August 2023 - Meet the Team: Chris
Today’s a big day for our Marketing Officer Chris, who is celebrating an impressive 25 years at Liverpool Philharmonic! For the last quarter of a century, he’s been the backbone of the Marketing team – anything he doesn’t know about the department just isn’t worth knowing. So to mark the occasion, we sat down to chat to Chris all about life at the Hall.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Well I joined the Marketing team in 1998, just as I was completing my MA in Tourism and Leisure Service Management. I was just finishing up a work placement elsewhere, I saw this job advertised, thought I’d go for it and I got it – never looked back since. I was finishing my dissertation as well, so it was quite a busy time!
What was your first day at Liverpool Philharmonic like?
It’s so long ago, I can’t recall my first day in too much detail! I remember everyone was really welcoming and friendly. It was a much smaller team than it is now – I think we only had a Marketing team of 5 then compared to 9 now. I remember thinking as soon as I came in that it was the right decision. There are a few people from that first day who are still here today too.
Tell us what your average day looks like.
Very varied – it’s quite a busy team. My day is quite flexible to meet the demands of the team. A lot of my work involves things such as sales and data reporting, direct mails, emails, social media – so there’s lots of different elements and it’s a cliché, but no two days are the same! And I probably enjoy every part of my day equally to be honest.
Strangest or funniest story?
So I don’t know how I found myself in this situation… There was one evening when I was around the Hall, it was just before the opening concert of a new season and I was at front of house on the Information Desk. I was asked quite last minute, would I go and style Vasily Petrenko’s [our former Chief Conductor] hair, so I said OK, I’ll give it a go. I think before that he’d done some photo shoots with a local stylist, and as there was press in, they wanted to copy what the stylists had done. I’m definitely not a stylist, but I think he was happy enough – he went on stage with it anyway! But by the time I finished it was about twenty-five past seven, so he didn’t have too much choice really!
Most famous person you’ve run into at the Hall?
Being in the office you don’t tend to come across too many of the stars – maybe not as much as people in other positions. But it’s always quite exciting when you see some big stars arriving, and they’re rehearsing and sound-checking. It’s always a big event when Paul McCartney turns up for the LIPA graduations. I was stuck at Stage Door once trying to get out when he was being ushered in.
Dream concert at the Hall – who do you want to see on that stage?
I’ve been lucky over the years to see some great concerts here, such as Morrissey, Last Shadow Puppets, Michael Kiwanuka, more recently Suede and James, as well as some fantastic Orchestra concerts too of course. For my own personal musical preferences, it would be great to see someone like Oasis, Blur or Pulp. We may be a little bit too small for them at the moment, but in the future, you never know…
You’ve been at Liverpool Philharmonic for 25 years – what’s kept you here so long?
I just really enjoy working here. You get an office with a live music venue attached to it. Even when the Orchestra are just in rehearsing, it’s always quite a nice buzz, and it’s the same when there’s a big concert coming up. And the people are great too – I’ve worked with some great colleagues, and made some good friends, over the years. It’s just always been a nice team to be part of. So yeah, I just still enjoy doing my job – but we’ll see about the next 25 years…
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