Monday, November 4, 2019

Visiting Beatles sites in Liverpool, England

In 12/18, I cobbled together my own Beatles tour of Hamburg, Germany, where they first played outside of the UK.

But I failed to mention that 25 years earlier, on 4/20/93 to be precise, while in college and traveling Europe for the first time, I had already done an ad hoc Beatles tour...of Liverpool, England, where it all started.

 251 Menlove Avenue ("Mendips"), 
where John Lennon lived 1945-1963

 The Cavern Club, 10 Mathew Street; 
the Quarrymen (first band Lennon and McCartney appeared in together)
first performed here in 1957; as the Beatles, they first played here
in 1961 (where future manager Brian Epstein first heard them) 
and last in 1963...with 273 times in between; 
the original closed and was torn down in 1973; 
it was rebuilt (in part from bricks of the original) 
and re-opened in 1985 
(but would go through more closures/reopenings)

 Eleanor Rigby, lonely no more.

 One end of Penny Lane.

 The barbershop mentioned in "Penny Lane."
(Squint to make out the photo I'm looking at.)

Strawberry Field, the children's home on whose grounds 
a young John sometimes played. 
It closed in 2005; in 2019, the grounds opened 
to the public for the first time.

9/28/21 addendum: visiting Beatles sites in London.

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