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Liverpool and The Beatles

Nearly 40 years ago, a rock 'n' roll band that formed in this salty port city had a good run of hits, then disbanded in a haze of marijuana smoke and mutual recriminations. Today, three decades after the ugly breakup, The Beatles remain a powerful economic force so tightly woven into Britain's cultural fabric that it seems they are as permanent as the Big Ben clock tower and more popular than the monarchy.

 

" In terms of putting Liverpool on the world map as a destination, the value of The Beatles simply cannot be calculated", said Dave Jones, of Cavern City Tours. In fact, The Beatles industry is so widespread that an estimated 2,000 people make a full-time living off the long-defunct band, organizing Beatles festivals, retailing Beatles memorabilia, and publishing - still – The Beatles monthly magazine, said Hunter Davies, author of a 1968 book about the band.

 

" The farther away they get in time, the bigger they become", Davies said. "Most of their fans today never had a chance to see them play. But the songs they wrote will be hummed for centuries. They have become classics, like Mozart and Bach, ageless and timeless".

 

The band's stature can be seen at the British Library, where the handwritten lyrics to ‘Ticket To Ride’ share pride of place in the public galleries with William Shakespeare's First Folio of plays and the Magna Carta, the 13th-century document seen as a forerunner to the world's democratic constitutions.

 

Andy Linehan, popular-music curator at the British Library, said there is no question that The Beatles deserve such a prominent display because of the lasting value of the songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

 

" It's obvious that Lennon/McCartney were the songwriters of the 20th century in Great Britain, so it's really our duty to preserve their work," he said. "It's part of the culture of the country, just as Shakespeare was in his time. The Beatles seemed like something completely fresh, completely new and completely British. They caught the mood of the nation".

 

He said the band's meteoric rise to world fame galvanized Britain at a time when a prosperous economy finally allowed the country to shake off its postwar gloom. The Beatles music, once dismissed as vulgar noise, is now the subject of serious study and will be addressed by scholars meeting at a symposium in Finland this year, he said.

 

And The Beatles continuing economic clout can be seen in new plans to revive London's failed Millennium Dome - a billion-dollar government debacle that has failed to attract tourists. By installing a Beatles exhibit that will use virtual-reality technology to transport visitors to the world portrayed in the psychedelic ‘Yellow Submarine’ movie.

 

Anyone who doubts that The Beatles - former counterculture rebels – have joined the British establishment need only remember how Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Tony Blair joined hands on New Year's Eve to sing ‘All You Need Is Love’ to usher in the new millennium on national television.

 

The Beatles also were voted ‘Band of the Century’ by British music fans, and Lennon's solo venture ‘Imagine’ was voted the best song of the 20th century. To top off the list of honors, a group of famous songwriters polled by Mojo magazine this month chose The Beatles ‘In My Life’ as the finest song ever written.

 

One of Britain's biggest rock bands of the past decade, Oasis, bases its musical style on The Beatles and often spices up concerts with footage of Lennon performing. The title of the band's latest album, ‘Standing on the Shoulder of Giants’, is seen as an explicit acknowledgment of their debt to the masters.

 

The current orgy of Beatlemania has a distinct commercial tone. The surviving band members and Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, are raking in millions from the sales of their ‘Anthology’ discs, and they plan to follow up on that success in October with the release of a book, also called ‘Anthology’, that will tell their story from their perspective.

 

And the value of Beatles memorabilia is shooting up - the piano Lennon used to compose ‘Imagine’ goes on the Internet auction block in October, with prices expected to easily pass the $1.5 million mark. His restored Mercedes limousine can be bought for about $200,000.

 

Nowhere is The Beatles continuing economic impact clearer than in Liverpool, once a vital northern seaport linking England to the United States but now struggling to find its way. Most of the dockside jobs have been lost, and the city has missed out on the high-technology boom that has brought jobs and prosperity too much of southern England.

 

The city has no beaches, little sunshine and few obvious attractions. Nonetheless, more than 350,000 tourists are expected to jam the city later this month for the annual Beatles festival. Tourism officials believe The Beatles bring at least 500,000 visitors to Liverpool each year, creating demand for hotels, restaurants and pubs.

" In terms of putting Liverpool on the world map as a destination, the value of The Beatles simply cannot be calculated," said Dave Jones, director of Cavern City Tours, which runs the restored Cavern Club where The Beatles performed 292 times. "The Beatles are the bait that brings people in and lets us show them what's here."

 

He said tourist interest in The Beatles is growing each year as new generations discover their music. But the city was extremely slow to capitalize on this opportunity, he said.

 

" It was difficult to get the movers and shakers to understand the effectiveness of The Beatles brand worldwide", he said. "As late as 1995, we were still trying to convince people of the need to invest in this brand. But ever since 350,000 people came to the festival last summer, they are responding because they hear the cash registers ringing".

 

In marketing terms, The Beatles phenomenon is unparalleled because they crossed all international and economic boundaries and even had a huge underground following behind the Iron Curtain, Jones said. As a result, visitors from all corners of the globe descend on Liverpool to see the places made famous by Beatles songs - Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields are the standouts - and the modest homes where The Beatles lived before they conquered the world.

 

The bright yellow Magical Mystery Tour buses are usually filled, and the visitors on an average summer day include fans from Asia, Australia and the United States. They include young rockers who want to see the church where Lennon first met McCartney in 1957, and grandparents who want to relive the days when ‘She Loves You’ was No.1.

 

" You hear those songs, and your youth comes flooding back," said Shelagh Johnston, who helped McCartney answer fan mail in 1961 and now manages The Beatles Story museum, which is a cornerstone of the restored Albert Dock development.

 

She said The Beatles music is now used as part of the music curriculum in schools throughout Europe. In addition, she said, English teachers teach Lennon/McCartney lyrics as a way to interest young students in learning the language. That brings thousands of students anxious to find out more about the band to the museum, she said.

 

" There is more interest now than in the past, and it keeps growing," Johnston said. "I believe the enduring quality of The Beatles is their music. It's so versatile and so fresh. There is a pure talent in the words and the melodies. It is the effect they had on the world that we are reaping today".

Gregory Katz

 

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