National Museums Liverpool Blog - Beatles

Curator Kay Jones presented Liam with his v50 certificate

Liam Physick, a student at Liverpool University and one of our fantastic youth volunteers, has recently achieved his v50 Award for volunteering for 50 hours for the Museum of Liverpool's urban history department. Liam did a fantastic job of logging 5,605 comment cards from The Beat Goes On exhibition, which asked for visitors' Liverpool music memories. The responses will be used in research at the University of Liverpool. Liam says,

"The project developed my IT skills and taught me how to log records. It was very interesting to read people's experiences. One woman claimed that her husband had been the man who discovered The Beatles. It has clearly shown that people inside and outside Liverpool are fascinated by the city's musical heritage. Visitors came from all over the world including Malaysia, America, the Bahamas and Romania."

Alas, unlike the beat itself, this exhibition doesn't go on and on. We're into the final weeks of World Museum's The Beat Goes On exhibition and what a tune-tastic time we've had.

Paul McCartney's trousers made a visit as did half a million members of the public. Local bands had their tunes profiled in our on-gallery and online jukeboxes (check out the MySpace page and have a listen). Willing volunteers cut their museum teeth on the gallery, and we launched an online resource charting Liverpool's musical heritage.

But fret not! (fret...music...geddit?) You've still until 1 November to get down to the museum and to get down!  Take your kids during half term and show them what real music sounds like. And if you still need persuading the Guardian's video on Liverpool's music scene should do the trick.

And if you still don't manage to catch the exhibition you're going to have to wait until the Museum of Liverpool opens in 2011. The Creative City gallery will become home to items like the Woolton church stage where John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met in 1957, the vibrant 'All You Need is Love' bedcover from John and Yoko’s Bed-in-for-Peace in Montreal in 1969, and four Beatles stage suits.

And as it's the final month The Beat Goes On exhibition guide has been reduced to half price so now costs just £1.50. Get your copy in our groundfloor shop.

Money can't buy love but who cares when you can go out any buy the latest line of Beatle merchandise. Beatlemania is back and this time it means business - big business!  Remastered versions of each of the albums have been released and are expected to dominate the charts for the next few weeks. And there’s two enviable box sets – one limited edition remastered in mono, the other in stereo.They were released on 09.09.09 - most auspicious because of John’s obsession with the number 9. 

Not that merchandising is a new thing of course. If you venture over to The Beat Goes On exhibition at World Museum you can see some of the weird and wonderful Beatle articles from our collection that were produced during the original wave of Beatlemania including Russian Dolls, talc and this rather nifty pair of sneakers.  

The latest must-have Beatles purchase is of course the Beatles Rock Band game. Now I’m no gamer – but I admit this amazing animation has got my purse strings twitching. Who could fail to enjoy this – it's compelling viewing, it even has penguins! The animation is part of the re-launched Beatles.com which has been absolutely crammed full of video, tunes, photos and memorabilia just incase you’re not Beatled up enough.

Anyhow, in the words of the Blue Peter, ‘here’s one we made earlier’. Beatles-themed games they most certainly are, Beatles Rock Band they are not. But they are still a lot of fun, they don’t cost anything and you don’t need any additional kit to play. Call me old-fashioned, but I'm in favour of playing a real guitar. After all, that’s how the boys started out and a very profitable investment it turned out to be for them.

I wanted to write something in tribute to Les Paul who died yesterday at the age of 94. Les Paul was a jazz musician who persuaded guitar maker Gibson to create a solid-bodied electric guitar. He’d already cobbled together such a guitar from a railway sleeper and a couple of pick-ups, but when Gibson refined ‘The Log’, the Gibson Les Paul was born. The Gibson Les Paul is an iconic guitar played by some of the most innovative rock guitarists the world has ever seen. Pete Townsend, Jimmy Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Slash to name but a few. I visited The Beat Goes On exhibition at World Museum to see if any trace of Les Paul’s influence could be found, and although there aren’t any Les Pauls in the exhibition I did find this rather familiar walk-through! (I should mention there are several other splendid guitars such as Will Sergeant's customised Telecaster and one owned by Billy Fury). Perhaps I should have also looked in the recording section because Les Paul also developed revolutionary multi-tracking techniques, but that is another story.

I then popped into St George’s Hall to see ‘For George – A Tribute to George Harrison’. (That's a lot of Georges). If you are a Beatle fan or enjoyed The Beat Goes On then make the effort to see this small but heart-warming exhibition dedicated to George. The display was created by fans for fans and features some lovely pictures, a few taken by Patti Boyd. It is like a little snapshot of all things George – his music projects, his film interests, his racing, Friar Park, The Beatles of course. There’s incense burning and a devotional feel, reflecting George’s dedication to his spiritual development, as well as his fans devotion to him.  It is only a small room but there is a lot to see if you take the time to have a proper look.

In particular I really enjoyed seeing some of the instruments that shaped George’s music, including a rare Gibson longneck banjolele (a cross between ukulele and a banjo) and a sitar. There wasn’t a Les Paul in sight – but it matters not, because here is where we find our Les Paul connection. George is associated with all manner of guitars, such Epiphone, Gretsch, Rickenbacker, and Fender , yet that mellow, rich and warm Les Paul sound will always define one song in particular - ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’. The guitar solo was played on a cherry red 1957 Les Paul Standard – a gift from Eric Clapton – which he christened Lucy. (Infact it was Eric that played on the track)

Just put on the record. It’s as fitting tribute as any to Mr Les Paul – and it will explain better than my words just what all the fuss is about.

Swishing and searching for cool vintage clothes is very popular right now, but who would have thought that celebrated poet Roger McGough would be into recycling clothes!

Last week Roger, who is himself part of Liverpool’s musical heritage, lent the World Museum a unique item to adorn the walls of our massive music exhibition, The Beat Goes On. This unusual item is in fact a pair of trousers; but not just any trousers! They once belonged to Roger’s fellow Scaffold member Mike McCartney’s brother Paul, a member of another little-known band from Liverpool; The Beatles. (You may have heard of them, they were around a bit in the 60s.)

Roger told us how he came to be the proud owner of the trousers:

“I was friends with Mike McCartney at a time when I began teaching in local schools. It was obvious that I needed to smarten up and make an effort at work in order to set an example to the pupils, and Mike suggested I have some of his brother’s cast offs."

"I’m pleased they are going to be displayed somewhere for all to enjoy and The Beat Goes On is the perfect setting. It’s strange to think that when I used to wear them, the thought never crossed my mind that my mate’s brother’s trousers would one day be hung on the wall of a museum!”

They were also the inspiration behind a poem entitled 'To Macca’s Trousers', which is also on display alongside the trousers. The poem describes how Roger went from wearing the trousers on nights out in the 60s, to finding them packed up in a suitcase of old clothes in his attic years later. Here's the first verse for you:

You were part of a suit that Paul handed down to his brother.
High-buttoned Italian style, circa ‘Please Please Me’
The jacket fitted but you were too short in the leg
so Michael passed you on to me.
On Saturday night we went to the disco
and although we looked cool on the dance-floor
it didn’t seem right. Greater things you were meant for.
So I hung you in the wardrobe and awaited the call
‘Hello mate, can I have me trousers back? It’s Paul’

'To Macca’s Trousers' is also part of a new collection of Roger’s poetry being published this June by Penguin Books, entitled 'That Awkward Age'. The collection is a powerful testament to the miraculous in the everyday, describing one-off chance encounters, embarrassing questions and small wonders, as Roger resolves – and fails – to live every day as if it were his last. 

We hope Paul won't be asking for the trousers back too soon!

Update 15/5/2009: Please note that this object will temporarily be removed from display from 22 May until early June.

In these grim economic times and rainy days, we could do worse than remind ourselves that there is usually a light at the end of the tunnel! Forty years ago this week, John Lennon and Yoko Ono set about bringing a message of peace to the world from their bed in the Amsterdam Hilton hotel. They vowed to stay in bed for a whole week (24 - 31 March, 1969) in what they called a "bed-in for peace". It certainly drew alot of media attention to their message of peace and in particular their stance against the war in Vietnam, which can only be a good thing.  While this might not be everyone's idea of a great honeymoon, I can't think of a better place to stage a peace protest than a nice comfy bed. I took part in an anti-war demo in Manchester once and by heck it was freezing!

Feel the love

This wasn't their last bed-in though. A few months later on 26 May 1969, John and Yoko checked into Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel to start their next peace protest, to continue the momentum of the first one. For another week the couple, along with Ono's five-year-old daughter Kyoko, entertained guests including U.S. black civil rights advocate Dick Gregory, Quebec separatist Jacques Larue-Langlois and American cartoonist Al Capp. It was at the end of this bed-in that a historic and spontaneous performance of 'Give Peace a Chance' was recorded.

Here at the museums, we're very proud to hold a piece of this moment in history. In our collections we have an 'All You Need is Love' beadspread that was handmade by the local Montreal Hare Krishna Chapter and given to John and Yoko for the protest. 

Currently you can see the bedspread from the Montreal bed-in for peace in The Beat Goes On exhibition at World Museum Liverpool. Peace out.

The Fab Four plus friend

Another month, another competition and another prize in our 'name that object' competition. Actually, it's the same prize as last month - a set of Beatles figures - but as so many people entered last time we figured they were popular and are offering another set this month. First clue appears on Monday morning (22nd). If you're keen to get your mitts on the figures you might want to visit the John Moores exhibition that starts this weekend and have a wander around the rest of the gallery while you are there...