While the bid for 2008 was being considered, Mike Storey met council officials from New York and Dublin, two other big cities that have wrestled with decline, and asked how they could tell that their respective slumps were over. It was all about confidence, they told him, and he’d recognise it when he saw cranes in the skyline.

“When I next approached the city I counted five cranes,” Storey relates. “There it was, that magic word: confidence . . .”

Page 2: ten things to do in Liverpool
Page 3: Liverpool seaside revivals, by Stephen McClarence

()TEN THINGS TO DO IN LIVERPOOL

1. Start at the Beatles Story museum (0151-709 1963), then a Magical Mystery Tour to include the former homes of The Beatles, Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields (709 3285). The International Beatle Week Festival is Aug 26-31 (236 9091, www.caverncitytours.com).

2. Take in the Tate: (702 7400, www.tate.org.uk/liverpool) at Albert Dock: Antony Gormley’s Field is revisiting until Aug 22.

Other musems and galleries: the Museum of Liverpool Life (478 4080), the Liverpool Museum (478 4399) and the Walker Art Gallery (478 4199). From Sept 18-Nov 28, the Liverpool Biennial showcases new artworks at 30 venues (www.biennial.com).

3. On the water. Board the Yellow Duckmarine (aka Wacker Quacker2), for a ride around the city on an amphibious Second World War landing vehicle (708 7799).

The Ferry ‘Cross the Mersey is brief and hardly glamorous — but part of an authentic experience (330 1444).

4. The neo-Gothic Liverpool Cathedral (709 6271) marked its centenary last month; the modern Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King (709 9222) is known fondly as the Mersey Funnel.

5. Football city. Liverpool FC tickets need to be booked well ahead (0870 2202345); for Everton much depends on holding on to Wayne Rooney (0870 4421878).

6. Live in Liverpool. The Mathew Street Festival (0151-236 9091, www.mathewstreetfestival.com) Aug 28-30: this free music festival last year drew 500,000 people.

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