0:55 I remember the guy playing the accordion and singing operatic numbers. He was given the opportunity to tidy himself up with offer of permanent employment in an opera company, but declined. He was happy the way things were. 😊
The good old times! When your neighbours helped each other out! And our communities were full of love and compassion for others, when our streets were full of the sound of laughter and children playing. A time when we had community centres, youth clubs and centres for the OA pensioners. A time when our streets weren't overcrowded with homeless people! A time when people just needed the bare necessities to be content and happy!
Excellent video, so many memories, especially the busker with accordion what a voice when he used to belt out opera songs! Always used to walk through his patch between Owen Owen`s & BHS just to listen
No mobiles, no Xbox's or PlayStations, no such things as email, Snapchat, Instagram or Facebook. A time when kids played out in the street every day and people actually communicated and had proper conversations.
DebsLuvsMusic agreed, my son is 18 now. When I tell him stories of what I got up to when I was a kid growing up in Liverpool he is fascinated but to us it was the norm. This generation of iKids seem to be missing the point, life is for living so get out there and live it kids 😎
Why do u wanna be there now . Life wasnt simple. same unemployment .. same housing crap .. only thing that was better was the music ...it was crap.. stop livinin the past .. LIverpool is NOW .. always look forward never back.. 'We lead .. the rest follow'
We did lead and yes, the rest did follow however, it all came to an abrupt end in the 1980's. We stood against one of the most oppressive governments in British history and ultimately lost. If every northern city had held Thatcher to account the north would be on a par with the south in every aspect to this day. Every northern town and city played it's part but Manchester. Now the darling of the south it reaped its rewards for siding with the enemy and is now home to the BBC. Funny how a city built on trade that wouldn't have been possible without Liverpool ultimately signed up for its decline. All is not lost however. Liverpool and it's people has a character envied by the world. A richness of cultural diversity, a humour, a groundedness and sense of morality. A realistic and progressive outlook with no lack of consideration for the past. You can sign a paper to manage Liverpool's decline but you're dead now Margaret, Liverpool is still alive and kicking.
Phil you say the city was built on immigration mate?l was brought up around Scotland road Stanley road Walton area from 59 to 85 l then left for work in London ,in all that time l lived in liverpool l never experienced hardly any and l really mean hardly any immigrants at all ever?a perfect example of this was my school alsop high,we had one yes one Asian lad in the whole school,l never saw a black lad now this may all be irrelevant but if as you say the city was built on immigrants then they certainly passed those areas by in that period of time.
Tony Nesbit , Plenty of immigration in and thru Liverpool, North end had Irish / Italian historically where as South end had Chinese, Caribbean and West African . I'm from same area as you went to 'Martyrs' a couple of years behind . Liverpool migrant communities where ghettoised and because you didn't see them doesn't mean they weren't there. At the time this video was mad THE REAL THING a black group from the south end were #1 in the charts and I'm sure you danced the kegs of yerself to them. I love kirkdale and remember seeing all the black/asian seafarers coming up from the Dockie, never a problem. As one wave of immigrants move on another moves in NO Problem Liverpool has and always will be a city of Refugees ( and i mean that in the most.complimentary way )
There is always a middle ground in these argumemts. Liverpool has indeed long been a city for refugees and immigration, it goes hand in hand with being the biggest port in the world at one point and there is no argument the city is better in many ways for it's once held position. The people are warm and welcoming on the whole and have a strong sense for the needs of others, they rally in times of need whether it be them or not, the miner's strikes of the 80's is a perfect example. This being said you have to listen to both sides. If you don't then you end up with a mess like Brexit. Flashing the racist card when talking about immigration is unfortunately the place we are at and makes sensible debate almost impossible. (There is a reason this happens and its coinage has nothing to do with race whatsoever). The immigration debate is far too complex to even begin here but there are many things that people don't consider before stepping on the soap box. One of those is that the people who make decisions on immigration don't live with them. Living in a leafy suburb surrounded by other white people is very different from living on a terraced street surrounded by a majority of people who don't speak English to one another. There are many factors that come into play when those decisions are made and I would wager most of them have roots in somebody up the ladder making money. The simple fact is peoples' feelings matter bar none, our politicians and those that have them on strings think they don't and, as long as the rich get richer, they never will. To deem someone racist when they feel marginalised, underrated, isolated and powerless in a democracy that they and their ancestors helped and, in some cases, died to build borders on insanity. We all know that avarice leads to madness and aspects of the UK's immigration policy certainly bear the hallmarks.
