In a summer schedule that has included slots at the historic Isle of Wight festival and playing to thousands on Liverpool's Pier Head, the biggest date in Red Rum Club’s calendar may end up taking place in Bootle.
To be exact, the band will be taking to a stage beside the Leeds Liverpool canal, one freshly constructed in the shadow of The Strand shopping centre - purchased by Sefton Council for more than £30m in 2016. Unusual as the backdrop may initially seem, the people of Bootle aren’t perplexed.
The six-piece, whose members hail from Crosby and the town itself, are set to play to a sold out audience tomorrow, Saturday July 8. It will serve as a defining moment in a career that has come full circle and give lift-off to long held ambitions to redevelop the iconic, albeit weathered shopping centre.
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“Liverpool and the city centre was always about football, music, leisure, entertainment - it had that identity,” says Fran Doran, 30, lead singer in the band. “Being a bit further along, Bootle never really had that. It had a gritty industrial, docklands sort of narrative.
“It still has that, [but when the historic docks declined] it was a little bit lost for identity maybe. But nobody got up and left. It was a case of ‘what are we, let's find out’.”
In a town dominated by its shipping heritage, flush with grand houses once lived in by high ranking sea captains, its musical offer hasn’t always been in clear view. And any that was has largely been crowded out by the bright lights of Liverpool a few miles up the road, but this may no longer be the case going forward, according to Fran.
“If you wanted to do anything musical you had to go to Liverpool,” he says, “but I don't think it's like that any more. It's coming to our doorstep.”
The Salt & Tar venue, which has already hosted comedy and Christmas events, is not viewed as a silver bullet that will cure the town’s issues in one weekend of music, but it serves as a starting point for change and the regeneration many are calling for.
"We knew what we wanted to do and set ourselves a task," says Cllr Marion Atkinson, Sefton Council's cabinet member for Regeneration and Skills, "this weekend will be a big moment and a catalyst." Cllr Atkinson notes how Bootle used to have a great reputation for its nightlife, something that has subsided in recent years, but the proof in breaking down perception is in how many tickets have been sold for this weekend's events - with crowds of around 2000 people expected.
Inside the shopping centre an advertisement reads ‘something is changing at The Strand’. This may have led to eye rolling from sceptics a few months ago, now it is a statement that is now difficult to argue with.
After being knocked back on two occasions when searching for cash via the Government’s Levelling Up fund, a surprise announcement in the Spring budget awarded £279 million to 19 'near-miss' projects - one of which included Bootle. It means £20m has been handed to the South Sefton town to press ahead with long held ambitions to bring the landmark into the future.
Stephen Watson, Executive director of Sefton Council, told the ECHO in April how the project aims to make Bootle a "destination in its own right", adding: “There is still a lot more to do. But this money means [the project] is happening. It is only the starting point but it is moving forward now. This makes it possible.”
Salt & Tar, which has been backed by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, will form the starting point for where the works will take place. Redevelopment is set to move “south to north” with the aim of work starting early in 2024, according to Mr Watson.
The £20m of funding will be spent on the first phase of the major overhaul. Plans have been drawn up to demolish the southern part of The Strand first to enable it to then be joined out to the canal area while also making public space where the former M&S unit currently stands.
This will mean moving many of the businesses and charities that are currently based on the bottom floor of the Strand. One of those is the Big Onion project set up by Merseyside Expanding Horizons which has been working on social change in Bootle for more than a decade.
It is one of a number of social value initiatives that have set up shop in vacant units on the bottom floor. The Big Onion helps people launch their own businesses and learn new skills and has been one of the most vibrant parts of the centre in recent years. It will be relocated upstairs under the new plans.
Chris Lewis, 57, helped establish the project and believes Bootle has new found momentum. “It is no real secret this area has had a bit of a tough time in its recent past,” says Chris, but notes there is a sense a log-jam has been cleared.
“There is certainly an energy,” he says of the change gradually taking shape. “It is common knowledge throughout the community that something is happening, there is a transformation happening.”
He added: “If you look at the borough as a whole, [Bootle] has been seen as a forgotten member of the family. There has been a huge amount of focus on Southport in particular and other parts of the borough, partly because, I think, it is political on a national level, but also [Bootle and The Strand] is a difficult project.
“This is a major, major capital programme which is going to take 10 plus years to bring about. You need a huge amount of energy and appetite to do it.”
Chris is however confident this appetite is now there. He believes those driving change have the “bit between their teeth” in their ambition to deliver phase one of the wider Strand transformation.
Issues haven’t been eradicated overnight with the promise of funding. The rows of buckets laid out to catch water on rainy days tells you this much, with one trader in the centre pointing to the level of antisocial behaviour that still takes place in the precinct and on Stanley Street.
But there is a feeling a vision is starting to align, one that has been watered from the grassroots and can now benefit from significant funding. Similar to those working on the bottom floor of the Strand, Brian Dawe and Safe Regeneration has carved a similar path for close to a decade underneath its ‘destination Bootle’ project.
“We've been chipping away at the perception of Bootle for [eight] years,” says Brian when asked if the town is now starting to come into its own again and shape a new identity.
Brian and Safe Regeneration established the community-driven Lock and Quay pub on the banks of the canal and has also been running Bootle Music Festival. Its canoe clubs, litter picks and theatre nights at the pub have all gradually helped to change this perception, according to Brian.
He added: “It’s not just about the big crowd drawing events. There’s groundwork that has been done over years and years for people to feel comfortable coming to Bootle.
"Bootle suffers from a bad reputation in the same way as Liverpool a couple of decades ago which has now completely changed. We took inspiration from that and used the location next to the canal, music, art, all those kinds of positive things as a tool to wave a positive flag for the area.
“This year it has arrived as a destination. Somewhere you know you can go and you'll know there is something positive happening.”
