Liverpool seems to get rather the same publicity as Latvia. More than one British friend gave me a funny look and a more expressive, “Why in the world would you choose to go there?” Because of The Beatles, obviously. Because of the flat grey skies and the steeply sloping roads. Because of the Magical Mystery Tour, and a little less because of the Maritime Museum.
It was brilliant. I was travelling with the International Student House travel club and happily wound up with a friendly bunch of people. We got there by minibus, grabbed lunch (soup) and toddled off on an introductory walking tour. The tour led us to two consecutive cathedrals, both relatively new, one quite modern and the other simply enormous. More exciting was what lay between the two: our first Beatles monument! It consisted of a pile of stone guitar cases outside the Liverpool Music Academy. Apparently Paul McCartney comes back each year and presents the graduation certificates.
Following the walking tour, which took us all along the docks and encompassed much talk about the Titanic, the town’s involvement in the slave trade, and Beatles Beatles Beatles, I went off with a couple of new friends to get my museum fix.
After much wrestling with maps, we finally discovered that the Maritime Museum and the International Museum of Slavery co-existed in the one building. After a brief tour of each, we climbed back up to the non-modern cathedral, the massive one located in a graveyard-turned-park. It was just as massive on the inside. Also, it had its very own café right inside, which seemed an odd touch.
We met up with the group for dinner at the Philharmonic Dining Rooms, a gaudily decorated pub with delicious sausage and mash. Next came the highlight of the trip: the Cavern Club. This famous basement space is where The Beatles started out, and has heard gigs from the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who, The Arctic Monkeys, Elton John, Adele, The Zombies, etc, etc.
New-friend-Tori and I let the others go off to their boring old pub and spent five hours rocking out to the best of the sixties. I really felt the absence of my gogo boots. It was amazing. The house band was in top form, and invited members of the audience to come up and let loose. Some let looser than others, forgetting whole Beatles verses (the shame) but others were on the ball.
The most memorable performances were those featuring the guitarist who played half his songs with his teeth. His teeth. I thought that was just some hilarious rock ‘n’ roll joke, but no. Picks are for the weak (take note, Mel). He also had Mick Jagger hair, and seemed to like standing on the drum kit and playing the guitar behind his back. Rockin’.
And that was just Saturday! Sunday started rather later, but earlier for us than for the locals, all of whom had been out on the streets at 1:30am. The streets were near empty till noon.
Down at the docks, we hopped on the world’s second coolest Mystery Vehicle and enjoyed a Beatlemanic Magical Mystery Tour.
It was great fun. Among other things, we saw each of the Beatles’ birthplace, Strawberry Fields (which contained a Lewis Carroll-inspired set of red gates), Penny Lane, a bunch of places mentioned in Penny Lane, and heard a whole lot about the band’s early history.
After the tour, Tori and I got woefully lost in the Liverpudlian streets. Having somehow made a massive circle, we headed up to China Town for a late Chinese lunch, then back to the hostel to meet the others for the bus.
It was a fantastic trip. Liverpool is absolutely worth the visit. If nothing else will convince you, I present the town mascot: SUPER-LAMB-BANANA.
Mind blown.
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