Beatles daytripper

I was born in 1968 and I grew up in a house where music was always around. One of the bands that I got used to hearing was The Beatles. Someone once said that The Beatles back catalogue is now built into your DNA when you are born as everyone instinctively knows the words when the songs are played. Needless to say I was a fan from a very early age but it was when I got into my teens and started to make my own choices in music that I really got to know their music. My mom used to constantly play one of the compilation albums that spanned their whole career and included album tracks as well as the singles. Over time I collected my own copies of the albums so that I could listen to them from start to finish and I realised that although the early stuff was good I much preferred the later albums like Abbey Road and Sgt Pepper. My favourite album at the time was Revolver as this was a real milestone in their development and has some incredible songs. It also shows that George Harrison could really dig deep into his song writing and give Lennon and McCartney a good run for their money. I also discovered The White Album. This is an album that I knew very little about when I bought it as it was not in my parent’s record collection. They had never bought it because it was supposed to be quite experimental and while this is quite apparent in parts it also includes some of their most melodic or iconic songs. “I Will” was one of Paul McCartney’s contributions and was one of the songs I knew from my mom’s compilation album but it also features George Harrison’s “While my Guitar gently weeps”, John Lennon’s tribute to his mother “Julia” and the song that Charles Manson adopted “Helter Skelter” to name just a few. The album actually opens with proof that the Beatles can still rock when they want to as they kick off with “Back in the USSR”. Even though I have been a fan of The Beatles for so long, incredibly I had never been to visit the place where it all began so you can imagine how excited I was when my wife presented me with tickets to “The Beatles Experience” in Liverpool and told me that we would be staying in the city for 2 nights. It was one of the best presents anyone had ever given to me (capped only by the trip to Rome my wife had arranged a few years before). We arrived in Liverpool on the Friday evening and just had a little walk to get to know the city. We explored the Albert Dock and took a few pictures of the Liver Building and managed to find where we needed to go for the actual exhibition. First impressions of Liverpool were good. There were lots of bars, lots of nice places to eat and there was an atmosphere about the place that added to the whole experience. After a quick breakfast the next morning we headed to the Albert dock again and queued for the experience. Although it was only about 10.00 there were already quite a few people waiting to go in but they were playing Beatles

music over the PA to keep us all entertained. I was once again reminded of the comment about the Beatles music being part of the DNA, there was a group of teenage girls from France behind us in the queue and they were singing along to every song that was played. I was amazed that they knew every word. When we got inside the “experience” we were given a set of headphones and an audio box, all we had to do then was select the numbers that were next to the exhibits to hear more about it. The whole thing from start to finish was brilliant, I learned quite a few things and saw pictures that I had never seen and actually found myself in the presence of actual Guitars that had once been played by The

Beatles themselves. The highlight for me was the recreation of the Cavern Club, to get a feel of what this place must have been like in the 60’s was incredible. They had a Beatles song playing and the audio file had people who were actually there describing what the performances and atmosphere were actually like. I really did feel like I was there!

A few rooms later we were faced with a full recreation of the Sgt Pepper album cover and an explanation of who everyone is in the picture and how they were all chosen, it seems that each member of the band were asked to provide a list of people they would like to join the party, with George being into his Indian culture there were quite a few random listings. The final room talked about the end of the road and the Beatles split, I think I spent more time here than anywhere as it had audio files of people talking about how much the music meant to them and a selection of people choosing their favourite Beatles song. Most of them were coming out with one or 2 songs but George Martin decided to break his list down to his favourite “Paul” song, his favourite “John” song and his favourite “George” song. I thought this was a nice touch and ended the actual experience with a warm and fuzzy moment.

After we had handed back our headsets we went on to the “Solo” stage where there were 4 rooms, one dedicated to each band member’s solo career and then we were out into the café area and interactive section.
We didn’t spend much time here but we did take a few moments to pose for a picture or 2 in Beatle costumes and floppy wigs and then stopped for a coffee as it had already been a long day and the adventure wasn’t over yet. We decided to take a break from the fab 4 for a little while and got on one of the buses that tours the city. It was an informative hour and also helped us get to know the layout of the city. Part of the journey took us past Mathews Street, as this was where we were planning on going on Saturday evening we found it handy to see how close it was to our hotel on Lime Street. The second part of the Beatles Exhibition at Pier head wasn’t as big as the first one so we got around it fairly quickly. It was split into 3 sections, a photo gallery, a short video and an exhibition (with audio guide) about the meeting between Elvis and John, Paul, George and Ringo. A large part of this was the build up of Elvis’s career and how he was an influence on a generation of musicians, the actual meeting part was just a small piece of the experience and as there were no surviving photo’s of the event the whole section relied heavily on hearsay. Our first walk down Mathews was a bit of an eye opener, it was only about 8.30 but already the place was buzzing and everyone seemed to have started their night out very early. The bars were all full and the loud music was already pumping out into the street. We decided it was too early for us to be here and went for some food and a few drinks so that we were in a better frame of mind for the experience. Our second walk was much better and nowhere near as intimidating. The reason for the visit to Mathews Street was a visit to the Cavern Club. The original club closed in about 1972 but it was opened in a new location and great care was taken to keep the original atmosphere and make it look as authentic as possible.

Me in the world famous Cavern Club.

The actual room where the bands play is down 3 flights of stairs and the low ceiling really does create the atmosphere you expect. It is also roasting hot. When we arrived there was a guy playing an acoustic guitar on stage but he was soon replaced by a band who played Beatles covers all night. They also had a mate in the audience that was taking names and you could get on the list and join the band on stage to sing or play along to the songs. I did think about doing this but my playing is a little rusty and I have never really been a singer so I didn’t sign myself up. I realised while I was there watching the band that the audience was quite mixed, there were some older couples, some of a similar age and there were also the younger bunch that would not have been born until long after the break up and yet we were all there in the same room for the same reason. We were there to celebrate the greatest band that had ever existed and to sing along to some songs that are nearly 50 years old.