Twenty Fifth Annual Beatle Convention
in Liverpool.
Wednesday 24th - Tuesday 30th August 2005
INTERNATIONAL BEATLE WEEK FESTIVAL 2005
Wednesday, August 24th to Tuesday, August 30th
Therefore, we decided to go to this annual appointment, to meet again ourselves with old friends, with many of which we only can see there, and also to meet new Beatles lovers. In fact, in our visit to Liverpool, we were with several surprises. Since Liverpool will be the European Capital of the Culture in 2008, the works have taken possession over the city. Well It is certain that Liverpool needs a cleaning in depth. So, there are a lot of areas where
works of any nature are being carried out. The Hotel Moat House and the Chavase Park have disappeared (the zone will form part of what is known as "Paradise Project"). The Royal Court Theatre no longer is a theater neither a room for concerts, but now is a room of night club, with tables and a lot of less capacity. Also they have closed its doors Strawberry Field and the store MERSEY COLLECTABLES, located in number 81 of Renshaw Street, where you could find jewels of memorabilia Beatle at reasonable prices, and where precisely in its attic, the offices of the publication "MERSEY BEAT" had been placed.
We arrived at the John Lennon airport on Thursday at noon. Liverpool received to us with rain. Bad weather lasted practically during the whole convention. We went in taxi to the Adelphi hotel, once pride of the city, but come to less in an alarming way. We wait for the next opening of the hotel "Hard Day's Night", in December, 2006, at the corner of Mathew Street, in spite of the headaches that it is giving to Bill Heckle, since the Adelphi goes in slope if they do not avoid it. After walking briefly along the Anglican cathedral, where Paul carried out the world-wide premere of his Liverpool Oratorio, we went to the mythical Cavern Club, where we could see among others the performances of the band from Barcelona “Los Pasantes " and Neil Innes.
On Friday in the morning, after coinciding in the breakfast with Julia Baird and the Fab Faux, we decided to go to visit several exhibitions dedicated to the Beatles.
COLLECTING THE BEATLES - Click for more photos.
DALI MEETS THE BEATLES - Click for more photos.
THE RUTLES FAREWELL CONCERT. - Click here for more photos.
Saturday in the morning the traditional auction is celebrated in the LIPA The same one began with a sad note, the news of the death of Kevin Whay at the end of 2004. Kevin had been the manager of leading the auction during the 14 years of life of it, and it had always done it with professionalism and friendliness. We will miss him. Highlights of the auction were a sheet of paper with two drawings of John, one in each face, of the year 1958, that was sold by £3800, a set of autographs in a menu of the Dolce Vita Newcastle, by which £2650 were bid up and another set of autographs in the Tour Programme of the tour with Roy Orbison, that arrived at £2550.
FIFTEENTH ANNUAL BEATLES AUCTION 2005 - Click here for more photos.
That day, Strawberry Field opened its doors again, perhaps for the last time, to welcome the Garden Party, with performances of a lot of bands, among others the Escarabajos, from Spain, the Det Betales, and the Tearaways that also performed songs of Badfinger, Who and Stones. Strawberry Field has a special magic. You can imagine John (251 of Menlove Avenue is closely together) jumping the fence along with Pete Shotton (who lived in the adjacent street) and playing by the thick grove that surrounds the enclosure. STRAWBERRY FIELD GARDEN PARTY - Click here for more photos.
After Strawberry Field we went to Menlove Avenue, to the house where John lived his childhood and adolescence along with his aunt Mimi, which now belongs to the National Trust (like several years ago belongs Paul’s house in 20 Forthlin Road), and it can be visited inside, previous reservation. We did not have the opportunity to do it, because all was already reserved during the days of our stay, but we decided to visit it in order to take the usual photo outside. Once there, the person in charge of guiding the visits, who lives in the same house, saw us and he opened the garden door to us, so we could at least cross for the first time the access to it. He also took a photo to us in this garden. A pity not to have been able to visit the house inside! MENLOVE AVENUE - Click here for more photos.
After a brief rest, at night we went again to the Carling Academy, to attend the performance of, for us, the best band of the convention, the FAB FAUX. Will Lee, the bassist, is member of the band of the show of David Letterman, and he has played with Paul, George and Ringo. Jimmy Vinino plays guitar in the Late Night with Conan ÓBrien. In this occasion, the concert was only about solo Beatles songs. They started with a splendid "Wah, Wah", and later they performed wonderfully songs as "It don't eats easy", "What you got" or "Band on the Run", and thus song after song.
FAB FAUX CONCERT - Click here for more photos.
Sunday is the day of the Convention. One of the advantages of staying in the Adelphi is that you are able to acces inside two hours before the opening of the doors to the public. The exhibitors excel themselves every year. It seems impossible that you can still find sneakers from the 60’s, guitars and other articles with more than 40 years of antiquity, some in perfect state. Obviously, to acquire them is another history, since some prices are prohibitive. In the annexed rooms to the exhibitors parallel projects were made. In one of them they projected videos throughout the whole day uninterruptedly. In another room the interviews were carried out. Nevertheless, in this occasion it would be necessary to grant a failure to the organizers since they were far from the level of another years.
By the way, speaking with Allan Williams he mentioned to us that an adaptation of his book "The Man Who Gave the Beatles Away" is being carried out to the cinema, and that he visited Barcelona recently, staying in the Benidorm inn of the Ramblas, near the Liceo, describing Barcelona as the second best city of Europe, behind Liverpool..., well, is an opinion!
LIVERPOOL SUNDAY BEATLES CONVENTION 2005 - Click here for more photos.
In the evening, we found ourselves compelled to visit again the Cavern, WHERE IT ALL BEGAN! coinciding with the performance of the Repeatles. And back to the Adelphi, we could enjoy Bob Bartey's Banned on The Run, who delighted to us with those great songs that Paul does not dare to play life, as C'mon People or No More Lonely Nights. And as colofón to the night, the Overtures, which extend their repertoire to other great bands of the 60’s. What a great and spectacular sixties show as a finishing touch for us!!
Monday all the city of Liverpool is bend over backwards for the Mathew Street Festival. It is impressive to see all the streets of the center of the city crowded, with people listening music, dancing, eating sausages and drinking liters of beer.
THE CAVERN - Click here for more photos.
We took advantage of the morning to visit Penny Lane, far from the row of the center, contemplating the barbershop, the bank, and all the stores of the street. Later we got in a Ferry Cross the Mersey, to the rhythm of Gerry and The Pacemakers. We dedicated the afternoon to mix ourselves with the people from Liverpool in the festival and, at night, we went again to the Carling Academy, to see the second performance of the Fab Faux, this time performing only beatle songs, with their habitual skill. They are not only good, but they own also a charisma that makes them special.
PENY LANE - Click here for more photos.
And Tuesday arrived. The day that the sun shone more and better. This day contradictory feelings were mixed. On the one hand, joy to have spent some fantastic days and, on the other hand, sadness when having to say goodbye to our old beatlefan friends.
Nevertheless, we had still spare time to visit a little-known site, the number 38 of Kensington Street, where the Quarrymen, the band which was to become The Beatles, made their first recording, on July 14, 1958: John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, next to John Duff Lowe and Colin Hanton, recorded two songs, a version of the That'll Be The Day of Buddy Holly and a McCartney-Harrison song, In Spite Of All The Danger, in the studies Percy Philips. The band had to pay 17 shillings and six pence to use the studio.
Just four days before, Friday 26 of August, the place was marked with a commemorative plaque, with the presence of fellow Quarrymen Lowe and Hanton who unveiled the plaque, together with Julia Baird.
What a better way to finish our trip that visiting so emblematic place! Only we have left a thing to say: SEE YOU NEXT YEAR, LIVERPOOL!
38 KENSINGTON STREET - Click here for more photos.
Once again, August is synonymous of Beatle Convention in Liverpool.
First of all we went to the Mathew Street Gallery, where we could see "Salvador Dali meets The Beatles", with photographs taken by Robert Whitaker, who coincided with the Beatles between 1964 and 1966, and to whom John called surrealistic. It was for this style that he was friend of Salvador Dalí, at the end of the 60’s and beginning of the 70’s. In the above mentioned exhibition could be seen the photos that he made to the Beatles, as well as the photos he took to Salvador Dalí, during that period. After this visit, we could not elude the entrance to the adjacent building, the Beatles Shop, where we acquired diverse material, and where it was possible to reserve Paul’s new single, Fine Line, which was put on sale on Monday, 29 August. From there, we went to the Albert Dock, to visit the Museum of Liverpool Life, where the exhibition "Collecting The Beatles" was showed, a sample of memorabilia Beatle acquired recently by the museum.
At night, in the Carling Academy, we attended the performance of the Australian Beatals, which recreated the concert of Adelaide of 1964, and later, one of the strong plates of the Convention: the concert of farewell of the Rutles, with two of its original members, Ron Nasty and Barry Whom. It was a great performance, where they performed their classic themes: Ouch!, Between us, Hold My Hand, Love life, Living in Hope, Cheese and Onions and Shangri-la, among other. Later, in the hotel, we were able to take photographs with them and they signed the records that we had brought from Spain, foreseeing this opportunity. And already of midnight, we attended the concert of the Blue Meanies, a young Mexican band, formed in 2003, as one of his members said to us, with a lot of force, which cover of Paul’s 1985 was simply fantastic.
The interviewed people this year were the everlasting ones Allan Williams and Julia Baird, Joe Flannery and Tony Barrow among others, whose histories have been explained by themselves in innumerable occasions. Only Will Lee, Tony Bramwell and Mark Lewinsohn contributed something new and succeeded in interesting us. We hoped that this aspect improves in next editions. 
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©1998 Jordi and Amparo. ©2000 Jordi, Amparo and Jordi Jr. ©2002 Jordi, Amparo, Jordi Jr and Marian.
