I Don't Want to Live in Ringo's House

The Trabant is 50 years old this year – an event that is strangely considered cause for celebration. Strangely, because for most of its life the Trabant has been the target of neglect and derision.

I thought about the Trabant after interviewing Loyd Grossman for the February issue of Regenerate. The link between a rust bucket and a creator of a well-known brand of pasta sauce? Well, Grossman’s several roles in cultural organisations across Liverpool have cast him in the role of champion of culture, including for Ringo Starr’s house.

Like the Trabant, Ringo Starr’s house was once just another item neglected by our throwaway society

Like the Trabant, Ringo Starr’s house was once just another item neglected by our throwaway society. Until, that is, a housing market renewal pathfinder wanted to knock it down to regenerate an area of the city. Then the house became a cultural relic. Such was the ferocity of the protest that it is now to be dismantled and placed in Grossman’s new museum of Liverpool, where it can be suitably revered by lovers of Octopus’s Garden and Thomas the Tank Engine, presumably.

So where does our love of Trabants and Ringo Starr’s house lead us. Firmly into the past, it would appear. Put Ringo’s house in a museum if you want by all means, but please don’t make me live there. I want to keep looking firmly into the future.