Kirkby Gallery will be hosting an exhibition this autumn focused on creative connections and industries in Knowsley – from music to TV to film, and the stories of local writers, all produced here in Knowsley and the immediate Merseyside areas.

Made on Merseyside 2 aims to celebrate the cultural/creative industries in our area. There will be a focus on film, TV, music and writing, as this exhibition will coincide with the Knowsley Music Festival taking place in Autumn of this year.
We created this exhibition back in 2019 and as with some of our exhibition themes, they warrant re-visiting so as to explore different aspects. The original Made on Merseyside exhibition focused on businesses, companies and their local products. It was a huge success which generated lots of wonderful personal stories and anecdotes. This time and because the timing of the event coincides with the Knowsley Music Festival in Autumn, this time we wanted to have more of a creative industries focus and celebrate local artistic talent.

At the heart of the exhibition are objects and photos, films and documents which shine light on the many fascinating stories which have shaped our local cultural landscape. Objects on display have been loaned from a variety of individuals and organisations, as well drawing on Prescot Museum’s collection.

Highlights will include a documentary on the making of the cult film classic, Letter to Brezhnev (as screenwriter Frank Clarke is from Kirkby and many of the film locations are local to Knowsley/Liverpool).

Kitty and Her Accordion is a poignant short documentary that delves into the life of Kitty, a working-class Mum in 1950s Liverpool, who was constrained by societal expectations that stifled her dreams of becoming a musician.

A celebration of the 1960s TV series Z Cars, the first series of which was filmed in and around Kirkby, and an exploration of the work of local author of stage and screen Alan Bleasdale will form part of the exhibition, along with a look at The End, a unique magazine created in 1981 in Stockbridge Village (then Cantril Farm) by founding editors Phil Jones and Peter Hooton and focusing on local life, music, football and fashion.

Also featured, will be Amazon Studios and their independent record label ‘Inevitable’. Beginning life as Liverpool Sound Enterprises in the 1970s, Amazon Studios became a central site for the local post-punk music scene, responsible for early recordings by many local bands such as Echo and the Bunnymen, Dead or Alive, Wah! and China Crisis; they also recorded the original film score to the Letter to Brezhnev film, amongst many others.