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Bido Lito! June 2015
Bido Lito!
Issue Fifty Six / June 2015
bidolito.co.uk
Static Gallery
23 Roscoe Lane
Liverpool
L1 9JD
Editor
Christopher Torpey - [email protected]
Editor-In-Chief / Publisher
Craig G Pennington - [email protected]
Photo: Adam Edwards
FIVE YEARS
Editorial
It always used to do my head in when I’d read the manager’s notes in the Tranmere programme around Christmas and they’d be writing from an
indeterminate point in the past because of print deadlines, unaware of how we got on in our previous match. Well now I understand how they felt, as
I’m writing this in the middle of May in the midst of a General Election hangover. By the time you read this it could have deepened, as the reality of what
awaits us over the course of the next Conservative government looks bleaker by the day. I hope I can manage to get through this with as much vigour
as Les Parry used to manage in his Slaughterhouse column in the Rovers Review – God knows, we’re all in need of a laugh.
Having already endured five years of austerity with the Con-Dem coalition (Tory-lite if you will), the prospect of five more years of cut, cut, cut under
a majority Tory government is tough to shoulder – especially when we (Merseyside) roundly didn’t vote for it. It’s galling to think that we’re being run
by the will of Middle England and selfish big business, especially as we face the very real possibility of seeing the NHS shredded in to easily privatised
pieces over the next half decade, coupled with the inevitable shrinking of the welfare state.
I really didn’t want this to be a rant, honestly, but, right now, I can’t think of much in our political landscape to be happy about. In the last five years
we've bemoaned the Con-Dem governance that has brought in the Bedroom Tax, raised tuition fees and caused the use of food banks to escalate.
And the sad fact is that it's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better under this unadulterated Conservative government. In the wake of the
election defeat (and it did feel like a defeat, one as painful as any Tranmere defeat suffered this season as we lost our league status after 94 years),
I joined the Labour Party. I'm still not sure why I did, to be honest, but I felt compelled to do something. When I saw pictures of the anti-austerity
protests in London on Twitter the weekend after the election – and Charlotte Church brandishing her homemade cardboard sign in Cardiff – I completely
understood. I'm angry as hell too, and I want to protest about something.
Angry, but not completely full of despair. When I look back over the past five years in Liverpool, I see plenty to feel bright about: the success of dozens
of musicians, and dozens more make-happeners, as the city's cultural zeitgeist has really found a groove in spite of the adverse political climate. It's
now seen as a great place to come and do things, and not just by us. Bold Street Coffee celebrated its fifth birthday in May, and it certainly improved
my mood. Sam and Russ and the crew put together a lovely day, not just of celebrating for the sake of marking an occasion, but because there was a
genuine desire from everyone who'd invested a little bit of themself in the place to do something together.
In our first issue, published five years ago this month, we covered some artists and events that, though they’re no longer still going concerns, laid the
seeds for future things of great importance to the city. Featured artists Indica Ritual (most of whom went on to form Outfit, who we've featured again
this month), Seal Cub Clubbing Club (half of Loved Ones) and The Loud (who'd just released an EP containing a cover of David Bowie's apocalyptically
apt Five Years) have all since called it a day, while Mugstar are still going strong (currently keeping busy touring North America after a transcendent set
at Austin Psych Fest). That issue also featured a column by Andrew Hill, under the title Abandon Silence. In that article he talked about the intricacies
of dubstep (it's all about the wobble, of course) and it's less attractive side, but the article's real legacy is the forward-thinking and genuinely exciting
Abandon Silence club night that coalesced around the concept. We catch up with Andrew in this issue, five years on from those baby s ѕ