Liverpool

I pushed myself out of bed early today and went up to the 11^th deck to watch the ship pull into Liverpool. The ship tied up right next to the ferry that crosses the Mersey River, a nice way to start Liverpool Day.

In the breakfast buffet area I heard I couple of people sing the chorus of “Yellow Submarine”. (In the piano bar I sometimes announce that nobody’s ever written a song called “We All Live on a Cruiseship”………..and therefore “We All Live in a Yellow Submarine” is the next best thing. Which hopefully leads to an alcohol-fueled group rendition of Ringo’s memorable vocal.)

The ship had some “Beatles Tours” that were not available to me, and were sold out a long time ago. There was also a non-Beatles tour of Liverpool for those not interested in the Beatles. There was also a non-Liverpool tour for those not interested in Liverpool. For those people the tour bus went south about 40 miles, across the border into Wales to look at castles.

I had my own personal tour in mind, with a specific destination.

Any serious Beatles fan knows that John Lennon met Paul McCartney at St Peter’s Church Hall in Woolton (in south Liverpool) a few minutes before a gig that Lennon was doing with his group The Quarrymen, on July 6, 1957. The meeting was momentous to say the least, considering everything that it led to.

The story goes that Lennon was 16, McCartney was 15, Lennon didn’t know how to tune a guitar properly. After being introduced by a mutual friend named Ivan, McCartney took Lennon’s guitar, tuned it properly, then sat on the side steps of the Church Hall stage, showing off his talent to the Quarrymen. He played and sang “Twenty Flight Rock” and “Be Bop a Lula”, and impressed the hell out of the Quarrymen, especially Lennon. Then The Quarrymen got on the stage for their first set. McCartney listened to a few tunes and left pretty quickly. Within two weeks McCartney was a Quarryman.

I reached St. Peters church a lot later in the day then planned. I got off to a late start, tried to save some money (in this case pounds sterling) by using the Liverpool Rail and Bus system. The double-deck buses were fun, but I made a huge mistake getting off at a train station that was much further away from St Peters than expected. I was using a lousy map. Put it another way -- I underestimated the size of Liverpool, St Peters was a good 7 miles inland from the dock, in a nice-looking suburban wooded neighborhood.

I have to mention -- in my uncertain travels to Woolton and back, I approached two bus drivers and several local Liverpool people for advice and info, and they were absolutely gracious, patient, and helpful.

By the time I got there, mid-afternoon on a Sunday, I had the whole church area to myself. Downright quiet. No tour buses around. (I found out later that the ship tour didn’t even go to St Peters).

The Church Hall was across the road from the church itself. It was closed, locked. I then went across the road to the church itself. I walked around the church graveyard, looking for the famous Eleanor Rigby grave that supposedly inspired the song. There were many hundreds of tombstones, and I gave up almost immediately, feeling a little silly.

Just as I was leaving the graveyard, four young ladies walked past me, led by a man who looked and sounded like a tour guide. Instinctively I followed them, and in a few seconds I was at the Eleanor Rigby grave.

The four girls had paid this guy to drive them around on a private Beatles tour. The Cavern Club, the schools, boyhood homes, etc etc.

And then -- a very pleasant surprise. The five of them crossed the road back to the Church Hall which had been locked a few minutes before. But this time there was an old guy, some kind of attendant, who unlocked the door, obviously by some arrangement with the tour guide. I tagged along, nobody protested, in fact the tour guide stuffed a bunch of business cards in my hand.

The old guy claimed to be a teenage buddy of John Lennon’s, and claimed to have been standing right next to him when McCartney walked in -- a witness to this piece of history -- he pointed to exact spots where this & that happened. It was extremely interesting to this old Beatles fan, a tad spooky, and made my little trek well worth the trouble.

There’s a plaque commemorating the John-Paul meeting on the outside of the Church Hall, and the tour guide’s gaudy tour car was parked nearby. It was great that the tour guide turned up when he did, quite a piece of nice timing, otherwise I would have missed a lot. I’m developing a collection of small rocks from various countries during this gig, and the “England” rock was lifted from St Peters churchyard.

That evening in the piano bar it was Beatle Time, also Gerry & the Pacemakers, Peter and Gordon, and pretty much anything that fell in category of British Invasion. “Second Verse, same as the First.”

close-up of plaque on St Peters Church Hall

some promo for my favorite tour guide

"All the Lonely People..."

business is booming

view from top of double-deck bus. Note the traffic always stays to the left side of the street. Some of you know I'm already a careless pedestrian. With the cars constantly coming from the wrong direction, I nearly got run over quite a few times.

which way to Central Islip ?