The Amazing Liverpool Giants!

 Have not been around these past couple of days or so, as I've been taking a short break in lovely Liverpool with Mr KT Miniatures and two of my three offspring. My eldest has lived there for many years now and we all absolutely love the place! When we heard that "The Giants" were coming to Liverpool, we jumped at the chance of seeing them. 

Grandma Giant was to tell the story of the many Liverpudlians who signed up happily to the Kings Regiment in 1914....the innocent Liverpool pals who went off to war thinking they would experience adventure overseas and be back in time for Christmas! We did not see her "speaking" as our time did not allow, instead we watched Grandma Giant and the Little Girl with her dog Xolo parade past. I have never seen anything like this before so decided to share my photos with you on here...hope you find them interesting. 

We chose Friday to watch the three day parade event, the day when the giants were based mainly in the city centre of Liverpool...it was an absolutely scorching hot day but the atmosphere was truly wonderful and great fun.  Thousands of people stood wherever they physically could in order to see.   Some perched precariously high up on window ledges or on top of buildings, office workers stopped work momentarily and hung out of office windows...we managed to find a gap in the crowds on a pavement. Everyone was so happy and friendly,  there was much anticipation and a real sense that this was a very special occasion for the city.

 

First came Xolo, the giant dog. The sheer magnificence of the whole marionette took my breath away....with so many puppeteers pulling wires all over the place in order to make Xolo walk, move his head etc. was magical and absolutely fascinating. I have better photos of Xolo further down the blog as we saw him and the girl later in the day, by chance.

 

Then came the Little Girl Giant..she was big - about 18 feet high I think! She walked, moved her head, blinked....absolutely incredible. The puppeteers must be incredibly fit as the ones on the ground had to constantly take it in turns to leap up and pull on the ropes at the front, in order to make her legs move. It was soooo hot, everyone felt really sorry for those poor puppeteers in their big heavy red jackets!

There were also several puppeteers perched high on a special kind of moving crane contraption behind....again, it was fascinating to see all the wires and how they each were working in tandem to make the giant move.

 

 Then we had to move along to another road round the corner, to see Grandma Giant who had been woken up from a deep sleep where she had been lying on a giant bed in St George's Hall for a while. Actually, her giant wheelchair came first, then along came Grandma herself. She was enormous...approx. 25feet high (a few feet higher than her granddaughter) ....what a sight she was! She even dribbled....haha!

She even had a giant walking stick in her hand.

The poor puppeteers in their red coats had to take it in turns every few seconds to continually jump off the front of the following move crane contraption to yank on the rope to make Grandma walk!

 Behind came the very eccentric French gentleman with a musical band, who I understand was the artistic creator of these giant marionettes- Jean-Luc Courcoult - he is the one wearing giant size glasses and a pink jacket!

 

And then Grandma was gone.....

Later in the evening....as we were making our way to a very nice restaurant in Hope Street for dinner, we happened to come across Xolo and The Little Girl Giant once again. They were going past at the end of the road where our restaurant was and by pure chance, we had a much better view this time....so I managed to take more pics.

 

 

  As we were perched at the top of a hill, right by the Anglican Cathedral....we were not surprised to see the Little Girl hitching a lift on the top of an old car........everyone had been wondering how those poor guys swinging on ropes to  make her "walk" were going to get her up the hill....haha!

Hope Street Suitcases

And finally, as I was walking past these...I just had to take some images of John Kings wonderful suitcase sculptures that are situated in Hope Street. They look like random piles of stone suitcases but many have a plaque with a name of someone who has special significance to the area.

Here is the Case History signage which explains all....

Hope you've enjoyed seeing all the pics.....now I have to get back down to some serious work!

Meanwhile....here is a brilliant video of the Giants in Liverpool.