Made on Merseyside 2

Kirkby Gallery Monday 15 September – Friday 28 November 2025

Kirkby Gallery first staged Made on Merseyside in 2019, which celebrated and showcased industry in Knowsley, the goods produced here and the people who made them; the stories of businesses large and small, past and present. For Made on Merseyside 2, we wanted to focus more specifically on the creative industries from our area and that were born out of various circumstances, many of which speak of the time they were made in.

The exhibition will welcome visitors from the moment they enter the Kirkby Centre building, filling the Entrance Gallery and leading through into Kirkby Gallery itself on the first floor. There are five key sections to Made on Merseyside 2, each inextricably linked through people and places:

Letter to Brezhnev – As a celebration of the 40th year since its making, Kirkby Gallery in collaboration with writer Frank Clarke, commissioned a documentary on the making of the film. It includes interviews with Frank Clarke, the lead actors including Peter Firth, Margi Clarke and Alexandra Pigg, the cast extras, and revisits film locations which immediately link it to our local, Knowsley and Liverpool City Region.
The documentary will be premiered on the evening of the Private View, echoing the premiere of Letter to Brezhnev which was held in the same location, back when it was known as The Kirkby Suite. The documentary will be played on a loop for the duration of the exhibition, offering the opportunity to learn more about one of our most popular cult film classics.

The End – 1981 was a pivotal year for Liverpool, combining triumph and destruction. Liverpool FC were crowned European champions for the third time at the Parc des Princes in Paris, and later in the year the city celebrated the Royal Wedding. Meanwhile, however, ‘uprisings’ had broken out across the country, Toxteth being Merseyside’s contribution to Britain’s inner-city mayhem. Two young working class Liverpudlians, Peter Hooton and Phil Jones, would add to the importance of this momentous year.
1981 was the beginning of The End. Early contributors to the The End included Tony McClelland, Paul Need, Joe Lowry and Mick Potter. From 1981 to 1988, twenty editions were published. From 1981 to 1988, twenty editions were published. Accompanying The End displays are a selection of contemporary illustrations by John Potter, the magazine’s illustrator.
Exhibiting The End’s story has been made possible due to the support of John Grant.

Amazon Studios – Amazon Studios began as Liverpool Sound Enterprises in the 1970s, before being bought by Jeremy Lewis in 1973 who renamed it. It was based in an MOT test centre building on Stopgate Lane in Kirkby, so recording often had to be done in the evening and into the night.
Amazon Studios created their own Indie record label, Inevitable, founded by Jeremy Lewis and Pete Fulwell. During the early 1980s, Amazon 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; The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra recorded the original film score for Letter to Brezhnev there, in just one take.

TV and Theatre – Many successful actors and writers have come from Merseyside, and it seems the locality itself has spawned many original TV series and theatre productions over the years set in our area.
From the early series and gritty storylines of Z Cars in the 1960s, Alan Bleasdale’s celebrated works of stage and screen such as his 1980s TV series ‘Scully’ played by Andrew Schofield, through to more recent films which tell the story of the creative community that we reside within, they are part of the fabric of the cultural landscape we live in. This exhibition explores these popular shows and hidden gems.

Kitty and Her Accordion – 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. Working in the family pub whilst bringing up seven children, Kitty found solace in turning the pub into her stage, as she sang and played her accordion for the regulars.
The film explores how these unfulfilled aspirations impacted her daughter, Eithne Browne, who, as a single mum, pursued her own dreams of theatre against the backdrop of Kitty’s untold story.
Through intimate interviews, animations, and found recordings, director Roz Di Caprio reflects on the generational struggles and triumphs of creativity, while imagining what might have been if Kitty – and many other women – had dared to follow their ambitions.