Here, There, and Everywhere; Liverpool

My day in Liverpool consisted of two things; The Beatles and shopping.

Let me start off by explaining that Liverpool is renowned for its shopping.  Over 150 shops line the streets of the city center, and it was certainly the place to be on a Saturday afternoon.  The first chunk of shopping is on Church Street, which holds the more high-end, modern stores.  I only went into one store here (Primark), which has 5 floors that could have easily kept me all day.  I'm a bit more fond of Bold Street; it contains more vintage, bohemian, fair-trade stores along with farmers markets along the street.  I was hoping to stop for lunch at LEAF, a vegan-friendly tea shop, but got so caught up in my day that I forgot to eat.

Rewinding a bit, my day started off with checking out "The Beatles Story", the main Beatles museum in Liverpool.  It's famous for being overpriced (12 pounds) and a bit lackluster, but I'd have to disagree.  Anyone who considers themselves a huge Beatles fan is guaranteed to gain something from this experience.  No one that I traveled with considered themselves major fans, so I did all the Beatles stuff on my own (but met some fantastic people along the journey).
It did a great job of describing each member's childhood and teen years, the band's formation, important managers and producers along the way, and the key events that led to their stardom.  Several historically significant sites, such as recording studios and the Cavern Club (you'll hear more about this later) are reconstructed within the tour.  Plenty of documents, musical instruments, and photos have been donated to the exhibition for the public to enjoy.  I'll share just a few of my favorites.

One of Paul's first guitars

*Click on the images to get the full view

George's guitar from final Cavern Club performance

George's first guitar

Reconstruction of Frank Hessey's guitar shop (1)

Cleveland!

John Lennon tribute

Sgt. Peppers album recreation

John's sunglasses (2)

(3)

John's 20th birthday present (4)

(1)  Frank Hessey opened his guitar shop in the 1930s, and it soon became the most popular music shop in the area.  John bought his first guitar from Frank, costing him a hefty 12 quid!

(2) These sunglasses were worn by John when The Beatles toured Japan in 1966.  The band played five concerts and a traditional martial arts venue, but the appearance was met with much controversy.  The band members were frowned upon by protesters who believed that the Beatles were sending bad messages to the youth on sacred ground.  They received death threats and essentially became prisoners in the hotel.  They eventually gave their last performance without any harm, though.  At the end of the performance John and Junishi Yore (his interpreter) exchanged customary gifts, John's gift to Junishi being his sunglasses.  In accordance with Junishi's religious beliefs, he removed the lenses from John's sunglasses when he heard of his death in later years.

(3) The blue record has an interesting story.  A man named Colin McDonald was working at a record pressing plant in the late 1960s when he was printing a special order for the double LP of The White Album.  The plant was simultaneously running Linda Rostandt's "Blue Bayou", which was to be printed on blue vinyl.  Colin seized the opportunity to make a unique version of The White Album for himself, and later got it signed by Paul.

(4) John was given this flask as his 20th birthday present from a fellow Beatle at the time, Stuart Sutcliffe.  This was while they were doing their famous first tour in Hamburg, hence the German.  The words translate to "For Emperor John on your Birthday 9 Oct 1960 from Stu".

*One thing that I learned that blew me away; George Harrison joined the band when he was only 14 years old!  George was a school friend of Paul's and would spend a fair bit of time with Paul and John while they were practicing.  (At this time, they were still "The Quarrymen", not "The Beatles").  Paul lobbied for George to join the band, but John felt he was too young; a "bloody kid".  It wasn't until he heard George played "Raunchy", a mutual favorite song, that John finally accepted George as a member.  Check out the song here.

Next, I was off to the the Magical Mystery Bus Tour!  This was a 2-hour long ride on a psychedelic bus through town, stopping at Beatles-related sites, choreographed to commentary and Beatles tunes the whole way.  

First, the member's childhood houses:

Paul

John

George

Ringo (inbetween her head and the tree)

Brian Esptein (their manager)

John sang in the choir at this church

Liverpool Cathedral

Paul tried out for the choir in this cathedral, but was told by the directors that his voice wasn't strong enough to make the cut.  Little did they know...

As a similar side-note, John's aunt Mimi (his mother figure), once told him to stop playing guitar so much and do schoolwork instead.  "While music is a great hobby," she said, "you can't make a living out of it."  John later had this quote engraved in a plaque and gave it to his aunt as a final "I told you so!"






And now for places that the members wrote about in their music:

"on the corner is a banker with a motorcar..."

"Penny Lane, the barber shaves another customer"

 




 


St. Peter's Church (in the background) once held a music festival in the field behind the chapel.  It wasn't a huge venue, but still fairly popular among the Liverpudlians.  John was asked to play by the coordinators, and Paul attended to watch.  This was the first time (to anyone's knowledge) that Paul and John were in the same vicinity.  Paul was immediately impressed by John's playing and ability to improvise.

...it wasn't until later that day, in this brick building across the street, that John and Paul officially met.  They talked of guitars and music for ten minutes or so, but went their separate ways without ever planning to meet again.  It wasn't until they later met up again through a mutual friend that they began on their musical journey together. 

The bus tour dropped us nearby the famous Cavern Club, strongly encouraging us to go in and spend some time.  This was the venue at which the Beatles gained their popularity.  Furthermore, it was the first place that Brian Epstein, their manager, saw them perform.   Many other bands played regular performances here, such as The Rolling Stones, Queen, The Who, The Yardbirds, and Elton John.  

At the time of the Beatles debut, the Cavern didn't have a liquor license and was simply a music venue.  Today, it has been converted into a pub, still maintaining nearly all of the aspects of its early days.  Jack, a lovely fella that I met on the bus tour, and I went in around 5pm for a pint.  The place was absolutely hopping mad.  I'm fairly certain that it's full of crazed Beatles fans all day, every day.  We watched a couple cover bands play some tunes including "Love Me Do", "Can't Buy Me Love", and to my delight, "Happiness is a Warm Gun".  Unfortunately, I had to head back much earlier than I would have liked in order to catch the bus home.  I discovered that every Saturday night, anyone from the crowd is welcome to go on stage to play a Beatles song.  How cool would it be to say that you performed at the Cavern Club?!  Naturally, I decided that I must go back some other weekend for a night's stay so that I can experience this.