The Beatles - Liverpool (2006)

For many visitors, Liverpool is one giant theme park... and the theme is the Beatles. At least, such is the suggestion of Spencer Leigh, Liverpudlian, Disc Jockey for BBC Radio Merseyside and investigator of the Beatles phenomenon for over forty years. Together with Spencer and Beatles historian Ray O’Brien, we explore over sixty key Beatles sites, including the Cavern Club, and the homes where John, Paul and George were brought up, as well as no less than three houses with associations to Ringo’s childhood. At the same time, we meet on location over twenty personalities who made the Liverpool scene the epicentre of the sixties cultural explosion, including Alan William (the man who gave away the Beatles), Bill Harry (friend of the Beatles, and founder of the immensely influential paper ‘Mersey Beat’), Kingsize Taylor, (the man who brought rock’n’roll into Liverpool), and that’s just for starters. This mammoth five and a half hour program is essential viewing for anyone who was around at the time, and all the others who wish they had been!

The Beatles Liverpool

I fulfilled a dream come true to visit Liverpool last year. After taking a personal 9 hour tour we had seen many of the sites, but not all that we wanted to due to lack of time. When I saw this video was out I was so anxious to see it. I was a bit disappointed. First of all he totally omitted the Casbah which is a big part of the early Beatles history before Ringo Starr. The video seemed a bit homemade and there were times it didn't seem to be focused on what was going on. I am glad I bought it, because it relived some of the spots I just visited, but it could have been done a little more professionally. January 10, 2007

The Long and Windy Road

My family visited Liverpool this summer and had a great time there, so I bought this set to help us remember the things we had seen. And there were places they visited that we hadn't seen up close, so that part was nice. And it was fun to see the gentleman at the church hall where John and Paul met as we met him on our tour. Some of the footage was unintentionally funny, like when the gentlemen were talking outside a theater for instance, the camera was across the street and cars/buses kept driving by, blocking them from view. You could hear them loud and clear, but couldn't see them and I wasn't sure why the camera had to be so far away. When a bus completely stopped right in front of the camera and we're hearing these disembodied voices, it made us laugh. Then, when they were interviewing a guy who was actually fairly interesting, they had the camera practically up his nose, which was distracting. My overall impression was that these were nice and informed guys who were doing the kind of video an amateur, like myself, would do. It was a bit of a snooze. To me, it's hard to make Beatles lore boring, but they almost managed. January 4, 2007

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