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© 2023 AFPLiverpool gets by with a little help from The Beatles
By Véronique DUPONT LIVERPOOL©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
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© 2023 AFP
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TokyoLiving
Ok, no thanks..
wallace
Liverpool is a great city and has great people. A long history of music with an Irish influence. Merseybeat with so many good sounds.
Bad history with the slave trade but was one of the first cities to build a museum about slavery. The past can't be changed but how we view history can.
Surrounded by countryside and some of the best beaches in the country.
An important mention of music in Manchester is Tony Wilson as cofounder of Factory Records and founder of the Hacienda nightclub. Passed away back in 2007. Check him out, he was a nice guy.
Jimizo
Over 50 years since the Beatles split up but still have this kind of pull.
Incredible legacy.
Jimizo
For now…
kohakuebisu
You what!?
Not even Glasgow's best band, which on 10 seconds' consideration would be Derek Forbes-era Simple Minds.
My personal favourite is techno heads Slam.
Capuchin
Liverpool is a great city with a ton of personality and character.
Plenty to do in Liverpool for non-Beatles and footy fans. I recommend checking out the baltic triangle and Cain's brewery area. It's where a lot of the more unique locally owned businesses have moved to since a lot of them got pushed out of the city centre when the city was redeveloped in the late 2000's.
Don't forget to pick up a copy of The Sun newspaper and put your Man United kit on to guarantee an extra good time.
wallace
That is someone with Scouser humor.
1glenn
Dad told me stories about the times his ship pulled into Liverpool, during World War II. It was a big and important maritime hub back then. The Germans bombed it often.
wallace
1glenn
Most of the city was bombed by the Nazis and many died including my family members. The Battle of the Atlantic was led from Liverpool by Captain Walker against the German U-boats.
Alfie Noakes
I'd give this a million upvotes if I could. Orange Juice would be my second choice from Glasgow...second choice from Liverpool (after the Beatles) is more difficult.
Ha! Liverpool's a great city, was very disappointed we couldn't get there again last Christmas due to the train strikes.
Alan Harrison
Ha! Liverpool's a great city, was very disappointed we couldn't get there again last Christmas due to the train strikes.
Can't you drive.
Alfie Noakes
No, I don't have a licence.
Derek Grebe
Liverpool still milking The Beatles after 50 years. Stop the press.
wallace
餓死鬼
The house next to our family house took a direct hit killing my mother's brother who was 7. The German bombers came night after night. Bootle docks took 8 nights of bombings.
Patricia McGrogan
When I was 15, I started going to the Cavern. In those days, there were at least 250 bands in Liverpool. As there were few jobs around for baby-boomers, boys tried to make a living with their music. After years of "managed decline" by the Thatcher government, Liverpool is repeating its music as a source of income. Wait and see. New bands are always appearing. The Irish heritage is in the blood of people here.
wallace
Which influenced the music so much.
Alan Harrison
No, I don't have a licence.
Fair enough. Mind you, I'm not sure which is worse. Strikes or congestion.
starpunk
The Beatles have helped Liverpool rise from its slavery past. However, in the 'Beatles Anthology' George Harrison spoke about the American sailors that came there with their rock'n'roll records that inspired the whole scene there in the first place. Elvis already had a UK fanbase, Rock was spreading around.
wallace
starpunk
Slavery ended in the 19th century in 1807, more than 100 years before the Beatles appeared. Liverpool has always been a music city. But it took some time for the city to accept its slavery history.
The Beatles were part of the Merseybeat and there were many bands. The Quarrymen or the Silver Beatles.
The arrival of the American RocknRoll and Elvis was big time in the 1950s
wallace
The Beatles played in the bars, cafes, and hotels where I lived for a "fiver" a night each. Knew the first Beatles manager very well Alan Williams, the man who gave the Beatles away. Went to the Liverpool Art School like John Lennon but I am younger.
My high school art teacher was the famous poet and painter Adrian Henri. Then there was the famous pirate station Radio Caroline North moored off the Liverpool coast. DJs like John Peel.
Listen to that on a tiny crystal radio I built.
Jimizo
I’d recommend getting all of them.
I’d say in the best 10 albums of all time, 4 or five of them would be Beatles’ albums.
Get the singles which didn’t appear on the studio albums too.
RKL
Maybe 1 Beatles album makes the best 10 of all time. In there with Zeppelin (IV), Floyd (Wall), The Who(Who's Next), Doors, Bad Co., AC/DC(BinB), Stones (Exile), Fleetwood Mac (Rumours), Michael Jackson (Thriller), Guns(Appetite), US (Achtung) and Def Leppard (Hysteria) etc..
Beatles have a bunch of individual great songs, but there are many stronger song for song all the way through albums out there.
wallace
Top-selling artists worldwide as of 2022
Perhaps unsurprisingly, British rock band The Beatles are top of the list for best-selling artists worldwide, with 183 million units certified sales.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/271174/top-selling-artists-in-the-united-states/
When Japanese people learn I was born in Liverpool they usually ask me a bunch of Beatles questions.
wallace
And remember the like of George Formby 1904-1960. Then there was George Melly the jazz musician.
RKL
Just one of Michael Jackson's albums was 1/3 the sales of what, 12 Beatles albums?
Michael Jackson, “Thriller”: 66,200,000
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/did-thriller-really-sell-a-hundred-million-copies
I had the first Doors album and U2's Achtung Baby as strong from start to finish--and would happily replace either with Nirvana. And definitely NWA's Compton --the first three songs are as hard hitting an album opening as anything out there--Sgt. Pepper included.
Jimizo
Great band but nothing like the impact or influence the Beatles had. The Stones imitated the Beatles - not the other way around. The Stones got really good when they stopped trying to imitate the Beatles - they couldn’t match that creativity, songwriting excellence or innovation.
Hard Day’s night is brilliant pop. Rubber Soul, Revolver and St Pepper were pioneering as well as arguably the best songwriting popular music has seen. The White album is a bit padded but still contains masterpieces. Abbey Road is stunning.
Let it Be is regarded as the weakest of the later Beatles albums. A bit of a mess but still has Across the Universe, Let it Be, Get Back and The Long and Winding Road ( and Don’t Let Me Down on some versions ) on it.
A weak album by Beatles’ standards.
Harry_Gatto
100% agree with that. "Aftermath" is the best RS album IMHO and I still have my T-Shirt from a 1969 RS concert, wore it a couple of days ago.
Jimizo
Pleasure, mate.
British bands in the 60s were unbelievable. Beatles, Stones, The Who, The Kinks, The Small Faces, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin kicking off…
Stunning.