This is a link to a Beatles YouTube video of the song Penny Lane. Not quite a ‘music video’ as we know them today but filmed in the day with the music. https://youtu.be/S-rB0pHI9fU I’m starting this blog with Penny Lane because it really is in my ears right now – and I think the only way to exorcise it is to write about it and give it to you.
In February 1964, I was among the millions who watched the Beatles perform for the first time on the Ed Sullivan Show. http://www.edsullivan.com/the-beatles-on-the-ed-sullivan-show-on-february-9-1964/ Of course, I loved them. We all loved them. I did not have a record player, but my best friend Cindy did; we would play the records over and over, singing along for all we were worth. In the summer of ’65 when the Beatles toured America, we were there – the Las Vegas Convention Center. So exciting; just screaming teenyboppers for hours. I stood on my chair; I could just about see them. There was no chance of hearing at all, but seeing, just being in the room, that was a coup at the time.
And then life moved on. I moved, Cindy moved, the Beatles went to India. Their music remained in my life as part of a background soundtrack that included many from the “British Invasion”; Gerry and the Pacemakers, Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark, the Rolling Stones. I continued to like rock and roll but would take Springsteen over the Beatles most days. But we are not living in New Jersey, we are living in England; home of the Beatles. Combining our move here with the release of James Corden’s “Carpool Karaoke” with Paul McCartney (https://youtu.be/QjvzCTqkBDQ) – it was time for a trip not just down memory lane, but the real Penny Lane.
Why do the baby boomers cross the road? Because it’s Abbey Road, and if you are in London, you must go to Abbey Road and if you are at Abbey Road, you must cross it. https://www.abbeyroad.com/crossing Most days in London you can get a guided walking tour of the Beatles London. It will take you to Marylebone Station where the opening scenes of “Help!” were filmed. It takes you to the Registry Office where both Ringo and Paul were married, to the basement flat Ringo rented (and sub-let to John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix) not far from there, to Baker Street (home of The Apple Boutique for eight months), to the Asher family home (where Paul lived with Jane Asher and her family, including Peter Asher of Peter and Gordon, for several years); you may go to the Palladium, the Hard Rock, or even the British Library which holds the original hand-written lyrics for: “In My Life”, “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “She Said She Said”. You will go to Abbey Road. We walk around enough that we just run into many of these things, but we have also taken a tour. None of the tours come out to Chiswick, but we have a “Beatles were here” spot too. It is at the Chiswick House and Gardens conservatory where the Beatles filmed the promotional videos for “Paperback Writer” and “Rain”. https://youtu.be/yYvkICbTZIQ
The Beatles lived and worked in London for several years during the height of their popularity as a group. But before that, they all came from Liverpool. So, if we were going to ‘do the Beatles’, then we had to go to Liverpool. Liverpool is about two hours from London by train. There are day trips every day, and if our time was limited, we may have done that. But our time is not limited; not yet anyway. So, I looked at the calendar for the best time to go for a long weekend. The best time was the last weekend in August. That is when the annual International Beatles Week (IBW) is held. This fit nicely with a Charles Rennie Mackintosh exhibit at Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery which we also wanted to see. And, as it turned out, the following Monday was a Bank Holiday, so we were able to spend a day in Manchester on the way back to London.
It was so easy to get to; even though we did not leave too early in the morning, we still got to our hotel in Liverpool in the middle of the day. A quick drop off of the suitcases, and off we went in search of lunch. Opting for an easy decision, we went to a diner with outside seating so we could have American food (ha, ha) and still listen to an excellent busker across the way. With lunch sorted, we could then wander over to Albert Dock in search of the Magical Mystery Tour https://www.cavernclub.com/the-magical-mystery-tour/ that would literally take us to Penny Lane in the afternoon.
The Magical Mystery Tour is THE tour in Liverpool. All the London day trippers do it, all the IBW attendees do it, and I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that the cruise ship day trippers do it too. It is a ‘big bus’ tour, which normally we don’t like, but exceptions must be made sometimes. It is a combination of music and facts on the bus while you drive by places that are not accessible by large tours such as Ringo’s house, hospitals, and the roundabout at Penny Lane. We saw the barber cutting hair, the banker on the corner, and the shelter in middle of the roundabout. Our tour guide, Dale, knew a lot of facts. We heard all about Ringo’s illnesses as a child and how he first started playing drums in a hospital band. We learned how Strawberry Field was an orphanage and John would jump over the fence to ‘chat up’ the girls. When his Aunt Mimi despaired of his behavior, he replied: “it is nothing to get hung about”. We learned that Paul was a choir boy but was turned down for the choir at Liverpool Cathedral because his voice was deemed not good enough. So many tidbits. The tour also stops in several locations; by the streets sign for Penny Lane, by the gate to Strawberry Field, by the boyhood homes of George, Paul, and John. And it ends at Mathew Street, home of the Cavern Club – anchor to what is now known as the Cavern Quarter. We recommend this tour.
Mathew Street https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathew_Street is small, more like an alley and filled with bars, shops, and tourists. But it has the Cavern Club. One of the things we learned, is that this is not the actual Cavern Club from the 60’s. That club was torn down to make room for a renovation to the Underground. The bricks, though, were saved. The current Cavern Club is still down, down, downstairs; still humid, and still a rock and roll venue. Dale said the re-built club is within 70% of the original. It was in full swing for IBW (International Beatles Week). After an excellent dinner of some highly recommended Turkish food and some gin tasting at a new distillery, we decided visiting the Cavern Club could wait till the next night.
We began Saturday by looking for coffee on our way to the Walker Art Gallery for the Mackintosh exhibit. We must have picked the wrong street; no coffee shops. Finally, we saw tables being put out in front of the Library. We assumed then that they must have a cafe. Works for me, let’s go see if it’s open – it was. https://liverpool.gov.uk/libraries/find-a-library/central-library/ Oh, my gosh! If only every library could be like this one. While traditional on the outside, the inside has been completely remodeled to open the entire structure up to the roof where a glass dome arches over the open stair-cased middle. Each level is ringed with computers, with the book stacks along the main walls. One corner holds a business center to help entrepreneurs get their ideas moved into reality. Adjacent to this main library is the Hornby Library. It has been restored to its Victorian greatness and houses beautiful rare books. And, while it was still being renovated while we were there, the Picton Reading Room is what workers at the library said is the really stunning part of the library. We were astounded by the beauty and practicality of this building. The coffee was good too and after our tour we were ready to find the Walker Art Gallery. https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/
It was right next door. The Mackintosh exhibit covered his entire life. There was so much more to his life and work than just the Mackintosh rose. We both thoroughly enjoyed our time at the museum. Interesting and inspiring. https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/exhibitions/mackintosh/ We did a quick run by the World Museum on the corner so Andy could re-look at the astronomy pictures of the year (we had seen this exhibit in Greenwich) and I took a lap through the Egypt collection. Truly, the British have laid claim to some amazing artwork from around the world. We ended our time here with a quick lunch and then we were off again.
This time it was to see the insides of the childhood homes of both Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Both houses are under the watch of England’s National Trust nonprofit organization. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/beatles-childhood-homes The houses have been restored to the time period of the early 60’s when the Beatles were hitting it big. Note: we also learned that the Beatles were big, i.e. rich, already in England before they came to the US, that just made them bigger. The National Trust offers tours of the homes four times a day. It is a small group tour via minivan. At Paul’s house we saw all the outside and the inside of this ‘Council Estate home, model SB5’. (Council Estate is the British term for public housing. Paul’s mother worked for the National Health Service as a midwife, so their family was among the first to move into the new housing.) We heard several stories from the guide. Paul’s house and our same guide, Linda, were featured in the Carpool Karaoke; she has purchased a new dress in case the show wins an Emmy. One of the things she showed us was the drainpipe on the back of the house. Paul climbed this for entry when he ‘stayed out until 3:00 and his dad had locked the door’. This sentiment is written into the song, “When I’m 64”, which Paul wrote for his father, a musician himself, who did not like the rock and roll music his son and his friends played. On then to John Lennon’s home.
John was the more “middle class” of the lads, living in a more upscale neighborhood in a resident owned house that had no number, it had a name, Mendips. But this does not mean John’s life was easy – it was not. He lived in the house with his aunt Mimi because his mother could no longer support the child. His mother came back into his life when he was a teenager, only to be hit and killed by a car on the very street John lived on. I won’t go into all the tragedy here – it is really too much; but the tour was excellent and again, inspiring to witness these artifacts of such acclaimed musicians.
After the house tours we made our way over to the Philharmonic Pub, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philharmonic_Dining_Rooms also featured in the Karaoke video. It was a lovely day and were able to sit outside with a cold drink sharing travel stories with a very friendly couple from the area. Later, we had dinner upstairs. This time on our way back to the hotel we intended to stop at the Cavern Club.
It was hot, it was humid, and the floors were sticky; but the music was great as every hour had a new group take the stage for a forty-five-minute set. This was just plain old fun. Loud music. Every person singing along. No place to sit, so you might as well dance as just stand there. I suspect Aj would be embarrassed to no end had he been with us – but, he wasn’t and there were few people around his age group to laugh at the old people having such a good time. https://www.facebook.com/theblackjacksyork/
The next day was the International Beatle Week Convention at the Adelphi Hotel. Think old, Victorian, hotel with several meeting rooms, ballrooms, restaurants and lounges – dark wood and crystal lights. The rooms were filled with folks selling all types of Beatles memorabilia. Records, CD’s, DVD’s, and even hats like John Lennon wore. I could not find any pigs that were appropriately Beatled, so we both only bought convention t-shirts. The rooms that weren’t filled with vendors had either Beatle related movies, tribute bands, or, in the largest room a combination interview session with a tribute band. It was in the largest room where we saw an interview with Mark Hudson. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hudson_(musician) Mark was a member of the singing group, the Hudson Brothers back in the 70’s, which meant little to us (he is also Kate Hudson’s uncle); after his performing career he went on to produce records including for Ringo Starr. He had some great stories, and a great wit in sharing them. More fun.
Going from band-to-band, to interview, to shopping; we spent the entire day. It was now time to leave Liverpool and head toward Manchester where we planned spending Monday visiting the Science and Industry Museum. We feel very much that we ‘did the Beatles’. We learned a lot. We had a lot of fun. What we didn’t do, was ‘do Liverpool’. There is way more to see and do there than we had time for – we had no idea. Another place we will want to go back to. Meanwhile, on to Manchester which luckily for me has no ear worm tune associated with it.