CLUB SANDWICH 59

SCHOOL BAYS

With Paul's dream for a performing arts school in Liverpool
edging ever closer to reality, Mark Lewisohn takes a look at its
past, present and bright future

"... and here's one I made earlier." McCartney, JP, shows Portillo, MP, around the "Inny" science lab, 28 June 1991

            "Do you want fame?"
            So enquired a bold headline in the Liverpool Echo in February 1989. Well, who would say no? The question introduced a letter Paul had written to the city's evening newspaper, openly addressed to the people of Merseyside, asking whether they'd be interested in the setting-up of a Fame-type school at Paul's alma mater, the Liverpool Institute.
            "What do you think?" wrote the Echo alongside. "If you think Paul should support a Fame school phone 0077 554422. If you think he should not call 0077 554433."
            The answer rang loud and clear. ("Ring-A-Ding Vote Backs Paul's Bid For Fame!") A total of 1745 Liverpudlians had called in expressing support, only 48 had opposed the idea. So the scheme was on. "Now the hard work begins," Paul responded. "Hundreds of meetings will be required to get this project off the ground."
            And so they have, and so they continue, for beneath the talk of fame and fortune must come the inescapable series of feasibility studies and business plans that mark out the serious ventures from the fly-by-night. Paul's so-called Fame school is going to be done properly.
            LIPA is what it's really called, Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, and the man behind the headlines, responsible on a day-to-day basis for making the dream come true, is 45-year-old Mark Featherstone-Witty. A Londoner by birth who presently spends five days a week in Liverpool - he's shortly to set up home there - Mark certainly has the ideal background: he launched Face North, an arts magazine for the north of England ("named after the Small Faces," he adds, proudly), has taught both English Lit and Language to A-level at comprehensive schools, taught English and drama at the long-established Italia Conti performing arts school in London, been principal of a tutorial college and owned others, represented the University of Durham at the National Student Drama Festival, and acted in an American film, The Meal, alongside Kellogg's heiress Dina Merrill. ("I played a gay hairdresser. When my US film professor saw it he said 'If it ever goes to Europe, don't get involved in any publicity!'".)
            In 1980, Mark saw Alan Parker's famous film Fame at the Odeon in Leicester Square, London, and came out of the cinema seized with the idea of setting up such a performing arts school in Britain. "I basically found myself getting some managerial skills and wanted to do something that I would really enjoy for the rest of my life. At first I thought that somebody else must be setting something up in this country, but no one was, so I wrote letters to over 200 people in the industry, looking for support. The first person who became a patron was Alan Parker and now we have about 40, from Joan Armatrading to Vangelis. George Martin was the most help - he really has been immensely supportive. Then another patron, Richard Branson, got in touch with the MP Kenneth Baker and that's how the recently-opened BRIT School in south London got started. I founded the Schools for Performing Arts Trust in 1985."
            LIPA was formed in 1989 after the happy convergence of three plans: Paul's long-standing interest in his old school building, the SPA Trust's interest in starting schools, and Liverpool City Council's launch of an arts and culture policy to capitalise on the city's justifiable reputation as a home for talent.
            Proving that out of adversity can come triumph, the school was first suggested to Paul by a Liverpool friend shortly after the Toxteth riots of 1981. The pal reasoned that a Fame-type school might encourage the local youth to expend their energies less fractiously. It was a good idea, planted in the back of a fertile mind.
            In August 1988, Paul returned to the Liverpool Institute to shoot a short film (as yet unseen) and was dismayed to see it not only otherwise closed (it was shut down in 1985) but sliding into disrepair. This should be the venue for the fame school, Paul concluded. "He had always said that if we ever turned our attention to Liverpool to let him know," says Featherstone-Witty. "So we got together."
            The feasibility study launched at last year's 'Let It Be Liverpool' gig, and the business plan just published, point to a venture firmly set on the road to success. "Our current thinking is that it will open for students in September 1994," says Mark. "We should reach our full complement of about 650 full-time students in 1997, and - depending on financing - will also take on part-time students, evening classes, correspondence courses, summer schools and maybe even something like the Open University. I don't think we'll stop developing until the year 2000."
            Newspapers, naturally, have homed in on the Fame aspect, calling LIPA a project "to find pop stars". But it will go much further than this, embracing all forms of performing arts and attracting students aged from 18 to 80. Legal and financial