Liverpool Ducks-We Have Been Truly and Utterly Conned.

Public Sculpture. “What The Duck”

Being European Capital of Culture in 2008 was a statement. 

But that title does not guarantee that the public who do have a bit of style about them will be best served by the honour. 

Just look what Merseytravel did with the culture budget.

2008 saw the untalented Tom Murphy being chosen to litter the streets with garbage.

  “Ken Dodd with a Kebab” and “Bessie Braddock, depicted as a sack with a head” were erected, to scare the visitors at Lime Street Station. 

You can tell you have arrive in Liverpool when you are greeted by these cheap and nastys, that cost a hundred grand!!! 

And now right next to them is a stupid duck!

 http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/liverpool-european-capital-ofbad.html

We also paid for the statue of Bishops Warlock and Shepherd, 

You know the ones on Hope street. Are they Eric and Ernie, I am none the Wiser. 

 http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/tescopool-is-there-hope-in-liverpools.html

An even bigger statement is that as a city the guffoons who are spending the money have little or no no style and it is shown in this pathetic attempt to spend taxpayers money.

If Superlambanana was not bad enough. We now have to endure the tackiest plastic childish flock of Ducks, boldly displayed on the streets. They have even put one next to Kenn Dodd who had to try to keep a straight face at the unveiling saying”At least there is somewhere for the pigeons now”.

So Liverpool has a load of Ducks. Yes Ducks, not Mallards or beautiful Pintails but the sort of ducks you give your kids to play with in the bath. It is hard to believe that someone has sanctioned this.

The Mayor of Liverpool is no educated man, that is a fact, but really for him to waste public money while closing nursing homes and libraries down is beyond a joke.

It is obvious to the writer that we need those libraries for the education of Liverpool's top brass and we need to fill them with books on culture to educate them.

While they represent the city they should not behave in a childish and infantile manner because we all have to carry the can. So when next week, hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the city to see the Cunard Liners on the Mersey and marvel at Liverpool's great heritage and its Maritime past, they will also be able to get a glimpse of the future where the sculpture is chosen by a five year old.

No wonder because to pay for the “tat on our streets” they have closed down too many nurseries and to keep the kids occupied they are asking them to contribute to running the sculpture programme.

Liverpool Capital of Culcha, You're 'avin a laff”

CODA
We understand that the ducks are for a good cause Macmillan Cancer Support. We think that something better could have been created.
Meanwhile the plods at the Liverpool Echo tell everyone how great it is and appeal to the lowest denomination...............their readers.

Tom Murphy-Dumping Bad Sculpture On The Streets Of Liverpool.

Commissioned by people who will never understand form. They are the ones that have let Tom Murphy loose on a city, that did, have a tradition of fine sculpture.

Liverpool, at the turn of the last century, had the Art Sheds where the likes of Charles Allen worked. And now we have Tom Murphy’s shed.

Murphy is a best friend with David Charters at the Daily Ghost and he has continually publicised him over the years, feeding the artistically ill educated patrons with nonsense. Peter Elson interviewed him as the Big Interview for The Ghost.
An advertorial.
Laura Davis who is a good egg, writes this article.
Here in this weeks Daily or Weekly Ghost they are touting for him to get another job. It looks the worst one he has done.

This panel illustrated looks like it has been drawn by a 10-year-old snotty nosed kid not a competent crafts person, that Murphy is not.
Just look at Ken Dodd with a kebab at Lime Street Station. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/liverpool-european-capital-ofbad.html
The Bessie Braddock looks like a Sack with a head on it.
The Roily Polly’s outside Littlewoods are badly modelled even for chubby blokes who are not really members of the Wombles, and Johnny Walker at The Pier Head looks like he has had one whisky too many.
The writer declares that any sculpture that Spud Murphy likes to challenge him on he will make a better job of.

Here's some we did earlier.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/tom-murphy-dumping-bad-sculpture-on.html
We have to be very careful about the legacy of the boom era that has seen us trash the World Heritage Site to a shadow of its former glory.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/peace-monument-unveiled-for-john.html

Tom Murphy-Dumping Bad Sculpture On The Streets Of Liverpool.

 More street clutter from David Charters, of the Daily Ghost's, best mate. An advertorial in fact.
To have people commenting on art who don't understand it is a shame.
To have people on committees who don't own a piece of art or have never grasped the whole motion or concept of public sculpture is a disgrace.
You know who you are Fred Obrien & Co and those of you who commissioned, without a place to dump it, the heroic Captain Chavasse now ruined in bronze and suffering from a botox because Tom Murphy has no life modelling experience. Or appears not to have.
Murphy has let down so many of our heroes and characters in soul-less depictions, ripping off the public in the process. Here, Billy Fury, halfway to misery.
In spitting distance to the Johnnie Walker sculpture at the Pier Head who looks like he has had a bottle or two too many.  Alright hes not a looker but to do that to him is extreme. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_John_Walker Billy Fury's official fan club, The Sound of Fury donated the statue. Thanks for that. The only fury I can hear the sound of is people saying "why did someone make his arms go down to his knees, did he sing the Funky Gibbon".
The new plaque looks more like the lead singer from A Flock of Seagulls, are they sure they have got the right statue. Now, I understand people mean well but we had the John Lennon turkey in John Lennon Airport, (above us CO2 emmisions). Interesting its Alastair Machrays favourite sculpture...well there you go.
Give peas a chance. 
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/10/peace-monument-unveiled-for-john.html
How many more crap statues can the city take.
So Tom brought us the Ken Dodd with a kebab alongside the Bessie Braddock that looks like a sack with a head on it. Even Kenn Dodd said "Well at least its somewhere for the pidgeons to sit."
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/liverpool-european-capital-ofbad.html Read this.

Stop dumping shit on us at artificially high prices. I challenge Murphy whatever subject he wants I will sculpt  a better depiction than he can dream of making. Although he does have one talent, that of making Bronze look like cast iron, its supposed to be the other way around of course.
 David Charters should never have been allowed to market this man, masquerading as an artist, pulling the wool over already blind eyes. There was a time when we commissioned some good stuff in Liverpool. Those days are long gone.

One sculpture that I used to like was the Boy with the Horse at the bottom of Bold Street opposite the Lyceum. It was said to have cost £150,000 and I used to love the way the public interacted with it. Though one day I saw a mother drag her child away in horror who was polishing a part of it that it should have been. It has now been turned into a....wheelie bin. Who robbed it? why was it moved? why didn't anyone at the Daily Ghost, er David Charters even notice?
So Liverpool European Capital of Bad Sculpture where we dump our good art to replace it with, Tom Murphy Turkey's....clever, the people who run our city, so cultured for sure.

Peace Monument Unveiled For John Lennons 70th Birthday-Give Bad Sculpture A Chance.

Any Old Iron- Liverpool European Capital of Bad Beatles Statues. It has to be said.

The tradition was upheld with the unveiling of another naff piece of junk this Saturday.

The unveiling was done by Julien and Cynthia, who understandably had a difficult day holding back the emotions. John Lennon is and was an amazing person and an inspiration, who was able to think out of the box, not to be drawn in by what was being told to him, not believing people selling you rubbish, never accepting the status quo.  Educated in the university of life he must be turning in his grave with the naff tributes to him that now litter the streets of Liverpool. The Four Lads who made me cry on the Hard Days Night Hotel, George Harrison looks like Gandolf from Lord of the Rings. Rod Holmes the head man of Grosvenor was there, I saw him on Sky, it went all round the world. Uncle Joe Anderson was there saying how great it was, what does he know of style over spin, what does he know of good public art. The builder of Chavasse Lawn, Grosvenor, the pseudo park 40 feet in the air, that has now been dug up and relaid where water is streaming down the steps because of its inferior design and its jerry-built lack of quality love this sculpture and how it gets them attention. Grosvenor would not put a tribute to Captain Chavasse V.C and Bar, instead they have gone for the obvious, give them what they want, naffness.
Captain Chavasse would maybe approve in one way, with te sentiment, Give Peace a Chance as he was killed in action in a First World War that killed millions, but there is no substitute for inferior workmanship and bad design. When it comes to public monuments and Tom Murphy did a botoxed version of the great man Captain Chavasse, that now doesn't have a home, on the off chance he could knock it in to Grosvenor, with the help of his personal PR man, David Charters of the Daily Ghost, his bessie mate, who wouldnt know a decent statue if one fell on him. There is something the people who make the decisions on Liverpool's public art have no or little understanding of......quality.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/06/rod-holmes-came-in-my-shop-today.html   

It is a scandal that we have the worst Beatles monuments in the world while Madryn Street Ringos birthplace, is being bulldozed. This is a city that knocked down the Cavern Club, just before calling itself Beatles City and turns its World Heritage Site into Milton Keynes-On-Sea. One thing is good they didn't let Tom Murphy the pudding maker of the John Lennon Turkey at the John Lennon Airport do this one. Why not just call us Lennonpool and be done with it? Thanks to Correspondent in regularly pointing out the fact that we don't just have the Beatles. pic Chavasse Park being repaired after 1 year http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/10/statement-from-lennonpool-city-council.html Stop Press at Oldham Hall Street..............At the Shanghai Expo, The Scaffold are reforming (Mike McCartney should be on one) http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/07/mike-mccartney-professional-scouser-and.html  on October the 16th to impress those big investors that we are still all Lilly the Pink in Lennonpool.  http://profchucklebuttychronic.blogspot.com/2010/07/another-330k-for-liverpool-day-at.html

Catherine Jones the Daily Dimwits intrepid, err, journalist covering the monumental Lennon Give Bad Sculpture A Chance event covered the Ken Dodd one also.

The last big unveiling was of a Tom Murphy was Ken Dodd with a kebab in his hand at Lime Street Station and Bessie Braddocks, a sack with a head on it.  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/07/liverpool-european-capital-ofbad.html Tom Murphy, Liverpools finest, yes that is how bad things have become. Neil Scales of Merseytravel who cut up the U-534 commissioned it. http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/06/u-534-cut-up-into-five-pieces-by-neil.html

David Backyard the architect of Cavern Walks said to me his one regret was commissioning the Beatles Statue inside it. Just who put the one of Elvis in Mathew Street. I like Arthur Dooleys the Four Lads Who Shook The World  http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2010/09/arthur-dooley-remember-him.html and instead of saving his studio and honouring him the city leaders follow the crowd and give them what they want......Bad Beatles Sculpture......Any Old Iron.

Liverpool European Capital of…Bad Sculpture

What about the legacy of 2008. My opinion is that it is the worst load of rubbish sculpture anywhere in Europe. The latest ones of Kenn Dodd and Fanny Craddock top it all.
Neil Scales the head of Misery travel, who cut the U534 U-Boat into five, and some say should be sectioned himself for a outragous and barbarous act, should be sacked for using public money to dump this trash on us. It was he who commissioned the god awful Ferry Terminal that turned Gerry Marsden to Seasick Steve and then come up with the idea for another Beatles museum because they had nothing to go in it.
Some people should not be let loose with more than 50 quid.
IS TOM MURPHY THE WORST SCULPTOR (sic) OF ALL TIME.

I think Murphy himself should be cast......headfirst into the nearest lake for this one.
Now all those people arriving from London at Lime Street staiton can see for themselves what the Plebs up north do with 200 grand. They waste it on a pair of garbage statues that any kid could have made a better job with, using plasticine and a lolly ice stick. Murphy is best friends with David Charters of the Daily Post so he has had far too much good press. Some sculptors make steel look like bronze, Murphy makes Bronze look like pig iron.
Please someone tell me these are not bronze and I have made a mistake and they are made of plastic padding and cost 100 quid and I will forgive him. I have sold a few sculptures in my time but these have the same copper finish on the prizes they give out in the Mecca bingo down Park lane...with names like y'know "Kid leaning on Lampost" and that sort of stuff.

Someone left a comment on a LPT post..."Do you have to knock everything". Well you try living here mate watching these embarrassing nightmares unfold and see how long it is before you get annoyed.

Doddy said at the opening "Discumknockerous missus"
I agree.

He had the same problem as I did in identifying the material "Its all made of Iron so now we know where Sefton Park gates went" he said.
Going on to sum up the whole joke "Well one of the nicer things is it gives the pigeons a bit of focus they will be better once the hair goes white"
One of his famous quotes is "Everyone in Liverpool is a comedian, you have to be a comedian to live here". I don't know how he managed to keep a straight face.



It was bad enough enduring the comments from educated idiots about the John Lennnon Turkey Spud did at John Lennon Airport which looks like.... errr Ken Dodd with its head like a burst couch. Hang on did he get them mixed up I remember snarling it looks more like Ken Dodd than Jack Lemmon.
Now we have the nightmares on Lime Street.

Murphy cant even sculpt a fat tweed overcoat with a hat on it. Hey and whats that in Bessies hand..oh its a egg. Yes she is famous for getting the lion mark put on eggs ...oh what poetry, what artistic license..the man is a genius I wish I had thought of that.
I would like to take that iron tickling stick that looks like a Kebab in the hand of Ken Dodd and shove it somewhere, very hard so Murphy can never sculpt again.
I do not know how Professor Chucklebutty kept a straight face at least Fanny has whipped up her last Omelette's and cant see the mess that she is to be remembered by.
My opinion is Ken should take legal action he has been made to look like he had shot headfirst over the handlebars of his bike when he was a kid.


I cant stop laughing they are hilarious. Only the one person laughing louder than me is Spud Murphy .....laughing all the way to the bank with 200 grand of my public money now that reall would be Fanny. Only he has made a laughing stock out of all of those who let him get away with this shoddy workmanship that he should be ashamed of himself for making.
LIVERPOOL THE EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF BAD PUBLIC SCULPTURE. Hang your head in shame Mr Scales for your public art programme.
It is best if you leave what you dont know about alone.