BEATLEMANIA!
after our days in manchester, a new fab four (zeke, brent, melissa, and wendy) took the short bus ride to liverpool to pay homage to the original fab four.
when we arrived it was markedly colder and very windy. we took a moment to get warm and check out a vintage store.
this picture is wendy re-enacting a picture of her mom’s middle school days in bell-bottoms throwing up the peace sign.
then we headed to the cavern club- the beginning of it all.
here we have another re-enactment. (this is kind of a theme… see below.)
zeke paying homage to MJ, who along with other favourites, gets a spot in the cavern pub.
and then wendy again with the peace sign and john lennon. she stopped doing this as she realized it is way too close to a british gesture that is, shall we say, not so well-wishing. americans, a word of advice, don’t use the peace sign here.
after a quick lunch, at a less than stellar pub, we headed back towards the center of liverpool to meet out taxi tour. on the way we admired the architecture in the square.
a quick smooch in the windy square.
then we started on our beatles taxi tour!
and we met danny our driver, who admitted his wife (whom he calls “my old lady”) had a thing for john lennon, but didn’t necessarily admit trying to look just like him. you be the judge.
here he is telling us how liverpool didn’t demolish this old hospital because john lennon’s mother gave birth to him here.
danny had lots of stories and anecdotes about the beatles. his favourite things to tell were “friend of a friend” stories, which were pretty hilarious.
a strange highlight of the tour is going into the house that ringo starr was born in. when he gained fame and bought his mother a new home they sold the old one to a neighbor. this tiny old lady, mrs. margaret grose (aka: “beatles ambassador”), still lives in the little house with pictures of ringo and the beatles and linda mccartney on her walls. she lets tours into her house to tell her stories of the beatles, and she does work for the linda mccartney foundation.
a side note on mrs. margaret grose’s pictures: when asked about the picture of fleetwood mac in her living room she said their music was horrible, and that she didn’t even really like the beatles’ music that much either. however, elvis is still the cat’s pajamas and she really really loves the movie the sound of music and had one of the daughters from the movie visit her. i have to say, i think that she sounded almost star-struck when talking about this woman from sound of music.
the building on the left is the art institute john lennon attended, and on the right, further down, is where paul and george went to college. danny told us that paul has given lots of money to refurbish his school and turn it into a performing arts academy with abundant scholarships for students. he was very keen on telling us how generous and beloved paul mccartney is in liverpool.
(for more beatles sites, see the slideshow below this post)
after our beatles tour we went to the philharmonic pub that was a hangout for john during and after art school (as it is across the street).
we cared less about its sentimental value, and much more that it was warm!
liverpool was great. we’ll have to make another trip to see a concert or even hit the big museums there. this trip was singular in purpose- and it was awesome! when we go back we’ll be sure to wear giant coats and hats.
