Huge new mural celebrates 100 incredible musical icons on Mathew Street

The new artwork on Mathew Street features huge names from the world of music, who have shaped Liverpool’s cultural heritage, past, present and future.

From The Beatles to OMD, The Teardrop Explodes to Frankie Goes to Hollywood, the mural is designed and created by artist Joe Venning and is funded by SP Energy Networks and The Beatles Story via The Beatles Legacy Group, and facilitated by Liverpool Business Improvement District.

Three artists were shortlisted after a callout for ideas for the wall on Mathew Street, a few steps from The Cavern and Eric’s, two music venues that have shaped both Liverpool’s music history, and the world’s.

Wirral based artist Joe Venning has already created one mural in Liverpool, a 40m wall at ACC Liverpool celebrating the city’s sporting, artistic, comedic and dramatic talent.

The new Mathew Street display is 15m wide and pictures the 100 musicians as an audience, with Mathew Street as the stage itself. It covers the exterior of SP Energy Network’s substation wall.

The musicians included in the mural range from Sir Paul McCartney and Ian Broudie, to Louisa Roach, Abi Harding, Mick Head, Carol Decker, Andy McCluskey, Holly Johnson, Jayne Casey, Chris Amoo, Mike McGear and Kingsize Taylors.

The bands featured include Red Rum Club, Camelphat, Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Wombats, Dead or Alive, The Icicle Works and The Swinging Blue Jeans.

Artist Joe Venning said: “The musicians in the crowd scene are arranged in roughly chronological order with the contemporary artists at the front and the Merseybeat era bands further back, to form a timeline of sorts.

“Whilst painting I started seeing connections between bands I hadn’t noticed before. The lineage of indie is pretty obvious from The Cavern bands to Jamie Webster via The Las, The Farm, The Zutons etc.

“You can also trace the family tree of dance music from CamelPhat back through the original 90’s Cream DJs and The KLF, and then through earlier electronica acts like OMD and further still into Disco with The Real Thing. I hope viewers will start seeing these kinds of connections too.

“You don’t see many murals where members of Atomic Kitten rub shoulders with members of Carcass!”

Full list of 100 musicians featured

• Stephen Fitzpatrick (Hers)
• Lia Metcalfe (The Mysterines)
• Mike Di Scala (Camelphat)
• Jetta
• Jamie Webster
• Lapsley
• Louisa Roach (She Drew the Gun)
• Graham Sayle (High Vis)
• Rebecca Ferguson
• Ian Ball (Gomez)
• Holly Minto (Crawlers)
• James Skelly (The Coral)
• Scouse Drill
• Yousef
• Ryan Murphy (Hooton Tennis Club
• Dave Whelan (Camelphat
• Miles Kan
• Ian Broudie (Lightning Seeds)
• Mele
• Abi Harding (The Zutons)
• Anton Powers
• Mick Head (Shack)
• Kele Okereke (Bloc Party)
• Matty Chiabi (Girls Dont Sync)
• Simon Rattle
• Lee Douglas (Anathema)
• Fran Doran (Red Rum Club)
• Helen Marnie (Ladytron)
• Keiran Shudall (Circa Waves)
• Pixey
• Carol Decker (Tpau)
• Gary Christian (The Christians)
• Ian Mcculloch (Echo and The Bunnymen)
• Lee Mavers (The Las)
• Bill Drummond (KLF)
• Linda Reynolds (The Reynolds Girls)
• Natasha Hamilton (Atomic Kitten)
• Pete Wylie (The Mighty Wah!)
• Kerry Catona (Atomic Kitten)
• Nigel Blackwell (Half Man Half Biscuit)
• Liz McClaron (Atomic Kitten)
• Aisling Reynolds (The Reynolds Girls)
• Jenny Frost (Atomic Kitten)
• Andy Carrol
• James Barton (Cream Founder)
• Dave Smith (The Real Thing)
• Simon Rowbottom (The Boo Radleys)
• Paul McCartney (The Beatles)
• Jimmy Cauty (KLF)
• Ray Lake (The Real Thing)
• Bill Steer (Carcass)
• Paul Humphreys (OMD)
• John Power (Cast/ Las)
• Mel C (Spice Girls)
• Clifford Williams (AC/DC)
• Matthew Murphy (The Wombats)
• Gary Daly (China Crisis)
• Tommy Scott (Space)
• Chris Griffiths (The Real People)
• Sonja
• Elvis Costello
• Peter Hooton (The Farm)
• Holly Johnson (Frankie Goes to Hollywood)
• Black
• Jacqui Abott (Beautiful South)
• Mike Score (Flock of Seagulls)
• Howard Grey (Apollo 440)
• George Harrison (The Beatles)
• Someone from Clinic
• Heidi Ranges (Sugababes)
• Jane Casey (Big in Japan)
• Beryl Marsden
• Julian Cope (Teardrop Explodes)
• Tony Sheridan
• Valarie Gell (The Liverbirds)
• Stuart Sutcliffe
• Keith Stokes (Remo 4)
• Chris Amoo (The Real Thing)
• Eddie Amoo (The Real Thing)
• Cilla Black
• Michael Holliday
• Mike Mcgear (The Scaffold)
• Gerry Marsden (Gerry and the Pacemakers)
• Frankie Vaughan
• Lita Roza
• Ringo Starr (The Beatles)
• Andy McCluskey (OMD)
• Aynsley Dunbar (Drum Legend)
• Kingsize Taylor (Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes)
• Bruce Mccaskill (The Swingin Blue Jeans)
• Pete Burns (Dead or Alive)
• Ian McNabb (The Icicle Works)
• Billie J Kramer
• Pete Best
• Brian Epstein
• John Lennon (The Beatles)
• Mike Pender (The Searchers)
• Ken Dodd
• Billy Fury
• Roger Eagle (Eric’s Founder)