Liverpool, England
Today we were in Liverpool. Now I know that most of you have heard of Liverpool. And I can guarantee you that the reason you’ve heard of Liverpool is because of one particular rock band. Even if you don’t know that’s why you know Liverpool, I promise you that however you heard about Liverpool almost certainly comes ‘round to the fact that those lads are from here.
Of course, I’m talking about Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
Just kidding. Although FGTH are also from Liverpool and they were also groundbreaking for their time. Their first album, “Welcome to the Pleasuredome,” is still ahead of its time, even now… forty years after its release.
No, I’m of course talking about the other band from Liverpool.
Being a Beatles fan, I opted for “The Beatles Experience” tour today. Rob did the included tour, which he wasn’t all that impressed with. I get it. It was mostly a bus ride and it was raining today, so not the best situation for a sightseeing tour. That’s too bad.
At least our friend Linda snapped a nice photo of Rob and our friend Hope during the tour.
Liverpool has some lovely scenery, which began right at the port where the ship docked.
This gorgeous set of buildings was right where we docked
Very near these historic, beautiful buildings, is… this… thing.
I mean, what even is this? It doesn’t fit in, it’s too skinny, it looks like it was built from spare toy blocks and none of it makes any sense whatsoever.
….and I love it.
and slightly ahead of those buildings is the very modern Museum of Liverpool
And visible just up the street is what locals call the “streaky bacon building” which was the headquarters of White Star Line, the company that owned the Titanic.
Just past the museum is the Royal Albert Dock, a recently refurbished collection of Victorian era brick buildings, a triumph of history preservation.
…and in the Royal Albert Dock is The Beatles Story, the first stop on our tour.
As museums go, it was OK. The place was a bit short on actual artifacts and long on reproductions, such as this reproduction of the Sgt Pepper costumes. Granted, the repros were done by the same person who did the originals, but still… they aren’t the real things.
One actual thing they had was Sir George Martin’s manuscript for the orchestra parts to “Yesterday” (George was the person who wrote most of the extra parts for Beatles songs when instruments beyond the Fab Four were required.)
It was a fun little museum and the gift shop was really nice, but it got better when we left the curated stuff and went into the real world.
“Penny Lane” is a well-known song that references a real street in Liverpool that Paul and John walked down every day on the way to school.
I knew that Penny Lane was a real street, but I didn’t realize that the places mentioned in the song were real as well. There really is a (bus) shelter in the middle of the roundabout.
…but I suppose the pretty nurse selling poppies from a tray is long gone.
We didn’t stop into the barber shop, so if the barber is showing photographs of every head he’s had the pleasure to know, we didn’t see it. We did see the barber shop, though.
I learned that Paul was originally given a trumpet to explore his musical ambitions, but he told his father that he wanted to sing, and “you can’t sing with a trumpet in your mouth” so his dad bought him a guitar. I often wondered if he harboured ill feelings toward the trumpet when I listen to Penny Lane. There are two things that will make a trumpet player hate the composer: the first is a lot of large intervals (alternating high and low notes) done quickly, since you have to alternately tighten and loosen your lips to jump from high notes to low notes and back. It’s very difficult. The other thing that trumpeters hate is sharps in the key signature. A trumpeter likes to play in flat keys. Sharps suck. All the sharp keys are out of tune due to the nature of the instrument, so you really have to work your face muscles to compensate. One sharp in the key? OK. Two? Three? Now you’re pushing it. “Penny Lane” has five sharps in the key - and for a trumpet player, that means seven sharps. And it’s all in the upper register of the instrument, which increases the difficulty. Seriously, that solo is nuts. (I used to play trumpet.)
Another famous song is “Strawberry Fields Forever.” John Lennon used to play in the gardens at Strawberry Field near his home. It’s a Salvation Army facility with these famous gates outside.
OK, so these famous gates have been moved into the gardens. Still, they’re the gates that a young John Lennon climbed over to play in the grounds.
Speaking of John Lennon, here’s the piano that he used to write “Imagine”, one of the greatest peace anthems ever written.
I’ll admit that it wasn’t as emotionally impactful as when I saw Mozart’s piano in Salzburg, but it was pretty close.
Still on John, we saw the house where he lived for much of his teenage years.
We also saw Sir Paul McCartney’s house, where he and John wrote “Love Me Do” and “She Loves You” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and lots more.
After the tour, I went back to the ship for a quick lunch, then headed out into town to see what there was to see. Unfortunately, it was rainy and not a great day for wandering around. Still, I made it back to the Cavern Club - a place we drove past on the tour. This is a place where the Beatles played many times before they were famous and it’s the place where future manager Brian Epstein went to see them. After just once performance, he went backstage and offered to be their manager.
The rain started getting heavier then, so I looked for some shops to get out of the weather. Liverpool One was nearby and it was a bit like a mall.
And… they had a Lego store! Unfortunately, there weren’t any UK-specific sets, but I did get to do the mini figure customizer thing and got a UK-exclusive “shirt” for my little Lego guy.
I was also told that the London Flagship store might have some exclusive stuff and that it’s totally doable from our hotel. So, yay. I’ll work on that when we get to London.
While I was out, I saw the big cathedral… which isn’t even that old. It was finished in the 1970s. It’s huge though.
Then back to the ship and wouldn’t you know it… the sun came out after I was back on board. Too late to head back out.
I did get a nice pic after the sun went down, though:
…and I don’t know where the music came from, but we were serenaded with Beatles tunes before we pulled away from the dock. We heard “Michelle”, “A Hard Days’ Night”, “Eleanor Rigby”, and “In My Life” - the latter also being the last song played on the tour this morning and my favourite Beatles song.
If you’re unfamiliar with that one, it’s OK. It’s no “Yesterday” or “Yellow Submarine” in terms of popularity, but I think it might be some of the best lyrics that John Lennon ever wrote.
Rob and I met later in life, when we each had exes and former friends and all that sort of thing. “In My Life” acknowledges all of those things and rather than try to hide them, it celebrates them. If not for those experiences, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. My favourite line comes a little ways into th song, after the singer acknowledges that there have been past loves, past friends, etc… he sings, “these memories lose their meaning when we think of love as something new.”
So, so much is said in those lines.
Anyway, it was nice to hear some music as we sailed off from Liverpool.