Blog Assignment #3: Beatles Walking Tour in London

On July 2, the whole group went on The Beatles Walking Tour in London. I think technically it’s called the Magical Mystery Tour, but there was no bus involved :) To me, the walking tour and the bus tour are hardly comparable. The bus tour focused on the early lives of the Beatles and how their hometown played such an important role in their song writing. It toured around different places that influenced them as individuals and as a group. However, the walking tour in London brought us to places that the Beatles had a big impact on. Several of the locations were ones that were made popular because of the Beatles’ use for it. It was enjoyable to have such contrasting tours because it gave such a complete spectrum of the influence on the Beatles and their influence on society.

The first location that we were taken to was Paul McCartney’s current London office.  I believe MPL stands for Music Publishing Limited. The company was founded by Paul McCartney in the 1970s and the building is still up and running. It is used for publishing music, just like the name states. The objective of this office is to help musicians publish their music, while the agency can also offer suggestions and get the artist on a successful track.  The artists sell their work to the agency, but in return are able to reach the full potential of their creativity with some help.

The next location we walked to was Trident Studios. This is the studio where the Beatles recorded Hey Jude. They did a number of recordings at this studio, but several other artists recorded some of their best songs in this studio as well. Other artists that recorded at Trident Studios include James Taylor, David Bowie, Elton John, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Queen, The Rolling Stones, and many more. This location is not one that the Beatles made popular necessarily because the studio housed many more successful artists. However, this is one of the important landmarks of the Beatles history and their road to success.

Next we walked down Carnaby street. This street is full of hip shops for the young adult population. There are numerous trendy clothing stores, shoe stores, accessory stores, and everything in between. Although the stores are probably not the same companies from when the Beatles shopped along this street, they did make use of the trends of Carnaby. The Beatles, as well as other young celebrities, would shop here to find trendy clothes that not just anyone could buy off the street. Although all the stores were certainly open to anyone who wanted to walk in, they were higher priced and more designer style clothes. Celebrities had the fortune to support these prices, where as the fan base did not necessarily. It soon became known that Carnaby street was the place to go to look like all of the celebrities and the celebrities then started to take their business elsewhere.

Another location we walked to was 3 Sevile Row. This location was very important in the Beatles history. That address was the former location of Apple Studios where the Beatles recorded quite frequently.  Besides this being a location that the Beatles utilized for much of their career, it was also a notable spot for the end of their career as the Beatles. The Beatles had stopped performing live several years before they broke up as a band, but during their last year or so, they started filming Let it Be. This was a documentary type film that showed the Beatles in the process of recording an album.  Paul had the idea to end the film with a live performance on the roof of Apple Studios. The Beatles had their live performance and performed Get Back, I’ve Got A Feeling, Dig A Pony, Don’t Let Me Down, and perhaps a few others. Although the performance ended with them being asked by the police to stop the concert because they were disrupting the peace, they did gain success from the short concert they gave. Some of the songs were recorded on the roof and those recordings even made it onto the album. This was a very special location to me. I have always been intrigued with the roof-top performance because I wanted to know the meaning behind it. Did they do it just because they felt like it? Were they trying to send out the messages in their songs so everyone could hear without a choice? Was it an attempt to solve continuing issues between the four? Maybe it was a combination of all of the above. That’s what strikes me about the performance. It’s a very cool idea, yet the intent can be left to the audience.

The next and final location we went to on the walking tour was Abbey Road. This is a prime example of a location that became famous because of the Beatles. They recorded at Abbey Road Studios and also shot their easily recognizable cover of the four of them crossing the road in front of the studio. However, Abbey Road Studios was not previously called Abbey Road Studios. It took on that name after the Beatles made such a success out of the album. Before the studio was named Abbey Road, it was called EMI studios.Whether there was  much intention behind that photo shoot or not, the Beatles made that location the most photographed location in the world because of that shoot. It is the most recognizable album cover, the most recognizable street, and the most recognizable pose. It is also probably the most annoying intersection for the locals to have to drive through. The location has become so popular that there is a live webcam that runs non stop filming all of the pedestrians crossing the street like the Beatles did. The wall of Abbey Road Studios is completely covered in signatures and messages from fans. Interestingly, the wall is painted over every four months to have a clean slate once again. It’s really fascinating to me that the graffiti is encouraged in this location instead of looked down on and considered illegal.  In my opinion, Abbey Road is THE Beatle location in London that is an absolute must.

Our tour was over after Abbey Road, but I tagged along with Mike and a few others to go find some other Beatle locations that we weren’t able to get to. The location that stuck out the most to me in this search was the apartment where Ringo formerly lived. This was also the apartment that Ringo had loaned to John and Yoko. John and Yoko were arrested from this location for possession of drugs and it is also the location where they took the cover shot for their first album together, Two Virgins. What stuck with me the most about this location is that it was marked with the same blue plaque that was on John Lennon’s childhood home in Liverpool. The blue plaque was the exact same one and had John Lennon’s name on it. It struck me as odd that John Lennon’s name was on Ringo’s apartment, but later in the search around London, there was another location with John’s name on it. I was under the impression that the plaque represented the home of that person, but perhaps I was wrong. I still am not quite sure of why that plaque is placed on Ringo’s former home, but I do support the idea of honoring John in important locations in his life, even if it wasn’t his permanent home.

There were several other locations that were important in the Beatles’ history, but this is just an explanation of a few that stood out to me and that I saw as historic landmarks. Again, I enjoyed this tour because it was from an entirely different perspective than the Liverpool tour. In Liverpool, it was about all of the places that made an imprint on the Beatles, but in London, it was about the Beatles making an imprint on us.

And in the end...

July 4- Happy late 4th of July everyone :-) It's weird being in the UK for an American holiday. Nobody celebrated it or thought anything of the day...obviously. However, we did pass a few Americans who were decked out in patriotic colors. It was hard to even recall that it was a holiday! Anyways, this was our first of the two days free in London. The girls and I slept in....such a relief...and then decided to go out shopping for more souvenirs and try to do the Harry Potter Bus tour. Unfortunately, we found that the bus tour only ran on certain days and that day was not one of them. Drat. There was a walking tour but nobody was interested at all in walking more :-P We went into the heart of all the shopping places for quite a long time and spent most of the day there. After walking around probably more than we would've going on the Harry Potter tour, we decided to go on one of the boat tours of London in the river. While walking over there, Cheshire wanted to go to Westminster Abbey. We walked over there and got a bunch of good photos and then just relaxed in the front lawn for a while to give our feet a rest. I had do visit the gift shop, of course, but fortunately for my suitcase I only bought a small little gift for mom. Then we ventured off to find the river boat cruise and the one we wanted to go on didn't have any more going out. FIGURES! Luckily, there were several boat cruises in that location, so we had to walk down the river a bit and find the next one. That one worked out fortunately, but it was a closed in boat. It was nice and all, but we couldn't really take pictures of all the places we were going by. We got off at Greenwhich and wandered around for a while until we found the train station back to King's Cross. We got some dinner and then Katia and I turned in for the night and watched a movie. It was a fun day full of walking. Seriously, my feet and legs have NEVER hurt so bad in my entire 21 years of existence.

July 5- So this day, we all got to sleep in again. Yay! It was not only our last free day in London, but our last day of the trip :-( It was a sad day...but we still were determined to make the best of it. After dealing with the jerk at the post office, me, Cheshire, Anna, and Katia all went to the London Zoo! It wasn't a very large zoo, but we got pretty good views of all the animals. Especially the gorillas :-) They also had a butterfly house that I really liked. There was a kind of butterfly there that I had never seen before. The wings were totally transparent, but they were outlined in black. They were sweet looking. Katia also got to see the tigers :-) After a couple hours at the zoo, we hurt again and decided to go back to King's Cross. So we all walked back to the train station where the zoo was and literally jumped on the next train. We got there RIGHT AS a train was about to leave, so Katia leaped in and Anna followed. Then I jumped in behind Anna and Cheshire was behind me and the doors closed on her! We tried to get them back open but they wouldn't. Sadly and also humorously (:-P) we left Cheshire at the train station. When the three of us got to King's Cross we decided to wait around for her to make sure she got back okay. We waited and waited and waited and waited and called about a thousand times. There was no sign of Cheshire. After waiting for a while and also having the time to turn in our Oyster cards, we finally decided just to head back to the hostel and hope that she knew where she was going. When we ventured out of the train station it was raining...ugh...but Katia got a text from Cheshire saying that she was back at the hostel. Good grief....It was quite a memorable moment. The last train ride of the trip certainly was a special one. We got back to the hostel and everyone still had to pack and such. All of us rested up for a bit and then found some dinner later in the evening. We had some good conversations in the top floor of McDonalds and then came back to the hostel to finish packing and get ready to leave SUPER early the following day. We all hung out some more once we got back to the hostel (my sincerest apologies for those in the room attempting to sleep) and then called it a night.

July 6- This day was a very bittersweet day for me. I was so ready to see my family and be with them again, but I was so NOT ready for my incredible vacation to be over. The day started early at 4AM so we could all meet up and get a shuttle to the London airport. Our flight left around 8:30, so we got there with plenty of time to spare. The plane ride was not as dramatic for me as the first one was, but it wasn't exactly smooth sailing either. We all started to board the plane and I was one of the lucky ones who was selected to go through my carry on bags before I went on...joy. I didn't mind them searching, but it was literally impossible to pack by bags again. That was frustrating. I honestly think they had to hold the plane for me because it was taking so long. So I finally got on the plane and got settled in my seat. I fell asleep for short bits of time throughout the plane ride. There were actually several empty seats scattered throughout the plane, so Katia came up and sat in the empty seat next to me. That made the ride better. Also, as I was watching TV on the screen on the back of the seat in front of me, my screen caught a virus or something and didn't work for the rest of the trip.....sigh.....The plane ride finally ended and then we all had to go through customs and such to get to our various connecting flights. Sadly, my flight was in a different terminal than everyone else, so I had to part ways with the group sooner than I had expected :-( I said my goodbyes to those that I saw and then went to my gate. I picked up a bite to eat and had to get used to using dollars again. My little puddle jumper plane boarded and then I was on my way to Kansas City. The flight was about 2 1/2 hours and I slept for absolutely none of it. It didn't seem horribly long, but I was anxious to land and see my family. We finally landed and I was greeted by my parents and sister with a huge poster, balloons and BRIGHT flowers :-) It was quite a welcome. After we got home, I distributed all the stuff I had bought for them and showed off my pictures.

Now here I am the following night back in Overland Park. It's good to be home, but I do miss my new friends and being in England. Although I was sad to leave and am still sad that I'm gone, it is always good to leave on a high and wanting more than leaving bitter. I truly had a fabulous time and couldn't have asked for better people or a better place. Thank you to all who followed my blog and to those who shared all of the very memorable experiences with me.
To all my study abroad friends- you made the trip such a joy and I am so blessed to have spent the past month with such great people and teachers. I will most certainly be in touch. I will also be posting my final blog assignment eventually :-P
Cheers!

Back in London

Hello all. The group is back in London and it was a sad goodbye to Harlaxton Manor. Okay, so going day by day since the last post....
July 1- like I said, we drove back to London in the afternoon and had the rest of the day free to do whatever. The girls and I (Mathea, Cheshire, Anna and Katia) all had tickets to go learn some Scottish dancing! The event is called a Celeidh(spelled something like that) which is the Scottish term for party or gathering. How it works is that you go completely clueless of Scottish traditional dance and they teach you lots of them. There was a live band there with two fiddlers, a bass player, guitar player and a drummer. They sounded really cool! It was a blast. We may have sucked at the dancing, but it was certainly a good time. That basically did us in for the night, so we got back to the hostel and crashed. OH, about the hostel. It's an interesting place to say the least. It's located in a former prison...? Some of the rooms are even jail cells. It's kind of weird, but they've done it up so it doesn't really LOOK like a prison. The rooms are very very tight. My room is the room of 10 gals...it's quite an experience :-)

July 2- First of all, Happy Birthday to my beautiful mother that I miss so much. On this day we were scheduled for the Beatles walking tour around London. We saw a bunch of different Beatle locations on the tour that were pretty sweet. We saw where the roof top performance took place, so that was really cool. The tour ended at the one and only Abbey Road. I feel so bad for the locals that have to drive down that street and dodge all the pedestrians trying to get a picture in the middle of the road. None the less, we all did get some pretty good pictures. Katia also got me a sharpie and I wrote on the wall. I learned on the tour that they repaint the wall every 4 months. However, I also signed a brick that wasn't painted over. Maybe that one will last a little longer than the comment on the wall. It was super cool. Dennis and I wandered into the parking lot of Abbey Road Studio and took some pictures. Unfortunately a lot of it was under construction, so we didn't get to see the building very well. After the tour, we were free to split off and do whatever. I went with Mike, Dennis and Kim to see some other Beatle sites that we didn't cover in the tour. We saw RINGO's apartment that has a John plaque on it. It was the apartment that Ringo had let John and Yoko stay at for a while and it's also where they shot their "Two Virgins" cover picture. We also went by Jane Asher's former home and by one of the restaurants that was in the movie Help! The restaurant looked NOTHING like it did in the moving. In fact, it wasn't even a restaurant. It looked like an empty building, but it was indeed the location. After that I caught up with Katia, Cheshire, Mathea and Anna in a different part of London where Pride was going on. They had been there for a while, so Katia and I split off and did some shopping for the night. I bought super cool nail polish that you'll love, Ashlen. :-) We got back to the hostel and chilled with everyone for the rest of the night.

July 3- Today! So today was the Natural History Museum. It was really cool and HUGE! I know we didn't cover every room in there because it was so gigantic. It was very interesting though. We spent a few hours there and then were free again to split off. The girls and I went and got some lunch and then Katia, Anna and I all came back to the hostel because we were all really exhausted. After a little rest, a bunch of the group left to go to the Globe Theatre to see a Shakespeare play. Katia and I decided to go back into downtownish London and see what all was open and what there was to do. All the stores were basically closed, so instead of shopping we went to go see a movie instead! We saw Bad Teacher. It was very good....not at all what I was anticipating, but it was a good movie. The movie theatre...sorry...the Cinema was incredibly fancy too. It was fun :-) After that we walked around some more and looked around for something else to do. We found a bunch of really good souvenir shops and also stopped for a snack. While we were shopping, we also found another stand to get your feet sucked on by fish. Our feet hurt, so we did it. It tickled, again, but it was fun and it felt pretty good after I got used to the weirdness. We took the tube back to King's Cross and now here I am! We are both in the TV room at the hostel right now. It has really sweet chairs and it is less claustrophobic than the bedroom. I don't know what lies for tomorrow, but I will be sleeping in! WHOOO!! That's all for now. Cheers! I'll post more pictures soon.