The final part of my Beatles pilgrimage to Liverpool this week was a visit to The Beatles Story in the Albert Dock.
I last visited The Beatles Story nearly 30 years ago in the company of a distant relative of Ringo and it was fascinating back then to hear her memories when surrounded by physical reminders of The Beatles.
The setting is impressive as you descend the stairs into The Beatles Story. The tour costs £19 for an adult and contains a wealth of artifacts relating to The Beatles. The tour itself is at your own pace and is conducted by headsets and a phone-sized guide you can flick through.
The Beatles Story skips through the early years of the Fabs, through their early music, Hamburg, the Cavern Club, their recording, Beatlemania, India and the eventual breakup of the greatest band in the history of popular music.
It’s quite an ambition and if you’re looking to scrape the surface of what The Beatles were and still are today then The Beatles Story delivers, just like the Magical Mystery Tour and The Cavern Club deliver.
But, if you’re steeped in Beatle history, if you’ve read any or many of the hundreds of books, watched the documentaries, the Anthologies and articles then I feel you’re going to be short-changed. As entertaining as these three attractions are there’s no real substance to any of them. It’s all surface deep. We know the folklore, we know the anecdotes and whilst it’s great to gaze on some of their early instruments and see fading letters etc I really feel the world is ready for a seriously deep dive into The Beatles.
In my opinion there’s blood, sweat and tears in The Beatles story, they didn’t just arrive as fully finished mop-tops. None of the three visits I went on this week properly explained the seismic musical and cultural impact The Beatles had and, in my opinion, are still having.
The mock-up of the Cavern Club at The Beatles Story is far more realist and true to life than the showy Cavern Club recreation on Mathew Street, but the Hamburg mock-up is almost laughable.
Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed my day out in Liverpool and overall I would recommend it but I also feel a huge opportunity was missed. I think we are now able to deal with images of The Beatles as real, sometimes flawed, human beings who ascended to extraordinary heights and dragged their generation with them, whilst at the same time providing a platform for future generations to build on.
C’mon Liverpool, get your collective act together and give us something raw, startling and fitting as a legacy to your greatest sons.