In the Neighborhood
In this month’s newsletter, we take a more in-depth look at the Liverpool suburbs home to John, Paul, and George.
“Being born in Liverpool brings with it certain responsibilities” —- George Harrison.
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Beatley News Updates
Let It Be Movie Release
It was recently announced that Let It Be, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s original 1970 film about The Beatles, will launch exclusively on Disney+ on May 8, 2024. This is the first time the film is available in over 50 years.
First released in May 1970 amidst the swirl of The Beatles’ breakup, Let It Be now takes its rightful place in the band’s history. Once viewed through a darker lens, the film has now been restored by Peter Jackson’s team using the same techniques used for the Get Back documentary series and stands as a companion piece to that series.
Let It Be contains footage not featured in the Get Back documentary, including three full song performances and more footage of the iconic London rooftop concert in January 1969
Who Are “The Beatles”?
The Beatles and the long-running British science-fiction series Doctor Who have an intertwined history. In a 1965 episode the crew of the Doctor’s ship, the TARDIS, watched a performance of Ticket To Ride via a device called a Time-Space Visualizer. This was a tape of a performance on the BBC music show Top of the Pops. Around that time the BBC had a policy of wiping tapes for reuse, and the tape of the relevant Top of the Pops episode was wiped. So now the only footage of The Beatles performing Ticket To Ride is an insert clip in Doctor Who (ironically a show that is infamous for having a large proportion of its early episodes wiped.)
Over the years The Beatles, while never reappearing on the show itself, have been mentioned in multiple spin-off novels, comics, and audio dramas. You can find a full list HERE.
Two of the actors who have played the character of The Doctor have also played members of The Beatles. Peter Capaldi (the 12th Doctor) played George Harrison in the 1985 television film John and Yoko: A Love Story and Christopher Eccleston (the 9th Doctor) played John Lennon in the 2010 television film Lennon Naked,
Now in 2024, the current (15th) incarnation of The Doctor is set to encounter the Fab Four recording at Abbey Road Studios. No details have been announced, but Doctor Who Magazine recently teased things with this promotional image based on the iconic With The Beatles album cover design.
The Savage Young Beatles
Several members of The Savage Young Beatles have been busy over the last month or so playing and recording. Tom (John) and Ed (Ringo) were invited to join the Cavern’s own Beatles tribute band, The Cavern Beatles, for a tour through parts of Northern Europe and Scandinavia, while George (Paul) has been promoting the release of his new solo EP.
But not to worry, there is still more Savage Young Beatles excitement to come with the boys working on background projects including a new video. - More news on that as things progress.
In the meantime, here’s a cool shot of the boys on stage performing Can’t Buy Me Love during the mini-US tour in February. Video reels from the tour can be found on The Savage Young Beatles Instagram and FaceBook pages.
Rock out to the BTWB Playlist
If you enjoy the early rock-n-roll years and the music that inspired the Fab Four you can now enjoy a great selection of songs from the period on the new Before They Were Beatles playlist on Spotify. If you haven’t given it a listen recently, we’ve added a few new tracks over the last few months to keep up to date with the recent issue of the newsletter.
Podcast Updates
The latest Forgotten Beatles episode is now live and can be found on your favorite podcast platform, or directly right HERE.
In our newest episode, we answer the question about the mysterious “Eddie Clayton” who supplied the distinctive solo on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”?
There may be a clue in this video.
What Else Is Alan Working On?
For more information on what else I have going on with writing, podcasting, and general slice-of-life stuff, check out my regular FREE weekly CAN’T SEE THE FOREST newsletter -
1956 - In The Neighborhood
It’s often noted how remarkable it is that the four gifted musicians that made up the Beatles were to be found in one single industrial city in the north of England. What to my mind is more remarkable, and rarely considered, is that three of them could be found living within just six miles of each other! And not in the heart of the city, but in the suburbs.
I thought it might be an interesting diversion to take a look at the area that John, Paul, and George called home during their teenage years.
Woolton
John Lennon lived at 251 Menlove Avenue in the suburb of Woolton with his Aunt Mimi, who famously gave the large semi-detached property the name Mendips, and his Uncle George. Today the house is managed by the National Trust and is open to tours.
Despite John’s somewhat posthumous ‘working class hero’ labeling, he was raised in an area that has always been considered one of the more affluent suburbs of Liverpool.
Originally a standalone village, Woolton was incorporated into Liverpool in 1913. The area, however, has been in the historical record since the 11th Century when it was recorded as "Uluentune" meaning "farm of Wulfa.’ Around that time Woolton became part of the Barony of Halton and Widnes. In 1189, the land where the village stood was granted by John, Constable of Chester, to the order of Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. The Knights held land in Woolton for over 350 years, until it was confiscated from them in 1559 by Queen Elizabeth I.
After the Queen’s death, the manorial rights to Woolton passed to James I, who sold them to William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Woolton then passed to Isaac Green, then his daughter, then her son Bamber Gascoyne of Childwall (who was MP for Liverpool 1780–1796. The land is now owned by the Marquess of Salisbury.
Housing is primarily detached and semi-detached, although some terraces survive in the original Woolton Village located in the centre of the suburb. The area is well served by pubs, as well as numerous churches.
As well as John’s childhood home, Woolton also includes the original Strawberry Field children’s care home which inspired the Beatles song, and for which the memorial park for John Lennon in New York is named; St. Peter’s Church where John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time as a church fete in 1957. Also located in the churchyard is the grave of one Eleanor Rigby.
Allerton
Just behind John’s home on Menlove Avenue lies the Allerton Manor Golf Club, and if you walk across the golf club grounds you end up near 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton, the terraced childhood home of Paul McCartney. Which like John’s home is now operated by the National Trust.
Like Woolton, Allerton appears in late 11th Century records as Alretune, meaning "the alder enclosure". In 1894 it was designated an urban area and added to the Brough of Liverpool in 1913.
It has a number of large houses in the prestigious Calderstones Park area, with mainly 1930s semi-detached housing around the shopping area of Allerton Road. Allerton is also served by a couple of railway stations.
The Beatles' song Penny Lane is set mostly on Allerton Road; the shelter in the middle of the roundabout, the barber shop, and possibly the bank mentioned in the song are all located at the junction of Allerton Road, Penny Lane, and Smithdown Road.
Speke
As we mentioned in the last newsletter, prior to their move to Allerton, the McCartneys lived at 72 Western Ave in the neighborhood of Speke, just a mile from George Harrison’s boyhood home at 25 Upton Green.
In the 11th-century chronicles, Speke was known as Spec, derived from the Middle English word for the brushwood prevalent in the area. The 11th-century records also record the existence of a Speke Hall, although the Speke Hall you can visit today dates back to the 16th Century Tudor period.)
From 1795 until 1921, the Speke estate belonged to the Watt family; when the family died out, the estate was placed in trust It was bought by the Liverpool Corporation in 1928 for £200,000; the corporation's intention was to build a complete self-contained satellite town
Speke had remained a small village prior to the corporation’s purchase and underwent a period of rapid expansion, going from a population of just 400 in 1930 to 25,000 in the mid-1950s when the McCartney and Harrison families were resident.
Speke these days is perhaps best known as the location for Liverpool Speke Airport, which since 2001 (perhaps a little ironically as he never lived in the suburb) as John Lennon Airport.
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Join us next month when we return to our main story as we head across to Liverpool to the area known as The Dingle to meet one Richard Starkey.
And if you enjoyed this month’s newsletter please feel free to share.
See you next time.
Alan J. Porter
The Before They Were Beatles newsletter is a production of Megrin Entertainment, a division of 4Js Group LLC.
I should have thought to search substack before writing an article on the Beatles. You have so much good information here!
The astrology on the day of the Beatles final concert is pretty amazing by itself. It becomes doubly fascinating when it is compared to a few placements in each of the Beatles plus Billy Preston’s natal charts. If you’re a Beatles fan, I think you will be pleasantly surprised at what I have revealed in this short article on the Beatles.
https://karlskellenger.substack.com/p/once-upon-a-time-on-a-rooftop-the?r=fjmlo