HOWZAT

“When I was growing up,” he has said, “if you took a knock, you had to pull yourself together and get on with it.” The knock he was referring to hit him when he was 14 and his mother, Mary, died of breast cancer.

The city runs through him and his music like the lettering in a stick of rock, not just with references to Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields, but because of the disparate influences he absorbed: the new rock'n’roll records, the Celtic tradition, and the jazz music of his own father.

Then there was John Lennon, who had also lost his mother. They may have fallen out later, but not before they made that magical coalition of the city’s two sides – the jagged and difficult; the sentimental teetering on mawkishness. For those early years, it was them against the world. It couldn’t have happened anywhere else. AF

Holly Johnson

“Liverpool was not a great place to be young, gay and broke. Unemployment, homophobia and heroin addiction were rife, the Zeitgeist was grim. I found refuge and inspiration at Eric’s Club, though, an amazing launch pad for talent. I was in the house band and met Blondie and the Sex Pistols. I will always be absolutely, indelibly Liverpudlian, and now I love going back. It has become more cosmopolitan and liberal and it is a great place to visit.”

Yoko Ono

“I’ll never forget the first time I went to Liverpool. I was invited by the art school, and I just felt very special about the city. The tall dark northern buildings, the smiles of young, intelligent students. I went back to London, reported to John, and he was very pleased that I liked Liverpool. He kept saying, ‘Did you, really?’

“Liverpool is a strongly nostalgic place for me. The romance is not over. But the place has changed a lot. Now, it’s a grand city which prides itself on being the European City of Culture. John was through and through a Scouser. He was proud of Liverpool and the gritty spirit the people carried. It was his own.

“I still get choked up when I go back to Mendips and visit his bedroom. That bedroom tells the story, more than anything else. After John’s passing, I thought I’d go with Sean to let him see where his Dad came from. I know that Liverpool will always live in his heart and mine.”

Elvis Costello

“When I come back I feel a certain pull,” says Elvis Costello, whose parents are from the city. “It was where I was first paid to play music – albeit 50p.”

The conductors

“To the people of Liverpool, we’re known affectionately as ‘the Phil’ and we’ve been a major part of the cultural life of Liverpool for more than 167 years,” says Vasily Petrenko (right), the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s first Russian, and youngest ever, principal conductor. He fell in love with the city instantly, so much so that he has extended his contract and bought a home there. He is also looking forward to next year: “2008 will be one of the most exciting times in the history of the city, and we are going to present a great musical year.” Local boy made good, Simon Rattle (above), who is now the chief conductor and artistic director of the Berliner Philarmoniker, is also “thrilled for Liverpool”, and is excited about going “from one northern city, Berlin, to a real northern city, Liverpool… back to the Phil, where I grew up, to work with the first orchestra I ever heard”.

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