<![CDATA[Beatles Liverpool and More - Beatles]]>Fri, 15 May 2026 21:23:48 +0100Weebly<![CDATA[Brian Epstein Statue Project]]>Fri, 26 Aug 2022 23:00:00 GMThttps://www.beatlesliverpoolandmore.com/beatles/brian-epstein-statue-project
27th August, 2022 WE DID IT.
The Brian Epstein Statue Project Committee.

​THE TEAM

​Tom Calderbank – Project Manager
Bill Elms – Chair
Larry Sidorczuk – Treasurer
Members;  Julie Roach, Kevin Roach, Kim Laycock, Marie Darwin, Robert Roach and   Ralph Kluseman (Iowa Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame & Museum).

The team behind the project has a wealth of collective experience in the fields of public arts, publishing, theatre production and the local Beatles industry.
United in our desire to see this project happen. 
 A big thank you to everyone who supported THE BRIAN EPSTEIN STATUE APPEAL.
YOU DID IT!

]]><![CDATA[Plaque for Brian Epstein: 4 Rodney Street, Liverpool]]>Sun, 01 Sep 2019 11:24:52 GMThttps://www.beatlesliverpoolandmore.com/beatles/september-01st-2019Picture
BRIAN EPSTEIN (19 September 1934 – 27 August 1967)

On September 19, 1934 Brian Samuel Epstein was born at 4 Rodney Street, Liverpool. 

Brian Epstein for many fans was a visionary, he had a vision for four lads from Liverpool as well as many other musicians at the time; Cilla, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Fourmost, Bill J Kramer and the Dakotas and many more. Around the city of Liverpool and the world there are accolades to these musicians but there has never been an official plaque for Brian in the City of Liverpool.  We recognised that there should be something out of respect. Brian's image was key, and that is the image he sold to the world for The Beatles. The Beatles' early success has been attributed to Epstein's management style, business and organisation skills and the band trusted him without hesitation.

We are a group of friends who are made up of Beatles Tour guides, Historians and Authors who meet as 'The Beatles Book Club'. We have been led and driven by Marie Darwin who has selflessly worked hard for the past two years to have a plaque in Liverpool to honour Brian Epstein's birth place. 

Beatles fan and qualified tour guide, Marie Darwin, organised the memorial and successfully earned support from Liverpool John Moores University and Liverpool City Council to gain planning permission for the memorial to honour Epstein, who died in 1967 aged 32.

Marie says "while I was the organiser of the plaque, I couldn't have done it alone" as individuals we all played a part, from raising funds, marketing to supporting Marie. Matthew & Elaine Price owners of CUTHBERTS BAKE HOUSE, 103 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, stayed open late to allow the book group to have their meetings at the bake house, and  on 22nd February 2015 opened their doors to over 50+ guest to continue with the celebrations after the unveiling ceremony and provided an amazing buffet which included the cities traditional 'SCOUSE' with beetroot.  The plaque was designed and made by FRED O'BRIEN is now firmly fixed to 4 Rodney Street, for all fans, tourist and the people of Liverpool to see.
THE PLAQUE WAS UNVEILED BY VIV JONES AND JENI CROWLEY, WHO BOTH WORKED FOR BRIAN EPSTEIN IN NEMS, LONDON. One of the special guest who joined us on the day to celebrate was JULIA BAIRD, Sister of John Lennon and MARIE DARWIN who for the past 2 years has worked very hard to make this happen and a big THANK YOU to the team.
]]><![CDATA[August 22nd, 2018]]>Wed, 22 Aug 2018 19:56:59 GMThttps://www.beatlesliverpoolandmore.com/beatles/whats-on-international-beatle-week-2018<![CDATA[BRIAN EPSTEIN & THE BEATLES 1964:   THE YEAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD.]]>Thu, 07 Jun 2018 15:54:52 GMThttps://www.beatlesliverpoolandmore.com/beatles/pre-fab-the-story-of-one-man-his-drums-john-lennon-paul-mccartney-and-george-harrison-by-colin-hanton-and-colin-hall
click here to order

The Slide Show is just a little snap shoot.

A BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED THE EPSTEIN STATUE APPEAL. 

]]><![CDATA[Ringo Starr - Don't Pass Me By- New book available Now.]]>Sat, 03 Mar 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.beatlesliverpoolandmore.com/beatles/ringo-starr-from-little-drummer-boy-to-beatlePicture
New book available NOW.

A Big Thank You To All Who Pre-Ordered The New Book About Ringo Starr.

All books will be dispatched after the Bank Holiday in the UK, from Tuesday 28th August 2018.

This is the long awaited fourth book in the series by Kevin Roach.

Following on from the other three books, which have been well received by Beatles fans around the world, this book will not disappoint.

Product Details = Paperback
Size = 210mm x210mm
Pages = 112


Order Here
Richard Starkey was born on 7th July 1940, the only child of Richard and Elsie, who where living at 9 Madryn Street, Dingle, Liverpool.

Shortly after the birth baby Ritchie was baptised at St Silas Church of England Church, High Park Street the date of his baptism was 28th July 1940.




St Silas Church baptism register show Richard Starkey's baptism lines.
Ritchie's Dad, Richard was employed as a baker at the time of Ritchie's birth. With the country at war and the rationing that was to follow, the Starkey's, due his father's job, were never short of sugar, which made them very popular in there street!

Ritchie's early childhood was set, to the back drop of war, with Liverpool being heavily bombed, and at the age of 3 years his father Richard left home, leaving Elsie to bring up the baby. Fortunately for Elsie, her Mother-in-law and Father-in-law, lived in the same street and stood by her helping to bring up Ritchie.

St Silas Church, High Park Street
St Silas School
Ritchie at school age
As Ritchie was getting older he attended St Silas School, by this time he and his mum had moved out of Madryn Street to Admiral Grove which was across High Park Street. To make ends meet as a single mother Elsie would take many casual jobs, including working as a barmaid at the Empress pub which was on the corner of the road where they lived.
Ritchie with mum Elsie
Madryn Street junction with
High Park Street
Admiral Grove
The young Ritchie was a poorly child who spent a lot of time in hospitals having a knock on effect on his schooling. It was however during one of his visits to the Children's Hospital that he found his love of drums!

When it was time for him to leave school he left with no qualifications, and after a few deadend jobs he got himself a steady job in the Speke district of Liverpool at H.Hunts, it was there that he joined his first band, known as the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, playing drums during the lunch breaks.

Now that Ritchie had his own drum kit, and had a gig at the Cavern Club with the Skiffle group, he was becoming more well known and in 1959 left Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group to join The Dark Town Skiffle Group, after which he joined the Raving Texans with Alan Caldwell. It was around this time that Ritchie became known as Ringo Starr, and Alan Caldwell called himself Rory Storm.

At the end of 1959, Skiffle was on the way out, so Ringo and Rory re-named the Raving Texans to the new name of Rory Storm and The Hurricanes.
A young Ritchie on drums with
The Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group
Ringo Starr with Rory and the Hurricanes
RIngo on the drums with the Hurricanes
At the beginning of the 1960's, 'Rory Storm and the Hurricanes' had established themselves as the top group in Liverpool, but a new band was coming through to challenge for the top spot, they were called 'The Beatles'!

There were made up of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Pete Best on drums. The rivalry between the two group was always friendly as they would meet each other at gigs around the North West of England and when both groups went on to tour Hamburg, Germany in the early 60's.

It was during 1962, when The Beatles got a record deal, that Pete Best left the group, and George Harrison wanted Ringo to join The Beatles and it was John Lennon who contacted Ringo to ask him to join. At the time Ringo was still with Rory Storm who where performing in Butlins Holiday Camp in Skegness doing a summer season. Ringo said he would join the Beatles within a few days to give Rory a chance to get a new drummer.

Report in music magazine, MerseyBeat - September 6th-20th 1962 Edition - page 10:

STAR DRUMMER!

No wonder Ringo Starr is smiling he is now in a permanent position occupying the drum seat in The Beatles. Ringo is certinly a star drummer, for he has had a great deal of experience having orginally appeared before audiences in the skiffle days as a member of the Dark Town Skiffle Group. for the past three years he has been with Rory Storm and the ever popular Hurricanes, and has appeared for three successive and successful seasons at Butlins Holiday Camps throughout the country.
]]><![CDATA[The story of Julia Lennon - What inspired the Book?]]>Thu, 25 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.beatlesliverpoolandmore.com/beatles/the-story-of-julia-lennon
"Mother, you had me... I never had you.”
These were words written by John Lennon in his deeply personal song ‘Mother’. The song wasn’t so much sang, but screamed out for its recording on the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album. The screaming style he used for the song, and the carefully chosen lyrics, could be described as the behaviour of an angry, rebellious teenager. But I wanted to know, why was he so angry? What compelled him to write something so personal, especially during a critical stage of his career? 

Who exactly was John's mother Julia?

Was she just a good time girl who enjoyed being in the company of men because of the attention they gave her?

Did she have deep, unstable issues that caused her to act out quite wildly?
For a long time people have been asking me when I am going to write a book about John Lennon, but for me John's life has been well documented. For me the story there wasn't about John it was his mother Julia that I wanted to find out about. I had first read about Julia in Hunter Davies 1969 Beatles biography, and wanted to discover if there was another Julia that no one has uncovered. It is such hard work to portray the lives of other people, to everyone's satisfaction and the life of Julia Lennon had been portrayed by so many without research.

'Imagine This', the book by Julia Baird, John Lennon's sister ended up being my inspiration for my 'Julia' book, and the first step in the research was to get in touch with Julia Baird. After months of research and working closely with the family I have found the answer to all of the questions that intrigued me about John's mother in the first place as well as discovering a few incredible things that was new information even to the family such as the fact that the birth of John's sisters were registered twice under two different names!

The book has photographs and documents never before seen and I am excited to reveal that for the first time ever a history book has QR codes built into the book meaning the book contains videos that can be watched with a smart phone.

I hope you enjoy it!

Kevin

To purchase the book 'Julia' visited our shop page

]]><![CDATA[Paul McCartney - In the Town Were They Where Born]]>Tue, 16 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.beatlesliverpoolandmore.com/beatles/paul-mccartney-in-the-town-were-they-where-born
Never before has any book explored the roots of Sir Paul McCartney in such detail. Beatles fans and people with an interest in local history will be fascinated by this journey into the Liverpool background of one of the world's greatest singer/songwriters.

By exploring childhood homes, schools and family photo albums, plus other significant points of family history, author Kevin Roach tells the full McCartney story from before the Fab Four took the pop world by storm.
Using the vast archive of the Liverpool Record Office, Trinity Mirror and a selection of fantastic images from the family album, we discover the influences on Paul and his brother Michael, by going back to where they once belonged.
The essay first came to light when I was researching for my book 'The McCartney's In The Town Where They Were Born' although a lot of other researchers knew of the essay they along with Sir Paul, thought it had been distroyed 60years ago but during my research if found it had been kept in Liverpool Record Office archives department, along with the other winning essay's.
This is just a sample of what has been discovered during the research for The McCartney's In The Town Where They Were Born. the book is available from to buy from Amazon.co.uk












www.amazon.co.uk/McCartneys-Town-Where-They-Were Born.
]]><![CDATA[George Harrison - That's The Way God Planned It. Preview.]]>Wed, 10 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.beatlesliverpoolandmore.com/beatles/george-harrison-school-daysGeorge was born in a small two up - two down terrace house at No 12 Arnorld Grove, Wavertree, Liverpool, the youngest of four children. Shortly after he was born his parents Harold and Louise to George to the local Catholic church Our Lady Of Good Help to be baptised.
The register is written in Latin and reads as follows:
George Harrison - Date of Birth 25th Feb 1943, Date of Baptism 14th March 1943 
Parents - Harold and Louise Harrison ( Formerly French). Godmother - Maria Fox

The Harrison's moved from Arnold Grove to the Speke housing estate to 25 Upton Green, when George was of school age. His first school was Dovedale School which was to be the same school as John Lennon, George knew of John at the school because his older brother Peter was in the same school year as John, but George never really bothered with John at that time.
Picture
Entry No 1833 Name -  George Harrison, Date of Birth - 25/2/43. Address - 25 Upton Green, Speke. in the next column is the word YES this relates to George being exempt from religious education. 
After leaving Dovedale School it was time to go to the Seniors, George passed his 11plus exam and was excepted into the Liverpool Institute High School in Liverpool City Centre, another pupil at the "Inny" but a year above him was Paul McCartney. George and Paul would travel to school on the same bus from Speke to the Inny, and became friends through their interest in Rock-n-Roll.
]]><![CDATA[Eleanor Rigby - The Story beyond the Grave]]>Mon, 08 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.beatlesliverpoolandmore.com/beatles/eleanor-rigby-the-story-beyond-the-grave
The headstone in St. Peter's Churchyard, Woolton, Liverpool
In August 1966, The Beatles released the single Eleanor Rigby the B-side of Yellow Submarine, it was also included on the Album Revolver.

The song was composed by Paul McCartney and since the release the question has always been asked of Paul, "Who is Eleanor Rigby?"

Paul has always said it was a name that came to him that fitted in with the song, In 1984 it was pointed out to Paul that there is a headstone in St Peter's Graveyard Woolton, that contains the name Eleanor Rigby, the significance of this is that it was back in 1957, when Paul met John at the church fete which was held in the same church grounds.

Paul went onto explain the name Eleanor Rigby was in some way planted into his subconscious, from all those years ago, after all John and Paul would regular take short cuts through the church grounds in the early days before they became The Beatles.
The story of Eleanor was once again put into the public spotlight in 2008 when a document contain a signature E.Rigby dated 1911 was put up for auction and was sold for £115,000, the owner of the document stated that it came for Paul McCartney who had sent it to benefit the charity Sunbeams Music Trust.

Eleanor Rigby has always been a woman of mystery, but for those interested in the story of the infamous Eleanor Rigby here is what we found!

John Rigby

The first inscription on the head stone reads, 'In Loving Memory of My Dear Husband John Rigby, Who departed this life Oct 4th 1915, aged 72 years'  'AT REST'.

Our research took us back to the 1891 census.

The census showed John Rigby and his family living at No 8 Vale Road, Woolton. At the time John was listed as born in Woolton, aged 46 and a Stonemason. Also on that census is the rest of the family, Frances, his wife, William, his son, Mary and Frances, his daughters and also Annie and John Howard, John's niece and nephew.
Picture
 Census of Vale Road Woolton, 1891

Eleanor was born in 1895, her mother was Mary Rigby, daughter of John and her father was Arthur Whitfield. They were married on September 11th, 1893 at St Peter's Church Woolton.




Church Road, Woolton, featuring St. Peter's Church circa 1900

The birth of Eleanor Rigby

Picture
Marriage Lines of Arthur Whitfield and Eleanor's mother Mary Elizabeth Rigby, St Peter's Church, Woolton, Liverpool

When Eleanor was born she was given the name Eleanor Rigby Whitfield causing confusion to many researchers as people try to trace the birth records with the surname 'Rigby'.

Sadly for Eleanor she never got to meet her father as he passed away in 1895 aged 24 years, a few weeks after Eleanor was born.
Baptism Register of St Peter's Church Woolton, showing the entry of Eleanor, note her middle name is Rigby
St Peter's Church, Woolton
St Peter's Church Burial and Baptism Registers

Eleanor Rigby Whitfield aged 5

The next information we have relating to the young Eleanor is the 1901 census. The Rigby's are still living at 8 Vale Road, her father has since passed away and the widowed is Mary living with her parents, who had taken her and her daughter in.


Census list reads:

John Rigby aged 59 (father)

Frances Rigby (wife)

Mary Whitfield (daughter- widowed)

William Rigby (son)

Frances Rigby (daughter)

Eleanor Whitfield (granddaughter-  aged 5)

Eleanor's Mother Re-marries

With Eleanor having lost her own father at such a young age, and Mother and baby moving back home to 8 Vale Road, the only father figure Eleanor had known was her Grandfather John, up until the age of 15 when Mary met a new man Richard Heatley. Mary and Richard were married on 15th January 1911 at St Mary's Church, Wavertree, Liverpool.

The marriage line show that Richard Heatley aged 42, married Mary Elizabeth Whitfield, Widow aged 36 years, the address listed was 94 Stevenson Street, although within a few months Mary and Richard changed their address.
Picture
Marriage Lines of Richard Heatley and Mary Elizabeth Whitfield, St Mary's Church, Wavertree,Liverpool

Eleanor Rigby Whitfield aged 15

Rather than being taken in by her step-father, according to the 1911 census Richard has moved into Vale Road with the rest of the family. The census also shows us that Eleanor rather than take the surname Heatley, wanted to remain as Eleanor Whitfield. 
Census List reads:

John Rigby (Aged 67)

Frances (Wife)

Mary Heatley (Married)

Richard Heatley (Married)

Frances (Daughter)

Eleanor Whitfield (Grand Daughter- aged 15, school)

Growing up in Woolton Village

Woolton in 1911 was a small village on the outskirts of Liverpool. Here are images of the junction of Menlove Avenue and Vale Road.
Menlove Avenue 1910
Menlove Avenue 1911
Menlove Avenue 1911

Eleanor Rigby - The Adult Years

In 1915, Eleanor lost her grandfather, John Rigby died aged 72 and her grandmother, Frances in 1928.

Eleanor worked at City Hospital, Parkhill, Liverpool.

In 1930, she married Thomas Woods at St James' Methodist Church, Woolton, Liverpool aged 34.

Six years prior to her marriage to Thomas Woods in 1924, according to the headstone it appeared that 'F&E'Rigby, had and lost a daughter, Doris W Rigby, died December 24th 1927, aged 2 years and 3 months.

Our research into a Doris W Rigby showed her birth was registered in the December quarter of 1924 and the mother's maiden name was listed as Whitfield. It would suggest that the child was born out of wedlock however we cannot be certain of this as we do not have any  details of 'F and E Rigby' as noted on the headstone as her parents, we can only presume that the E stands for Eleanor. thanks to Julie via email we have looked in more detail for 'F&E' 
F is for Frederick Rigby and E is for Elsie Whitfield, Frederick and Elsie where married in 1923 at Russell Road Methodist Church,  Liverpool and Doris was born in 1924, as we first though the E for Eleanor was incorrect we now know it relates to Elsie mother of Doris.

Eleanor Rigby Woods dies
Worksheet form City Hospital, Parkhill, Liverpool
Eleanor Rigby Woods died aged 44 on 10th October 1939 still listed as living at 8 Vale Road, Woolton.
Burial Register, St Peter's Church, Woolton
Statue of Eleanor Rigby by Tommy Steele, located on Stanley Street, Liverpool
]]><![CDATA[September 13th, 2017]]>Tue, 12 Sep 2017 23:00:00 GMThttps://www.beatlesliverpoolandmore.com/beatles/john-lennon-the-early-years-by-marie-darwin]]>