Episode 893 – Liverpool, England: The Beatles (Mostly) – Rose and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

It’s lovely and warm. Air-conditioning is not the standard; open windows with fresh air circulating is.

Our 1-bedroom apartment at Cove Paradise Street. Cove is an apart-hotel chain in the UK and parts of Europe.

Today in the core of Liverpool, England, the sun rose at approximately 4:52 a.m, and will set at 9:27 p.m., providing exactly 16 hours and 35 minutes of sunlight … and once the clock ticks over to 09:00, every single minute of that daylight, and the nighttime hours until 2:00 a.m., will be filled with the noise of bachelor and bachelorette parties trying to out-sing, out-drink, and generally out-do each other with outlandish costumes and rowdy chants.

That leaves just under 3 hours of potential quiet, which the very loud magpies and blackbirds shatter about 90 minutes in.

It is NOT a quiet city centre.

Fortunately we have no plans that require us to be up with those birds, so until they’re done their morning meetings, we can pull the covers up over our ears and go back to sleep until the first party starts.

What a difference from the quiet university town of Durham during exam week that we just left.

We couldn’t come to Liverpool and not do something related to The Beatles, so we booked tickets to The Beatles Story for our first day here.

The combination museum/nostalgia venue uses exhibits and an audio guide (with great big over-ear headphones) to take visitors through The Beatles’ story from their meeting as young teenagers through their time at The Cavern, in Hamburg, meeting Brian Epstein, invading North America, and through to their post-Beatles careers.

There were some neat things like a reconstruction of The Mersey Beat’s office, along with the narration explaining how that little independent paper revolutionized the way that new music was publicized.

A “new” Cavern still exists, and features – among other things – a resident Beatles tribute band. Unfortunately, the next available tickets are on the day we get home to Canada.

There was a recreation of the Epstein family’s record shop leading into the era of Brian Epstein managing The Beatles.

We headed into the era of Abbey Road Studios.

The recreated studio space was much smaller than I’d imagined.

I was actually too young for Beatlemania, but it’s never too late.

We got a look at a Mellotron MK 11: a keyboard connected to series a pre recorded tape loops giving sounds like flute, brass and choirs.

Its sound is closely associated with progressive and psychedelic music of the sixties and seventies. The Beatles pioneered its use from the mid sixties, using it as part of their experiments in the studio. The early demonstrations of “Strawberry Fields Forever” featured just John and his acoustic guitar. But John in 1966-67 was looking for a different sound. Using a Mark 11 Mellotron, like this one, the most famous mellotron sound of all time was created.

We often feel as if our lifestyle is a mystery tour, so Ted had no compunction about climbing right on…

The replica Sergeant Pepper uniforms were made by the same tailor from the same cloth and to the same measurements, a painstaking process.

We walked right into the Yellow Submarine…

… and then onto the rooftop for that last performance before the band broke up.

We followed each of the former Beatles into their solo careers and philanthropic endeavours.

Ringo leads the All-Star Band, collaborating with a wide range of musicians, and has acted in several films.

Ringo and his wife started The Lotus Foundation

Paul became a philanthropist and human rights campaigner, while continuing to perform with his band Wings and as a solo artist.

John continued to be a rebel, activist, poet, musician, icon, and some would say hero.

There was a recreation of the “white room” where the music video for Imagine was made.

George was actually the first to release a solo album after the band split. He continued to write and perform, including as one of The Travelling Wilburys, but he also put money and energy into producing films (Monty Python’s Life of Brian being the best known). His philanthropy was one of the impetuses behind The Concert for Bangladesh.

Before leaving the museum We got to pretend to be part of the movie set for A Hard Day’s Night.

For fans, the whole thing was a nice bit of nostalgia; for people new to The Beatles (like those dragging kids and grandkids along) it was a good introduction but probably wouldn’t be enough to turn them into fans. Nonetheless, we enjoyed it.

We got some fun photos, including the famous statue near the river.

Since we’re meeting a friend who lives near here and spending the next two days with her, we were leery about doing any other of the “big” sites on our own so as not to duplicate them, so we simply wandered around part of Albert Dock and along the Mersey to enjoyed the sunshine and the interesting memorials, statues, and architecture.

The Liverpool Eye and M&S Arena on King’s Dock.

The Mersey Ferry, which we’ll be using on Sunday.

Memorial to the thousands of members of the Church of Latter Day Saints who sailed from Liverpool in the late 19th century,

British rocker Billy Fury’s statue memorializes his smooth moves.

“Waiting”, commemorating the 250 years service of the working horses of Liverpool.
Hauling goods between the docks and warehouses, the horses worked in every kind of weather. During the Second World War Liverpool carters and their horses ensured the flow of food and fuel through the port.

The octagonal Dock Gatemen’s hut, made of Scottish limestone.

A very rugged memorial to the Merchant Seamen from many countries who carried out their duties in wartime to keep England provisioned.

Perhaps too late, but recognition is still important.

Edward VII, and the Royal Liver Building

This memorial was commissioned following the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic on 15th April 1912 on its maiden voyage. It was conceived in dedication to the 244 engine room staff who had lost their lives when the Titanic sank in the Atlantic following the collision with an iceberg. They had remained at their posts in the stricken liner, supplying electricity and other amenities for as long as possible so that others could survive.
When the memorial was unveiled in May 1916, it was simply dedicated to:
“All Heroes of the Marine Engine Room”

The Parish Church of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas, completely rebuilt after WWII.

The Liverpool Blitz Memorial (below) overlooks the river whose docks were the principal reason for such intensive bombing. The statue was unveiled by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh on 7 July 2000.

The rest of our route back to the hotel took us past a massive Queen Victoria statue, but the copper was so blackened that none of our photos were useful.

The Royal Liver Building in the background.

I’d picked up a £15 Tesco Dinner Meal Deal (main, side, dessert & wine for two), so since we’d skipped lunch I popped the spinach-stuffed chicken breasts and dauphinoise potatoes into the oven and 40 minutes later we had an early dinner and then went back out – to Primark in search of inexpensive umbrellas. Rain is predicted for the next three days; the simple act of buying umbrellas will likely stave off any downpour.

We dropped our successful shopping back in our room and headed back out for an evening stroll in search of The Cavern…

Brian Epstein’s statue, not far from our hotel

…which we found, on Mathew Street, which is quite short but also absolutely humming with energy. It is lined from one end to the other with bars leaking music – mostly rock & roll – out into the street. THIS is where all the party animals do their drinking and celebrating, We counted at least a dozen bachelorette groups, at least half of which were decked out in Coyote Ugly style cowgirl outfits: boots, miniskirts, sequins, and cowboy hats (the bride-to-be with a veil on hers). Others were in colour themes: yellow, pink, or blue.

We walked, and gawked, and tried to get a few pictures.

Tipsy girls see Ted’s camera and want their photos taken. I’m still confused as to what they think the benefit is, since they don’t get the photo.

There was no point at all in trying to set up a solo pose with the Cilla Black statue on Mathew Street.

I found a cool dude just hanging around with the musicians.

Once we escaped the noisy partiers, we took a stroll that led us again toward the Albert Dock area.

This beautiful iron gate on Hanover Street features a mythical Liver bird.

The Victorian carousel was already closed for the evening.

The dock is lined with attractive food trucks – and a food bus!

The gravity-defying sculpture below is called the Liverpool Mountain, and is one of Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone’s “mountain” series. One look at it and Ted said, “Playdough hammer”. I agree!

The colourful sculptures outside the Liverpool Museum are Superlambananas. They are based on an original design created by Japanese artist Taro Chiezo in 1998 for the Art Transpennine exhibition.

The five Superlambananas are decorated as Comedy, Ukraine,Poland, Remembrance, and Archeology.

The design, which is part lamb and part banana, was a comment by the artist about genetic engineering. It also recalled the historic role of Liverpool’s docks in transporting goods such as fruit and meat.

We passed two dry docks, and the sign beside them told of a dark history that predated their use as repair bays for pilot boats (like the decommissioned one currently there). Liverpool is working on expanding their current International Slavery Museum,

There was the opportunity for two more posed pictures before we called it a night: Shaun the Sheep, who is all over Liverpool this month, and the Liverpool sign.