Speke Up (1996)

 

I Won't Let It Be Forgotten

By Ann Todd

Liverpool Echo

March 15, 1996

    Paul McCartney has given his blessing to a church project to brighten up his boyhood home. On his last visit back to Liverpool to officially open the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts (LIPA), Paul especially asked to be driven through Speke. He wanted to see his old home in Western Avenue and show his son James where he grew up. 

    As he traveled through the familiar streets, he told his brother Mike, he wanted to do something to boost this estate's image. Now he is to get together with Mike and Rector of Speke, Reverend Michael Plunkett, to come up with a plan. 

    Mike McCartney, who still lives in Mercyside said, "Paul felt that Speke had been neglected and we had to do something to help raise its profile." He told Paul about the annual Music and Arts Festival run by Reverend Plunkett, based in St Aidan's church. 

    Mike said, "Paul said the first school prize he ever won at Stockton Wood Juniors was a drawing of St. Aidan's church. He wrote to Reverend Plunkett to offer to help in any way he could, and the two are going to think something up together for the benefit of the people of Speke."

     Meanwhile, Mike is helping with this year's Spring Fling Arts Festival, which starts tomorrow with a jazz band and clowns outside St Aidan's. He has also got his showbiz pal Les Dennis, another former Speke boy, to make a guest appearance at the festival concert next Saturday, which Mike will compare. Mike said, "I was talking to Les one day, and he mentioned he was a Speke boy who went to Stockton Wood school."