Owen Jones

.

Waiting for Brando, by its second night, has received an outstanding review from Liverool Student Media, which is great for WoW too as there's nothing we like better than premiering the best of new writing from Liverpool. You can read the review by clicking here.

The final week of the festival looms large and each event looks to be full. Friday's Titanic event will see the best writers who have released books on the Titanic this year come together to put the Titanic on Trial. Francsis wilson, Nic Compton, Steve Turner and Alan Scarth. And a string quartet too, playing ragtime and other melodies from that era.

Owen Jones seems to be everywhere at the moment. We wonder if he is one of triplets. You can catch himm in the flesh at WoW next week, with The Farm frontman Peter Hooton, discussing Chavs, Scavs and Hijabs. Tickets are flying out so be warned, if you want to be in on the debate, get your tickets now - here.

So many events & so little time...

It has to be one of WoW's greatest achievements getting four generations of the Garrett family to our event to launch the George Garrett Archive Project. We covered a lot of ground witht he speakers, Tony Wailey, Frank Boyce and Ken Worpole discussing different aspects of his life and work, but the highlight really was in the discussions with his family afterwards, some of  whom had travelled over from Sheffield for the event, and gleaning bits of information to follow up for the future. Well done to them, and it bodes well for the project over the coming year.

Are we done with the Titanic? Titanic fatigue? It's possible, and even likely judging by one email we received this week, and accordingly we have shifted our event to the Bluecoat and reduced the ticket price. But, if you have some interest still, then you won't want to miss this one - brilliant writers at the event, which really is a one-off.

Waiting for brando is a complete sell-out (some say they sold out some time ago ), which is great for the show and lousy for all those promised comps who aren't going to get them, but such is life. We'll let you see some of the reviews as there's no point in me writing one as I am unashamedly biased. But, good luck to the actors who have put in a tremendous amount of work and thanks to WoW for the support - to infinity and................

Sinister Synchronicity

Propping up the bar in The Attic with Peter Hooton and Tom Watson MP following the fantastic event on Phone Hacking with Tom, Rebecca leighton and Graham Johnson, I gave a (slightly drunken) thought to the weirdness of the timing of some of the events around the festival which keep coinciding with our events.  We planned all the Titanic stuff, that much is obvious, but had no idea that the phone hacking event on the Sunday would be preceded on the Thursday and Friday with Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooked (Lol) being grilled by Leveson.

And then, this morning, the day before our event on Bloody Sunday and the Children of Conflict, and after a great night in croxteth looking at Derry 2013, this video report appears on The Guardian website, featuring one of our guests for Tuesday night, Eamonn McCann, talking about the problems of the dissident group,, The RAAD (Resident Action Against Drugs), that is targeting young men involved (allegedly) in drugs and either shooting them or forcing them into exile outside of Derry. It's well worth a watch and you should get yourself along to the Blacke-E on Tuesday 15th, 7pm, to hear Eamonn and Phil Scraton discuss all the why's and wherefores of the whole issue.

Click here for details about the Bloody Sunday event.

Time flies when you're having fun

What day is it? Thursday. OK, so it's 99% and Peter Hitchens. Well yes, but no. Hitchens has pulled out. Was he frit?  In fairness he warned us from the start that often urgent stories came up and he may well have to cancel at short notice. So no, I don't think he was scared off by us or our esteemed panellists Danny Dorling and Lyndsey German (who are both still coming and expect to see you there). Shame, but there you go - proof again that WoW is a living festival.

Highlights? The War Tour - Brian Turner was something else- not someone standing and reading poetry, but someone who seems to embody their work within them, in such a way that, like a plucked string on a musical instrument, their words seem to reverberate long after they have been spoken. 'Here, bullet' has the force of a bullet, and is still bouncing around the inside of my skull.

Another highlight - 'Spare Rib to Slutwalks'. A very strong panel representing many and varied aspects and attitudes of the women's movement. No space here to get into detail, but I felt that what it achieved more than anything was a space where potentially conflicting views - pornography would be the best example - could be aired and argued, without the feeling that anyone would put themself outside of the women's movement. A lesson for the left, I feel, which offers little space for that at the moment.

I'm sitting on the couch (working from home, honest) watching ex-News of the World editor and ex-communications advisor to David Cameron, Andy Coulsen , being grilled at the Leveson inquiry. I'm not a praying man, but.....please Lord, take him away in handcuffs :).

An unlikely event I think, but you do not want to miss Tom Watson MP, Rebecca
Leighton and Graham Johnson on Sunday in the Black-E at 6pm. I've just read Watson' 'Dial M for Murdoch', and it is sensational. Did you know that a few years back the Police conducted a raid on a desk of a NOTW journalist at the HQ in Wapping. Such was the response of the NOTW the Police had to retreat in fear of their own safety. By the time they returned a number of items had been removed by staff so the Police couldn't get hold of them.

Unlike the rioters, etc. that didn;t make front page news. Wonder why?

Twelve slightly miffed men

Where to start? It's not often someone recounts their first racist attack, and makes you laugh, but such was the beauty of Benjamin Zephaniah's Rebel Rant last night, delivered softly spoken, with a blend of the personal and the poetic, that it didn't feel out of place. Hit on the back of the head with a brick when only 8 yrs of age, his attacker screaming at him to 'Go home you black bastard', the only part the young Zephaniah didn't understand, when he got home to his also black mother, was the word 'Bastard'. Though nervous about speaking Benjamin was on fine form. My favourite: why is it that the right-wing always rave on about Anglo-Saxons - the clue is in the words - two cultures, more than one, therefore, Multi. Over 300 people turned out for a great launch event for the festival. No surprise really. When the right-wing press (Daily Mail, I think) ran a headline asking 'Would you let your daughter marry this man?', after Benjamin had been awarded an honourary degree, he told us that while people in his home city were upset, and in London, angry, in Liverpool people turned out to demonstrate on his behalf and then invited him for a three year residency. He seems to like Liverpool. He likes classic cars too, but that's for another time.

I got home after a very busy day and was about to continue reading 'Dial M for Murdoch', The MP Tom Watson's book about the phone hacking scandal. Then I switched on the news, and, like the book had come to life, there was the Murdoch clan and hangers on getting their arses well and truly kicked by the House of Commons committee that has been conducting the inquiry into their behaviour. Forget about the Tory sideshow for a moment on their refusal to support the issue of their suitability for governance of major corporations, this is the real deal, and begs the question: they have admitted being involved in covering up illegal activity, therefore, why are they not under threat of arrest? Contrast their treatment with that of those rioting last year. Now don't get on your high horse, no-one here is condoning rioting, etc. regardless of their view on cause and effect, etc. You see, the real story here is not about Murdoch - he's been caught red-handed (talking about red, anyone seen Rebekah Wade anywhere?), the real story is the collusion of the Police. This ain't over....

One person last night pointed out the make up of the mayoral cadinates for Liverpool. All men, all white, all middle-aged. That's why, regardless of their politics, the mayoral election does not represent Liverpool - either its make up or its politics.

WoW is bang on the money right now with the issues being represented at the festival - phone hacking, Feral britiain, Piracy, etc. It's all there. Try not to miss out this time....

We are Sailing...

So, after months of trimming the gibbets, scrubbing the sails and polishing the deck (I know, easy to tell I'm really a land-lubber), the good ship WoW finally set sail on Saturday with a launch party on a Tall-Ship we comandeered just for the occasion.

Thanks go out to Cap'n Liam and his merry crew on the Stavros S Niarchos from Cap'n Mad (pictured) and her Motley Crue at WoW for ensuring that it was a smooth send off (Up until we hit Peter Kavanagh's, but that's another story). 

We press-ganged, sorry, were joined on board, by a couple of superb performers, including Jess Green, Sarah McLennan and, performing her specially written piece for the launch, Below Decks, the one and only, with a wig like a Xmas Tree, Julie McNamara. Great performances all round were met with great applause and calls for more and more rum, and that was just from Cap'n Mad.

Top prize for fancy dress go to the newly-wedded Captain Dan and First Mate Cal, with Paul J a close runner up (!). Arts Council Rep, Alison Boyle, sent us on our way with a merry wave and we sailed into the sunset with a...No, not really - they kicked us off at 9.30pm (The hardy crew of the Stavros were sailing at 6 the next morning), so we spent our shore-leave pay on grog and smokes and women a'plenty, and other illicit cargoes in PK's and a mysterious house in a south end park, and the rest we just wasted.

And so we begin tonight with the Rebel Rant of Benjamin Zephaniah and sail right on throughout May with words a plenty. There's still time to get on board, just check out the programme and apply for a boarding pass. The big question isn't, which events are you going to, the questions is, which ones do you dare to miss?