Quite why Ringo Starr and Dave Stewart had to perform their song from a hollowed-out cargo container parked on the top of St George’s hall was not immediately obvious.

But it made a flamboyant finale to the show billed as The People’s Opening which, 11 days into 2008, Friday night kicked off Liverpool’s year as European capital of culture.

More than 20,000 people packed the centre of the city in the shadow of some of the finest civic buildings in Britain and cheered with honest joy at a spectacle which, like Olympic Games openings, didn’t always make a lot of sense but made a lot of noise. The hall, a graceful Scouse version of a Roman temple and said to be Prince Charles’s favourite building, looked at times as if it would like to put its hands over its ears. Ringo was given a build-up worthy of the second coming of the Messiah: he was a “homecoming hero”, “one of the most loved children of the city”.

Then, just below cloud level, he and Stewart gave the first performance of the nostalgic title track from the new album Liverpool 8, in which Ringo harks back to his Toxteth childhood: “Destiny was calling. I just couldn’t stick around/Liverpool, I left you, but I never let you down.” Old hero Ringo was preceded at ground level by new heroes — The Wombats, who premiered their song (nothing to do with Liverpool but a lot to do with New York, proving that the city still looks to the new world for inspiration).

The production began with a semaphore ballet performed by eight aerialists dangling from the arm of a crane. A second crane, meanwhile, carefully transported a container labelled “special cargo”. It landed to disgorge the lord mayor and a crowd of creatives who waved a lot. Guitarists popped up on the Radio City tower and Wellington's Column, then on the Empire Theatre and the Walker Art Gallery. And Liverpool roared with                delight.