North America Guitar Tour - spin off
Liverpool
July 22, 2008
I woke up to the sunlight coming through the window just after 7am, and first I boiled some water and let it cool a little before quenching my thirst. I couldn't go out until Mr. Domon arrived, so I was looking at the view from the window when my cell phone rang. It was a Japanese acquaintance who called, thinking I was in Japan. I had told him about the tour, but it seemed he had completely forgotten. Immediately after that, a warning appeared that the battery was almost low, so I started to charge it, but within a minute the power went out and it never turned on again. I explained the situation at a Docomo shop a week before my departure and went to the trouble of changing to a model that can be used all over the world, but the charger said "For use only in Japan". I felt resentful towards the woman at the Docomo shop who told me, "You can continue to use the charger from your previous model." There may be a Docomo branch in London, but considering my itinerary, I don't have time to wander around the city. While praying that the phone itself would not be damaged, I gave up and decided that I would have to go without a phone from then on. I also used my phone as a watch, so my watch was gone at the same time.
The only city I wanted to visit on this trip, not just for the purpose of playing, was Liverpool, where I was heading that day. As someone who plays Beatles songs, it is almost an obligation to visit there if you are in England. I looked it up in advance and found that it takes about two and a half hours by express train from London to Liverpool, so it would be like going from Tokyo to Osaka on the bullet train. While I was washing my face and sorting my luggage, an acquaintance of Domon's came by with the key, so I asked him if I could leave my luggage there as I would be back around 2 or 3pm the next day, and left the flat with only my guitar and one night's worth of luggage. The express train to Liverpool leaves from Euston Station, so I asked him how to get there. I bought a bottle of water at the station and checked the route on the route map. The London Underground is narrow inside. Yesterday I thought it looked narrow because there were a lot of big people, but it was narrow and there was no air conditioning, so I sweated just standing there with my luggage. I arrived at Euston without any trouble and bought a ticket to Liverpool. I was worried because the platform number was not displayed on the bulletin board, so I asked someone nearby and they said that it is decided before departure. It seems that the sense of this area is quite different from Japanese railways. There was about 20 minutes until departure, so I bought a hamburger and coffee and looked at the bulletin board, and the platform number was displayed, so I started walking in that direction. There was no ticket gate like in Japan (there are ticket gates on the subway), and the train was already stopped and I was ready to board, but I got on after confirming with a person wearing a station staff-like uniform that it was going to Liverpool, and sat down in a suitable seat. The car was apparently called the "Quiet Zone", and there was a sign with an x mark on the mobile phone, headphones, etc. I was planning to head there while listening to the Beatles on my iPod. I started having a late breakfast of hamburger and coffee, and the train departed. As we got further away from London, the scenery gradually became more tranquil.
The two old ladies sitting across the aisle from me were talking the whole time, so I thought it would be okay if the sound from my iPod didn't leak out, so I turned down the volume and started listening to my iPod. I don't listen to music at high volumes, so I thought it would probably be fine. In fact, the conductor didn't even notice me when he passed by. There were interesting objects on the platform at the station before Liverpool. It reminded me of a character from the movie "Yellow Submarine."
I arrived in Liverpool on time, but Ms. H, who said she would come to pick me up, was nowhere to be seen. I had given her my number, but my cell phone wouldn't even turn on. I sat on a bench at the edge of the station and sat there for a while, but after about 30 minutes, I started to get a little anxious. There is a station called Liverpool Station in London (the station where Domon picked me up the day before), so I thought maybe she was waiting there, and when I went outside and looked around, it was just a normal town, with no particular Beatles-like feeling. Just as I was thinking about turning back since I had come to Liverpool, Ms. H came running up to me. She is a Liverpool native whom I met in Japan, and according to previous information, she was in Australia, but when I emailed her about going to England, she replied that she was temporarily back in England, and said that she would let me stay at her friend's flat if I came to Liverpool. I was very grateful.
First, we went to an old restaurant in front of the station for lunch and had a hamburger. Mr. C, who came with her, had a strong accent and I could hardly understand what he was saying, but it sounded familiar to me. First, he said he would take me to the Cavern Club. He said he would leave his luggage in the car, so it must be within walking distance. In several places along the road, there was a board with a row of helmets with various paints on them. In Japan, you often see drawings by elementary school students posted at train stations, and these were probably helmet versions of those. In front of Liverpool Station, there was also a larger object of the strange character I had seen at the previous train station. After that, these characters were displayed all over the road, and the whole city was naturally art.
The Cavern Club was not open for business, but I could still visit there, so I went down to the basement and walked around the store. I had heard that it was a reproduction that had been moved from its original location, so I didn't have any particular feelings about it. Next, I headed to the museum near the quayside. I didn't know that it was a city with a connection to the Titanic and a history of prosperity due to the slave trade. We stopped in at a Starbucks for a quick break, and for some reason the souvenir corner was full of Beatles goods, so I impulsively bought two T-shirts.
After touring the area, I returned to the parking lot in front of the station and Mr. C drove me to the flat where I would be staying that night. The flat is located in an area of row houses, which often appear in Beatles videos, and this view may have been what impressed me the most. Children were kicking a soccer ball in front of the house opposite.
After relaxing a little in the flat, the residents Mr. J and Ms. H and I took a taxi back to downtown and went to a Mexican restaurant. J said that he really wanted to eat T-bone steak because I was coming. There was almost no information about British food, but the previous day it was Chinese, and this day it was Mexican, so it remains unclear how British the food was.
After that, we went to the Cavern Club, which we had visited during the day, but it was closed, so we went to a nearby bar called Grapes, where the Beatles often visited before and after their performances at the Cavern Club. The store's layout is said to be the same as it was back then. It was very busy even on a weekday, and the box seats that the Beatles often used were occupied by women who appeared to be in their late 50s, and behind them was a large, blown-up photo of the Beatles sitting there. For some reason, the loud background music playing in the store was the Stones.
On the way, when I went outside to take photos from various angles, a man who was an acquaintance of Ms. H came out and asked me, "Is this your first time in Liverpool?" When I told him that it was my first time in England and that I was going to play a live show in a town called Chesham tomorrow, he said, "I used to be in a band too. I actually still want to play, but I'm getting old," as if I was a young person. When I asked him how old he was, he said he was 42. I told him that I was 50, and told him that I thought that there was no need to quit music, regardless of whether you would do it as a job or not. He was surprised by my age, but he listened to me seriously, nodding. The taxi on the way back was coincidentally the same driver as on the way there, and he had a stronger accent than anyone else I had been to, so much so that at first I thought it wasn't English. Ms. H said, "This is the real Liverpool accent."
And so, we were able to safely finish our tour of the holy land of Liverpool. I missed out on some places, like Penny Lane, so I vowed to myself to come back and play The Beatles songs next time (it never happened), and went to sleep in my bed for the first time in England. The next day was the live show in Chesham, one of the main events of the tour.
*People who appear in the text are listed by their initials until we can confirm their identity.
Contents
Introduction
Until Departure
Seattle
To California
Day Off
Sunnyvale
To La
LA 2 Days
To Tucson
Albuquerque
To Colorado (beginning of Miracle)
Berthoud
Denver
to Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City 2 days
To Texas
San Antonio
Georgetown
Dallas
Houston 2 Days
Benton
Nashville (CAAS)
Roswell
Tampa 2 Days
Miami
Orland 2 Days
Myrtle Beach
Chapel Hill 3 Days
Kingsport
To Indiana
Indiana State Fingerstyle Guitar Festival
To Staten Island
Manhattan
Phillipsburg
Nazareth (Martin Guitar Factory)
To Massachusetts (end of Miracle)
Methuen
To Montreal
To Buffalo
Meadvill A Day Before
Meadvill Ghost Hotel
Detroit
Chicago
Minneapolice
Spin Off #1
Spin Off #2 "EU Tour IN 2008 / Until Departure
Czech 1
Czech 2
London
Liverpool
Chesham
To Germany
Lemgo
Ingolstadt
Bregenz
To Italy
Florence
The Last Gig
Going Home