Hull’s a poppin’ as impossible dream comes true

The minutes ticked down to 7.45am, a crowd of artists, amid a sea of damp palms and mounting nerves.

A TV screen flickered into life – Phil Redmond saying it had been a difficult decision, and without further ado, handed over to Culture Secretary Maria Miller.

The word “Hull” was barely out of her mouth when the room exploded into cheers, tears and laughter. Nothing could be heard above the roar of approval.

Folk musician Mick McGarry’s band Hillbilly Troupe stepped up another gear. Soon a conga was snaking round the room. The party was on.

In the run up to 7.45am bid advisor Andrew Dixon took to the podium to sing Dundee, Leicester and Swansea’s praises.

He said: “We have four great cities bidding and we are all terribly confident and enthusiastic but we must respect the other cities that put in the hard work and we would like you to clap and applaud with varying degrees of politeness.

“If we do win we want you to go absolutely wild.”

The bookies had Swansea Bay down as favourites, with Dundee second and Hull third.

Dundee had a budget almost twice the size of Hull’s, Leicester had “diversity in its festivals and catchment”, Swansea equal issues of deprivation.

But Hull was the only city to have made a film – now “the film” – a four-minute heartstring-tugging video called This City Belongs To Everyone.

More than 76,000 people have looked at it on YouTube – far more than have seen a film by this year’s titleholder Derry-Londonderry – and the city’s bid had a 16,000-strong following on social media.

Already the city had been given £3m worth of Press coverage and by the look of yesterday’s media circus, there is a lot more to come.

What a difference a day can make – by early afternoon Culture Secretary Maria Miller and Phil Redmond, creator of TV’s Brookside, Grange Hill and Hollyoaks, and chair of the panel of judges had arrived in Hull, and were on a whistlestop tour taking in Larkin’s statue in the railway station and Humber Street, once a fruit market, now home of the burgeoning arts quarter.

Back on national radio DJ Steve Wright was doing Hull “factoids” for his afternoon show.

As one of the steering committee members said it was all getting a bit surreal – or as he put it “nice unreal.”

Stopping for a brief chat Mr Redmond said the word “Hullness” which had been used in both the city’s written and verbal presentation had struck a chord: “It’s like being a Scouser. It sums up a state of mind, the passion, the heritage, the collaborative feel that it really means something to the city.

“It is time to move on, to step out of the shadows as their bid said, which is what it did in Liverpool.

“It’s about a belief in your own city, that this is where our home is and this is what we are proud of.”

Throughout the day the limelight continued on Hull and there was even a minor spat when the Prime Minister – perhaps ill-advisedly – heaped tributes on singer song-writer Paul Heaton.

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Cameron praised the city and told MPs: “And of course in terms of popular music Hull has a fantastic record, I remember, some years ago that great Housemartins’ album, which was London 0 Hull 4.”

Straight on Twitter Heaton, the band’s former lead singer, told fans: “Well, apparently David Cameron likes London 0 Hull 4.

“Which part on the attack on his policies and rich friends did he like best????”

The singer who led the left-wing Hull band until they split up in 1988, then added; “When I took over my pub in Salford, the first people I barred was Cameron and George Osborne. That ban still stands.”

Back in Hull musician Mr McGarry, who’d been leading an upbeat tempo, with his punk, folk and blues band sounded a warning note.

It was great news and he was hoping to see lots of jobs coming to the city.

But he said: “Young people need work in this town. We need to be asking some serious questions – what exactly are they going to deliver?

“We don’t want to see another Liverpool where they just build a garden centre and walk away from it.

“We have enough shops. We want some real jobs, not fly by night jobs, and we want them paid at a living wage.”