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Hidden facts about the Liver Building and the Liver birds

2020-12-01 By Aidan O'Rourke 17 Comments

Video embedded at 23.56 hrs on Friday 18.12.2020. Video uploaded 16.12.2020 26 views after 3 days.
In mid-2020 I wrote a new and extended version of this article, which is one of the most popular articles on my aidan.co.uk site. In December 2020 I made a new video entitled 27 Facts about the Liver Building. It appears on my AVZINE YouTube Channel.

So if you watch the video above and read the article below, you will learn a lot about this amazing building.

But there are still some questions that are unanswered, which I list at the bottom of the page. If you have any answers please leave a message. In honour of Carl Bernard Bartels, I have also produced a German-language version of the video. Many thanks for watching and please subscribe to my AVZINE channel.

The Royal Liver Building is the most famous building in Liverpool and it is admired and loved by both local people and visitors. It’s located on the Pier Head, overlooking the River Mersey. Its two clock towers, and the two iconic Liver birds standing on top of them, can be seen from all over the city. It was constructed between 1908 and 1911 and is one of the so-called Three Graces. The other two are the Cunard Building, built 1914-1917, and the Port of Liverpool building, 1904-1907.  

The Liver Building is one of the most familiar sights in Liverpool and you’ll find plenty of information about it in tourist guides and on websites. But certain facts about the Liver Building are shrouded in mystery, and there are some questions to which I’ve not found any clear answers. I will list them at the end.

Hidden Facts about the Liver Building and the Liver Birds

1. The Liver Building is made out of reinforced concrete with a granite façade.

You’ll read that the Liver Building is made out of reinforced concrete. Its use of reinforced concrete for the structure of the building was ground-breaking at the time it was built. But it’s also important to know that the exterior is clad – or covered – in granite. The granite has a pale shade of brown, unlike the white Portland stone used on the Cunard and Port of Liverpool buildings. I’ve heard people say this colour is not very attractive but I don’t find that. It’s part of its unique character.

2. The Liver Building is built on one-third of a filled-in dock.

I used to wonder, why is it that on Liverpool’s Pier Head, there are three magnificent buildings, rectangular in floor plan, standing side by side? And then I discovered that all three were constructed on what used to be St George’s Dock. It was drained and the site was prepared for new buildings.

Water Street and Brunswick Street were extended across the former dock, dividing it into three. Three buildings then appeared where ships used to moor. And here’s another hidden fact: if you turned the clock back a few centuries, and looked from St Nicholas church, the Three Graces would be out in the river. The entire Pier Head and dock system is built on reclaimed land.

Liver Building clock face at dusk 22.09.1999
The Liver Building and the Tower Building 22.05.2005
Liver Building facade and clock tower 23.05.2005
The Liver Building, Cunard Building and Cunard Liner Caronia
View along the Albert Dock towards the Three Graces. The new building constructed on Mann juts in on the right, obscuring the view of the Port of Liverpool Building
The Liver Building, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building reflected in the Albert Dock (Image turned upside down and flipped horizontally)

3. The inner courtyard walls have been covered with a modern glass façade.

In 2011, I visited the Liver Building to take photographs for the book ‘Liverpool Then and Now’, and I was shocked to discover that the interior facade has been covered in a glass skin similar to a 1960s office block. I didn’t take a photograph of it, as I didn’t want to spoil the image I had in my mind. Since its completion in 1911 the Liver Building, like most commercial buildings, has been altered and renovated, but I’m not sure when the glass wall was added. That’s another one of my questions at the end.

4. The riverside clock tower has three faces, the landside tower has only one.

I’ve been looking at the Liver Building for many years but had never quite fully noticed that the four clock faces are split between the two clock towers. On the west tower, there are three clock faces looking north, west and south, respectively.

On the east tower, there is only one clock face, looking east over the city centre. And here’s another hidden fact: all four clocks are controlled by the same mechanism. I don’t quite understand how that works, so that’s another question, which I’ve added to the list at the end.

5. The clock faces are bigger than those on the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster in London.

The clock faces of the Liver Building are bigger than the ones on the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament, completed in 1859. These are 23 feet or seven metres wide but the Liver Building clock faces are 25 feet wide or 7.6 m.

One information source stated that the clock on the front of Shell Mex House, further down the Thames, is bigger. But it’s not a proper clock face, just a section of the façade onto which clock hands and hour markers have been fixed. The Liver Building clock faces are proper clock faces made of metal and opaque glass, and they are recognised as the biggest in the UK.

The Pier Head and Three Graces, Liverpool

The Wrigley Building, Chicago

6. It looks similar to some early skyscrapers in the United States.

The Liver Building is said to closely resemble the Allegheny Court House in  Pittsburgh, built in 1884 and Adler & Sullivan’s Schiller Theatre in Chicago, built in 1891 and demolished in 1961.

I think it looks very similar to the Wrigley Building in Chicago, but that building dates from 1924. Could the Liver Building have influenced architecture on the other side of the Atlantic, just as Birkenhead Park influenced Central Park in New York?

7. The clock faces are the largest electronically driven clocks in the UK.

The Liver Building clocks are the biggest electronically driven clocks in the UK and this is a reminder that the building brings together both traditional and modern elements. The ornamented clock tower conforms to classic architectural principles you’ll see in world architecture, including Islamic architecture, but the mechanism of the clock is pure 20th century.

Liver Building clock face at dusk 22.09.1999

Liver Building clock face at dusk 22.09.1999

8. There are no bells inside the towers of the Liver Building.

There are bell towers on town halls and cathedrals including Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, and you can often hear them ringing. But inside the clock towers of the Liver Building, there are no bells. It made no sound at all until 1953 when a chiming mechanism was installed in memory of Royal Liver staff killed during two world wars.

The chimes were made using piano wires hit by hammers and the sound was amplified using a microphone, amplifier and speaker. This device gradually deteriorated and was out of operation for around four years. But in 2016, the chimes returned, thanks to the Cumbrian Clock Company, who are responsible for the maintenance of the clocks. They recorded the old chimes and saved the audio onto a hard drive. This sound is played throughout the day and the evening through a large speaker located under the cupola of the west tower.

It doesn’t sound quite like a real bell, but it’s better than no bell at all. I was intrigued to discover that when the building was under construction, there had been plans to put real bells in the tower and some space was set aside to accommodate them. But in the end, no bells were installed for fear that they would be too heavy for the new style of construction using reinforced concrete.

Composite image showing the tallest towers in NW England (05.05.2006)

Composite image showing the tallest towers in NW England (05.05.2006)

9. The Liver Birds were designed by a German.

This fact was remained hidden from many many years. It was only in recent years that the identity of the person who created the metal cormorant-like birds was revealed. He was Carl Bernard Bartels, a German emigré artist born in Stuttgart. He came to live in England in 1887 after falling in love with the country. A competition was held to design and build the two birds that would be placed on the roof of the Liver Building, and he won.

A few years after the Liver Building was completed, the First World War began and there was a strong anti-German feeling. Carl Bernard Bartels was interned on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien and deported in 1918. He returned to England in the mid-twenties and spent the rest of his life there. Carl Bernard Bartels created Liverpool’s most famous pair of icons, but this fact was kept hidden until the late 20th century because he was German. Inside the Liver Building, there is now a plaque in his honour.

Memorial to Carl Bernard Bartels, sculpture and designer of the Liver birds 1866-1955
Close-up of east-facing Liver Bird (Bertie)
West-facing Liver Bird (Bella)
West-facing Liver Bird (Bella) holding branch

So, those are what I believe to be the surprising facts – at least, they surprised me when I first found out about them. Let’s continue with more generally known facts.

10. The Liver Building was designed by local architect Walter Aubrey Thomas

The Royal Liver Building was designed by Walter Aubrey Thomas, a Liverpool-based architect who was born in New Brighton, Cheshire in 1864. He designed many buildings in Liverpool city centre. I was interested to discover he designed a listed building on Lord Street which has distinctive stripes and an arch.

The Liver Building and the Tower Building 22.05.2005

The Liver Building and the Tower Building 22.05.2005

I took a picture of the Liver Building from the corner of Water Street, zooming in on the clock tower. There’s another building to the right, a white building. That other building is the Tower Building, which pre-dates the Liver Building by several years. You can see it in old photos. It’s quite similar, with arches and those ‘curled’ motifs. In fact, the Tower Building was also designed by Walter Aubrey Thomas, something that is rarely mentioned, even though it stands directly opposite the Liver Building and could be seen as its precursor.

11. The Liver Building is a listed building, part of the UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Liver Building is a Grade 1 listed building (not Grade 1*, as one person mentioned. There is only Grade II*). A Grade 1 listed building is recognised as being of outstanding architectural merit and of national significance. That’s certainly true of the Liver Building.

It is also recognised as an important part of the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City. That puts the area on a par with the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids and Angkor Wat. But on the UNESCO list, it’s marked in red, because its quality and uniqueness are under threat due to proposed construction projects nearby.

The Liver Building 25.02.2009
“Festival des Flusses” am Pier Head, Liverpool , 2014
Liver Building and Moel-y-Parc transmitter
The Liver Building at dusk seen from the Mersey Ferry 22.03.2019
Liver Building clock towers at dusk 22.03.2019
Cunard and Liver Buildings seen across The Strand
Liverpool Liver Building with Isle of Man seacat

12. The clock faces have no numerals.

This may seem of little importance at first sight, but if we look at other historic clock towers, maybe ones that are slightly older, we find that most have numerals, either Arabic or Roman style, like the town halls of Birkenhead, Bradford, Rochdale and the Tower of Westminster (‘Big Ben’). With its plain clock faces, the Liver Building clocks look towards a more modern style.

13. The Liver Building clocks are called the George Clocks.

They’re called the George clocks because they were set in motion at 1.40 pm on Thursday, 22 June 1911, when George Frederick Ernest Albert Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the Prince of Wales, officially became King George V. The clocks were made by Gent & Co of Leicester.

14. One of the clock faces was once used as a dinner table.

There is a photograph of one of the clock faces, which was turned into a huge banqueting table during the construction of the Liver Building. Sitting at the table are senior people from the Liver Assurance Group and Liverpool Corporation. The clock faces were later hauled up to the top of the building.

15. For many years it was the tallest building in Britain.

The Liver Building is said to be the UK’s first skyscraper, though at just 13 storeys, it doesn’t seem like much of a skyscraper. Already buildings in the United States were reaching much greater heights. But it remained the tallest building in Britain for many years. It’s 322 feet or 98.2 m to the top of the spires. It remains one of the tallest buildings in north-west England.

Composite images of the tallest towers in NW England 05.05.2006

Composite images of the tallest towers in NW England 05.05.2006

16. Each of the two Liver Birds holds something in its beak, but what is it?

The birds on the Liver Building have a wingspan of 24 feet or 7.3 metres and are 18 feet 5.5 metres high. If you look closely or zoom in with a camera, you will see that each Liver Bird is carrying something in its beak. It looks like a small twig or branch of a tree. It’s got four leaves. In most descriptions, this is identified as a piece of laver, or seaweed. The name ‘laver’ is a pun on the name ‘Liverpool’.

However, I’ve also read that it’s an olive branch. And the French language Wikipedia page states that the Liver bird holds in its beak a branch of genêt, the French word for broom, a type of bush with a yellow flower that appears in spring. Genêt is said to be a reference to the Plantagenet dynasty, who ruled England in the middle ages. Is this true? That’s another question to add to my list at the end! The Liver bird is a mythical bird, said to date back to 1207, when King John founded the borough of Liverpool by royal charter and used a bird on the seal.

17. It is named after the Royal Liver Assurance Company, but they are no longer in the building.

The building is named after the Royal Liver Assurance Company which was a friendly society.  Around the turn of the 20th century they decided to construct a new building for their 6000 staff. It remained the headquarters until Royal Liver Assurance merged with the Royal London Group in 2011. The group subsequently moved out of the building. In 2019 it’s reported to accommodate around 2000 staff working in a range of companies.

Luxembourg-based investment group, Corestate Capital, bought the building for £48 million in February 2017 along with Everton F.C. majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri. So, Liverpool’s most potent and best-loved symbol is a privately-owned office building. That’s an interesting fact. There must be very few other commercial office buildings with such an exalted status. Perhaps it’s symbolic, because Liverpool is a mercantile city whose wealth is built on business and trade (including, sadly, the slave trade).

18. The Liver Building was renovated in 2019 and also in the past.

In 2019, the Liver Building was renovated to bring it up to the standards required by today’s companies. Looking on the royalliverbuilding.com website, I see many changes have been carried out. There’s a photo of empty floor space with those semi-circular windows. But the building has not been preserved in its original state. That’s the way it is with working buildings, they have to be adapted for changing times, though seen from the outside, it looks as it did when it was first built.

Liverpool Liver Building and Pier Head with St Nicholas church

Liverpool Liver Building and Pier Head with St Nicholas church

And now we move from facts to popular legends.

19. The birds are called Bella and Bertie and if they fly away, Liverpool will cease to exist.

I’ve read from many sources, that the birds are called Bella and Bertie, but who exactly called them that? We are told that if they break away from their shackles and fly away, that will be the end of Liverpool. This story sounds like it was inspired by the ravens of the Tower of London. It’s said that if they leave the tower, the kingdom and the Tower of London will fall.

The difference is that the ravens are real birds, whereas the Liver Birds are copper sculptures weighing several tons and they’re tied down with cables. The birds face in opposite directions. It’s said that if they were facing each other, they might mate and break their moorings, causing the downfall of the city. According to another account, Bella watches over the ships and their crews while Bertie watches over the city and its people.

A variant of this is that Bella is on the lookout for handsome sailors on the arriving ships, while Bertie is checking that the pubs are open. What must he have been thinking during the 2020 Coronavirus crisis! A typically Scouse piece of humour is that the Liver Birds flap their wings every time a virgin walks along the Pier Head.

Panoramic view of Liverpool from Royal Liver 360 - 22.06.2019

Panoramic view of Liverpool from Royal Liver 360 – 22.06.2019

20. The views from the top of the Liver Building are fantastic!

There is no doubt that the views from the roof of the Liver Building are fantastic. When I wrote the previous version of this article in 2015, it wasn’t possible for the general public to enter the building and go up to the tower. Now it is! Read my review below to find out what I thought of the Royal Liver 360 visitor experience and why I was a little bit disappointed.

In 2019 Royal Liver 360 Tower Tours and Visitor Experience opened its doors. For the first time, visitors were able to go inside the building and ascend to the top of the tower. I did this in summer 2019 and I wasn’t disappointed, though I have one criticism! So here’s my quick review of the Royal Liver 360 tour and visit to the top of the building.

Liverpool City Centre seen from the top of the Liver Building-22.06.2019

Liverpool City Centre seen from the top of the Liver Building-22.06.2019

I booked in advance on the website. The ticket cost £16. The journey to the top of the building starts in the basement. The entrance is to the right of the main entrance to the Liver Building. In the reception area, there is a ticket desk and an exhibition, which is worthy of a visit in itself. There’s an impressive wooden model of the Liver Building. On the display boards, there’s information about the history of the building with many photos.

Soon it was time to start the tour. Visitors are assigned into groups and led by a friendly guide. At this point, we notice that the health and safety procedures are rigorous. There is a briefing, warning of potential hazards and telling us what to do in an emergency. This is quite different from other older attractions.

I realise it’s for our safety but it does impinge a little on the experience. The guide counts some of us into the lift and we go up. We wait for the others and then proceed out onto a balcony below the south clock face. Here we get our first glimpse of the cityscape and of one of the Liver Birds – it’s Bertie, the one facing out over the city. We can’t see Bella, she stands hidden above the tower. Our guide provides information and plenty of humorous remarks.

Next, it’s time to go up the stairs and into the interior of the clock tower, with its clock faces on three sides. In this room high above Liverpool, they’ve created an auditorium with speakers and digital projectors. Soon the lights go down.

What follows is a state-of-the-art presentation on the history of Liverpool and the Liver Building from its construction at the beginning of the century, through two world wars and up to the present day. The visuals are good, including animated 3D Liver Birds as well as many still and moving archive images. The sound is immersive and very loud. We hear the foghorns of the ships, the bombs of WW2 and finally, the song ‘Ferry Cross the Mersey’ by Gerry and the Pacemakers. It presents Liverpool perfectly and truly expresses the pride people have in the city.

View north from the Liver Building roof 22.06.2019

View north from the Liver Building roof 22.06.2019

Now, it’s time to go up to the top floor via a narrow staircase. Emerging into the daylight, we walk out onto the balconies and start to admire the panoramic views: the city centre to the east, the Pier Head, Albert Dock and River Mersey to the south, the view west across the river towards Birkenhead and the Welsh mountains and to the north and north-west, the docks, New Brighton and the Irish Sea. We are standing below the dome with Bella standing on top. We still can’t see her, but we can see Bertie on the other tower, standing with his back to us. He’s not being rude, he’s got an important job to do.

Many times I’ve looked across to the Liver Building from all parts of the city and from across the river.  Now it is stunning to see the view in the other direction. I start to take photos and videos, moving around each balcony and back again. I’m about to start a video shot of the city when…

Liverpool city centre seen from the Liver Building

“The tour is finished now, can you make your way back down the stairs…”

And that’s my only criticism of the Royal Liver 360 tour. You are only allowed, I think it was around 10 to 15 minutes at the top before being asked to leave. I spent a whole evening on the Shard in London and a similar amount of time and spent a few hours at the top of the Rockefeller Center in New York.

Fifteen minutes at the top of the Liver Building just isn’t enough time. I realise there are space limitations as well as health and safety considerations, but I would pay extra to spend more time up here and I’m sure a lot of other people would too. Royal Liver 360 bosses, please take note!

A few minutes later I’m back down on the Pier Head again, looking up at the iconic clock tower and hoping for an opportunity to spend a longer period up there some time in the near future.

Looking up at the facade of the Liver Building

Blick nach oben auf die Fassade des Liver Building

Personal observations and reminiscences.

The Liver Building was begun in the same year my father was born, 1908. He was christened Bertie, presumably after the popular name of George, who became King in 1911.

I remember visiting the Pier Head with my mother in the 1960s and taking the ferry to Woodside. I was captivated by the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool building. They had just been cleaned and looked as if they were made out of icing sugar. They seemed to ‘sing’, I can’t quite explain it. At that time, all the buildings in Manchester were still covered in black soot from the factories. I can’t remember much about the Liver Building, except that there were rows of green Liverpool Corporation buses parked in front of it.

Liver Building sketch by Aidan O'Rourke

Another memory from the sixties is the opening credits of the Liver Birds tv series, starring Nerys Hughes and Polly James. The grimy Liver Building can be seen from the ferry. There is an iconic shot looking up at the glamorous Nerys Hughes standing on the back of a bus, with the tower of the Liver Building behind.

In recent years I’ve followed all the changes on the Pier Head, I’ve taken photos and video of many festivals, including the Giants, I took ‘now’ shot of the building for the book ‘Liverpool Then and Now’ and went inside to capture the view of where the Liverpool Overhead Railway used to be. That’s when I saw the glass interior wall for the first time.

I’ve done some drawings too, which I am featuring on this page.

I love the Liver Building, its design, its location, the Liver Birds that stand on top of it, and all the associations it has with the history of Liverpool. I will go on admiring it and taking photos of it, like every local person and every visitor to the city. I hope to find out even more hidden facts about the Liver Building, which I will add to this page.

  • But I have some unanswered questions, some facts about the Liver Building that remain hidden, or at least not 100% clear. Can you provide any information?
  • Who exactly named the Liver Birds Bella and Bertie?
  • How are the four clocks, including one in a separate tower, controlled by one mechanism?
  • Exactly what type of branch are the Liver Birds holding in their beaks?
  • Which clock face was the one used as a dinner table?
  • Since when clock tower had an amber coloured light? I seem to remember that in the past, the light was white. Was it?
  • When was the earlier renovation carried out, during which the glass interior façade was added?
  • In what year were the Three Graces first cleaned? Was it in 1968?
  • What is the exact weight of each Liver Bird?

And here’s one extra fact: At around 11 pm on the evening of Friday 26 June, 2020, while crowds celebrated Liverpool FC’s Premier League win, someone threw a firework at the Liver Building and it started a fire on the front of the building. Mobile phone images show a blaze in front of the semi-circular window below the west tower. The fire was put out by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service. Comment: Setting fire to Liverpool’s most iconic building is not the best way to celebrate Liverpool FC’s win.

Deepen your knowledge of Liverpool by watching my Beatles video launched 09.01.2021. Click ‘YouTube’ to watch on YouTube and don’t forget to ‘like’ and subscribe!

Filed Under: Architecture, AVZ-EN, Liverpool, Video Tagged With: American-style architecture, Architecture, drawings, illustration, Liver bird, Liver Building, Liverpool, Liverpool attractions, Merseyside, Pier Head

The Welsh influence in Liverpool, the Scouse accent and the Welsh Streets

2020-10-07 By Aidan O'Rourke

The Audiovisual Magazine masthead

There are many connections between Liverpool and Wales. It’s said that Liverpool is regarded by many people in North Wales as their capital, not Cardiff. The Welsh accent has influenced the Liverpool accent, and the border with Wales is just twelve and a half miles down the road from Birkenhead. You can see the Clwydian hills from many parts of the city including Toxteth in the south.

Looking west along Althorp Street, Dingle, Liverpool with a view of the River Mersey, the Wirral and the Clwydian Hills in the distance

The view over the Liverpool region from the A55 in Flintshire, North Wales, is magnificent.

Welsh people started to migrate to Liverpool in the 18th century. In 1813 around 8000 people or 10% of the residents of Liverpool were Welsh.

They created communities around the city and Welsh was the dominant language in those places.

As in other British cities there are streets named after places in Wales such as Denbigh Road in Walton und Barmouth Way in Vauxhall.

But the most important symbol of the Welsh influence in Liverpool is the area called the Welsh streets in Toxteth, next to Princes Park, about a 10 minute bus ride south of the city centre.

The street names, and I’ll try and say them Welsh-style, include Wynnstay Street, Voelas Street, Rhiwlas Street, Powis Street, Madryn Street, Kinmel Street, Gwydir Street, Pengwern Steet, Treborth Street, Dovey Street, Teilo Street and Elwy Street.

These streets were built by Welsh building workers during the 19th century. The houses were designed by Welsh architect Richard Owens, who also designed many terraced houses in Liverpool as well as churches in North Wales.

Over the years the area became became run down. In the 2000s, there was plans to demolish the Welsh Streets, including the house where Ringo Starr was born – 9 Madryn Street. Local residents were generally in favour of refurbishment rather than demolition. The houses were vacated and prepared for being pulled down.

9 Madryn Street before 06.05.2018 renovation

9 Madryn Street 06.05.2018 before renovation

Beatles tours continued to the area, fans wrote messages on the front of the boarded up house.

The organisations SAVE Britain’s Heritage and the National Trust campaigned for the area to be renovated, especially because of its significance in the story of the Beatles.

A new plan was drawn up by Placefirst, a company based in Manchester that designs, builds and refurbishes homes for rent. Around three quarters of the houses in the Welsh Streets have been retained and renovated. Today, Ringo Starr’s old house looks almost new.

In October 2019 the Transformation of Welsh Streets by Placefirst was named UK’s Best Residential Project in the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors awards.

The Welsh influence in Liverpool declined during the 20th century. According to the 2001 census, around 1.17% of the population were born in Wales, but there are plenty more people in the city who have Welsh ancestors.

For me the clearest evidence of the Welsh influence in Liverpool is the accent. The up-and-down intonation of the Scouse accent is similar to the Welsh accent in English or with the Welsh language, yr iaith Gymraeg. In the Scouse accent, we can literally hear the influence of all those people who migrated from Wales to Liverpool in past centuries.

There’s also an Irish influence on the Liverpool accent but that’s another story.

The patron saint of Wales is Saint David, or Dewi Sant in Welsh. Saint David’s Day is celebrated every year in Liverpool, in Wales and around the world, on 1 March.

Sunset over the Mersey from the Albert Dock 28.08.2020

Filed Under: AVZ-EN, E-List, Liverpool, Popular, Wirral Tagged With: accents, language, Liverpool, Liverpool Welsh, Merseyside, North Wales, scousers, Wales heritage, Welsh culture, Welsh language

The Leaving of Liverpool due to Brexit – Music video and interview with Zinney Sonnenberg

2020-07-12 By Aidan O'Rourke Leave a Comment

Music slide show video and musician interview

In July 2020 I made a slide show for a video by the singer Zinney Sonnenberg. The video was showcased on 04.07.2020 in the Global Liverpool Facebook Event. The song ‘Liverhearts – Where can I find me another river’ is about the songwriter’s love for his adoptive home city of Liverpool and the pain of having to leave it. For this feature I present the slide show video featuring my photos and the transcript of the interview.

Written by Aidan O’Rourke | Sunday the 12th of July 2020

ENGLISH VERSION | GERMAN VERSION .

For the music slide show video I chose around fifty of my photos of Liverpool. I wanted to find out more about Zinney Sonnenberg, so I did an Interview with him via Zoom. The Audio and the transcript appear here in English as well as German.

Aidan O’Rourke Productions · The Leaving of Liverpool because of Brexit – Zinney Sonnenberg audio interview
Interview transcript

First I want to ask: What is your name? Where are you from and where do you live now?
My name is Gerd Zinsmeister. My artist name is Zinney Sonnenberg. I’m originally from Saarland. It’s on the border triangle of Germany, Luxembourg and France. I’ve been living in Bavaria, Dachau, for a year, known for the concentration camp in Dachau.

What is your profession?
I’m a musician by profession and work at the Dachau Music School as a music teacher and teach guitar, piano and singing. Otherwise I record and play live in Germany, England and Holland.

What kind of music do you play?
My music could be described as folk music with influences from pop and rock and world music.

How long were you in Liverpool?
I lived in Liverpool for 21 years.

When and why did you move to Liverpool?
I moved to Liverpool on the 10th of August, 1998 with my wife and three year old daughter to do a course at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

What were your early impressions of Liverpool?
I immediately fell in love with Liverpool, a fantastic city with friendly, open-minded people, a very special light, a lively nightlife and a very special accent that I had to get used to.

Where did you live?
For the first three years we lived in Toxteth on Pengwern Street, behind Saint Silas School in the Welsh Streets area. Our home was the second to last house at the end of the street, with a view of the schoolyard of Saint Silas school. Later, we lived in Aigburth for fourteen years.

Why did you stay in Liverpool?
After my course at LIPA was over, we had acclimatised ourselves well to Liverpool. I worked as a nurse in a nursing home on Mill Street in Toxteth. My wife took a course at Arts College on Myrtle Street. Our daughter Zoe had already made a lot of friends at Windsor School.

How is Liverpool different from other cities?
As a port city, Liverpool is home to people from many cultural backgrounds. In my daughter’s class at primary school, there were children from thirteen different countries.

Architecturally, the centre of Liverpool is very compact. The River Mersey, which has been the main artery of Liverpool for decades, dominates the city. But the the most striking peculiarity is the humorous, friendly and open-minded mentality of the Scousers.

What are your top 10 recommendations for visitors?
There are many interesting attractions in Liverpool and many things to do. Be sure to visit the Antony Gormley exhibition ‘Another Place’ in Waterloo. In addition, the two cathedrals, connected by Hope Street, are well worth seeing.

All the museums in Liverpool are free, and above all the Maritime Museum, with its Slavery section, is an absolute must for every visitor.

The new museum in the docks is interactive and describes the history of Liverpool. On the second floor you have a wonderful view of the Liver Building and the mouth of the Mersey.

You should definitely dive into the nightlife of Liverpool. Just go along to the various restaurants, pubs, clubs, live music venues or comedy clubs.

For those interested in art, there is the Walker Art Gallery and the Tate at the Albert Dock. You can combine a visit to the Palm House in Sefton Park with a glass of wine in Lark Lane or Penny Lane. For football fans it’s an absolute must, once in your life, to hear ‘You’ll never walk alone’ in Anfield.

The sunsets in Liverpool are unique and so I would highly recommend a walk between Aigburth and Liverpool city centre.

What is your personal favourite place?
My favourite place in Liverpool is Otterspool Park. The walk that leads through the park and ends at the Mersey is a wonderful walk and means a lot to me personally because I used to take the dog for a walk there every day.

Describe your career on the Liverpool music scene.
After studying at LIPA, I worked at first in order to buy more recording equipment. I was able to buy an analogue tape machine from The Christians and later a computer that I could use to record.

In between times, I regularly went to open mike events and played two or three songs there. In 2004 I met Jeff Davis from Probe Plus Records in Berlin at a music fair.

In 2007 we released my first album ‘Fishing In The Pool’ on the Probe Plus label with my band called Sonnenberg.

Then we released two more albums, ‘The End of the Rain’ and ‘Into The Light’.

Between 2004 and 2018 I went on tour with the band or solo in Scandinavia, the UK, Germany and Holland and as a supporting act for Half Man Half Biscuit, I played mainly in larger venues in the UK, such as the Shepherds Bush Theatre or the Liverpool Academy

Why did you decide to leave Liverpool?
The sole reason for leaving Liverpool was Brexit. We didn’t want to live outside of the EU as second class citizens in Britain without the right to vote.

When did you leave Liverpool and where did you go in Germany?
We left Liverpool on the 19th of July, 2019. We then moved to Bavaria, to Dachau.

When and why did you write the song ‘Where can I find me another river?’ ?
I wrote the song ‘Liverhearts Another River’ in 2018. It’s intended to reflect my love for Liverpool, as well as the pain and sadness of having to leave my adopted home because of social or political circumstances.

In general, as a songwriter, you try to express your feelings or create some breathing space for yourself. In this case, it was the frustration with the political change in 2016 that influenced some of my songs between 2016 and 2019

Thank you very much! I’m sorry about Brexit. I hope that you can come back to Liverpool some time.

I will do.

Filed Under: E-List, Interviews, Liverpool Tagged With: German Liverpool, Liverpool, Liverpool attractions, Liverpool Brexit, Liverpool folk scene, Liverpool German, Liverpool music, Liverpool rock scene, Mersey songs, Merseyside, musicians in Liverpool, song LIverpool Mesey, songwriters Liverpool, Study LIPA, The Leaving of Liverpool, the3million, Welsh Streets, world music

Der Abschied von Liverpool aufgrund des Brexits – Musikvideo und Interview mit Zinney Sonnenberg

2020-07-12 By Aidan O'Rourke Leave a Comment

Im Juli 2020 habe ich eine Dia-Show für ein Video des Sängers Zinney Sonnenberg gemacht. Das Video erschien am 04.07.2020 im Global-Liverpool-Facebook-Event. Der Song ‘Liverhearts – Where can I find me another river’ handelt von der Liebe des Künstlers zu seiner Wahlheimat Liverpool und den Schmerz, sie verlassen zu müssen. Hier präsentiere ich das Slide-Show-Video mit meinen Fotos sowie das Transkript des Interviews.

Geschrieben von Aidan O’Rourke | Sonntag den zwölften Juli 2020

ENGLISCHE VERSION | DEUTSCHE VERSION.

Für das Video habe ich ungefähr fünfzig meiner Fotos von Liverpool ausgewählt. Ich wollte mehr über Zinney Sonnenberg herausfinden, also habe ich mit ihm ein Interview per Zoom geführt. Das Audio und das Transkript erscheinen hier auf Deutsch sowie auf Englisch.

Aidan O’Rourke Productions · Der Abschied von Liverpool wegen dem Brexit – Interview mit Zinney Sonnenberg
Interview-Transkript

Guten Tag! Zuerst möchte ich fragen: Wie ist dein Name? Woher kommst du und wo wohnst du jetzt?

Mein Name ist Gerd Zinsmeister. Mein Künstlername ist Zinney Sonnenberg. Ich komme ursprünglich aus dem Saarland. Es ist an der Dreiländerecke Deutschland, Luxemburg und Frankreich. Seit einem Jahr wohne ich in Bayern, in Dachau, bekannt durch das Konzentrationslager in Dachau.

Okay, und was machst du von Beruf?
Ich bin Musiker von Beruf und arbeite in der Dachauer Musikschule als Musiklehrer und unterrichte Gitarre, Klavier und Gesang. Ansonsten nehme ich Platten auf und spiele live in Deutschland, England und Holland.

Was für Musik spielst du?

Meine Musik könnte man als Folk-Musik mit Einflüssen von Pop und Rock und Worldmusic beschreiben.

Und wie lange warst du in Liverpool?
Ich habe 21 Jahre in Liverpool gewohnt.

Wann und warum bist du nach Liverpool gezogen?
Ich bin am 10. August 1998 mit meiner Frau und meiner dreijährigen Tochter nach Liverpool gezogen, um einen Kurs an dem Liverpool Institut für Performing Arts zu machen.

Was waren deine frühen Eindrücke von Liverpool?
Ich hatte mich sofort in Liverpool verliebt, eine tolle Stadt mit netten, weltoffenen Menschen, ein ganz besonderes Licht, ein reges Nachtleben und ein ganz besonderer Dialekt, an den ich mich erst gewöhnen musste.

Wo habt ihr gewohnt?
In den ersten drei Jahren wohnten wir in Toxteth in der Pengwern Street, hinter der Saint-Silas-Schule in dem Walisischen Viertel. Unser Haus war das zweitletzte Hause am Ende der Straße mit Blick auf den Schulhof von der Saint-Silas-Schule. Später haben wir vierzehn Jahre lang in Aigburth gewohnt.

Warum bist du in Liverpool geblieben?
Nachdem mein Studium an der LIPA war beendet war, hatten wir uns gut akklimatisiert in Liverpool. Ich arbeitete als Krankenpfleger in einem Pflegeheim in der Mill Street in Toxteth.

Meine Frau machte einen Kurs am Arts College in der Myrtle Street. Unsere Tochter Zoe hatte an der Windsor School schon viele Freunde gemacht.

Wie ist Liverpool anders als andere Städte?
Als Hafenstadt beherbergt Liverpool Menschen aus vielen kulturellen Hintergründen. So waren in der Grundschulklasse meiner Tochter Kinder aus dreizehn verschiedenen Ländern.

Architektonisch ist die Innenstadt von Liverpool sehr kompakt. Der Fluss Mersey, der über Jahrzehnte die Lebensader von Liverpool war, prägt das Stadtbild.

Aber die herausragende Besonderheit ist die humorvolle, freundliche und weltoffene Mentalität der Scouser.

Was sind deine Top-10 Empfehlungen für Besucher?
Es gibt viele interessante Sehenswürdigkeiten in Liverpool und viele Dinge, die man tun kann.

Auf jeden Fall sollte man die Anthony-Gormley-Ausstellung ‘Another Place’ in Waterloo besuchen. Der Philharmonic ist der größte und prächtigste Pub in Liverpool. Außerdem sind die beiden Kathedralen, die von der Hope Street verbunden werden, sehr sehenswert.

Alle Museen in Liverpool sind kostenlos, und vor allem das Maritime Museum mit seiner Sklaverei-Abteilung, ist ein absolutes Muss für jeden Besucher. Das neue Museum an den Docks ist interaktiv und beschreibt die Geschichte von Liverpool. Im zweiten Stock hat man einen herrlichen Blick auf das Liver Building und die Flussmündung des Mersey.

Auf jeden Fall sollte man sich in das Nachtleben von Liverpool stürzen. Man sollte die verschiedenen Restaurants, Pubs, Clubs, Live-Music-Venues oder Comedy Clubs ein einfach mal besuchen.

Für Kunstinteressierte gibt es die Walker Art Gallery und die Tate am Albert Dock. Den Besuch des Palm Houses in Sefton Park kann man mit einem Glas Wein in der Lark Lane oder in der Penny Lane verbinden.

Für Fußballfans ist es ein absolutes Muss, einmal im Leben in Anfield You’ll Never Walk Alone zu hören.

Die Sonnenuntergänge in Liverpool sind einzigartig und so kann ich einen Spaziergang zwischen Aigburth und dem City Centre in Liverpool nur wärmstens empfehlen.

Was ist dein persönlicher Lieblingsort?
Mein Lieblingsort in Liverpool ist Otterspool Park. Der Spaziergang, der durch den Park führt und am Mersey endet ist ein wundervoller Spaziergang und ist deshalb sehr bedeutungsvoll für mich, weil ich da jeden Tag mit dem Hund spazieren war.

Kannst du deine Karriere auf der Musikszene in Liverpool beschreiben?
Ja, nach meinem Studium an der LIPA habe ich erst einmal gearbeitet, um mehr Aufnahmegeräte zu kaufen. So habe ich eine analoge Bandmaschine von den Christians gekauft und später einen Computer, mit dem ich aufnehmen konnte.

Zwischendurch bin ich immer wieder zu Open-Mike-Events gegangen, um dort zwei bis drei Lieder zu spielen. 2004 habe ich Jeff Davis von Probe Plus Records in Berlin auf einer Musikmesse kennengelernt.

2007 haben wir dann mit meiner Band unter dem Namen Sonnenberg mein erstes Album ‘Fishing In The Pool’ unter dem Probe-Plus-Label veröffentlicht.

Dann haben wir noch zwei weitere Alben ‘The End of the Rain’ und ‘Into The Light’ veröffentlicht.

Zwischen 2004 und 2018 war ich mit meiner Band oder auch solo in Skandinavien, Großbritannien, Deutschland und Holland auf Tour und habe als Vorgruppe von Half Man Half Biscuit in vor allem größere Venues in Großbritannien gespielt, wie zum Beispiel, das Shepherds Bush Theatre in London oder auch die Liverpool Academy.

Warum hast du dich entschieden, Liverpool zu verlassen?
Der Grund, Liverpool zu verlassen, war eindeutig der Brexit. Wir wollten nicht außerhalb der EU leben und in Großbritannien Bürger zweiter Klasse ohne Wahlrecht sein.

Wann hast du Liverpool verlassen und wohin in Deutschland bist du gegangen?
Wir haben Liverpool am 19. Juli, 2019 verlassen. Dann sind wir nach Bayern, nach Dachau gezogen.

Wann und warum hast du den Song ‘Where can I find me another river?’ geschrieben?
Das Lied ‘Liverhearts Another River’ habe ich 2018 geschrieben. Er soll meine Liebe zu Liverpool reflektieren, sowie den Schmerz und die Trauer, seine Wahlheimat verlassen zu müssen, weil es gesellschaftliche oder politische Umstände erforderlich machen.

Generell versucht man als Liedermacher oder Musiker seine Gefühle auszudrücken oder sich Luft zu verschaffen. In diesem Fall war es die Frustration über die politische Wende 2016, die einige meiner Lieder zwischen 2016 und 2019 beeinflussten

Vielen Dank! Es tut mir leid wegen dem Brexit, aber ich hoffe, du kannst irgendwann zurück nach Liverpool kommen.

Das hoffe ich auch!

Filed Under: AVZ-DE, D-List, German, Interviews, Liverpool, Video Tagged With: Brexit Liverpool, das Walisische Viertel, Deutsche Einwanderer, Deutsche in Liverpool, Deutscher Einfluss Liverpool, Fluss Mersey, Folk Musik Liverpool, Liverpool Musiker, Liverpool Touristenattraktionen, Mersey songs, Merseyside, Musik Liverpool, Rock Musik Liverpool, Studium LIPA, the3million, World-Musik

Photo Essay: Silhouetted Scenes at Dusk

2015-02-07 By Aidan O'Rourke

EYEWITNESS 2015 blog by Aidan O'Rourke

Wellington Grove off the A6 in south Stockport, silhouetted rooftops and street lamp at dusk

 
I love the effect of dusk light, when street lights, buildings are cast into shadow and appear silhouetted against the sky.

In the urban landscape of northern England, many of these buildings remind us of the past. Modern elements such as cars and fashions are excluded. We can only imagine what is in the black areas, it could be from the present or from our memories of the past. The sky is full of atmosphere, enhancing the nostalgic effect.

In this photo, taken from bus stop near where we live, a 50s style street lamp appears on the left, whilst the rooftops slope down from the corner of the picture. The chimney stacks look mostly as they did 100 years ago, except that there is no smoke.

Aerials are pointed north towards Winter Hill. Cables stretched over the street carry phone and internet communications. In a few minutes time the pink sky will have turned dark.

When photographing for silhouettes, it may be necessary to reduce the exposure compensation to minus one or possibly two. Here, there was an area of sky in the centre of the picture, so it wasn’t necessary. If the are had been dark, the camera would have tried to lighten the picture.

Silhouetted shapes generally look better when sharp, and so a narrower aperture will be better. This photo was taken at aperture f11, shutter speed 125th of a second, ISO800.

Atmospheric sky with street lamp and telegraph pole, Cheadle Heath, Stockport

The light in this photo was especially atmospheric, with dark clouds above and bright sunlight peeping below the clouds behind the house.

Even in the age of satellites, wireless hotspots and fiber-optic cables, 19th century telegraph poles continue in use. The street lamp almost looks as if it has already switched on, but it’s just a trick of the light.

This photo is taken in Cheadle Heath, on Kensington Road, near where I grew up as a child.

Stockport Edgeley spire of St Matthews church silhouetted against a rainy sky

This is the view from Platform 4 at Stockport’s Edgeley Station. I took the photo of the spire of St Matthew’s church, Edgeley after a heavy shower.

The spire of St Georges Church south Stockport silhouetted against a dusk sky

When silhouetted against the dusk sky, the spire of St George’s Church, Heaviley, Stockport looks exactly the same as when it was completed, in 1897. The angle emphasises the flying buttresses at the base of the spire. At the very top, the weather cock faces to the west. The spire is 238 feet high.

The tower of Birkenhead town hall silhouetted at dusk

Birkenhead Town Hall ahs a distinctive shape with a dome at the top. Nearby are the rooftops of the houses on Hamilton Square, and there is a flag, though it’s impossible to make out what flag is is. A visually fascinating element of the clock tower is the clock face, lit from behind. The time is 6.20pm.

Capture details: 1/125s f5.6 ISO800, 31 Dec 2005, 18:11:26.

Liverpool Municipal Buildings and the Unity Building silhouetted at dusk, seen from St John's Gardens

The view from St Johns Gardens, Liverpool faces towards the west and often the skyline is silhouetted. Here the tower of the Municipal Buildings on Dale Street points up into the dusk sky. On the right, a modern element is introduced.

It’s the Unity Building, the prestigious residential building, completed 2007. In the middle one of the high level lights illuminating the entrance to the Kingsway Tunnel.

Manchester Holy Name Church, Oxford Road seen against a dusk sky with tree branches

Manchester’s Holy Name church is seen here through trees and silhouetted against a reddish-purple dusk sky. The tree branches look like lace. The outline of the church is similar to a French cathedral.

I added a black border to enhance the silhouetted effect. It recaptures the excitement of viewing Kodachrome transparencies against the light. On the reverse side it was possible to see the imprint of shapes in the picture, caused by unevenness of the emulsion. This photo was taken on a digital camera, probably the Nikon Coolpix 990, on 22 March 2003.

It is impossible to take this view now. University buildings were constructed on the car park behind the trees.

Thoughtful comments are appreciated. Please send via the contact form.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Birkenhead, Cheadle Heath, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, street lighting, Wirral

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