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24 Hours in Liverpool

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I have the chance to spend a day/night in Liverpool next month. As a huge Beatles fan for over 50 years, how best to soak up as much Beatles-related experience as possible? Happy to tour, walk, watch, visit – anything. All suggestions (from the touristy to the different) would be much appreciated.

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  1. Do the National Trust tour of the Lennon/McCartney houses.

    Visit Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields.

    Go to Mathew St and check out the Cavern reproduction which is almost on the old site.

    Have a pint in The Grapes (if it has been re-opened)

    Take a ferry across the Mersey.

    I wouldn’t bother with “The Beatle Experience” at Albert Dock.

  2. What dai says.

    I’d be inclined to settle for just catching the ferry, staring reminiscently at the Liver Building while humming the tune to “The Liver Birds” to yourself, and then getting a cab to deliver you to Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane. Buy a poppy.

  3. I went to university for three years in Liverpool and despite being a fan of the Beatles never went on the tours of Menlove Avenue and Forthlin Road.

    I can tick the rest of the suggestions off though. I thought the Beatles Museum on Albert Dock was ok, but this was in 2005 so it may have changed since then? There’s also the Beatles Shop (if it’s still there) at the other end of Mathew Street.

    • May have to stay another day…

      Thanks to all for the tips so far. By the way I’ve just listened to the 43 (or something) hours of ML’s ‘Tune In’ on audio. Theirs certainly is the greatest music story ever told…

  5. The Lennon & McCartney childhood homes are a must, a real eyeopener and if you can play piano theres one avalible. Otherwise its a communal “Let It Be” in the porch (on our visit!)

  6. Yes, the National Trust homes are fantastic. I also enjoyed the other attractions mentioned, including the Albert Dock museum but it’s been a few years. No one has mentioned the Casbah Club which is also fantastic. And I read that Roag Best now has a Beatles Museum in town which features Neil Aspinall’s collection of mementos? Also loved the Cavern.

  7. Oh my goodness, PLEASE if you do nothing else do the National Trust homes. If you are any kind of a Beatles fan this is a real chance to soak up the childhood environments of John and Paul. The guides are friendly and informative.

    And the other thing I loved is the Casbah club in Mona Best’s basement. It’s preserve EXACTLY as it was, so it’s the real thing. It’s a… shall we say.. endearingly amateurish experience. It’s run by Roag Best (brother of Pete, son of Neal Aspinall) and what it lacks in professional polish it makes up for in authenticity. You can literally smell your way back to 1959.

    The Albert Dock museum I quite like. But yeah, it’s touristy and bit lowest common denominator.

    I refuse to visit the Cavern as it’s not the real one!

    Roag Best has also opened the Magical Beatles Museum, which I haven’t been to. Reviews are mixed!

    • The Beatle Experience has some interesting artefacts from the earlier years, but generally loses interest once they left Liverpool for London. Probably worth seeing once though, despite what I said above. Little pricey for what it is.

  9. Have booked the NT tour to the childhood homes and the consensus around other suggestions has helped outline the rest of the day including Roag Best’s place. Thanks all.

    Will Penny Lane or Strawberry Fields be genuinely emotional or is that sense of place as creative inspiration impossible to conjure up at this distance?

    • Penny Lane is more urban now, than when Paul wrote about it. Lots of shops in the area but, most importantly, you can get the finest breakfast in the country nearby at The Tavern Company. The menu is excellent but the sausages are to die for. Be warned, it gets busy but they are so well organised a table shouldn’t be too long.

  10. Apart from the Beatles stuff, it’s worth mentioning that Liverpool has more Grade 1 listed buildings than any other provincial city. My favourites are the Anglican Cathedral, the Philharmonic Hall (art deco) and the Philharmonic pub, where you must visit the gents – claim flexible gender identity if necessary.

  11. We did the taxi tour – much better than the Magical Mystery Tour bus – it was supposed to be an hour and a half but when he found out I was a Beatle nerd it lasted two and a half hours and he showed me stuff he doesn’t usually bother with, like John’s initials carved in a tree just behind Menlove Avenue, where Julia was run down etc. The best bit was visiting Woolton Church with him and sitting in John’s choir boy place and seeing the Rigby graves, then going across the road to the church hall where John and Paul were introduced. He knows the locals and I just missed meeting Colin Hanton in Penny Lane. The Hard Day’s Night Hotel has cards for this tour.

    The Albert Dock Beatles thing is OK, but very skimpy. The Cevern is free and worth a visit. We also did a walking tour (self guided with a book), which was good, but a bit of a hike – takes you to the Jacaranda, the Liverpool Institute and so on.

  13. I’d also concur about the National Trust homes, very atmospheric to stand in Aunt mimis porch where John and Paul practiced. I’d also add the Beatles statues located near the marvellous Museum of Liverpool and the Cilla and John Lennon statues onMatthew Street (i’d Avoid it at nighttime though !). Finally a fab free recommendation to go up St Johns Beacon to get some great views of the city.

  14. Sadly the Yellow Duckmarine tours are now no longer offered. Too many sinkings – what could be dangerous about taking a WW2 vintage amphibious craft around the streets and canals of Liverpool. We did it in about 2014 and was ace.

  15. You’ll have a great time. Even without the Beatles stuff it’s a fantastic city to wander around in. Plenty of decent restaurants and pubs these days as well. You’ve done the right thing in booking the National Trust tour. I’d echo those recommending the John and Yoko exhibition at Museum of Liverpool – it’s free admission and only there for a few months so worth catching now. But wherever you wander you’ll find Beatles sites and echos. There’s a good book by Ron Jones, The Beatles’ Liverpool which you should be able to pick up at any Liverpool bookshop, or on Amazon, which identifies pretty much every location you would care to know about.

    Do report back after your visit!

    • Yep agree with Blue. Take some time just to wander Liverpool and experience the grot, the noise, the people and the amazing architecture – it’s still a wondrous place and it’s still very much a place A Beatle would recognise and feel at home if he was randomly plucked from 1965 and dropped on Bold Street. Go and experience it at night too – it’s rough and and it can get a bit lairy but worth experiencing – stroll down Matthew Street and then head up toward the Duke St/Bold St area – if it’s a weekend you’ll encounter endless Hen Nights and Stag Nights but you’ll hear music, singing, dancing from every corner. Then take refuge in one of the many more relaxed bars and excellent eating places – too many to mention.

  17. Day one: Definitely the Taxi tour.
    If you want to be positively Lewisohnian, take the full day tour and include the Casbah visit.
    Day two: The National Trust tour of John and Paul’s childhood homes.
    Stay at The Hard Days Night hotel if you can.
    My wife bought me this trip for my birthday a few years ago.
    Best present I have ever had.

    • Yes, the Hard Day’s Night hotel is good….endless Beatles soundtrack, lots of great pictures and memorabilia, and seemed very reasonably priced to me. Be aware it can be noisy in the street outside at night, and dropping off and parking is a bit of a nightmare, but perfectly placed in the city just round the corner from Mathew Street.

  20. I lived in Liverpool in the 80s as a student and had no interest in the Beatles (and neither did anyone else back then, it seems). I only recently found out that our student friends’ flat on Gambier Terrace was next door to where John Lennon used to live. That might be worth a visit. It seems strange that there is now a Beatles industry thriving the city when 30 years ago there was nothing. I lived at the bottom of Penny Lane in 1981 and don’t recall seeing a single Beatles fan/tourist, let alone a tour. It was already a very different place after the Toxteth riots, I can’t imagine how much of the Beatles Liverpool remains – unless it has been recreated. If I was going to Liverpool again I’d try go to a contemporary venue like the Kazimier and see Stealing Sheep!

    • I spent my 1980s teens in north Wales, so Liverpool was the closest big city for days out. We would always call into Probe, but it never occurred to us that Mathew Street was just around the corner. There wasn’t such a Beatles industry then.

    • It was probably around 1982 (the 20th Anniversay of Love Me Do) that the recognition and building of The Beatles industry started.
      Weird when I think about it – born in 1970, I grew up not aware of The Beatles until around then. The first Beatles track(s) I knowingly heard was The Beatles Movie Medley single

      • Lennon died in 1980. Tommy Steele offered to pay for a tribute to The Beatles in 1981. The statue of Eleanor Rigby was unveiled in 1982. When I first saw it, I was struck by how drab and miserable the surrounding area was. The truth was, there was no money for refurbishment at that time. But, Tommy’s generosity did start a ball rolling, albeit slowly.

      • The Beatles Movie Medley was inspired by the success of the Stars on 45 single the previous year, whose title is still officially the longest ever to be a hit. It was called “Medley: Intro ‘Venus’ / Sugar Sugar / No Reply / I’ll Be Back / Drive My Car / Do You Want to Know a Secret / We Can Work It Out / I Should Have Known Better / Nowhere Man / You’re Going to Lose That Girl / Stars on 45”. Note that the first two songs after the intro are not actually Beatles songs. Nevertheless, a Euro trash disco mash-up so soon after Lennon’s death was considered so tacky, so tasteless it was inevitably a huge hit all over the world.

          • That Movie Medley single has probably not been played on national radio for 37 years, has (to my knowledge) never been put out on CD, and could quite legitimately be regarded as a rarity.
            That said, I’ll probably pick one up for 49p next week.

            • There were very similar Four Seasons and Beach Boys singles of this type at that time.

              The latter, rather strikingly, did actually include the “drop out” bit from Good Vibrations. Not exactly disco-friendly.

              The Beatles Movie Medley was released to promote the last of EMI’s tacky Beatles compo LPs (think Rock & Roll Music, Love Songs etc) a garish thing called Reel Music.

                • Well of course it is. How could it not be? It’s also a rip-off with a poxy sleeve, like those Rock’n’Roll Music albums.

                  The Beatles Love Songs, however, looks gorgeous.

                  A Collection Of Beatles Oldies But Goldies really ought to get a vinyl reissue (if it hasn’t had one).

                  Whither De Mooiste Songs?

                    • When the EPs set came out in 1988 Q magazine gave it one star, saying something like that it was the worst way of owning the music imaginable. I suppose you should always review the actual music but sometimes the packaging or the concept gets in the way.

                      I wonder what De Mooiste Songs actually sounds like? There are ten(!) songs on side one, unedited, and one of them… is Hey Jude. Crazy cats, those Dutch.

    • I was there at the same time (and also at one time lived unknowingly just yards from the flat that John and Cynthia shared when first wed). I think it was just the Liverpool way that they were (relatively) forgotten about and the music scene at that time was new and vibrant.

      I think things changed because of 2 things: Lennon’s death and the economic reality of the 80s with riots, the decline of the docks and manufacturing industries. Tourism had to become a big factor in the city and The Beatles were a big part of that. I believe that Liverpool is now the most visited city in England outside the capital. Football helps too …

      • It’s easy to forget that the Beatles were terribly out of fashion for a while. I absolutely agree that Lennon’s death was a catalyst. Interestingly also that the Bootleg Beatles started around this time but it took a while to build up much of a following in this country. There really did seem to be a huge increase in interest again in the 90s – there was a move back to guitar based music, Oasis name checked them, the Anthology came out, Macca started embracing Beatles tunes live much more, Harrison had hits and the Wilburys etc….

        • Macca’s Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984), with reworkings of Beatles classics, seemed like a self-conscious attempt to put the Fabs back in the spotlight. His big cover feature interview for Q1 (1986) also seemed significant at the time. Then there was the return to touring in the late 80s on the back of the Flowers in the Dirt album. Saw him at Wembley Arena on that tour – which seemed to set the template for all subsequent tours – and he seemed completely at ease embracing his past.

            • It took a whole year for them to come out, PMs not coming out until March 1988 – the first four had come out in February 87. Admittedly this was partly to get Pepper out on its 20th anniversary, which would have been stupid to miss.

              In those pre-internet days most people wouldn’t have known what was coming so it must have been a relief to find out what they’d done with MMT (going with the US version) and Past Masters (hoovering up all the singles and odds and ends on two handy volumes) in contrast to the dog’s breakfast that was – and largely remains- the Stones 60s catalogue (hello deram).

              Then the EPs and singles sets came out, and that monstrously expensive roll-top box of all the albums (rather nice box though, my uncle’s got it…is this still the boring thread?)

              • The CD issues rehabilitated Revolver. In the US, Revolver had been mangled by Capitol, totally ruining it. In 1988, Americans heard it properly for the first time.

                Also, for better or worse, future Britpoppers started listening to The Beatles as well.

                • The CDs tidied up those albums… it must have been a revelation to the rest of the world to hear the pre-Pepper albums as they were intended to be heard.

                  Apropos of nothing, I think the best-sounding of the 1987 CDs is Help!

                    • Funnily enough, I’m sure George Martin did a “Giles” on Help! and Rubber Soul for those 1987 releases and remixed the stereo versions. The first four albums had (controversially at the time) been issued on CD in mono.

                    • I think the 1987 mono AHDN is great, better than the 2009 versions.

                      History has been rewritten. Everyone’s forgotten how luxuriously delicious those CDs were when they first appeared. Buying The White Album on CD in early 1992 and hearing it in glorious stereo (yes!) for the first time was one of the greatest days of my life. Bloody expensive at £25 for someone with no income whatsoever but I found it to be worth every penny.

                  • I think the British albums were quite widely available as imports in US and other countries before they came out on CD. Bizarrely by mistake Help! and Rubber Soul were issued with the original stereo mixes on CD in Canada (mainly in Ontario and Quebec I think), I have bought quite a few in the past and sold them on at considerable profit (on the Steve Hoffman forum), they are no longer unique as these mixes came out as bonuses in the mono CD box, but some still seek these CDs.

              • I love the 1987 reissues and I think that was the last time the Beatles catalogue was in a neat and tidy state. It was a clean slate, and the two Past Masters compilations were perfect. The Sgt Pepper reissue was a nice little package with excellent sleeve notes as well. I’ve found every reissue and new release since to be that bit messier and muddying the water a bit!

                And (whisper it) I think the 1987 CDs still sound good, and always did… All these audiophiles claiming the 2009 remasters (and now the new 50th anniversary remixes) sound better…. I just don’t hear it.

                Moose, you paid £25 for the white album CD back in the day? I was ripped off. I distinctly remember paying £31.99 in Our Price in 1990. Mind you, one of my best ever music purchases, and a real game-changer in my music appreciation, so I can’t complain.

                • Think I paid about Sfr 60 which would have been about 30 quid or a little less. I disagree about Past Masters, I think a singles collection with B sides might have worked better. We get pointless stuff like Sie Liebt Dich on there, and there is a big gap because the 67 singles are not included (on MMT). I think 2009 ones sound better especially the early CDs, not sure they have done much since (except for the remixes).

                  • Well, that’s precisely why I like the Past Masters volumes, because they scoop up all the official stuff that’s not on any other album.

                    I actually think it was a good idea to turn the Magical Mystery Tour release into the USA full album tracklisting! It neatly picked up, as you say, the 67 singles. Although I admit that leaves a gap in Past Masters Vol 2 that causes a bit of a leap (Rain to Lady Madonna). But for me it works, and it gives Past Masters a proper “anthology” feel (no pun intended) rather than just a singles collection or a best of.

                    I think for me the rot set in with the Red and Blue releases – about 1992 wasn’t it? Just couldn’t see the point of blurring the canon with collections of songs that doubled what were already on other releases.

    • You must have slept through the Japanese tourists taking photos of the Penny Lane sign. Every time I went to Penny Lane records in the early eighties there would be a gaggle of them. I was born and raised in Speke, not far from where McCartney lived and our nights out were all over Woolton in the early eighties, so seeing tours of these and other Beatle haunts is [and this is not a criticism or judgement in any way] a slightly odd experience. Must be the same for anyone living anywhere that has tourists taking pictures of something they regard as ‘normal’, I guess. I was visiting a friend in Woolton just last week and there were two competing tours showing the house on Menlove Avenue. You would never have predicted that ‘back in the day’

  21. For that proper ‘Beatle’ experience, try and find a group of teenage girls to chase you for a few hundred yards. For extra authenticity, ask them to scream hysterically as you dive into the back of a car.

  22. I went to see the John and Yoko exhibition on Monday! Spur of the moment decision – we were on a little holiday road trip and I persuaded the family that a couple of hours in Liverpool on the way back north was worth it. (I say a couple of hours – we had a delay caused by a heated exchange with the sat nav who refused to believe in the existence of this new Mersey toll bridge).

    Thoughts on the exhibition? Mmmm, mixed feelings. It was a thrill seeing some of the original artifacts – especially the Mr Kite playbill and original lyrics. But on the whole I was just left with the feeling that they were both nutters (I know, hold the front page, big news…). All that conceptual art stuff…. I mean, it seems fine when it’s a footnote in John’s music career… in fact it makes for a good story. But in the exhibition it was all presented, totally po-faced and not a hint of irony, that it was Important and Worthy Stuff they were doing when they were painting apples white or sending balloons with good luck messages attached or filming a building for ten hours or whatever. It all had an air of the emperor’s new clothes, and felt a bit disingenuous.

    I’m all for crazy rock stars filling their time with mad hobbies. And John was one of the archetypes of that. But filling an exhibition with this kind of stuff and, worse, pretending he and Yoko had equal artistic and musical talent? Nah, I don’t buy it.

    You know what? And this is really getting into heresy territory. He couldn’t really draw either, could he? His doodles are interesting because they are Lennon doodles, but have little artistic merit on their own.

    Still, I’m glad I went.

    I liked the little “cinema” showing a selection of John and Yoko films and music. It was packed and I couldn’t get a seat while it was showing “Give Peace A Chance”…. then about five minutes later I found myself completely on my own for Yoko’s bonkers “Walking On Thin Ice”…..

    • Worth bearing in mind that much of the exhibition material was provided by Yoko and the whole thing put together with her – so it was never going to have a critical or sceptical perspective, and, yes, was always going to be a little bit po-faced, and be a builder of rather than knocker-down of the Lennon mythology. But, there’s lots of interesting material there not least in the various filmed interviews of the time.

      • Yes, but this has been going on for decades now. I remember when the Imagine film was released in the late 80s. I saw it at St David’s Hall in Cardiff, and there was a small Lennon exhibition to accompany the film. All the usual doodles and stuff. I picked up a sepia tinted photo print of John and Yoko for a tenner. By some distance, it was the only thing at the exhibition I could afford. Had it framed and it now hangs in my little music studio. Was going to post a pic. but copyright issues seem to lurk around every corner these days.

      • I always feel the need when I post something like this to point out that in my defence I’m a raving Beatles fan. They are effectively my one true religion. But ironically enough I don’t like the deification and I think it detracts from appreciating the glory of the music and their story for what it is.

      • Almost forgot! I wonder what they would do if you didn’t pay the £2? I image Barry Grant from Brookside would turn up at your door with a crowbar.

        (For those who don’t know, the new toll bridge has this innovative thing where you don’t actually pay the toll at the time – there is just a big sign telling you that your car reg has been photographed and you have to log on to a web site and pay £2 within 48 hours. It works very slickly actually, but I can imagine a lot of casual and one-time users forgetting to do it.)

          • AND, to make matters worse, I only crossed it as I was on my way home after a meal out with my daughters to celebrate my birthday and decided I deserved to shave 3 minutes off my journey time by crossing the new bridge instead of taking my usual route home – Bah!

  23. Just back after a wonderful 48 hours ( your suggestions cost me….) but thanks for your contributions. Yes, the NT tour of the family homes was the highlight – genuinely awesome sitting in the corner of the Forthlin Rd house, the corner of the room where those two young boys squeezed together to work out ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ as captured in Mike McCartney’s photo. There was a funeral procession leaving from the house over the road which seemed somehow very Beatlesque? Between the two houses and their relationship to the city centre, I felt a wider sense of the family lives Paul and John were living as schoolboys/students and sons/nephews and as best mates in those years.

    The John & Yoko exhibition gave an up-close view of their strange relationship. I hadn’t realised how much she has done to preserve John’s Liverpool legacy by buying/restoring Mendips and investing in other aspects of the city as well as lending artefact to the museum for this exhibition. I agree that John’s politics remain confused and pretty pretentious in the end. The ’damage’ he suffered as a boy coming out in so many ways.

    Mathew Street was less evocative because of its commercialisation, of course. The bar in The Grapes where Elvis Costello met Nick Lowe should have a separate plaque for being the starting point for a another more modern but still monumental musical partnership which formed the soundtrack to another stage of my life.

    It is rewarding to walk so much of the city on foot: both cathedrals, the graveyard, the whole Hope Street area where we were staying. Hotel is used by the Liverpool team pre-match and they were just leaving for Anfield prior to the Norwich match as we too left. Exchanged words with a surly Harvey Elliot, so music and football all covered!

    I’ll be heading back to Lewisohn now for more colouring in. And I’ll be heading back to Liverpool as well at some point for another helping.

  24. Glad you had such a good time. Good choice of hotel and area to stay in as well.

    There’s a general recognition in Liverpool that Mathew Street is currently at best a wasted opportunity and at worst an embarrassment. It desperately need some good quality bars, shops and venues – no problem them being tribute places, but it just needs to be better.

    Your point about Lowe and Costello is well made; the city has got a lot better at recognising the Beatles heritage but you’d be hard pressed to find much about the Eric’s and subsequent periods. Liverpool has a great musical history; hopefully one day it will tell the whole story better.

  25. Going to His Highness Mark Lewishon’s gig in October. Will probably make a 2 dayer out of it and stay overnight at The Hard Days Night Hotel and just ingest as much Beatles atmosphere as I can over the two days I am there.

  26. Going to His Highness Mark Lewishon!s gig in October. Will probably make a 2 dayer out of it and stay overnight at The Hard Days Night Hotel and just ingest as much Beatles atmosphere as I can over the two days I am there.

  27. I din’t know if it is possible, but I wonder if these useful and interesting ‘travel guide’ threads could be kept under their own heading to form a sort of ‘Rough AW Guide’. There have been several that I can recall. New York is the latest?

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