So it was 6th July 1957 when it all began as John Lennon from Menlove Avenue played with his band, The Quarrymen at St Peter’s Church, Woolton . His friend and the band’s occasional tea chest bass player Ivan Vaughan bought along Paul McCartney of Forthlin Road to see them in action and introduce him to Lennon.
We can probably all quote the story by heart (“Twenty Flight Rock” blah di blah) and there are books, radio shows and TV programmes devoted to those 24 hours. Reading Mark Lewisohn’s recent Part One doorstop he suggests that they actually first met outside a paper shop but let’s not spoil the magic. It’s incredible how much of 20th century culture flows from this meeting and all through Mark’s book all 4 Fabs are in similar orbits but not intersecting & you actually fear that somehow they won’t even though you know they do. Life really is a patchwork of chance encounters.
Well blow me down if I wasn’t in St Peter’s Church just 10 days ago. My daughter sorted us a family weekend in Liverpool for my 60th birthday present. It included an city centre Air B&B, tickets for Love Revisited (great show) and – this was a surprise – a 3 hour Beatles taxi ride with commentary from chain smokin’ Red cabbie Dave. I had previously only really visited Liverpool for concerts: ie park, gig then home, so it was great to actually have a good look around. And what a city Liverpool is! The Philharmonic and Kavanagh’s pubs are brilliant, as is the Beatles shop in rather smelly Cavern home Matthew Street (surprisingly). Loved the city – knocks Coventry where we live into a rather tatty old cocked hat it does.
What surprises you most is how posh much of it is. Only Ringo lived in terraced slumdom, the other 3 were middle class kids for sure and certain. Woolton is a very well healed little village. The mighty Bob Paisley is buried shoulder to shoulder with Eleanor Rigby in the churchyard, and Cilla’s funeral was in the RC church next door. Aunt Mimi’s house in Menlove Avenue is huge, and Strawberry Fields orphanage is just out the back. Dave told us that Yoko scattered John’s ashes in the grounds of Strawberry Fields. Is that true or just Scouse blather?
Incidentally, the equally posh house next to Aunt Mimi’s is currently up for sale, price halved to 300K Dave said as people don’t like the incessant coach parties on the doorstep. Penny Lane is also rather select – cricket match on the green when we were there. The Barber’s shop was also very friendly.
It`s a pity there`s only one decent record shop worth mentioning – the tiny `Dig Records` on Bold Street. Probe Records is a pale imitation of it`s former self and HMV….that`s it. The city itself as you say @artery is great populated by great people, love it.
Regarding the post by @dogfacedboy we wouldn`t be here had that meeting not taken place.
Does probe still exist somewhere? We were in Liverpool for the first time in decades a few weeks ago, and the site where I remember Probe being in its 80s heyday was some kind of restaurant. Sad to see the The Vines on Lime Street was in tatters as well, though hopefully for renovation rather than anything more terminal, but we did sneak in a pint in the Phil.
Probe is appallingly crap, a sterile new vinyl showroom.
Dig is OK but hit by the second hand vinyl boom pricing – £20 for a bog standard original Scary Monsters etc.
The Jacaranda bar now has a record shop above it, great bar and good rummaging but a pointless vollection of ‘not for sale’ rack of Liverpool artists with such rarities as a Two Tribes 12″. You’re a record shop not a museum, sell things.
We would though, really…. there was quite a bit of pop music around and to say that if one band hadn’t existed then pop music would have died out is pretty ridiculous.
I am over in Liverpool at least once a week now but tend to just visit family and take the dogs for a run on Crosby beach. I did the tourist bit on the Magical Mystery Tour bus a couple of years ago with some mates and we were the only Brits on board. I am due to go back again soon for a pub crawl and will probably end up in Ye Cracke.
http://www.yecracke.co.uk/
Where I come from, we call it Bootle Beach.
Then again, I’m from Bootle.
There is a great interview on the Conan O’Brien Jibber Jabber site with Mark Lewisohn, where, among other interesting info, he reveals that it wasn’t George Martin that signed the fabs to EMI, they were already signed when he met them. Now read on….(if you see what I mean)
http://teamcoco.com/video/serious-jibber-jabber-beatles-biographer-mark-lewisohn
Wasn’t George given The Fabs as a kind of black mark against him after his love life was frowned upon by the EMI bigwigs?
In the Lewisohn book it’s claimed that George Martin blew the whistle on his Columbia rival Norrie Paramor in an interview with David Frost. Paramor was writing songs under a series of pseudonyms and placing them as B-Sides with the stable of artists he was producing. If not exactly illegal, then a conflict of interest at the least.
Martin’s revelations were embarrassing for EMI and at one point his contract renewal was in doubt. As penance George was instructed to work with the unknown band from Liverpool that the label had little interest in.
Fifty nine. Fifty nine. Fifty nine. Fifty nine.
Fifty nine. Fifty nine. Fifty nine.
Fifty nine. Fifty nine.
Fifty nine.
The Watusi!
You shall become Let It be Naked