In the afternoon, we took the
Fab Four Taxi Tour that we had signed up to take a month before we arrived. This three hour tour costs 50 pounds for up to five people, and I want to say right now that is an absolute bargain. If you are coming to Liverpool to see Beatles sites, I highly recommend signing up with FFTT. True you could drive around on your own, but you'd have to rent a car and you'd miss out on the fantastic stories that the FFTT guide weaves around the sites. You'll thank me when you're done. :-)
And don't think you've heard all the stories just because you've read my posts...I'm only telling you a small fraction!
Let's start our tour at the corner of Falkner Street and St. Bride. This, according to Kevin is the roof that needed repair as referenced in the song "Fixing a Hole".
The is 64 Mount Pleasant, the register office where John Lennon and Cynthia Powell were married on August 23, 1962, against the wishes of Mimi. When John found out Cynthia was pregnant, he said "There's only one thing for it Cyn - we'll have to get married." After the wedding, Brian Epstein paid for a dinner of soup, chicken and trifle at Reece's restaurant in Clayton Square - where John's parents had celebrated their own wedding in 1938. On his wedding night, John played with the Beatles at Riverpark Ballroom in Chester.
This is the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, another stop we made that day. It is noteworthy because this is where as a lad, Paul McCartney failed his audition to be in the choir.
The church raised quite an uproar in 2009 when it decided to play "Imagine" on the tower bells, a song that expresses anti-religious sentiment and written by the atheist John Lennon.
Much to their credit, the church decided to play the song anyway in a symbol of acceptance and tolerance for all religious viewpoints, even atheism which is often despised by Christians. I applaud you, Liverpool Anglican Cathedral!
This is the Empress Pub, which was shown on the cover of Ringo Starr's album Sentimental Journey. This is the closest pub to his birthplace on Madryn. The pub is quite well maintained and is still in use. I have heard that Ringo's mother used to work here as a barmaid.
A photo of Ringo walking in the small street beside the pub..
...and how it looks today.
Most all of the homes in Liverpool, and in the UK for that matter, are duplexes. Most are much smaller than this one, but we happened to stop for a signal at one point so I snapped this photo of one of the larger examples. Oh, and all the photos with me and my wife? Our guide Kevin insisted we take those, though we resisted at first. He said we'd appreciate them later. And he was right. Though they still can seem a little cheesy, we're glad he made us take them. Let's continue our tour!!
Very nice, except the pic of Ringo walking was not on the pub end but on the far end of the street headed towards N. Hill Rd. If you look carefully you can see the back of the pub on his right behind him. Lovely blog.
ReplyDeleteJohn was not an atheist- you cannot go his 1966 'Jesus' comments or by his song,'God', where he debunks pretty much everything during a very angry and confused phase in his life. If anything, he was agnostic who professed to believe/wanted to believe in a higher power (much to Yoko's disgust) and was fascinated with Christ. He even briefly studied the bible with a Norwegian missionary and his wife during his house-husband years (until Yoko put an end to that). It's easy(and convenient) for many to liberally say that Lennon was atheistic, but the man was more complex (yet simple) than that and he was more often than not often contradictory. "...and no religion, too" doesn't discredit a higher source, only man-made religions and its rituals. Just saying.
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