Visits to Liverpool and Hamburg | Page 2 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

20 Forthlin Road

There are pictures taken by Mike McCartney all around the house. The reason why the National Trust doesn’t allow photographs to be taken inside the house is because the McCartneys are very strict about copyright, and don’t want them reproduced without permission. Their appearance here should be considered incidental use, for those interested in copyright law.

That’s me in picture two.

There’s a plaque above the inside doorway which says: “In loving memory of Mum & Dad MARY & JIM” which Paul and his brother Michael arranged.

The living room is decorated with reproduction wallpaper in the style as it was at the time. John and Paul wrote Love Me Do and I Saw Her Standing There in this room.

From the telephone to the first shot with the deck chair is from inside the dining room. This now contains display cabinets of Beatles memorabilia, plus a copy of the tenancy agreement signed by the McCartneys.

The first deck chair pic was taken from the dining room window. A similar pic taken by Mike McCartney was used on the front of Paul’s album Chaos And Creation In The Back Yard.

Into the garden and the back of the house. There’s an outside toilet and coal shed, and the original deckchair.

The kitchen shots were taken when everyone else was in the living room, so I got plenty of pics.

At the top of the stairs looking down, with the front door on the right. Then one shot of Paul’s bedroom. Then there are three of the room he shared with his brother.

As with Menlove Avenue, there’s a third bedroom which is kept private for the curators to use.

The Casbah Coffee Club

First thoughts: it’s way out of the city centre. Considering it was such a popular venue, it shows how willing people were for their Rock ‘N’ Roll fix back in the day.

Second thoughts: it’s in a grand house which looks incredibly shabby. I think most of the house is used as an office for the Pete Best Band and family, but it could really do with some investment to make it look better.

The Casbah is in the basement, with the entrance round the back. We were shown around by Pete and Rory Best’s younger brother Roag (pronounced ‘rogue’, the son of Mona Best and Neil Aspinall). Roag was lovely, patient and allowed us to take as many photos as we liked.

Through the entrance (the CCC painting) you come to a room with a piano in. The ceiling was painted by John Lennon . It’s amazing to be able to reach up and touch this.

Through the archway to the left is where the Quarrymen played on the opening night of the club. In the shot is George, Paul, Ken Brown and John. The ceiling was painted by Paul McCartney .

From there you come to the main band room, which was used later once it became obvious that the little corridor was too small. The pink ceiling just outside this was painted by George Harrison , who mixed up all the leftover paint after Paul had finished his stripes.

In the main band room are two drum kits. I presume this is where the Pete Best Band rehearses. The spider mural was by Pete Best in the 60s, and the ceiling was by John and Pete.

In the far left corner of the room it says JOHN I’M BACK, scratched in by Lennon after their first return from Hamburg.

In the final room you’ll see three tables. The one on the right is apparently the location where John and Paul persuaded Stu Sutcliffe to buy a bass guitar. They kept pushing his table (not the one shown here) back against the wall until he eventually relented.

This is where the bar was. The silhouette was painted by Cynthia Powell (later Lennon) and is of John. The stars on the ceiling were painted by John, Pete and Stu Sutcliffe (I think), and although parts of it are now crumbling, it’s reckoned to be worth around £3 million.

Other photos from the trip

I’ve held back the ones of me and Ellie, that’s why these might seem a bit impersonal. Here are a few more from around the city. The Pier Head building, where the Beatles Hidden Gallery and White Feather exhibitions are taking place. Liverpool Town Hall. Some shots of Albert Dock, and pics of the Lennon Peace Monument, which really is ghastly. No wonder they put it out of the way at the back of a shopping centre.

Glad you liked them. Yes, sitting on John's bed gave me chills, but the whole experience was so amazing I was in a bit of a daze anyway.

Zig – the Empress is still in business, yes, but I don't know for how much longer. As I mentioned above, that area of Dingle is largely a ghost town these days. If you look closely at the full image you'll see above the door: “This building appeared on the sleeve of Ringo Starr 's first solo album Sentimental Journey”. We didn't go in; that photo was taken from the window of a minibus.

There are plenty of places I didn't get to. Strawberry Field, St Peter's Church, George's birthplace and so on. We did drive through Penny Lane , where the barber's and the bank still are. I missed the Astrid Kirchherr exhibition at the Victoria Gallery and didn't get to see the bed-in at the Bluecoat, but we were only there for two full days and couldn't do much more. 

The driver from the National Trust told us they're unlikely to buy any more Beatle homes in Liverpool. The ones they did get were chosen partly as that's where songs were written, whereas the other homes are less noteworthy.

Roag Best said the Casbah has been given protected status, but I'm not exactly sure what that means. Presumably they're not allowed to make any major changes to the building without planning permission, though I wouldn't have thought they'd want to do anything too radical anyway.

Incidentally, Roag told us the stars on the ceiling were once valued at £15,000 each about 20 years ago by someone from Christie's or Bonham's (I forget which). That's how he arrived at today's price of £3 million. Some of them have actually fallen off, and in years gone by they even tried to remove some of them to preserve them before realising what a bad idea it was.

Mith: here's the deal in the National Trust houses. You get driven there in pre-booked tours. On the way they tell you that you can't take any cameras inside – all bags have to be checked into the cloakrooms. Cue iPhone slipped into pocket during the journey.

Once inside the tour guides show you around each room, then give you a bit of time to explore on your own. The reason the photos look like I was in an empty house was because I hung around until nobody was in the room, then snapped a pic or two. That's why some are slightly blurry, you can't read the report cards etc as I was worried about getting spotted; they were quick, sneaky snaps. There were actually more than a dozen of us being shown around, though luckily I managed to find empty rooms at the right time.

In Mendips there was a lot more time to explore. At Forthlin Road the guide took us from room to room in quite an orderly way, but at the end he ushered everyone into the living room to tell a few anecdotes while we were waiting for the driver to return. I snuck off and wandered back into the garden, kitchen etc and took a few pics while he was speaking.

Ellie took a photo of me sitting on John's bed. Unfortunately I have such a cheesy grin that I'm too embarrassed to share it. Sorry!

Sorry, it's less the grin than the fact that it's not a particularly nice (or representative) pic of me. You wouldn't want a crap pic of you to be put on the web, would you?