helping Mark Featherstone-Witty start a London secondary school with an innovative curriculum. McCartney and Featherstone-Witty joined forces to create the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) opening in 1996. The new company took over the Liverpool Institute Trust which had its origins in 1905. The building was rebuilt (entirely in parts) behind its old façade and re-opened in 1996 under LIPA's name. The new institute is affiliated with Liverpool John Moores University and is no longer a Liverpool secondary school. Art school The city's Art College had its origins as part of the Liverpool Institute. In 1883 a new building housing the School of Art was opened around the corner on Hope Street, adjacent to the principal building housing the High School on Mount Street. The Art College by which it was later known, took in talented students often without formal academic credentials (e.g. John Lennon) and the college eventually became one of the four constituent parts of the Liverpool Polytechnic in 1970 and later in 1992 Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) with the School of Art and Design being housed in the Art and Design Academy. Liverpool Institute and music Music and musical performances were a constant theme throughout the life of the school and the Mount St. building. Annual school Speech Day concerts (held in the fine acoustics of Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool), choirs, the organ, piano, music classes and the singing of daily devotional hymns have echoed around its walls for 170 years and continue to do so at LIPA: Neil Aspinall, 1954–1959: Beatles' road manager, managing director of Apple Corp Les Chadwick, 1954–1959: member of Gerry & The Pacemakers Albert Coates, 1894–1900: Anglo-Russian conductor and composer Lauri de Frece, 1893–1898, singer in musical theatre and actor Len Garry, 1954–1959: member of The Quarrymen George Harrison, 1954–1959: musician and one of The Beatles. Left without formal qualifications in July 1959 for a job as an assistant electrician at Blacklers department store Stan Kelly-Bootle 1941–1947: mathematics scholar, folk singer and composer. John McCabe, 1950 to 1957: prolific classical music composer Sir Paul McCartney, 1953–1960: musician. Having taken O and A levels, and deciding not to apply for teachers' training college, in July 1960 left school for the Beatles' first stay in Hamburg. Peter Sissons 1953–1961, head boy. Presenter of the BBC Nine O'Clock News and BBC Ten O'Clock News between 1993 and 2003, and a newscaster for ITN, on