My daughter, Erica Ehm, her two young children and I recently took part in an 11-day Trafalgar Family Experiences Tour in the U.K. Our stop in Liverpool, the birthplace of the Beatles was a memorable highlight for the whole family. Each of us had our own generational connection to the music.

Grandma (that’s me) was a 24 year old mom when the Fab Four made their debut on U.S. television. My daughter, a rock and roll aficionado was a video jockey on Much Music (Canadian version of MTV) in the Eighties and Nineties and had played their music on air. And because the Beatles are the best selling band in the history of popular music, my grandchildren (both under ten) were already acquainted with hits like Yellow Submarine and Hey Jude.

Our guide Phil Coppell extended his hand and greeted us with the words, ‘Shake the hand of the hand that shook hands with Sir Paul Maccartney.’ Phil has been leading Beatles Tours in Liverpool for a very long time. He is also a locations scout for films and television and he really knows ‘his stuff.’ From him we learned that Beatle related products, services and events bring four to five hundred million dollars a year to his city. As we walked down Mathew Street our guide regaled us with stories of the four young lads who grew up in his city and who gained mainstream success in 1962 with their single,’ Love Me Do.’

We heard via anecdotes that the Beatles seemed to like their music far better than they liked their school work. Paul Mccartney’s high school principal is reputed to have told him, ‘I don’t know what you can do for anybody else. You certainly didn’t do anything for us.’ Today Sir Paul is the co-founder of The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts which is (ironically) housed in the renovated Liverpool High School for Boys (Paul’s old high school). Each year he hosts a grand garden party for all new LIPA graduates. It was interesting to learn that anybody who has a Liverpool address is now allowed to audition for a place in this prestigious academy.

Did you know that in the world of music Liverpool has a place in the Guiness World Book of Records? That’s not just because of the Beatles but also because of a long list of other musical hit makers. This city has produced the largest number of singers and bands in the world who have had Number One records.

Such nostalgia! This album cover is from an LP (long playing) record produced when I was in my Twenties. I spied it in one of the very many shops selling anything and everything connected to John, Paul, Ringo and George. Today it’s selling for £60 or about $150 US dollars and that’s just for the cover.

The Cavern Club in Liverpool is billed as the ‘The Most Famous Club in the World.’ It was here in the Sixties that the Beatles began playing their brand of music at lunch hours. To teenagers these Fab Four became the hottest ticket in town. According to Phil, local high school students would leave their classes at 12:00 noon, grab a bus and head down to the Cavern for an hour of Beatle music and then head back to school.

The Cavern Club is located at 10 Mathew Street and open daily to tourists during posted hours. Besides being a music venue it’s also a musical museum of sorts. We saw Ringo Starr’s drum kit which absolutely awed my grandson and the other young folks on our Trafalgar Tour. There were also many photos signed by the Beatles and posters of musical events from days gone by. I was delighted to find an early photo of Paul in one of the club’s alcoves. In it he’s wearing a red Cavern T-shirt. Very cool!

The Cavern also operates a Magical Mystery Bus Tour that bills itself as ‘a fascinating two hour experience taking you to places associated with John, Paul, George and Ringo as they grew up, met and formed the band that would take the pop world by storm.’ For further information on this tour, click here.

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