There Beneath The Blue Suburban Skies

 

Liverpool is a relatively compact city, I was driven all over it on a tour, looking for the places important to the story of The Beatles.

Some great Beatles sights and info on this tour: Ultimate Beatles Ticket To Ride Half Day Shore Excursion, available on Viator. Jean knows her Beatles. She even knows someone whose mother was delivered by Paul’s mother.

The Beatles!

These four young men from Liverpool met in the Fifties, rose to the highest heights of fame in the Sixties, parted in the Seventies, and in the twenty-twenties are pretty much acknowledged legends. I’ve been interested in finding out where they came from. 

Liverpool is a British port city in northwest England that made its living from shipping (and, way back, that meant the slave trade). Modern Liverpool is experiencing a resurgence as a thriving city. Back in the fifties, it had just weathered World War II. The boys who became the Beatles were born during the conflict. And postwar England could be a grim place to grow up. For them, rock n’ roll made the difference.

They came from different parts of the city, but wound up together and developed into Liverpool’s favorite sons by bringing their music to the entire world. Therefore, they now have monuments and memorials all over the city. 

The Beatles Statues are on Pier Head, where they walk toward the River Mersey on their way to conquer the world. 

Sculpted by Andrew Edwards, they were donated by the Cavern Club (yes, that Cavern Club) and are lined up larger than life as they walk along the streets of their home town. Edwards modeled them on this photo (taken by Dezo Hoffman) of the Beatles outside the BBC recording studios in London:

They weigh 1.2 tons, that’s a lot of Beatle. There are many little touches to the statues that observers can find if they know what to look for. 

First of all, their order has been changed - the way the statues are lined up reflects their usual stage lineup; Paul and George to the left, Ringo set back from the others, and John at the right. Paul and George are conversing; they were the first of the Beatles to meet. 

In his left hand, Paul holds a camera. He has spent most of his life surrounded closely by photographers. His younger brother, Mike, took up photography as a teen and has documented quite a bit of the lives of his brother and friends before they were famous. The Beatles, being super famous, always had photographers around. Paul married a photographer, Linda Eastman, whose lens captured the end of the band, plus much of the McCartneys’ family life post-Beatles. Now, their daughter Mary is a photographer. As observed at a recent exhibition of photos Paul took in the Sixties, he’s quite a good photographer himself. According to the sculptor, that is Paul’s own Pentax he is holding.

On George’s belt is a mantra in Sanskrit. It translates, roughly, to “The Infinite Beyond Conception, we meditate upon that Light of Wisdom, which is the  Supreme Wealth of God.” The inscription reflects George’s dedication to meditation and Indian spirituality.

Under Ringo’s foot is etched ‘L8,” which is his childhood home’s post code.

John clutches two acorns in his right hand. In June 1968, shortly after they became a couple, John and Yoko planted two acorns in the garden of Coventry Cathedral. After their marriage in 1969, they sent a pair of acorns to a number of world leaders, asking them to plant the acorns for peace. The acorns held by John’s statue are cast from actual acorns that were picked up in New York’s Central Park, near the Strawberry Field memorial (located just across the street from the Dakota apartments, where John’s life tragically ended.)

The beginning of the Beatles’ story was simply a meeting between two teenage boys who then lived only a mile apart, but on different sides of the proverbial track.  John Lennon, 16, was the leader of a band made up of a group of his pals - many Liverpool boys were getting together in groups to play “skiffle,” a precursor of rock n’ roll. They would need a couple of guitars or banjos, a drummer if they could find one, a bass made out of a tea chest, and maybe a guy to play the washboard. This wasn’t difficult for a charismatic youth like John to assemble. He had been playing guitar for awhile, mostly influenced by Elvis, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly. His mother, Julia, taught him to play; she was a banjo player, and he learned to play using banjo chords. 

John and his friends wanted to call their band the Blackjacks, but that name was already taken. They went with the Quarrymen; most of them attended Quarry Bank Grammar School. Ivan Vaughan, who lived in the house behind John’s and had known him since they were small boys, played tea chest bass for the Quarrymen before his parents made him quit goofing off with “that John Lennon” to concentrate on school. Fifteen-year-old Ivan attended the Liverpool Institute for Boys, a  grammar school only slightly more prestigious than Quarry Bank (students in England at the time, who managed to pass the difficult entrance exams, attended grammar school from ages 11-17. Its overarching purpose was to prepare students for university. Those who didn’t pass went to “normal school” and generally into the trades.)

The Quarrymen got on about as well as any teenage band in the area, and played a couple of 

(unpaid) gigs.  On July 6, 1957 the Quarrymen undertook a “booking” to play at the annual fete at St. Peter’s Church in Woolton. 

An auspicious occasion.

St. Peter’s was John’s local church, and he sang in the choir when he was younger. It would not have been difficult for his band to land the church gig. The Quarrymen rode in as part of the procession on the back of a flatbed truck. They were to play three sets; one at about 4 pm in the church garden, to entertain the children and teenagers in attendance; a second set in the garden at 5:45; and finally at 8 pm in the church hall, for dancing.

St. Peter’s Church, Woolton, Liverpool

Among the attendees at the St. Peter’s fete was John’s neighbor and pal, Ivan Vaughan, who brought along a friend of his from the Liverpool Institute. Ivan wanted to introduce this friend to John, as both of them played guitar and were obsessed with music.  His name was Paul McCartney.

Paul, around the time of his fifteenth birthday. Photo by Mike McCartney

Paul, who had just turned fifteen, didn’t really want to go to a church party to meet Ivan’s friend, but he thought it likely there would be teenage girls there. So he put on a white sport jacket and dark drainpipe trousers, slicked his hair back in an Elvis quiff, and went along. He and Ivan arrived in time to watch the Quarrymen playing in the garden on a little stage, surrounded by small children. 

John was singing “Come Go With Me” by the Del-Vikings (a favorite of Paul’s) but he couldn’t remember the words, so he was making them up as he went along (“Come and go with me, down to the penitentiary”). Paul, fortunately, found his improvisations to be clever. He thought Ivan’s friend sang well, and looked good onstage, but the group’s guitars were out of tune and the chords were strange.

What Paul saw. Photo by Geoff Rhind

The Quarrymen finished their sets, and traipsed off to the church hall across the street to have a tea break (or maybe something stronger) and get ready to play for the dance.  Paul and Ivan, having nothing better to do, hung around the fair in anticipation of watching the evening set, and maybe meeting some girls to dance with. Eventually, which better researchers have narrowed down to between 6:48 and 7:00 pm, they wandered over to the church hall.

The church hall in 2024

Paul and Ivan might have walked in this way, through the side door

This illustration, by artist Eric Cash, hangs in the church hall at St. Peter’s today. Paul doesn’t remember whether he actually brought along his guitar or not, but I tend to think he didn’t haul it around with him all day and borrowed John’s or one of the other Quarrymen’s guitars. Although Paul is left-handed, he’s capable of playing a right-handed guitar upside down, as he was back then; if he did, that was likely to impress John even more.

The plaque mounted outside St. Peter’s Church Hall

Anyway, nobody remembers  much of what was actually said between the two boys when Ivan introduced them at St. Peter’s church hall  in the summer of 1957. They must have sized each other up, John in his checkered shirt and jeans, Paul in his where-are-the-girls-at ensemble. As teenage boys do, they pretended to be nonchalant (remembered by both John and Paul.) Paul brought up that the band’s guitars were out of tune- and he offered to tune them. None of the Quarrymen knew how to do that. At some point, he probably pointed out John’s use of banjo chords. And then, whether he was asked to or not, Paul played and sang a perfect version of Eddie Cochran’s song “Twenty Flight Rock.”

Go listen to “Twenty Flight Rock” - that is not an easy song, especially for a fifteen-year-old boy who has been playing for a bit less than a year.  It seems as though Paul was actually interested in impressing John. One thing that is said about Paul is that he’s an excellent mimic and probably sounded a great deal like Eddie himself. Anyway, John WAS impressed. He made sure not to show it, though.

For good measure, Paul the born performer played “Be Bop A Lula” (a favorite of John’s) and then showed off his Little Richard imitation on the hall’s piano. 

The spot where John and Paul met. The hall mostly hasn’t changed. There was a stage along the back wall, which has been removed and is now in the Museum of Liverpool. The boys were sitting on metal chairs in front of the stage.

After their meeting, it appears not much happened right away, because John was weighing the idea of whether he wanted Paul in his band or not. On the one hand, he knew the kid would be an asset; on the other, he might be a bit too good and try to take over the leadership role. About a week later, in typical teenage fashion, John mentioned to his best friend Pete Shotton (who was the Quarrymen’s washboard player) that if Pete happened to see that Paul McCartney around, he should ask him if he’d join the band. 

As it worked out, Pete ran into Paul not long after. Paul said he’d be interested, but his family was going off on summer holiday and it would be after that. Paul didn’t publicly debut with the Quarrymen until October, but history was already made. (His debut would set the stage for more history regarding one of Paul’s closest friends.)

But wait, there’s more, we have not left St. Peter’s yet. In the graveyard is a famous headstone designating the Rigby family plot.

The Beatles’ hit song, “Eleanor Rigby,” was written primarily by Paul in 1966. He recalls casting around to find a name for his titular character, taking “Eleanor” from the actress Eleanor Bron and “Rigby” off a shop sign. It just sounded right to him. But back in the fifties, he and John spent a good amount of time hanging out in the graveyard at St. Peter’s with friends, it was just a good place for teenagers to meet, talk, have a smoke or a drink.  This is the view of the gravestones that the boys would have had while sitting on the perimeter wall, hanging out. It’s almost certain, which Paul admits, that he probably pulled “Eleanor Rigby” out of his subconscious, especially the imagery associated with “died in the church and was buried along with her name.” (There’s also a stone with the name “McKenzie” on it, although Paul’s story is that he originally sang the priest’s name as “Father McCartney” and changed it to McKenzie to avoid  confusion with his own father. He probably got McKenzie from somewhere, though.)

Eleanor is not the only Beatles-adjacent occupant of the graveyard, John’s Uncle George is also in a family plot here.

Up next: Paul and John on their Liverpool childhoods

You Start To Roam, Now You’re In Town

 In the previous entry were photos from the London Walks Beatles Tour, the one that starts at Marylebone Station and ends at Abbey Road. This one concerns the second Beatles tour offered by London Walks, which starts at the Tottenham Road underground station and covers a number of central London Beatles- related sites. This tour was taken in June 2024.

Soho Square

Soho Square is right around the corner from the tube. Our tour guide told us how the Beatles first came to London in 1962 when they arrived to audition for Decca Records (they were ultimately rejected. Sorry Decca. But they did eventually sign The Rolling Stones, so there’s that.) Our four boys from Liverpool were fascinated by Soho, which at the time was a bit more swinging than it is now. 

One of them liked it so much that he made it his headquarters.

Behold, One Soho Square: the building that houses MPL Communications.

MPL stands for McCartney Productions Limited, so now you know which Beatle bought that building. The one and only Paul McCartney runs his music publishing business out of here. As you can see, Sir Paul is not in; curtains and blinds are securely drawn and the hatches battened down. The upper curved window is not shaded though. Wonder what he keeps in there.

 Just an old statue. However, it does look familiar.

Oh yeah, of course it does. I had this album when I was fourteen. I wish I could find it. I remember playing “Mull of Kintyre” over and over again for some reason.

After leaving Sir Paul’s little sanctuary the next stop was most unassuming.

17 St. Anne’s Court

This was the site of Trident Studios. The Beatles did not record everything at Abbey Road, go figure. Trident was a studio they used that had state-of-the-art equipment and sometimes better space than the boys’ usual haunt. The most famous recording they made here was “Hey Jude;” they also used it for part of the White Album, all in 1968. 

The Beatles of course weren’t the only artists who recorded out of this studio. Elton John’s “Your Song” was recorded here, plus three of Queen’s early albums and this blue plaque holder:

And many, many more famous artists. Trident had a reputation for the sound of its piano, which Paul wanted for “Hey Jude” and Freddie wanted for “Killer Queen.” The piano was offered for auction back in 2001, but didn’t sell. 

Anyway, the place looks like this because it’s being renovated, but it is still a working studio.

Just outside of Soho is the next location:

6 Mason’s Yard

6 Mason’s Yard is hidden a bit off Duke Street Saint James’s. In 1966, this was the location of the Indica Gallery.

The counterculture art gallery was operated by John Dunbar and funded partially by one Peter Asher (that’s a familiar name) with a bit of help from his close friend and housemate, Paul McCartney, who was its first customer in September 1965. They named it after their favorite cannabis. Because of course they did. 

In April 1966, it also featured a bookstore (run by Barry Miles, one of Paul’s friends) which was ultimately moved to another location. 

One day that April, Paul dropped by the bookshop with John (he liked to bring John along when he visited) who picked up a book titled The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, by Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner and Richard Alpert (one of those names is familiar.) John, who loved him some LSD, was fascinated and read the entire book in the shop (without Paul or Barry bugging him to buy it, I guess). This book contained the line “Whenever in doubt, turn off your mind, relax, float downstream” which John incorporated into the song “Tomorrow Never Knows.” The Beatles began recording the song six days later.

This wouldn’t be the last time that John was fascinated by something he saw at the Indica Gallery.

On November 7, 1966, a Japanese multimedia artist named Yoko Ono was setting up an exhibit titled “Unfinished Paintings and Artists” that would open the next day, when in came John Lennon to have a visit with John Dunbar. Dunbar took John around the exhibit, making sure Yoko knew that Lennon had plenty of money and might purchase some art (Yoko may have denied that she knew who John was at this point, but it’s possible she actually did).  He loved a work that required him to climb a ladder and look through a magnifying glass at a single word painted on a canvas mounted on the ceiling (it said merely “yes”) and another that featured an apple on a plinth - with a price tag of £200. When he got to one that required the observer to hammer a nail into a board, Dunbar pressed Yoko to allow John to hammer in a nail, which she didn’t want to do because the exhibit wasn’t officially open. She refused, unless John paid her five shillings. John allegedly responded, “How about this. I’ll give you an imaginary five shillings, and hammer in an imaginary nail.” According to John, at that moment he realized that Yoko “got” him, and he “got” her, and they “got” each other. John was twenty-six; Yoko was nearly eight years older, and they were both married, with children.  It would take them another year and a half to get together officially. 

3 Savile Row

In July 1968, the Beatles moved their multimedia corporation, Apple Corps, into a building they had just purchased on 3 Savile Row.  They had a studio built in the basement, although it ended up being poorly designed (by one of their hangers-on) and had to be rebuilt. On January 30, 1969, the Beatles (with special guest Billy Preston on keyboards) gave their final live performance on the building’s roof. Apple moved out in 1975. Abercrombie and Fitch currently uses this building for storage.

Beatles on the roof, 1969

To see an excellent account of what went on up there on the roof (and before) up to and including John’s final announcement “I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we’ve passed the audition,” see the documentary Get Back! Yes, I know it’s long.

A group that no longer exists can have a blue plaque. Monty Python has one too. There were complaints from some who thought Monty Python was a person.

This tour also ended at Abbey Road Studios. 

As an aside,  anyone looking for a Beatles fix without the spend, the British Library in London (near Kings Cross/St. Pancras) has a free exhibit of books and manuscripts that includes some Beatles lyrics:

John’s original handwritten lyrics to “In My Life” (he changed it up a bit)

Paul’s lyrics to “Michelle” written on an envelope

“A Hard Day’s Night” written on the back of little Julian Lennon’s birthday card

It’s Been A Hard Day’s Night

During a trip to London in June 2022 (actual date June 18 - Paul’s 80th birthday) I took a Beatles themed walking tour via London Walks. They have two different tours which visit various Beatles-related sites in London. 

This particular tour commenced at the Marylebone rail station, which featured in the opening scenes of the Beatles' first feature film, A Hard Day's Night. 

Facade of Marylebone Station

The area we were directed to was the canopy shading the entrance. It has not changed much since 1964, if at all.

The next photo is a time warp back to 1964, of George running beneath the canopy in the movie, trying to escape from over-enthusiastic fans.

Run, George! Run!

The next stop was nearby, at Marylebone Town Hall. There weren't any films made here, but it is where Paul married his first and third wives, Linda and Nancy, and Ringo married his second wife, Barbara. 

Time warp photo is of Paul and Linda trying to leave the Town Hall after they were married, March 12, 1969.

A Beatle wedding, especially the wedding of the last remaining single Beatle, was a big deal. There's no way Paul and Linda had this many people invited to their wedding. (It's possible to make out Paul's brother, Mike, just above Paul, and Mal Evans, the Beatles' roadie and assistant, who is the big guy behind Linda.)

None of the other Beatles attended Paul's wedding. I know a lot is made of how they were fracturing apart by 1969. In fact, just six months later John would announce to the others that he wanted “a divorce.” At the time Paul and Linda decided they were going to get hitched (and they made that decision pretty much at the last minute, although Linda was about four months pregnant with their daughter Mary), Ringo was off making the film The Magic Christian with Peter Sellers, and John was running around the world with Yoko looking for someplace that would allow them to get married without a waiting period (their respective divorces had recently been finalized, and due to the fact that Yoko was a Japanese citizen, they couldn't just have a quickie marriage at home. Not sure how Paul and Linda pulled it off, as Linda wasn’t British either.) George, according to the tour guide, was supposed to attend. Before the event he stopped by the Beatles' Apple Corps offices, and while he was there his wife Pattie called and told him their home was being raided by the drug squad.

(This was the infamous raid in which George told the police, who confronted him with marijuana they said they had found inside a shoe, that he would never keep his marijuana in his shoe because he had a special place to keep it. The police at the time were so into busting popular music stars that they would actually plant the stuff while raiding their homes.)

So George had to hot foot it back to suburbia to get charged with possession, but he apparently did make it to the reception.

34 Montagu Square

Back in the 1960s, the ground floor and basement flat of this house (the one behind the car)

 were rented by Ringo Starr. Ringo apparently was fine with Paul setting up some recording equipment in the basement flat, and he would record some demo songs there. It's also where he worked on "Eleanor Rigby" with a little help from his friends. 

After John left his suburban mansion to hook up with Yoko, they lived in Ringo's flat for about three months.  Therefore, there is an English Heritage blue plaque commemorating him on this building. 

It's a bit ironic that John is up here when Ringo is the one who rented the flat, but Ringo's still with us, and only deceased persons are entitled to a blue plaque from English Heritage.

John and Yoko were in this flat when the fully nude photos that became the cover of their album Two Virgins were taken. I'm not including a time warp photo of this event. 

In October 1968 John and Yoko were arrested for drug possession here, by the same squad that would bust George on the day of Paul’s wedding the next year. They had been tipped off by a journalist friend, so had cleaned the flat of drugs (John would later say he thought they were being extra careful because Jimi Hendrix had just been there, see below). But John had forgotten about some furniture and other items he had moved in from his previous house, and two drug-sniffing dogs called Yogi and Boo-boo found a small amount of hashish and some cannabis residue, mostly inside a binoculars case. 

John being arrested at 34 Montagu Square

John and Yoko were taken down to the police station and charged, then ordered to appear in court the following day, where John pleaded guilty to drug possession in exchange for dropping Yoko’s charges. No one thought to send a car for them after their appearance, so they got mobbed by journalists and fans. Only a few days earlier, an announcement had been made that Yoko was pregnant, which caused a major stir because both she and John were still married to other people.  They subsequently left Montagu Square and went to stay at Paul’s house.

Yoko miscarried her pregnancy the next month. In the future, John’s conviction would be used by those trying to deport him from the United States after he and Yoko relocated to New York City.

Ringo had other illustrious guests in his flat; for a time he sublet it to Jimi Hendrix, who took some LSD one day and decided to trash all of Ringo’s furniture and paint over his fancy wallpaper. Ringo understandably had a fit and evicted Jimi. 

57 Wimpole Street

Now, it's a private clinic, but in the 60s this was the home of the Asher family: Dr. Richard Asher, a psychiatrist, Margaret Asher, a professor of music, and their children Peter, Claire and Jane. 

Jane Asher was only five years old when she began acting. By 1963 she had a successful film and television career, and was a regular on the television show Juke Box Jury, which featured celebrities reviewing the popular records of the week. 

Jane, who was in the Beatles’ core demographic, accepted an assignment in April 1963 to be photographed watching the boys perform at Albert Hall. She met all four backstage, and while they were all very impressed with her, she hit it off with Paul. They were a serious couple for the next five years.

In 1963 the Beatles were living in an apartment in London that Brian Epstein had rented for all of them. John, the married one, had already moved out.  Now the Ashers offered to let Paul live at their place. They gave him his own attic room, and their son Peter had the one next door. Eventually they even had a piano moved up there for Paul. Apparently Paul thought this arrangement was fab, except for the fans who figured out where he was staying and camped out on the street waiting for him. He used to climb out the attic and over into the next-door neighbor's window (with their permission), go down to the basement flat of the next house (also with permission) and go out another back door to avoid the fans. 

Hell, I’d let Paul climb through the window and walk through my flat anytime.

The upper right window is Paul's attic room.

Paul thought a great deal of the Asher family; he lived with them for more than two years. He wrote a song, “World Without Love,” that became a number one hit for Peter (Asher) and Gordon. Mrs. Asher tried to teach him to read music, and he never learned that, but he did learn to play the recorder - which he plays in "Fool on the Hill."  Mrs. Asher’s music room is where Paul and John wrote “I Want to Hold Your Hand” together.

One morning Paul woke up in his attic bedroom with a melody in his head. He had a piano right there in his room, so he got up and started playing it so he wouldn’t forget it. He didn’t have lyrics for it so he called it “Scrambled Eggs,” maybe he was thinking about breakfast at the time. He spent a long time trying to figure out if he was subconsciously remembering someone else’s tune, and when no one else could place it, he finally gave it lyrics and named it “Yesterday.” 

Paul’s piano from the Asher house is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In 1965 Paul bought his own house in Cavendish Avenue, very close to the studios on Abbey Road.  In 1969, some time after Paul and Jane were no longer an item, Dr. Asher committed suicide in the Wimpole Street house and the family understandably sold it.

363 Oxford Street

In 2022, this is what 363 Oxford Street looked like. But in the 1960s it looked like this:

This was the premier record shop in London. I understand that Candy World has met its demise and, once again, it’s now a HMV store. 

In 1962, a guy from Liverpool named Brian Epstein was desperately trying to score a recording contract for the group he managed, four young, scrappy and hungry lads called the Beatles: John, Paul, George, and…Pete. They’d already auditioned for Decca Records, and been rejected. Armed with the Decca audition tapes, Brian made the rounds in London, but he wasn’t having much luck. Groups of young men with guitars performing rock n’ roll covers were a dime a dozen.

HMV was then part of EMI, the staid British recorded music conglomerate that had already turned Brian’s boys down. The store had everything, even a small recording studio that could be used by members of the public as a novelty. Brian, thinking it might be a good idea to have some acetate disks that he could drop off while schmoozing prospective producers, brought his reel to reel audition tapes around to have a few records made. The guy cutting the discs was named Jim Foy, and he rather liked what he heard. So he went down the hall and got music publisher Sid Colman to have a listen (as a publisher, Colman was particularly interested in the fact that the group had written a couple of their songs themselves). Colman, in turn, knew a guy with EMI subsidiary Parlophone Records, generally restricted to producing comedy and classical albums, who was trying to get with the times and looking for a pop group to record. His name was George Martin. Colman set George up with Brian. And so it goes.

94 Baker Street

This nondescript building was once, for a few short months in 1967-68, the Apple Boutique. It was part of the Beatles’ attempt to branch out in business. They weren’t very good at it.

Our lads thought a groovy place to sell mod clothes would be a brilliant idea. By ‘67, they and their wives and girlfriends and all of their pals were well into the popular fashions of the day.  So they set it up, not in a fashionable area like Carnaby Street, but in the heart of sticks-up-their-butts London. And they had it painted like this:

Which really endeared them to the neighbors. Not.

When you see the boys wearing their coolest threads in the summer of love, this is probably where they picked up their wardrobes - from the stock they were supposed to be selling. When the store opened, the first 50 guests received a free Apple money clip, of all things. Managed by John’s childhood best friend Pete Shotton and George’s sister-in-law Jenny Boyd, the place lasted only seven months, because the customers (and the staff members, and the owners) were inclined to just help themselves to the merchandise without paying for it. And then Westminster City Council made them paint over the mural, which the boys didn’t have permission to put there in the first place. 

The store closed in July 1968 after losing a boatload of money. Instead of liquidating the remaining  stock, the Beatles gave it away, emptying the place out within hours (but not before taking all the stuff they liked first.)

Another blue plaque.

As major a failure as the Apple Boutique was, its current location has a blue plaque for the Beatles, stating they “worked here.” It originally named only John, but a new one was added with George after he passed. I’m assuming Ringo and Paul will get their own plaque right next to John and George someday, since they all “worked” here.

As with most London Beatles-related tours, this one ended at Abbey Road Studios, but that very important location will be covered in depth with another entry.

 

There Are Places I Remember

 As a frequent traveler who became a fan of the Beatles, I will be keeping track of related destinations and the stories that go along with them. I have been “following” the lads from Liverpool since 2022, when I first crossed Abbey Road in London on Paul McCartney’s 80th birthday, a week after attending his concert in Baltimore.

I took this photo of Paul performing “Blackbird” at Camden Yards, June 12, 2022.  I did not have a good seat and he was a long way away from me…I have a mega zoom camera though. As luck would have it, as I was leaving the stadium to return to my car, his tour bus drove by. And he waved.

I have visited a number of Beatles locations since and have more to come.