Willy Russell
Playwright, Musician & Novelist

Willie Russell is a multi-talented playwright, musician and novelist. His early work includes a play about the Beatles called John, Paul, George, Ringo...and Bert. Major success followed and some of his most famous work includes Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine and Blood Brothers.

Willy still lives in Liverpool and supports our campaign. "In all the world my favourite place to watch a film is Woolton Cinema. Its presence is also one of the things that makes Woolton unique and I hope that the campaign team meet with deserved success in saving and finding a future for a place that is so special to many"

Visit Willy's website at www.willyrussell.com

Mike McCartney
Photographer, Musician & Author

Mike was brought up in Liverpool with his older brother Paul. They moved to Allerton when the boys were teenagers.

Mike's fame started in the ‘One Fat Lady All Electric Show’ which eventually becamethe band Scaffold and because of Beatlemania, Mike had to change his name to ‘McGear’, and was an integral part of the 60’s Merseybeat era, but on the more theatrical, poetic side. Scaffold were mainly a university, satirical comedy act, but in 1967 Mike got them into the pop world by writing their first top 5 single ,and Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s favourite record!…
‘Thank U Very Much’.

In 1968 their big popular hit ‘Lily The Pink’ reached the top of the National charts (here and abroad) and stayed number 1 for five weeks. Mike’s songs were responsible for introducing decimalisation to Britain!, and Scaffold’s last top five single, produced by Paul McCartney with Wings, was ‘Liverpool Lou’.

In 2004 Liverpool JMU University awarded Mike an Honorary Fellowship at Liverpool Cathedral and the Bishop of Birkenhead appointed Mike the ‘Cultural Ambassador for Wirral’ where he now lives with his wife and sons, having brought up his three daughters.

Visit Mike's website at www.mikemccartney.co.uk

Maurice Gleeson
Actor

Maurice Gleeson is an actor, a medical doctor and a psychiatrist. Originally from Dublin, Maurice studied medicine in University College Dublin and his medical work took him from his native Dublin to Kenya, Belfast, Liverpool (where he worked as a renal physician) and eventually London.

He launched his acting career in 2000 and has massed a large amount of acting experience including theatre, television and film. Maurice is fully in support of the campaign to save Woolton Cinema.

Maurice's particular interests include theatre, cinema, and being at one with nature. More information can be found at www.mauricegleeson.uktheatre.net

Alex Cox
Film Director

Alex is a British film director and sometime actor, born in Liverpool. His film Repo Man is often credited as one of the first truly independent movies and it was this film that brought him critical acclaim. Alex is the author of a number of screenplays including the 1998 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. From 1988 to 1994, he presented Moviedrome on BBC Two, providing introductions to series of alternative or obscure films.

He was at Law school at Oxford with Tony Blair, before studying film at Bristol University and UCLA.

"The Woolton Cinema is a great place... one of the last 'real' cinemas left anywhere. It would be wonderful if the Capital of Culture's hundred million pound war chest could be opened wide enough to save the Woolton, for 2008 & beyond."

Visit Alex's website at www.alexcox.com

Rod Davis & Colin Hanton
Musicians - "The Quarrymen"

Rod was an original member of the Quarrymen line-up with John Lennon back in the 50s. The Quarrymen reformed in 1997 and continue to perform to this day.

"Colin Hanton and I would be very happy to add our support to your campaign to save the Woolton Cinema.

Whilst I went there quite a few times I don't have any specific memories that come to mind except that I was not impressed with the Three Stooges! Colin however, recalls going to the Saturday morning matinees to watch the likes of Flash Gordon, Hopalong Cassidy and Superman and he particularly remembers going to see Calamity Jane as because of an electricity supply problem the audience had to queue up outside for almost an hour until power was restored and they were allowed into the cinema.

Colin is sure that the rest of the Woolton guys in and around the Quarrymen were regulars at the Woolton, Nigel Walley, Ivan Vaughan and of course John Lennon and Pete Shotton."

Visit www.quarrymen.co.uk to find out more about Rod and the rest of the Quarrymen.

Garry Christian
Musician - "The Christians"

Garry Christian is the lead singer with the 80s / 90s band "The Christians", together with his brothers Russell and Roger as well as Henry Priestman. They signed to Island Records in the summer of 1986 and soon began work on their first album with producer Laurie Latham.

The first fruit of this partnership was their debut single "Forgotten Town", which was released to critical acclaim in January 1987 and earned the band their first UK top 30 hit, as well as alerting other parts of Europe to their brand of "socially-aware soul".

"I'm well up for the campaign to save the cinema it was my haunt for a long time and I feel stressed to think it may not be there anymore, yet another chip away at Liverpool's heritage. As far as the gig goes i'm afraid it's too close to our tour to do it, but would loved to have done it, if there is anything else i can do just let me know"

Visit The Christians website at www.thechristians.me.uk or alternatively visit Garry's site at www.garrychristian.me.uk

Malcolm Kelly
Local Councillor

Malcolm Kelly has been a local Councillor representing Woolton for 10 years.  He and his ward colleagues have all pledged their support for the campaign to save Woolton cinema, and

Malcolm attended our first public meeting and spoke encouragingly about ways in which our campaign can be supported.  "The cinema is a great amenity for the people of Woolton and the surrounding areas, and has the potential to expand into a great community facility, which can be supported by the many bars and restaurants throughout the Village", said Malcolm.  "There is a lot of enthusiasm and backing for this campaign with so many people wanting it to succeed - well done to Sally and Glen for having the vision and courage to take this on".

Malcolm can be contacted on 0151 225 2354 or malcolm.kelly@liverpool.gov.uk

Tony Snell
BBC Radio Merseyside DJ

Tony joined BBC Radio Merseyside in December 1997 following jobs as a milkman and bricklayer but eventually fulfilling his boyhood ambition of working on radio.

Snelly has interviewed people from all areas of showbiz, from singers Tony Bennett, Tom Jones, Cliff Richard to broadcasters & comedians such as Rolf Harris, Stuart Hall and Ricky Tomlinson.

"The Woolton Cinema would be a great loss not only to the community but to the whole of the city. I loved the atmosphere of the place, real seats, an intermission, wonderful.  It was like going to a friends house to watch a movie..don't let it slip away."

You can email Tony at snelly@bbc.co.uk or call into the show on 709 9333 weekday mornings from 8:30am-12pm.

Mersey Beatles
Beatles Tribute band

"This is Steven Howard of The Mersey Beatles.

I know I speak on behalf of all the lads when I express my sadness at the closing down of Woolton cinema.

I'd hate to see yet another piece of Liverpool heritage disappear to make way for a soulless replica of a business found in any city in the country. Like a carpark which replaced the original Cavern club, a  Tesco replacement of decent, not unattractive flats in old swan, waste land which decorates the site of Liverpool's only permanant ice rink or  McDonald's which seems to replace everything everywhere and all of which have non of the unique charm of any of there predecessors.

I believe it's very important that we don't let the simple values of quality community based businesses be bullied out of fashion by short sighted developers with pound signs in there eyes.

It's not only the village and Liverpool in general that would suffer if the closure were permanent but movie fans of the future would too."

The Mersey Beatles formed in 1999, when friends Steven Howard and Brian Ambrose got together with Steven's cousin David and fellow musician Jason Murray and just like their musical role models, the boys' early performances were around the social and cabaret clubs in their home city.

The band can now be seen regularly at the Cavern Club, and are well on the way to topping the impressive record of 294 performances which The Beatles achieved at the club. Visit their website at www.themerseybeatles.com

China Crisis
Liverpool 80s band

Website

Muddyhead
Liverpool Band

Simon O'Brien
Actor & Radio DJ

Janice Long
Radio 2 DJ

Linda McDermott
Radio Presenter

Website

Barbara Mace
Local Councillor

Amsterdam
Liverpool Band

Rebbeca
Liverpool Band

Website

Phil Hayes
The Flying Picket

Evileye Media
Production Company

LarkLane.com
Community Website

Website

The Rocket 106.7FM
Local Radio Station

Website • MySpace

The Snides
Local Band

Hot Club de Paris
Liverpool Band

The Icons
Liverpool Band

Website • MySpace