There In The Beginning, And In The End - the Cavern Club

Sadly, our Beatles tour bus dropped us off at our last stop, the world-famous Cavern Club.  Sadly, because I could have ridden on those wheels for hours, listening to the tour guide's stories supplemented by a Beatles soundtrack, and checking out the childhood stomping grounds of some of my favorite musicians of all time.

The Cavern Club first opened its doors in a cellar at 10 Mathew Street in Liverpool on January 16, 1957, featuring the Merseysippi Jazz Band playing before a crowd of more than 500 fans of jazz.

On August 7th of that year, the Quarrymen Skiffle Group debuted, a six-man band led by one John Lennon.  Paul McCartney would make his debut with the band there the following January.

Then came Thursday, February 9, 1961, when the Beatles, now consisting of Lennon, McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best on drums made their debut at the club.   They would continue on as the club's signature act.

That November, Liverpool businessman Brian Epstein, the owner of a nearby record store, stopped by the club for lunch and saw the Beatles for the first time.  He offered to become their manager and secured a recording contract for them by the following June.

In all, the band would perform there 292 times.

Then four lads from Liverpool left their hometown for global stardom, the Cavern Club was elevated to legendary status and became a weigh station for hundreds of other artists.

Who else played their tunes from this vaunted stage during that ensuing decade?  Oh, a few other musical acts known as the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, the Hollies, the Kinks, Elton John Black Sabbath, Queen, and my other favorite British band, the Who.

A respectable lineup.

Here's where the story reaches heartbreaking proportions.

The club closed in May of 1973 and was demolished.  Yes, you read that right.

It reopened across the street, in a new address, but the original fell to the bulldozers.

And it gets worse.  In 1985, new owners of the club decided to wipe out the Beatles legacy, thinking the group had run its course, and opted for a disco.  Shockingly, it failed after just over one year.

Cavern City Tours bought the club in the 1990s, and began restoring it to its former glory.

McCartney would return there for a concert in 1999.

Adele performed there in 2011, a fact not lost on both Jackie and Heather, who were quite pleased to see their fave performer's name adorning one of the bricks in the club wall.

Happily, whilst there, I got to raise a pint in honor of the four lads from Liverpool, as a solo musician played his afternoon setlist on the iconic stage, complete with, of course, some Beatles covers. 

For those of you who've come along for this Magical Mystery Tour ride, I hope the pics helped give a taste of the flavor of the most nostalgia-filled, emotional, and inspirational bus ride I've ever had the pleasure of taking part in.  Music historian and fellow Beatles buff Paul Marion frequently quotes bucket list items in terms of  wandering the annals of music history.  Rarely do I indulge in making such a list, as life has so much to offer, it seems nigh impossible to create a list that would encompass everything I've wanted to drink in or experience, especially with my family by my side.  (Though a pilgrimage to Asbury Park and the Stone Pony with Andrew a few years back did foot the bill.)

But in this case, with the Magical Mystery Tour, I'm willing to add one colossal CHECK to that list.

We're Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

We hope you have enjoyed the show

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

We're sorry but it's time to go

Sgt. Pepper's lonely, Sgt. Pepper's lonely

Sgt. Pepper's lonely, Sgt. Pepper's lonely

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

We'd like to thank you once again

Sgt. Pepper's one and only Lonely Hearts Club Band

It's getting very near the end

Sgt. Pepper's lonely, Sgt. Pepper's lonely

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

And finally, with a nod to my favorite of the Fab Four, John

If the sky that we look upon

Should tumble and fall

And the mountain should crumble to the sea

I won't cry, I won't cry

No I won't shed a tear

Just as long as you stand, stand by me

Nothing To Get Hung About - Strawberry Fields Forever

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see

It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out

It doesn't matter much to me

Let me take you down, because I'm going to Strawberry Fields

Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about

Strawberry Fields forever

Our Magical Mystery Tour continues....

The origin of Strawberry Field dates back to just after the Civil War, when the property was owned by a rich ship owner named George Warren.  He built a gothic mansion on the site, complete with the wrought iron gate, gardens and flowers.

Strawberry Field was the name of a Salvation Army children's home (nee orphanage) opened in 1936, near John Lennon's childhood home in nearby Woolton, which is a prestigious middle-class suburb of Liverpool.

John remembered the grounds fondly from his youth as a place of escapism and his own "secret garden."

His Aunt Mimi, whom he lived with nearby, tried to thwart him from visiting the grounds because she thought the setting would be a bad influence on the boy who'd been abandoned by both his father, and later, through a second marriage, his mother.  When Lennon was a baby, his father Alf abandoned them, and his mother Julia hooked up with another man who didn't want John in the picture at all.  John was shipped off to his mother's sister's home in Woolton.  When John and his Aunt Mimi would  argue about his going to Strawberry Field, John would reply, what are they going to do, hang me?  Ergo, the line - nothing to get hung about

No one I think is in my tree - in Lennon's own words: "What I'm saying, in my insecure way, is 'Nobody seems to understand where I'm coming from. I seem to see things in a different way from most people.'"

Yeah, there's days I get where he's coming from

Again, another surreal moment as we drove down the roadway approaching Strawberry Field and had the song piping in overhead, as seen here in this quick video:

Strawberry Fields Forever

The children's home was closed in 2005 when there was only three children remaining in the home, and the property has essentially been abandoned ever since.

Lennon left money in his will to sustain Strawberry Field.  His widow Yoko also made donations to the home to keep it open.

  The Salvation Army is now planning to reopen Strawberry Field to the public for the first time in decades, allowing visitors to explore its grounds.  It's going to feature a new training center for young people with special education needs.  Thankfully, it will also feature an exhibition space dedicated to the history of the grounds.

Truth be told, the pitstop at Strawberry Field was somewhat startling, depressing, and a stark reminder of the need for us to preserve history.  The morning we were there, we were one of two busloads of tourists visiting the site during a 15 minute span.  I found myself thinking it was a missed opportunity for a fund-raising campaign.  I would have gladly made a donation to help preserve/restore the green space if there was a functioning visitor's center at the site.

I've been to the American version of Strawberry Field in New York's Central Park across from Lennon's Dakota apartment, as you can see, and seriously, it has more of a feeling of respect, homage, and tribute than the authentic article.

Here's Mendips, the house where John lived with his Aunt Mimi at 251 Menlove Avenue

An interesting fact from our tour guide - see the blue plaque beneath the window?  The English Heritage only allows for the affixing of those award plaques when the subject of honor either reaches 100 years old, or has been dead for 20 years.  Lennon's could be posted in 2000.  Harrison's can be placed on the home seen in the previous blog in 2021.

Thankfully, Yoko Ono bought the property and it was was eventually protected by the United Kingdom's National Trust and preserved as a museum.  Paul and Martin took the National Trust tour back during one of Martin's summer holidays home.

Yoko Ono visited Lennon's home just a couple of weeks back and shared this pic on her Instagram account, with the caption "I feel John here with me...I love you John. Yoko'"

Supposedly, Lennon wrote Please Please me here in this room

John's tough childhood would continue, as one day, his mother came to visit him here at this house, but he wasn't home.  As she left, she was struck by a car while crossing the street and killed. John was 17.  The driver of the car, an off-duty policeman believed to have been intoxicated, beat the charge, and according to our Magical Mystery Tour Guide, it's that incident that many believe fostered Lennon's distrust of authority.

Just a few blocks away, is one of Paul's seven Liverpool homes, at 20 Forthlin Road, said to be the favorite of his family's during their years in Liverpool.

This too, has been protected by the UK National Trust. Lennon and McCartney allegedly wrote I saw Her Standing There here at this location

Paul's mother, Mary, died of cancer when he was 14, and that death, coupled with the death of Lennon's mother, was seen as a traumatizing experience that bonded the two even closer.

McCartney said the impetus for Let It Be was a dream he had about his mother, about 10 years after she died, in which she came to him in troubled times, bringing him peace.

Hearing Let It Be as we drove the streets between McCartney and Lennon's home was another in a series of unforgettable moments on the tour.

Here's a quick video clip of that moment:

Let It Be

Next up: the tour's final stop, an underground cavern

Roll Up for the Magical Mystery Tour - Penny Lane

Roll up roll up for the Mystery Tour

Roll up roll up for the Mystery Tour

Roll up

That's an invitation

Roll up for the Mystery Tour

Roll up

To make a reservation

Roll up for the Mystery Tour

The Magical Mystery Tour

Is waiting to take you away

Waiting to take you away

Time to board that big yellow psychedelic bus and hit the streets of Liverpool to experience the earliest days of the most famous foursome in music history, the Beatles.

British Beatlefan Paul Askew had previously taken this tour with our friend Martin Brewer, but he happily agreed to take Clan Cook back for a sequel.

We set off early and encountered the heaviest rainfall yet of our entire trip, but thankfully it ended within the first 10 minutes of the official tour itself.  And besides - NOTHING was going to put a damper on this pilgrimage for me - I've been waiting years to experience this trip down the Long and Winding Road of Beatles lore

I can show you

That when it starts to rain

Everything's the same

I can show you

I can show you

The tour provides a tour guide replete with an armada of Beatles trivia, plus a tambourine-playing driver, both of whom added to the overall experience.

And a fun trivia fact?  The guide's brother is Holly Johnson, frontman singer for Frankie Goes to Hollywood - so of course, he told us to sit back and Relax!

First up on our rolling soundtrack, was natch, the Magical Mystery Tour itself

The Magical Mystery Tour

But if you want to ride the bus, you've got to have the aforementioned ticket, so...

Ticket To Ride

The first "stop" on the tour was Ringo's neighborhood, where we didn't dismount but merely passed through.

Ringo grew up in Admiral Grove, a property in Dingle, Liverpool.  As most Beatles followers know, Ringo was a very sickly child, and missed quite a bit of school, so he was taught to read and write at home.  Ringo was actually born on nearby Madryn Street in 1940, but the neighborhood was devastated by the German bombing of WWII.  His parents separated when he was three, and he and his mother moved into 10 Admiral Grove, where he lived for the next 20 years.

An interesting tour note - Ringo's birthplace was set to be demolished in 2010, but local groups called for its preservation and the National Trust collected nearly 4,000 signatures to preserve the home and its adjacent buildings.  The property is inacessible, and still not reopened or restored.

Ringo's mother was a barmaid here at the Empress, which was featured on the cover of Ringo's first solo album, Sentimental Journey.

Our bus then ran the route of one of the most famous roadways in music history, Penny Lane.

Hearing the tune blaring overhead as we drove down the actual street itself?  Priceless.

Penny Lane

In February 1967, the Beatles released what is still considered the greatest one-two punch of a single ever released - Penny Lane on one side, with Strawberry Fields Forever on the B Side.

It was written by McCartney in his music room at 7 Cavendish Avenue, near Abbey Road Studios (see previous posts).

And remarkably, Engelbert Humperdinck's Release Me would thwart the single from making it number one on the charts.

In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs

Of every head he's had the pleasure to know.

And all the people that come and go

Stop and say hello.

James Bioletti, the barber who once occupied this barber shop and cut Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison's hairs when they were children has since passed on, but the barber shop remains, and welcomes tourists and yes, has pictures on the wall showing some of the Fab Four's moptops getting their hairs cut.

In Penny Lane there is a fireman with an hourglass

And in his pocket is a portrait of the queen.

He likes to keep his fire engine clean,

It's a clean machine.

The fire station is actually located on Mather Avenue, a few blocks from the heart of Penny Lane, but near enough to Lennon and McCartney's homes to factor in as they would pass by it on their way to Penny Lane itself.

Behind the shelter in the middle of a roundabout

The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray

And tho' she feels as if she's in a play

She is anyway.

The shelter is now abandoned, but once served as the Penny Lane Bus Terminus.  The greatest songwriting tandem in music history would often meet at the terminus to catch a bus into the city's center.  It later became a Beatles themed cafe/restaurant.  Now?  It's abandoned.

On the corner is a banker with a motorcar,

The little children laugh at him behind his back.

And the banker never wears a mack

In the pouring rain, very strange.

Here's the bank.  Sadly, we didn't encounter the banker.

Next up was a visit to George's place of birth, on Arnold Grove, a tiny dead-end cul-de-sac packed into a tightly populated neighborhood a few blocks off Penny Lane.

12 Arnold Grove is still inhabited.  George, the youngest of the Fab Four, was born here in February of 1943.  It was named after Queen Victoria's husband, Albert Grove.

Remarkably, the street is still unadopted, meaning residents have to make their own arrangements for things like waste disposal and maintenance, rather than receiving the services provided by the local authorities.

Leaving Ringo and George's neighborhood, the bus started meandering over to the other part of downtown, where John and Paul would begin making history together

St. Peter's Church Hall in Woolton, Liverpool is where Lennon and McCartney literally met one another for the first time, on Saturday, July 6, 1957.  Lennon's band the Quarrymen Skiffle Group was getting ready for a church dance evening performance when the match made in heaven was arranged by a mutual friend.  The 20 minute encounter would change music forever.

Across the street lies the grave of one of the Beatles most famous characters

Eleanor Rigby

Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice

In the church where a wedding has been

Lives in a dream

Waits at the window, wearing the face

That she keeps in a jar by the door

Who is it for

Eleanor Rigby was the B side of Yellow Submarine, another one-two blockbuster tandem!

In 1984, it was pointed to Paul that there was a headstone in St. Peter's Graveyard in Woolton, across the street from where the pair met.

It was then believed to have been planted in McCartney's subconscious, as he and Lennon would frequently cut through the cemetery as they meandered around Woolton.

Eleanor who worked at City Hospital in Parkhill, Liverpool,was born in 1895, and died at the age of 44, in 1939. 

All the lonely people, where do they all come from?
All the lonely people, where do they all belong?

Next stop: the place where Nothing Is Real

HusBand on the Run

And a bell was ringing in the Village Square

For the rabbits on the run

Up and at 'em early in the morning, time to do me some exploring of the Liverpool streets around the hotel.  Sadly, it was a Solo run, as I couldn't shake the sheets madly enough to get my running buddy Heather out there with me.

Down by the Mersey ferries, on Pier Head, heading towards the river Mersey is a fairly new addition to the city of Liverpool, that of a close-to-lifesized statue of the four lads that made the city famous more than half a century ago.

The bronze statue was only added in 2015 after the owners of the sorta-nearby Cavern Club felt the city needed some type of commemorative gathering point to honor John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

I took advantage of the damp morning to run with the Fab Four to the ferry dock

Each of the statues has a secret detail that speaks to the individual:

• John is carrying two acorns, symbolic of his and Yoko's wish for world peace (after their marriage, they sent acorns to world leaders asking that they be planted across the globe as a symbol of world peace)
• Paul is carrying a camera - a possible nod to his photographer wife, Linda Eastman, or a reflection of the camera he carried with him on the band's visit to Paris in January, 1964
• George's spiritual beliefs are reflected in the Indian mantra written across his coat belt.
• Ringo has the number 9 on the sole of his shoe, referencing his Liverpool zip code

The unveiling of the statue - sculpted by Andy Edwards - coincided with the Beatles' final show in their hometown, at the Empire theater in 1965,  

From there, it was a run along the River Mersey itself.

The river gets its name from the Anglo-Saxon language, and translates into "boundary river," possibly because it is believed to have once separated the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria, not to mention the boundary between the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire.

The river spawned the brand of music known as the Merseybeat, something the Beatles came to embody.

And of course, as music historians Pauls Askew and Marion would be quick to point out, the river itself is the inspiration for Gerry and the Pacemakers hit song, which can be viewed here:

Ferry Cross the Mersey

Interestingly, the walkway along the Mersey has become yet another site for the love locks that have cropped up at chained locations across the world.

For those who haven't seen them elsewhere, the padlocks are supposed to symbolize a couple's love, usually with their names or initials emblazoned upon the lock.  The key is usually thrown into the nearby water to symbolize unbreakable love.

Chains, my baby's got me locked up in chains

It took a bit, but with the help of the trusty iPhone maps, I was able to wander around and find something I'd been hunting for since arriving in Liverpool - the statue dedicated to Eleanor Rigby

A handbag on her lap, shopping back to her right, a Liverpool newspaper on her left, Eleanor Rigby sits beneath a plaque reading 

ELEANOR RIGBY

ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE

Sculpture by Tommy Steele

A thank you to the people of Liverpool

December 3, 1982

From the Album Revolver, August 5, 1966

Eleanor Rigby, died in the church

And was buried along with her name

Nobody came

Father McKenzie, wiping the dirt

From his hands as he walks from the grave

No one was saved

All the lonely people

Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong?

Next up: time for a very special tour

The Beatles Story - And What a Story It Was!

Time, finally, to share pics and memories from a period of 48 hours that will indelibly rate among the greatest experiences of my life, on a myriad of levels.

Warning: if you're not a fan of the Beatles, or even remotely interested in their fabled story of success, the next few blog posts are not for you.

Time to cut away from London proper for a couple of days and head northward, all the way up to Liverpool, where once upon a time, four lads formed a band that would forever changed the landscape of rock and roll music.

This excursion was made possible with the support of viewers like you, but most especially, our driver, Paul Askew, United Kingdom music aficionado.  The music trivia contests he participated in while driving north and listening to radio broadcasts will forever remain one of the more accomplished and astonishing bits of nigh-unto Rain Man trivia prowess that we've ever witnessed.

A light mist awaited us on arrival to Liverpool, but the Rain didn't matter, because we were heading to Albert Dock, and the Beatles museum that resides there.

Albert Dock on the River Mersey opened in 1846 and was the first structure in all of Britain to be built from cast iron, brick and stone, with no structural wood.

During World War II, the dock was requisitioned by the Admiralty and served as a base of operations for boats in the British Atlantic Fleet.  It was damaged during air raids on Liverpool, and never quite recovered economically, closing in 1972.  Redevelopment began in the 1980s, though, and the dock was reopened, evolving into the tourist attraction it is today.  (It's also a fun place to log some running miles, but more on that in a later post)

Heather captured the start of our tour, and yes, she was quite correct in her observation.

The Beatles Story is the largest permanent exhibition in the world devoted purely to recounting the Beatles' story from their modest start in the nearby neighborhoods of Liverpool through their meteoric rise to the top of the charts.  Music guru Paul Marion, not to mention my brother Jimmy, are sure to already know all of the information provided within the walls of the tour, but damn, for this diehard Beatle fan, it was a glorious immersion into immortal music.

You can wander through the tour at your own pace, using an interactive electronic system along the lines of an iPod that takes you through audio narratives of their careers - sometimes in their own words, sometimes in that of their loved ones.

The Star-Club was a music club in Hamburg, Germany, where many of the giants of the music industry played, including 13 historic performances by the Beatles in April, May, November, and December of 1962.

We'd see the real (or reconstructed version of the Cavern Club the next day, but for now, the facsimile provided a colorful backdrop for Heather and I.

As blog readers know, we had already hit the authentic Abbey Road crosswalk and Abbey Road studios down in London itself, but the recreation was a nice brush with history.

Fast forward to 8 p.m. on Sunday, February 9, 1964 (I was still being baked at that point), and 73 million people tuned in to hear Ed Sullivan shout "Ladies and gentlemen....the Beatles!" leading the foursome into All My Lovin' and television folklore.

Beatlemania had arrived.

In 1966, the Beatles released Eleanor Rigby as the B-side of Yellow Submarine.  It remains, to this day, one of my favorite Beatles songs ever, but it took on new poignancy and even greater gravity when I took to running and exploring the streets of current day Liverpool, seeing some of the many homeless that still dot the landscape and shelter in doorways to escape the cold and rain.

Paul McCartney was often asked who was Eleanor Rigby, and the answer might reside in St. Peter's Graveyard Woolton, where Rigby's name can be found on a tombstone in a cemetery near where Paul and John Lennon first met one another and that served as a shortcut for the pair on some of their buddy walks.  Paul has often said the name was implanted into his subconscious from one of his many pass-throughs of the cemetery, and it stuck with him.

All the lonely people - where DO they all come from? 

 And our friends are all aboard

Many more of them live next door

And the band begins to play

Waiting to take you away 

The most prolific writing tandem in music history 

One of the  most powerful scenes in the museum comes at the end, with John Lennon's New York piano, and Imagine playing soulfully overhead.

Imagine

You may say I'm a dreamer.  But I'm not the only one.

Outside the museum still stands the stone arch at Salthouse Dock 

I could have spent even more time just absorbing the recordings, the recollections, hell, just listening to the music that accompanies you through the corridors.  It was an unforgettable remembrance of an historic stretch of time When We Was Fab

Though I know I'll never lose affection

For people and things that went before

I know I'll often stop and think about them