It's that time again...

In about a month or so it will be Liverpool Beatle convention time again. Barely seems like five minutes ago since I played there last year…time, as you know, just flies by. I noticed this link, have a quick look:

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-life-features/liverpool-arts/2008/07/29/almost-100-bands-signed-up-for-the-mathew-street-festival-64375-21424060/


It made me think about just how far it’s all come since the first Mathew Street Festival (which originally was an add on to the gathering of Beatle fans at Liverpool’s Adelphi Hotel) in 1993. Then there was only one stage running from around mid morning until around 6pm if memory serves me, and it was located in the car park at the top of Mathew Street on the site of the original Cavern Club. The street was busy throughout the day and I can remember thinking at the time that it was quite big, as gigs go. There were ambulance crews, film crews, police crews and of course road crews by the plenty. I felt even then that it was somehow missing the point of a Beatle convention. The 1993 convention, it seemed to me, was one hundred percent pure fan based. The people were there to celebrate the band and being a FAN of the band. This of course was pre-internet days. At that time you’d most probably get your helping of Beatle news through the Beatles Monthly (Jeeeez remember that!?!), bootlegs were fairly hard to come by and there was a bit of an underground movement underway with the second generation Beatle aware. All in all, they were exciting times. The convention of that year reflected this and I, for my own part in it, had an absolute ball! I couldn’t wait to get back down the following year and was fairly depressed that it would be another year before I could be in that environment again.
Fast forward to 1996 and I got some news that the flea market part of the convention was going to be made “official”…so no more bootlegs or under the table deals with the rarest items. No, everything would be above board. That was coupled with the fact that by this stage the Mathew Street Festival had become an event on its own and had grown to an obscene scale. Attendances were beginning to lean upwards of 100,000 and beyond.

Boo-hoo indeed.

This is where the Liverpool convention lost its way. It was no longer just about The Beatles. It was no longer just a gathering for Beatle fans. That “intimate” atmosphere of the 1993 and 1994 gatherings was lost. The festival, as it was now known, was about money. Suddenly the Beatle fan part of it became diluted with the “official” message when the copyright police and background presence of Apple got involved. Very few (if any) of the bands ever got paid for the huge amount of work they put in. Organisers seemed to be taking advantage of the performers. They were playing on the fact that there was some kind of kudos to be gained for an act to be on the bill there. Sure there was to a degree, but without the bands, it would be nothing more than a record session right? In short the Liverpool convention has lost its way these days. As I said, I was there last year and it was more about the generic fan, the nearly fan, the casual passer by and the general music fan without any catering for "professional" (er... read diehard!) fans amongst us. Personally I didn’t enjoy the experience. It seemed that there was something missing and whatever it was, that was the vital ingredient for me at the beginning. Apart from my own group and a couple of other diehards (bless ‘em) every band was doing the same set, wearing the same suits and speaking with the same daft accent. It was commercialism at its worst. There was no sense of “how lucky we all are” to be gathered here, listening to these great bands, playing interesting sets, paying a PROPER tribute to the best damned band ever and it’s just “us lot”!
Oh, how lucky we were at the start.
Money wasn’t the point to getting involved. We played ourselves into the ground in those early years and were happy to be there because it was concentrated Beatle people who would want to hear something different and go out of their way to seek out new things. You don't mind the odd rendition of one of the biggies, but you want something precious and rare too right? It’s just not like that now. The community is lost and diluted in a sea of plastic beatles. We didn’t get paid in the early years and accepted that because we were happy to take part and be involved with something very special, lasting and memorable. I’d still love to take part and feel that. Sadly though, it’s just not possible to do that these days because you the fan, you the band, are nothing more than a number heading towards a 300,000 tally of people attending – in other words – the sound of 300,000 wallets and purses rattling! And do you know what? No matter how big the “beatle” festival gets, the bands still don’t get paid!
Funny that!