David has already given you a brilliant account of those early days in Liverpool; they were the greatest fun and I have happy memories of meeting the inspirational Mike Short and the likes of Roger Blyth, Shelley Rohde and Nick Turnbull. Nick produced a late evening cabaret-style show called After All That This; he gave her first break to the young Kate Robbins who happened to be the cousin of Ian Harris one of our security chaps; they were both part of the extended McCartney family. I remember a sketch which involved a spoof weather report in which the forecaster said we could look forward to a warm front at which point a well-made young woman in an exiguous bikini walked past the map. There was a bit of harrumphing from upstairs and the sketch was pulled. Thirty-five years on it looks fairly innocuous if unsubtle but Nick liked to push the boundaries a bit.
As David Highet has said, we had a number of visits from the top brass in those days; DF, DP, Mike Scott, Joyce Wooller, Jules Burns, Steve Morrison et al and there was a sense among the more astute management that Liverpool was a prize worth having; friendly managers tipped us off that we should be prepared to fight to preserve our independence – something David managed superbly by increasing the number and variety of shows we made, a strategy which led in due course to the momentous expansion at Albert Dock.
