Arrive without travelling

As a young fan I was totally intrigued by the locations and backgrounds to the Beatles story I was reading about...Liverpool....Hamburg....London....the U.S...It became an ambition that I would try to visit as many of the places as I could. Reading books like Allan Williams', "The Man Who Gave The Beatles Away" was the first step on what's become a lifelong journey. He described in great detail places like The Jacaranda (The Jac) in Liverpool where the boys hung out in some sort of terminal boredom, staring aimlessly into the street at the passers by...eventually, I did get to the Jac and most of the other places in Liverpool featured in that book. As a result, I now have a much better understanding of what the atmosphere might've been like around that time. In some respects it's like stepping straight into a black and white photograph.
I still do travel and tend to try to visit as many of Beatle locations as possible. I was in London recently and decided to go to the Linda McCartney photographic exhibition in Saville Row...I'd never been there before. When I turned into the street, I immediately recognised the building of course. What was odd, was that somehow I thought that the building would be occupied; which it wasn't. It looked a bit sad somehow. The famous front door was covered with a very small sign on it saying that a particular security company is looking after it...mm, I thought, now there's a place where tons of stuff happened in Beatledom and look at it now...not derelict as such, but empty and appearing to be unused. Of course within a few minutes of looking, I noticed that there were about 30 people coming towards on the Beatles walking tour of London, where they stopped on it's steps...THEN I had an idea of what it was like at the time, with people constantly hanging out on the steps waiting for a glimpse somebody important...I was also struck by the location and it's relationship with the rest of central London and therefore just how big the rooftop concert's impact must have been on that very cold January day in 1969...now that was a stroke of genius!
I have also had the great privilege to go to the National Trust houses in Liverpool at Menlove Ave and Forthlin Road. These two places are in my top five Beatle locations as they really (really) convey an important part of the story which up until they were made museums (effectively) were off limits as people still actually lived there. The differences between the two properties is stark and gives a further insight into John and Paul's relationship. John was no working class hero. His house (even by today's standards) is in a nice area and is very comfortable thank you very much. Paul's place is different...the estate where Forthlin is is VERY much working class...one visit to either of these places and you instantly get a more informed view of their teen years. The areas are as dramatically different as the houses themselves. One is in an nice suburb of a blue skyed Liddy, the other a council estate - not quite Fort Apache. Paul's house is somehow, more "real", there's a bit more dirt, it's a bit more worn and lived in, whereas Mendips is shiny, almost smelling of fresh paint...somehow I think there was more pain in Forthlin than Mendips. I would recommend all fans who go through Liverpool to book a ticket. What you have is in some respects, less of a Beatle sight and more a slice of what helped to make the Beatles set against the atmosphere of the post war years . Totally fascinating.
I will continue my journey for as long as I'm able to travel and will always gravitate to those Beatle locations....look out for another slice coming soon, where I will talk about my visit to the Dakota and my own personal Holy Grail - Abbey Road Studios!