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Philip Hayes, the man behind the Picket, the man who helped launch The La’s, the Farm and the man who has rubbed shoulders with the likes of Elvis Costello and the Who. After a long and varied career in the music industry, everything eventually gets too much for Philip, after a media headlining incident at an awards ceremony in 2013 he was to suffer a breakdown. In recovery, he returned to the medium of collage and bring us ‘To hell in a hand- cart’ exhibited at Unit 51 in the Baltic Triangle.
Philip’ informative years were spent in Croxteth, his parents were originally from ‘Scotty’ Road, his Nin having a hand- cart where she sold fruit and veg from in ‘Greaty’ market, a subversive reference to the title of the exhibition. Although his family life was full of childhood joys his academic life was haunted by tough experiences at senior school, John “Hammo”, high School in Everton.
Being the first in his family to successfully pass the 11+ he was sent to school in Everton, through unhappiness with his contemporaries he withdrew into himself and was eventually expelled. After a few minor scrapes with the law, he began a youth training scheme followed by a period in a band, The High Five.
His adult career began when he started ‘The Picket’, in recession ridden Merseyside in the 1980’s this was a scheme for unemployed young people who wanted to enter the Music Industry. Many came through his doors including bands such as the La’s, Rain, The Hoovers and the Farm.
Big names then came on board: Pete Townshend, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono and Elvis Costello, supporting the venture. Due to problems with the building, it was necessary to relocate, so in 2006 Picket 2 was opened with a ground -breaking performance from Deaf School in the Baltic Triangle. Picket 2 being the first and only creative business to locate in this pre-Capital of Culture area of the city, it was an isolated cultural business in an area which was yet to be known as ‘The Baltic Triangle.
After a night of heavy drinking at an awards ceremony, there was a well-publicised incident, which led to Philip suffering a breakdown in 2013. After a spell in Broad Green psychiatric hospital, he was to return home. Now jobless through a parting of ways from the Picket, he was to suffer a second more serious breakdown resulting in a longer spell in hospital.
In recovery, Philip was to return to working on collages which he had begun working on from the early years after the Millennium. The themes of his montages vary around the Merseyside Music scene: Lennon, the Cavern, Erics, Cream, Sound City and Threshold Festivals, Liverpool football Club, Hillsborough and mental health units such as Windsor House take over this new exhibition space at Unit 51. The wall-based pieces are a montage of the memorabilia he collected over the last three decades. Club flyers, gig tickets, cuttings and article snippets are combined with found object: Lennon style glasses, bucket hats embroidered with the Cream logo, original CD’s and records combined with trinkets of gig-going life. Handwritten annotation is added to the cut-out images, Lennon has been labelled ‘Angel of Truth’ and given flamed wings. Low tech green poster paint and biro fuel sprawl etch ‘Tramp the Dirt Down’ to an image of Thatcher in the height of 1980’s Tory governance.
So what’s next for Philip after moving on from the down times of the past and bringing us his first major solo exhibition as an Artist? He is planning a new collection themed simply around ‘Liverpool’. Local big name photographers such as Mark McNulty, John Johnson, Dave Evans, Billy Griff and Graham Smilie have donated their back catalogue of images for him to use. Not forgetting his routes in social enterprise he as brought in a young protege photographer, Teresa Hardy’ giving her a foot into the creative sector. In addition to this, he is helping to produce a new album aimed at ending the stigma around mental health, tracks from the Who, the Zutons’ and Deaf School to raise funds for the Samaritans, Safe and the Belve youth centre. An autobiography is also in the pipelines ‘Crocky to Tocky, via Hell in a Hand Cart’ looking to begin writing next year.
A raw, unnurtured artist talent to emerge on the Liverpool visual arts scene, bringing the energy that was ‘The Picket’ to the exhibition venue’ of the Baltic Triangle and the across the cultural Metropolis we love to call Liverpool.
Original and signed limited edition prints are available.
Unit 51, Jamaica Street Liverpool L1 0AH
Monday to Saturday
12:00pm – 2:00pm
Exhibition continues until December 8th.
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