Sunday started with bright blue skies and sunny weather, a glorious day, as my young friend James wrote to me later. Yes, indeed, is has been from start to finish. I had long looked to seeing the Beatles up front and personal this trip, and the day did not disappoint me one bit.
Cheryl and I had decided the night before to attend the 8:30 a.m. service at the magnificent Anglican Cathedral. It’s the second (some reports say the largest) largest Anglican cathedral in Europe, started in 1904 and completed in 1978, and its 331 feet structure looms large over this city. Liverpool’s Cathedral wants to welcome 1 million visitors each year, according to a report we picked up there, and see 100,000 people coming to worship by 2024. Renovation work is ongoing on the structure designed by Giles Robert Scott, who also designed the red telephone booths throughout the UK among many other great pieces of architecture, including Cambridge University’s library. He won a contest to design it when he was just 21. He did not live to see his masterpiece, the design of which he changed from two towers to just one, and is buried on its grounds.
Our bus driver had told us it was a must-see, and he was correct. We met about 10 others in the Lady Chapel, where the 8:30 a.m. spoken service was held. Beautiful stained glass windows, a gorgeous altar and ceiling are standouts here, where people worshipped originally as the structure was built. The service was intimate and intriguing, led by an SSM – self supporting minister, which means he is funded outside of the cathedral. We talked with him later, and he told us he teaches radiation oncology at a university four days a week and devotes himself to the cathedral the rest of his time. During the sign of peace, everyone there got up from their seats and shook hands and spoke with everyone. Just lovely.
We wandered about for a bit, listening to the choir rehearse for the next service, their voices rising and resonating throughout the structure. The only off-putting note came when we were chastened not one but twice by a volunteer who didn’t want either of us walking around as they rehearsed. “It would be inviting people to walk about as if they were at a bus station,” he told Cheryl. Ah, there were no more than 10 other visitors who wandered in the entire time we were there.
The cathedral has a café, gift store, and many exhibits and events to bring people in to its space. It also rents out areas to special events and visitors can climb the tower for a small fee to see for miles around Liverpool. Wish we had time to go back and do just that on this indeed glorious day.
We made our way back to the hotel after stopping at St. Luke’s, the bombed-out church left standing but missing much of its interior after intense bombing in 1941. Its bay and dock were frequent targets of the Germans. It now serves as the space for concerts and special events, including a market today. Most upsetting to me – I almost stepped on a homeless man sleeping right near one gate as I peered inside to see what was going on there. So many people living and sleeping on the streets in London, and now I am seeing it here. James told me benefits had been cut in the country, and that is the cause. Many, many women in those ranks, too.
Precisely at 1 p.m. we started our Beatles tour with the affable and incredibly knowledgeable Joey Lyons. He grew up on the same street as George Harrison, drives a cab and runs these tours. Just a fun guy who focused on me, a Beatles girl through and through, although I did miss several of his questions. We had great chats all along the three-hour tour.
We started at Ringo Star’s house and learned he is persona non grata for asking for a big payday when he came back for a special event in 2008 and dissing Liverpool big time when he was interviewed. He grew up sickly and poor in an unreal small house with outdoor plumbing. Ringo learned to play the drums as diversion during a hospital stay and to strengthen his chest. He was, of course, the Beatles’ second drummer, and went on to his own solo career.
Next stop, Penny Lane, following the tracks of James Corden and Paul McCartney in that now infamous Karaoke in the Car segment that surprised all of Liverpool, Joey said. Only one person – a professor at Hope University, where you can earn a master’s degree in Beatles music – knew, although word spread like wildfire. He has photos of the day to show he was there. We saw the sign signed by Paul, the hall where John Lennon’s first band the Quarry Men played, and the roundabout, the banks and the barbershop. (And got sight of the smallest house ever … you have to see it to believe it.)
On to George Harrison’s boyhood home, and Joey pointed out he lived in the next block. It is as snug little house in a neighborhood of people who waved or chatted with us, and most seemed to know Joey (no surprise there!) as we gathered to hear his stories. Like this one: George Harrison would sign into hotels as Arnold Grove. It was the name of his street. Eric Clapton, his good friend, introduced him as that at least once
Next stop the cemetery where Eleanor Rigby and 51 other members of her family are buried. The Beatles did not know her. John Lennon sang in a choir, and whenever he could he sneaked out for a smoke and got the inspiration for her name and Father McKenzie (Paul almost called him Father McCartney, but thought otherwise.) by looking at the tombstones.
Right across the street is the St. Simon Peter Church Centre, formerly just St. Peter’s, where Paul and John Lennon first met , thanks to Ivan Vaughan. Paul showed off his guitar skills, and a bit later joined the group. That was the day John said “that is started moving.”
Next stop, Strawberry Field, the site of a forthcoming Salvation Army project on the site that was the inspiration for John Lennon’s famous song and will open as a new facility for learning disabled adults later this year. Its three buildings – one that looks eerily like the Dakota where he lived and died – will be a testimony to his work and serve others. Yoko Ono is supporting the project with her money and blessings, as she has saved so many of the landmarks and homes of the Beatles.
John Lennon’s Aunt Mimi took him to the site, a former orphanage, as a threat to him when he started running a bit wild, Joey told us. But young John enjoyed seeing the girls there when he came to play more than anything else, and he loved his time there. The famous red gates will open to the public much like the other tribute areas. We took a group photograph, of course, the red gate near the construction entrance, which is covered with names of visitors.
The tour moved on to the boyhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, in a much more middle class section. Yoko Ono bought John’s home to save it from demolition, and both homes are overseen by the National Trust. Anyone can buy tickets to see them. The best story Joey told here was that after the McCartneys moved, the woman who bought the place scrubbed the walls coated with cigarette smoke and what she called graffiti. That was actually song lyrics. One of them was “When I am 64,” which Paul wrote but didn’t release until much later. It was a gift to his father, himself a jazz musician, on his 64th birthday.
We ended the tour at the Cavern, the famous nightclub where the Beatles performed 292 times. They played on Fridays and Saturdays at the former jazz club, which was failing, according to Joey. It was buzzing but not packed, thanks to the big Liverpool game (They won, by the way ….) and Jan, Robin and Cheryl and I stayed there for quite some time, enjoying two different performers and a few drinks. The one band had a man who looked eerily like a heavier Paul McCartney.
Surprise to us – an admission fee of just 2.50 pounds for the first part of the day and 4 for the evening. A bargain, we think, and they took American money, too. Of course Cheryl and I bought T-shirts. Why not?
We found a few more Beatles store right up the street, then headed for dinner. We didn’t have time to see everything – Robin and I were going to find the Beatles statue, which, according to Google maps, was about 15 minutes from the hotel. I didn’t make it to Liverpool Museum, which Jan said had a great John Lennon-Yoko Ono exhibit. I never did like her – She broke up the Beatles, my friends and I so believed. And her singing? Well, just stop there. But she has indeed secured their legacy and endeared herself to Liverpool.
So be it, Yoko. Kudos to you. And I so hope I get to come back and see it all again. I’d love it.