Beatles art | Page 27 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

We know the former Empress pub (closed a few years ago) in the Dingle in Liverpool because it was the local pub to where Ringo grew up, his mother Elsie worked there, and it appears on the cover of Sentimental Journey…

…and if you get a wider view of it, it’s usually taken from the left…

…because the view from the right ain’t much to write home about…

That’s changed. The Empress is in the process of being converted to housing, and one of the painter decorators working there recently was a guy called John Culshaw, who’s well known in Liverpool for his murals of footballers across the city. He saw that wall and asked if he could do something with it, and was given permission.

Initially, it was going to be a Beatles themed mural; it wasn’t going to be just Ringo, but with his connection to the area, we went with him.

And early work was seen happening a few weeks ago…

However, we still wanted to be as bright and as vibrant as possible, so I researched what we could put in there. We decided to go with a cartoon of the yellow submarine and the octopus as well.

The finished mural was unveiled around a week ago…

…and to give an idea of just how huge it is…

An absolutely fantastic piece of work, and difficult to think of a better placed Beatles-related mural.

I’ve always just done it for myself. When you get a pat on the back, it’s nice, but I think a little more at the minute about how people will react to my work.

It’s not just mine, it’s public work, so everyone’s going to see it. People live in the street, so I need to think about how they’ll react to it. Luckily for me, everyone’s liked it.

Sad to hear that the John mural by Andrey Palval in Lennon Square (formerly Sovetskaya Square) in Izum, Ukraine…

…has taken war damage…

Far from the worst thing happening in Ukraine at the moment, but still sad to see a cultural landmark taking damage, and realising it may not survive Russia’s disgusting and unjustified war on Ukraine.