So after having visited The Beatles Story museum in Liverpool my mum and I boarded the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour bus the next day. This colourful bus takes Beatles fans on a tour to significant places in and around Liverpool. The tour guide talked about the beginnings of The Beatles and showed us the churchyard where John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time. We got to see the childhood homes of all four of them and saw places that inspired them to write songs such as Strawberry Fields Forever or Penny Lane.
I have to tell you that I am a huge Beatles fan although they were famous long before I was born. I just like their “raw” style of music and for me as a huge music fan in general it was so amazing to see where it all began and by it I mean the British history of music. It was the first time that girls went crazy when they saw a boyband like them. That’s why the press called it “Beatles Mania”. Such a hysteria has never happened to such extent at all. That’s basically when the boyband hype was born. Now let me take you on this journey through the history of The Beatles and let’s visit those places where music history was written…
This is the street where Ringo Starr used to live when he was a child. It was a lane in one of Liverpool’s working-class districts. Some of them are still abandoned but a lot of those lanes were under construction when we were there so new families can move in soon and this area is likely to become popular again.
We then came to the street of the famous song called Penny Lane. As a child Paul McCartney used to walk down this street a lot of times because it was close to his home. The memories he has made there have inspired him to write this song.
My beautiful mum and me at the street sign 🙂
Penny Lane is actually not as spectecular as you might think but the impressions and feelings that Paul McCartney had were the reason for his inspiration. When it comes to writing songs it’s often not due to the place but rather arises from a mood or a feeling or a happy (or sometimes sad) memory or experience. Penny Lane is actually a very long road so we stopped at a calm part of it to take photos but back in the days this is what Paul McCartney experienced and wrote about:
“Penny Lane, the barber shaves another customer
We see the banker sitting waiting for a trim
And then the fireman rushes in from the pouring rain
Very strange
Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
There beneath the blue suburban skies
I sit and meanwhile back
Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
There beneath the blue suburban skies
Penny Lane”
This one was George Harrison‘s childhood home
This is the churchyard where John and Paul met for the first time. They were both visiting a religious festival.
Stawberry Fields Forever – This place is what John Lennon inspired to write the song.
The place is also abandoned now but back in the days it used to be a yard and a garden where he played as a kid.
That’s the house where John Lennon lived with his aunt Mimi.
This is Paul McCartney‘s childhood home.
And this is the famous Cavern Club on Mathew Street. The Beatles played a lot of shows there and made the club very popular. Until now artists like Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Queen and Adele have played shows there.
The club is located in the cellar so it can get very steamy and sweaty in there but the sound is amazing and that’s what has made it so popular.
I loved the tour a lot 🙂 To my mind every Beatles or music fan should do this tour because you get to see so many interesting places and they also do photo stops so you can actually experience it to the fullest and even get a photo in front of the famous Penny Lane sign. Those are only short stops but the tour guide makes sure that everyone gets a photo. Most of the places are not in central Liverpool so the bus tour is perfect when you wanna see a lot of places in short time. If you liked a place you can still get back there on your own after the tour if you like to but for me it was the perfect tour. Of course you can’t stop at all places for example we only drove by the house where John Lennon used to live with his aunt but if you wanna actually visit the house you would have to come back.
I booked the tickets online in advance and would also recommend it to you. You can get the online tickets here. The bus departs at Albert Dock, very close to The Beatles Story so you could actually visit the museum and do the bus tour in one day.
Are you a Beatles fan as well? What’s your favourite song? I can’t decide really but I like “Let It be”, “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “Hey Jude” but to be honest all of their songs are great! Let me know in the comments below what your favourite song is or your top 3 if you can’t decide like me 😉
xx
Alissa
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