Ever since I was a young teen. I knew The Beatles were the band for me. And with my 18th birthday looming in a couple of years, I knew I wanted to have my first ever pint in the iconic arches of the cavern club in Liverpool.
Years went by and I realised that this dream of mine ever happened. I’d been to Liverpool hundreds of times before but never really been into the cavern either because the crowds were too big or various restrictions stopping me doing so I had a mindset of “it's not that far from my home (Wrexham) I'll come again soon and do it” ...but it never happened, until my 24th birthday when my girlfriend surprised me with a trip to Liverpool.
Living only about an hour away from Liverpool did not impact my excitement because I love the city. I'm always sharing pictures of Liverpool on Facebook which my friends and family are probably sick to the bones of.
We booked to go to Liverpool in April and unfortunately had to postpone the trip due to various restrictions and then one day we were talking about what to do in a fortnights time some time mid-may and we said together lets book Liverpool and do that! So we booked our train from Cardiff to Wrexham to stay with my parents for one night and then a train from Wrexham to Liverpool.
The train journey from Chester to Liverpool central for me can only be enjoyed properly with a BLT meal deal and The Beatles on shuffle in the headphones. I've done it for years when I fancied a day trip in the city.
We arrived in Liverpool on the 2nd of June. And the first thing that came to my mind was “bloody hell it's hot” we got off at lime street which was new for me. It seemed like we were told to go through an underground network of tunnels just to find the exit.
From Lime Street, we had planned a little bit of a walk to see some sights before we could check in to our hotel room. We saw the bombed-out church of St Lukes, fought our way through the busy bond street, and headed south through Chinatown and that's where the first of many Beatles themed things were.
We saw an abbey road mural spray-painted on the side of a mini-golf centre, We were able to pose as if we were The Beatles walking across the iconic crossing itself.
From there we made it back into the city centre where our hotel was. It was an ibis hotel with each floor a different theme to a stage in The Beatles’ life. It was fantastic.
The views from the room were not great but I didn't care because I was finally staying overnight in my favourite city.
The next day was the proper start of our Beatles trip. We had a voucher for The Beatles story down at the Albert Dock for the two of us to go to, The museum is fantastic for the rich history of how The Beatles were born into the world all the way up to their solo careers. It's definitely worth going if you're around the area. The museum trip ended with a freezing cold drink and a slice of cake in the cafe that was playing Beatles songs continuously (what else?)
We then made our way upstairs to the gift shop where there was everything and more a Beatles fanatic could ever want! Having spent a sizeable chunk of my Liverpool budget in The Beatles shop, we made our way around the iconic Albert docks. A vibrant, buzzing community of small shops, cafes, and restaurants bookended by the Tate art gallery.
We only visited the Tate Gallery gift shop and popped into a few Liverpool-themed gift shops where what's on offer can range from the superlambanana all the way to a small model of a purplebin.
From the Albert Dock, we ventured shortly towards the amazingly built museum of Liverpool, a truly iconic building along the Liverpool waterfront. With free admission, it was silly not to go inside as this trip wasn't just for me.
Occasionally the museum will house themed exhibits and one year I went it was about John and Yoko's quest for peace. This year it was focussing on Liverpool in the blitz. Subjects on the war fascinate me but this experience was something else. Seeing photographs from the public about the devastation the bombing had done to the homes, community, and lives of Liverpool and surrounding areas. We must've sat watching the informative film for about 40 minutes. We then decided to explore the rest of the museum and surprisingly, there are not that many Beatles-related objects in the museum. Probably due to The Beatles story being nearby and the British music experience being nearby but I'll touch on that in another paragraph.
A firm favorite of mine to do in Liverpool is to take a tour from the Albert docks stopping at the iconic landmarks of Beatles history such as their first homes, the roundabout on penny lane, strawberry fields gates, penny lane road sign, and more! We decided not to do that this time around as it was ever so slightly out of our budget and we didn't really have the time to visit it.
The good thing about our hotel was that it was 5 minutes away from the cavern quarter, the area in which surrounds the cavern, and other areas of Matthew street. We walked Matthew street every day and we said to ourselves that we’ll wait another day to go into the cavern as it was rather busy. On one night we walked past a statue created by half sixpence star Tommy Steele. And for some reason, I had been singing ‘flashbang wallop what a picture” in my head and unsure why so to see Tommy Steele's name on the plaque was very spooky.
On our last full day, we booked to go to the British music experience. Located in the building next to the Liver building my girlfriend and I was both excited to visit this museum as we are both music lovers. As soon as we walked into the doors we could hear the roaring sound of Liverpool band Frankie Goes to Hollywood with two tribes shaking the ground. It was a grand hall with a big screen playing clips of Frankie Goes to Hollywood in the 80’s we were told that if we distance ourselves from other customers we could take our mask off and one individual was not only not wearing a mask but can only be described as power dancing with genuine excitement and rave as if she was hearing the song back in an 80’s nightclub for the first time. It was incredible to watch and really did bring the museum to life a bit.
The museum featured artifacts from all varieties of music starting with skiffle in the 1950s and ending with pop in the 2010s. For me, the key items that really popped out to me were the front door of the old apple corps building in Saville row which housed or more roofed the iconic Beatles rooftop concert. The door was covered in graffiti but not of vulgar language; it was a biro pen and felt tip marks of The Beatles lyrics. Another item that I loved to see was a smashed acoustic guitar from Coldplay (it didn't say which member smashed the guitar although let's face it it was probably Jonny) and a handwritten lyric sheet for the legendary song “yellow”.
After the BME experience was over, we headed into the gift shop which there wasn't a heck of a lot that really caught my eye apart from a poster which was £180, and my wallet was already starting to resent me so I moved on thinking I need that. After we exited the shop, we sat on the waterfront and we were lucky that we had timed to see the dazzle boat coming in to dock in Liverpool after having just left Birkenhead to compete yet another iconic trip“ferry cross the Mersey” that Gerry and the peacemakers sang about in their hit. We didn't do that either as I had done it before and my girlfriend gets seasick so probably not a good mix to do in the end.
After a day at the waterfront we headed out for dinner and on our way, back we decided to finally queue up outside the cavern, and thank god we queued up when we did. We waited in the main tunnel with the stage at one end and the bar on the other. We ordered a drink and listened to what seemed like live music but I thought to myself “no it isn't, they wouldn't have live music with the pandemic on” but thankfully I was wrong!
The waiter then approached our table and said “if you'd like to go through now” well I leaped at the chance to see some actual music, not on a screen! It was late and I said that we'd go after one song but we ended up staying for about 10 songs in total. Two notable songs were “he ain't heavy he's my brother” by the hollies and “this time tomorrow” by the kinks.
The latter resonated with me a lot. I loved the song and to finish this trip off with such a nice song and a pint in hand listening to live music after 13 months with no gigs or live events, this trip meant more to me than it was intended for and it was perfect.
By Jordan Simmons
