Liverpool Trip

Saturday, November 8th

The next day we went through the museum entitled ‘The Beatles Story.’ It was really well done, with an audioguide (commentary by Beatles members, Brian Epstein, George Martin, other famous people) and recreations of their recording studios, the first clubs they played in (including a full-size recreation of the Cavern!) and rooms of photographs (tons of John Lennon). Right at the end they had Lennon’s famous white piano in a white room. There was also a kid’s discovery section with a drawing/coloring section, which is where we spent a good 30 minutes coloring in pictures of the yellow submarine for our Brit Pop journals.
After that Omar, Rebecca and I took a tour of the Cains brewery, which is supposedly frequented by Prince Charles and Quentin Tarantino. The tour guide was a lady who must have been on speed or crack or some other ‘upper,’ and she explained the difference between ales and lagers. We saw the bottling room, the giant tanks where the beer is…well…brewed, and the rooms where they stored the ingredients back in the day. Not too much stuff to see as it’s all done by computers now, but we did get free food (tiny sandwiches) and two free pints. Omar bought a case of their Raisin beer (not really fruity, it’s actually dark and bitter and amazing) and we sprinted back to the hostel to catch the bus.
The final stop was Crosby Beach where the English artist Anthony Gormley (b. 1950) created 100 life-sized identical statues of himself placed at various points on the beach. Some are very close to the shore, while others are hundreds of meters out to sea, with many in between. The ones further out are visible when the tide is very low, looking like a swimmer’s head, way out in the sea. It was ridiculously windy, and Omar and I had fun walking around taking hilarious pictures with the statues. We loaded back on the bus and headed home.


Friday, November 7th

We left early for a 5-hour bus ride up to Liverpool. The ride wasn’t too bad because Emer McParland (our British Pop professor) came with us and brought some Beatles DVDs to watch. Once we got to L’pool, we dropped our stuff off at the hostel (a YHA 4-star hostel) and took a walk around by the docks. Laura and I were hanging out with Emer the whole time as she told us about the city (where she’s from) and some stories from her childhood. I told her about my former group, the Heavy Metal Tuba Quartet, and how we’d play Beatles tunes in bars in Ithaca. Apparently she didn’t think a tuba quartet could jam out, so I’ll have to play her recordings.
We got back to the hostel, put our stuff in our rooms (that were finally ready) and hopped onto the coach bus with a tour guide who took us on the Magical Mystery Tour. He took us out of the center of town, and our first stop was Penny Lane, then to the houses that Ringo grew up in, to the house George grew up in, over to Strawberry Fields, John’s house and finally Paul’s house. It is a very interesting city in that it hasn’t fully recovered from World War II; the center of the city is being built up quite well, but the outskirts haven’t been as much. Ringo’s neighborhood was especially rough. In fact, they’ve boarded up the windows and doors to most of the houses in that neighborhood because they’re going to flatten everything then build it all up again.
After seeing the houses, we went back to the center of the city to the Cavern Club, which is where the Beatles had many of their first gigs. The club is underground, made entirely of brick and isn’t exactly the type of place you’d think to have a “club.” The main room is long and very narrow, with a ridiculously small stage at the end. On the sides are two other rooms connected by archways in the brickwork. Basically, the place looks like a dungeon. Back when the Beatles would play there, the amount of people jammed into the club and the amount of heat they produced caused condensation to drip down the walls. Apparently after everyone left, the cleaners would go in and completely saturate the walls and floors with cleaners, so I can only imagine what it must have smelled like: cleaning solution and B.O. Awesome. Also, outside of the club there’s a brick wall, and each brick has the name of a person or group who have played at the Cavern, including the Beatles, Queen, Jimmy Page, Oasis, Bono, etc.. What an awesome place.
We ate dinner at the hostel, consisting of beef stew and French fries (I had about 3 plate-fulls). After a quick nap, we went out hunting for fun. In the center of the city, we happened upon a giant futuristic mall (that was mostly outside) equipped with Santa’s Grotto. This was definitely the part of the city where they’ve thrown tons of money to rebuild and it shows. There were so many Christmas lights, it felt like a city of Griswolds. We made our way to the Cavern for some drinks and to hear some music. Through the course of the night, I heard two solo acoustic guitarists (first was terrible, second was really good) and a rock trio, all playing plenty of Beatles covers as well as tons of American tunes (I heard ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ twice). There were plenty of sketchy Liverpoolian men that were handing out drinks to girls. One guy was so drunk he caressed my hair (what the heck is it with middle-age men and my hair?). It was still a fun night regardless.