The Beatles’ Liverpool

As you may know, I am a Beatles fan. Not the typical one that can name a few of their greatest hits or more known songs. I am a hardcore Beatles fan.

the fab four by the Liver buildings and ferry terminal

When I was 13 years old, or thereabout, I borrowed a CD from my godfather that had some mixed oldies songs from the fifties and sixties. The only one I still can remember was ‘Ain’t she Sweet’ sung by John Lennon. His voice was so powerful and full of energy, yet the lyrics were so simple. I learned years later that it wasn’t even one of their own songs, but a cover of an old 1927 tune.

In any case, I couldn’t get it out of my head. And, from that moment on, I had a mission. I had to know more about this band. So I started looking for their songs and records.

The Beatles’s homes

George Harrison’s home
John Lennon’s home
Paul McCartney’s home
Ringo Starr’s home

Let me remind you that, in those days, more than thirty years ago, there was no internet and I was living in Madrid. So information and resources were scarce, to say the least.

I checked my parents record collection and found out that they had their two greatest hits LPs, the red and the blue. So I copied them into a tape and started listening to the cassette eagerly and constantly.

Some time later I got a hold of a book with a brief introduction to their origins and rise to success, plus the lyrics of some of their songs.

That’s how I started this lifelong obsession with the fab four, their music, their lives and their careers. Moreover, they were the reason I started learning English by myself, because I wanted to understand what they were singing about.

The Beatles’ songs

strawberry fields
Eleanor Rigby
Penny lane

Moving forward a decade or so, I got a scholarship, at university, to study whatever I wanted anywhere I chose. And, obviously, I chose to go to Liverpool and spend a summer there improving my English.

For many years I’ve been buying any book about them, as a band or as solo artists, and collecting records and other memorabilia.

When I started planning this journey cycling around Europe, I wasn’t sure if I would go to Liverpool again. Nevertheless, as I was going around Scotland and heading south to England, it was clear to me that I had to go back there and cycle in some of the places I had visited all those years ago, and even, maybe, some new ones.

I took all these snapshots, because, let’s be honest, that’s all they are, in a day. I cycled around Liverpool for more than four hours and did more than 60km, and it was worth it.

Most of these places I had visited before, but some others were new to me or, as in the case of Strawberry fields, I had never been able to go inside before.

other places

Albert dock, where John Lennon used to go as a teenager to buy records from sailors coming from America
one of the most famous clubs in the world
the church hall in which John Lennon gave his first live gig with his band ‘the quarrymen’s and where he and Paul met for the first time
art school where John Lennon attended
the one and only Beatles museum
one of the first pubs where The Beatles used to play
new statue of John Lennon in Penny lane

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