Thursday, 16 March 2023
Behind That Locked Door: Inside the Harrison family home
Thursday, 9 March 2023
Walking The Beatles' London - October 2022 (part five)
Tuesday, 10 January 2023
Tuesday, 3 January 2023
Walking The Beatles' London - October 2022 (part four)
Sunday, 30 October 2022
Walking The Beatles' London - October 2022 (part three)
The show didn’t start until 7.30pm so we agreed in advance that it would be too late to travel home afterwards and decided to make a weekend of it. Armed with The Beatles London [3], the indispensable guide to the 467 Beatles’ sites in the capital, Steve drew up an itinerary and we decided to try and visit as many as we could.
Of course, we didn't get anywhere near the magic 467, but we managed to see quite a lot of them.
And so, without
further ado, here's part three:
Wednesday, 19 October 2022
Walking The Beatles’ London - October 2022 (part two)
A recap: On Saturday 8 October 2022, I travelled down to ‘That London’ with my friend and fellow Beatles historian Steve Bradley [1] to attend Evolver 62, Mark Lewisohn’s one-man show at the Bloomsbury Theatre.
The show didn’t start until 7.30pm so we agreed in advance that it would be too late to travel home afterwards and decided to make a weekend of it. Armed with The Beatles London [2], the indispensable guide to the 467 Beatles’ sites in the capital, Steve drew up an itinerary and we decided to try and visit as many as we could.
Of course, we didn't get anywhere near
the magic 467, but I discovered that if you are prepared to spend two days
walking 23 miles [3]
around the streets of London, powered primarily by Guinness and wine gums, you
do manage to see quite a lot of them.
And so, in the order we visited them, here's day one, part two:
Thursday, 13 October 2022
Walking The Beatles' London - October 2022 (part one)
The show didn’t start until 7.30pm so we agreed in advance that it would be too late to travel home afterwards and decided to make a weekend of it. Armed with The Beatles London [2], the indispensable guide to the 467 Beatles’ sites in the capital, Steve drew up an itinerary and we decided to try and visit as many as we could.
Of course, we didn't get anywhere near the magic 467, but I discovered that if you are prepared to spend two days walking 23 miles [3] around the streets of London, powered primarily by Guinness and wine gums, you do manage to see quite a lot of them.
Some of the sites we visited are extremely familiar to Beatles' fans the world over, but having only previously seen them in videos, films, books and record sleeves at times I was genuinely excited to see them in the context of their surroundings. I realised what it must be like for the thousands of visitors who visit Liverpool every year to see some of the Beatles' locations I sometimes take for granted, because they are part of the backdrop to my everyday life.
I’ve not walked around London in years, and at times I felt like I was seeing it properly for the first time. Every street we walked through seemed to have a blue plaque or something of cultural interest. It occurred to me that you could easily spend an entire weekend doing a musical-history-themed-walk through London, without including any Beatles’ sites. As you’ll see in this blog and the follow ups, we did manage to squeeze a few notable non-Beatles locations in.
We also had fun creating some Then and Now type comparison photographs, which I’ll post at the appropriate points.
And so, in the order we visited them, here's part one:
Sunday, 14 August 2022
Never Say Die - The story of Mona Best and the Casbah Club
"Come with
me to the Casbah..."
Thanks to host Andrew Martin Adamson for inviting myself and fellow Beatles blogger Steve Bradley to guest last week on an episode of his US podcast, Beatles60.
The Beatles60 Facebook group and podcast sticks to a strict timeline by looking back at Beatles' events and news, exactly sixty years ago.
We were invited to discuss the important role Mona Best and the Casbah Club played in the early Beatles' story.
We talked about how the boys built up a steady following at the club and with Mona promoting their gigs around Liverpool, how they were able to replicate the great sound and following on Merseyside that they had already established in Hamburg.
Subjects covered:
- A brief history of the Best family
- How did Mona Best buy 8 Hayman's Green? The 1954 Epsom Derby
- George Harrison's 'moonlighting phase': Lowlands and the Les Stewart Quartet
- The birth of the Casbah Club
- The re-birth of the Quarry Men
- The Beatles return from Hamburg, December 1960
- Why it was left to Mona and Pete to organise the Beatles' booking
- Early 1961 - Mona Best starts Casbah Promotions
- Why didn't Mona become the Beatles' manager
- The reasons behind the closure of the Casbah club
- The re-birth of the Casbah in the late 1980s
- The Liverpool Beatles Museum, the Casbah club and Pete and Roag Best's activities today
All this in the new episode available here:
Note:
Tuesday, 9 August 2022
The Three Amigos
I’m sure like me, you were grateful for any opportunity to enjoy yourself and forget about what was happening in the world. For me it was having the chance to spend more time with the family, enjoy nice meals (when I could taste them again after contracting Covid), go for a walk in the park, take photographs, enjoy music and of course the opportunity to research and write about early Beatles’ history.
The release of McCartney III was a welcome surprise, not only for the music, which for the most part I really enjoyed, but for the TV and print interviews Paul gave to promote it. Of course some of the questions he was asked were in the usual “I believe the song Yesterday came to you in a dream, can you tell me about that?” vein but over the last few years I’ve noticed that, when given the opportunity Paul will talk freely about the early pre-Beatles days in Liverpool and seems to enjoy doing so, perhaps because he hasn’t been asked about that period every day for the last 50 years.
I’ve said it before and I'll probably keep saying it until he agrees, but I’d really love to interview him in detail about his life up to say, 1963, and get him to fill in the blanks as best as he can remember. That goes for Ringo too.
When I read Mark Lewisohn’s ‘Tune In’ I was stunned by the observation that there are NO interviews or comments from John Lennon where he discusses Stuart Sutcliffe. This wasn't through any conscious decision by John not to speak about him, but because in all the interviews he gave not one person thought to ask. Of course, when somebody finally realised this omission, it was too late.
As interviews go BBC1’s “Idris Elba Meets Paul McCartney” was a mixed bag so far as the questions went but Paul looked like he was enjoying himself and once again when prompted seemed to delight in talking about his early days in Liverpool, his parents and his extended working-class family who became the yardstick against which everybody he met subsequently was measured.
'Cowboys At The School Dance' (c) Paul McCartney
Monday, 1 August 2022
Hope For The Future - LIPA Graduation Day(s) 2022
ACC Liverpool
Kings Dock
Liverpool Waterfront
L3 4FP
As the co-founder of LIPA in 1996, Paul has shown his continued commitment by attending every graduation ceremony since.
I was lucky
enough to attend the twenty-second LIPA graduation ceremony, held at the stunning art-deco Philharmonic Hall in 2019 and what I witnessed during the 2 hours
plus ceremony left me with even more admiration for the former member of the
Quarry Men.
For the duration of the ceremony, Paul and LIPA’s co-founder Mark Featherstone-Witty sit centre stage flanked by ‘Companions’. Unlike other British Universities, LIPA does not issue Honorary degrees. Instead, it recognises individuals in the world of art and entertainment by awarding them a ‘companionship’ for their outstanding achievement and practical contributions to students’ learning. These companions will often visit LIPA to give masterclasses in their particular field – the former Beatle has himself attended songwriting classes for the students – or to take part in question-and-answer sessions. During the service I attended several well-known faces were made a companion of LIPA including the actor, comedian and writer Stephen Fry (Blackadder, The Hobbit, Wilde), the actor Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean, Blackadder) and musician, singer-songwriter, and former Deputy Chairman of the BPI, Mike Batt (The Wombles, The Planets, ‘A Winter’s Tale’, ‘The Hunting of the Snark’) as well as some perhaps slightly less well known outside of their recognised area of expertise but without whom the performance would not be possible – Lucy Carter (lighting designer), Steve Lewis (music publisher), Sue Gill (author), Tom Pye (set and costume designer), Kenrick Sandy (choreographer) and Andrew Scheps (sound engineer).
Each new companion dons cap and gown for their induction ‘ceremony’ before they are presented on stage to Sir Paul and Mark Featherstone-Witty. They then give a speech.
Sunday, 10 July 2022
Celebrating the 65th anniversary of the day John met Paul
It was a big event in the village and attended in great numbers by the local 'Wooltonians' partly no doubt because 'there wasn't much else to do' according to my own Dad who was in the Sunday School held in St. Peter's Church Hall a few years behind Lennon, Shotton, Davis and Vaughan, as well as others who enter the story of Lennon's early years in Woolton - Barbara Baker, Nigel Walley, Bob Molyneux and David Ashton.
He really knew how to play the guitar. Until now, I was in charge of the group. And I thought, 'what happens if I take him in the band?' I realised that I would have to keep him in line if he started playing with us, but he played well, so it was worth a try. And he looked like Elvis. [2]
It wasn't long before the Quarry Men took to the 'stage', their instruments and equipment set up roughly on the spot where the historic meeting took place in 1957.
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Paul McCartney’s Mad Day Out 9th June 2018 ....as told by four Scousers WTF just happened? That was the tagline my friend, ...
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174 Mackets Lane Hunts Cross Liverpool 25 On New Years Day 1950 the Harrisons moved in to their new house in Upton Green, Speke. Unf...