Combe and the mighty Red Rum Club.
Some of my favourite memories of music in the park are from when Culture Liverpool were responsible for the Liverpool International Music Festival (LIMF) between 2013 and 2019. Even now I remember the first ever LIMF which opened on a Friday night with the Philharmonic Orchestra playing a set of popular tunes. In the dusk of the early evening the sound drifted across the park and took on a magical quality.
Photo credit: Mark McNulty
Everyone will have different memories and highlights of LIMF, but for me a key thing was the opportunity the festival provided for emerging local talent on such a grand stage. There were special moments when local legends Echo and the Bunnymen headlined or when The Real Thing had the whole audience dancing. There were great commissions including Yousef curating a night in the iconic Sefton Park Palm House. And that’s before you even get on to the major national and international talent featured including the likes of De La Soul, Young Fathers, and of course Nile Rogers. 2019 was the last LIMF in the park and for many the standout performance was the headlining slot by the towering musical genius of Nile Rogers.
Nile always brings the party and the whole park was bouncing. Well almost all the park – I was looking after the Liverpool Music City stage where at the same time as Nile was strutting his stuff local bands like The Tea Street band and the Zutons were paying tribute to the late Tony Butler. Tony was the owner/manager of the Zanzibar and in his own unique way he had done so much to help the careers of young local bands passing through the venue. There were only 100 or so of us there, because everyone else was watching Nile, but we had our own little party as a fitting tribute to Tony.
Photo credit: Mark McNulty
But Liverpool’s musical history with the park goes back much further than LIMF and even Oyé. Way back in the early 80s there was a wonderful, if slightly chaotic event, called Larks in The Park which featured a largely local line up over three days in the park. The stage was the bandstand with the audience sitting or standing on the embankment opposite with both separated by a small band of water and a fence that could easily be climbed if you really wanted to jump in the murky water. In 1982 I reviewed Larks for NME and was lucky enough to see an early incarnation of Frankie Goes To Hollywood and gave them their first review in the national music press. That same year the BBC also broadcast two gigs from there – one with Echo and the Bunnymen at the very height of their considerable powers which is well worth tracking down.
Photo credit: Mark McNulty
To be honest I’m not sure what happened with Larks but its place was soon taken by Earthbeat who occupied the same bandstand site but brought in a much more diverse line up. My memories of that period are all a bit hazy now but I’m pretty sure I saw Stone Roses there, The La’s, and quirky but brilliant entertainment in the shape of bands like Donnie and Marie Handbag Revolution and Eat My Dog. Again I was fortunate enough to cover one year (1990) of the festival for the NME but my overriding memory of events like Larks and Earthbeat is largely of long days sitting in the sun, meeting friends, making new friends, and generally just enjoying amazing music in a glorious coming together of Liverpool music fans in one of the city’s most beautiful sites.
Words by Kevin Mcmanus
