AH, WELL, enough of sexual politics and heavy issues … for a while.
I expect you're all dying to know the latest goings on at my local pub, Hell’s Waiting Room in New Brighton.
I was in there last night, as it goes, and encountered a brilliant new music talent visiting us from his home in the swamps of Seacombe.
The young man, a poet and a songwriter called Al, performed some of his breathtakingly beautiful, self-penned love ballads.
He made quite an impression on the people assembled in the Waiting Room last night – myself, Popstar Paul, Big Jack, Quiet Jack, Annette Kalms and her rock chick daughter Felina.

One particularly good song of Al’s is ‘Confession’, which sounds like a potential smash hit single.
In fact, Al’s ‘Confession’ made Felina cry – because it reminded her of a love that has gone wrong in her own life.
Poor lass. She’s only 17. I explained to her that at the moment she is tender-hearted but when she’s as old as me she''ll have what the Popstar calls ‘a heart like a swinging brick’. Hmm, not sure that helped, actually.
Anyway, we are all hoping that Al will come and sing at Karl Lornie’s open mike at Stanley’s Cask, Rake Lane, on the New Brighton / Liscard border on Tuesday nights this month and Wednesday nights from June.
Al’s also promised to come to my Bards of New Brighton poetry group, which next meets on Monday, 4 June, starting at 8.40pm, at the Little Brighton inn, Rowson Street, New Brighton.
Incidentally, the Bards meet on the first Monday of each month – come hell or high water. Please do come along if you are interested in good writing..
As I say, young Al sure made an impression in the Waiting Room. Even Mr Craggs, the landlord, was so moved by the lad’s singing he gave him a free pint of lager.

*** THE campaign to save the gorgeous SS Peter and Paul's Church, New Brighton, is going very well.
Now I’m as good as any man at summing up the mood in the resort, and I would say the locals are absolutely enraged with the Diocese of Shrewsbury for the sly and undemocratic way it has announced that the church must close within two years.
The diocese – backed by faceless, gutless trustees for this beautiful domed basilica – has cruelly announced closure after systematically running down the parish, even to the point of reducing Sunday Masses to JUST ONE, at the unpopular time of 8.30am.
Even so, attendance was up at Mass this Sunday – a sign of mounting anger in the community and a great, abiding love for SS Peter and Paul Church.
I know, for a fact, that many local Catholic priests secretly support the campaign to save the church, but they daren’t say anything in case they are punished by the decline-obsessed diocese.
The Diocese of Shrewsbury has form for closing beautiful churches, and so priests live in fear as to which parish will feel the axe next.
Everything so far done by Catholic officialdom locally has been negative.
Even the admirable Latin Mass Society has been told it is no longer welcome to use SS Peter and Paul – and that is at a time when Pope Benedict himself is trying to encourage increased use of the Latin rites.
But the people are fighting back with a tremendous vigour that comes from the obvious justice of their case – and already they have enlisted kind words of support for their campaign to keep the church open from HRH Prince Charles.
A letter from the Prince’s deputy private secretary says: “I do hope the Diocese is able to come to some agreement with the local congregation to renovate SS Peter and Paul’s, as the closure of this building will undoubtedly be an immense loss to the community.�
Well, that is what should happen, but all the diocese has so far been prepared to say is the church will close and no further statement will be issued. How arrogant.
The diocese has also ‘assured’ people that there are no plans to demolish the listed church while it is owned by the diocese. This is no assurance at all, in fact, because presumably they are planning to flog it off.
This is no time for mincing words. What the Diocese of Shrewsbury has done is shameful.
It is a kick in the teeth for Wirral’s loyal Catholics and also a public sign of defeatism when other Christians of various dominations are working so hard to keep the faith alive across the peninsula.
And it is sadly ironic that at a time when Liverpool’s Metropolitan (Catholic) Cathedral across the water is rightly celebrating 40 years of its existence, the even more beautiful SS Peter and Paul is being told it must shut down.
I say to the trustees and the Diocese of Shrewsbury officials: “It is time to examine your consciences before God on this issue.
“It is time to change your minds and get fund-raising to restore this God-inspired building and to floodlight its mighty dome – a beacon of hope in our troubled times.�
My spies tell me the senior clergy and ecclesiastical pen-pushers at the diocese hope that within two years the people of New Brighton will go quiet on the issue, and then they can close the great church with minimum fuss.
How wrong can they be? There will be the mother of all battles over this outrageous decision.
The diocese will save themselves a lot of trouble if they realised their mistake NOW, and announced a rethink.
But if the Catholic top brass do, sinfully, persist in closing our beautiful church, may God forgive them.
Because we certainly won’t.
+ In Hoc Signo Vinces.
Quod Bonum Est Tenete.

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