Paddy Shennan is a name known to generations of ECHO readers - and today we begin a three-part serialisation of his book, The Talk of Liverpool, about his 33 action-packed years working for the paper and the people he met along the way.
Here's a taster of Paddy writing about his incredible experiences working at the Liverpool ECHO.
SOME people called it work, but I'm still not too sure about that. What I do know is that from 1987 until 2020 I had the pleasure and privilege of writing for the Liverpool ECHO. Now, Mirror Books is publishing a book about my time on the country's best regional newspaper.
The Talk of Liverpool is a unique record of life in one of the world’s most talked about cities across four headline-making decades. I covered many high-profile news stories, including Hillsborough; the murders of Helen McCourt, James Bulger and Anthony Walker; and the abduction of Madeleine McCann.
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My book also includes a wide variety of other subjects - including music, television, comedy, football and politics.
One of the joys of being a feature writer on the ECHO was being able to interview so many people I admired. I have always been a passionate music fan, and I was fortunate enough to interview the individuals formerly known as The Crucial Three - Ian McCulloch, Pete Wylie and Julian Cope - Mark E. Smith of The Fall, Nigel Blackwell of Half Man Half Biscuit, Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks, Henry Priestman of The Christians, Vic Godard of Subway Sect, and Frank Sidebottom. Music also needs inspirational figures behind the scenes, and it was my pleasure to interview many of them - including John Peel, Malcolm McLaren, Tony Wilson, Geoff Davies of Probe Records and Probe Plus, and Doreen Allen, of Eric's and Planet X fame.
Tony Benn once told me Liverpool was the most political city he knew - and politics also features strongly in The Talk of Liverpool. Other big names in the book include Mo Mowlam and Neil Kinnock, with Liverpool represented by, among others, Jack Jones, Tony Mulhearn and Derek Hatton.
Also featured is a distinct political lightweight: Boris Johnson. I was the first journalist to interview the then shadow culture minister and editor of The Spectator after he arrived in Liverpool in October, 2004 to apologise for an editorial leader column in his magazine. The grossly offensive article had been inspired by the reaction to the beheading in Iraq of Liverpool engineer Ken Bigley. Several years later, I was delighted to hear that, following his visit, Johnson had moaned about the treatment he received from the Press that day.
I relished variety. One chapter, for example, tells the stories of those who knew The Beatles best - the book features interviews with Yoko Ono, Cynthia Lennon, Mike McCartney, Mary McCartney, former manager Allan Williams, and John Lennon's best mate Pete Shotton. Another chapter - This Is My City - looks at Liverpool through the eyes of people like Pauline Daniels, Marina Dalglish, Roger Phillips, Billy Butler, Tony Snell, Michael Starke, Bill Kenwright, Eithne Browne, Les Dennis, Margi Clarke, Jake Abraham, Keith Carter and Liz McClarnon.
There was also the hate mail to look back on - even some fan mail - along with the three-part series which introduced a 16-year-old Wayne Rooney to the world, before he had made his Premier League debut for Everton. Having lunch with the Queen and chatting to her hubby was a real eye-opener - as was the time I gate-crashed The Antiques Roadshow, and the day former Everton manager Mike Walker revealed he had a fantastic sense of humour. Sadly, I once upset Joe Royle (a childhood hero of mine), and, not so sadly, former Liverpool star Jim Beglin - but I'm pretty sure former Everton player Barry Horne was impressed when I planted a smacker on his cheek in a Liverpool bar and told him "I love you - and I always will."
I also loved interviewing famous faces from TV - such as Ken Dodd, Alan Bleasdale, Jean Alexander, Ricky Tomlinson, Alexei Sayle, Eddie Braben, Johnny Vegas, Neil Fitzmaurice, John Bishop, Jimmy Carr, Keith Chegwin and Leon and June. I even took perverse pleasure in interviewing Liverpool baiter John McCririck and being served in Asda's Liscard store by Michael Portillo (a long story).
A Preston-born son of Liverpool-born parents, I was brought up an Evertonian and loved visiting family in Liverpool. I remember punching the air in delight when, after three years on my hometown paper, I found out my interview for a job on the ECHO had been successful.
In the years that followed, there was so much humour and joy involved in meeting and writing about the people of Merseyside. There was also, of course, tragedy and heartbreak, while the city of Liverpool was often vilified by outsiders. But even during the most painful times, the people here demonstrated their resilience and strength of character.
Thank you to all those interviewees and ECHO readers who welcomed me into their lives. It really was my pleasure and privilege.
Confessions of a feature writer
There is never any shortage of hard news for journalists to get stuck into – you don’t have to look too far for it. I’ve never gone along with those who believe newspapers ought to ignore bad news, but it’s impossible to overstate the importance of having some light to go along with the dark – and the feature pages were always a good place to shine this light.
My long-time colleague and friend Joe Riley always said features (interviews, columns and so on) provided a paper with its personality. And every personality, of course, should include a sense of humour.
Confessions of… a pub landlady, February 12, 2015
The ‘Confessions of…’ series was full of interesting insights. Fiona Hornsby, then licensee of Thomas Rigby’s on Dale Street (she and husband Dom today have their own places – The Bridewell on Campbell Square and the Denbigh Castle on Hackins Hey), told me: “Lots of people seem to want to have sex in the toilets – why would you?!
“I’d say, while checking the toilets to make sure they’re clean and tidy, we would catch a couple every eight to 12 weeks – and there will be others we don’t catch. Sometimes you can tell before they’re in the toilets – there’s a walk and a kind of look. So then you leave it a minute, let them get going and then walk in and say ‘Hey!’ The reaction is usually denial, with one of them saying they were ‘helping’ the other because he or she wasn’t feeling well. And, of course, they’re totally embarrassed.”
I wondered later whether that article, and Fiona’s remarks, made people think twice about having sex in pub toilets. Probably not, the dirty beggars.
Confessions of…an A&E worker, March 5, 2015
Later, it was the turn of Rob Jackson, an emergency nurse clinician at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, to inform and entertain our readers. What were the funniest/oddest things he had seen in A&E? He told me: “People from time to time come in with things stuck in different orifices. Many have slipped while in the bathroom and impaled themselves on shampoo bottles or deodorant cans.
"We’ve also seen people with milk bottles, cans of hair mousse and even a butternut squash, which have mysteriously made their way into their cavities. We’ve heard all the excuses, and we believe none of them.”
Harsh. And, err, ouch!
The Talk of Liverpool by Paddy Shennan (RRP £14.99, Mirror Books) is on sale this Thursday, June 30. Save £3 with code RB5 on mirrorbooks.co.uk
You can pre-order Paddy's book here.
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