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Published: September 1st 2009
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johnnie and her flag
Many times people just look at Johnnie & say:
What part of Canada are you from ?
There are people here from many different countries.
Think Johnnie was happy to find two CD's by Paul Mc Cartney that were covered with flags ? They are recordings of his recent performances in Hailfax & on the Plains of Abraham. As of Sunday morning:
Boy, this is a non-stop place during the Beatles week. today the trade fair and convention started. the hotel is packed with people looking at the vendor tables, listening to guest speakers and (as usual) bands playing in a number of venues in the hotel. It runs like most conventions, get your package, pick your spreakers & presentations and go.
Also today starts the Mathew street festival with 6 stages running concurrently with new performers every hour from 11 am to about 8 pm. at the same time the fringe festival kicks off for 2 days from noon to midnight across 13 venues. the fringe festival is more the latest music and teeny bopper stuff. of course the Beatles week music venues across the city are still going strong with the Cavern club having what is called the "all nighter" tonite which means live bands from noon sunday to 6 am monday.
We are having a lot of fun going here there and everywhere. Thursday we went and found some of the old Beatles haunts and checked out some of the more important venues. It was better for picture taking than trying to look
Johnnie & Ernie
This is my email penpal, Ernie. We met via the internet back in July, 2007 when he was very involved in the 50th anniversary happenings at St. Peter's Church. The fan club & store that he helps to run had a big table at the convention. It was so good to share stories in person. We both went to a special presentation given by a representative from EMI/Apple. They chose Beatle Week to give the first public playing of the remixed Beatles recordings that will be released on September 9. It was very special. at the places when they are crowded with fans listening to a band play. of course we had to pop into the cavern club to listen to music in both the front side and back side.
Johnnie is taking lots of pictures. She has had 6 rolls of 24 developed since we got to Liverpool. We should be able to share some of those with you from Eleanor's in Scotland.
Friday we toured around some more of the historical Beatles places. and more Cavern club to listen to a band or two. then at 11:30 pm we had to start in on the first all nighter at the hotel. of course we didn't make it to the 3:15 performance as we are too old for that! Lots of people know about the Cavern Club but many people here you give a trivai quiz as to what the first clubs they played at really were...We have seen all but one. Johnnie hopes to check that one out before we go. It is far from here...
Saturday we went to the live auction of Beatles Collectibles. Many items sold for very high prices (in the thousands of pounds). Johnnie bought 3 little musical boxes that she will show you any time you visit .... After we toured a few more historical places. the highlite of the day was a preformance at the Philharmonic Hall called In My Life. It was a tribute to John Lennon. A review by Julia Lennon, John's sister said she really liked it and that the actor even looked & sounded like John... Johnnie agrees. They told the story with Beatles songs as well as songs written by John, Paul & George after the break-up. When it came to the scene for Dec 8, 1980 ...many of us were moved to tears. After that we went then to the hotel for another all nighter starting at 11:30 pm. the first act we saw the the Sutcliffs from Victoria, Canada. They were very very good.
Vern plans to scope out the 6 stages at the Mathew street festival while Johnnie is at the trade fair and convention.
As of Tuesday (Sep 1):
Sunday, Johnnie spent lots of time at the vendor tables at the convention and got some items she 's been wanting for a long time. Her buddy Ernie brought her the rare collection of 33 Lost Lennon Tapes. Some of them say:Recorded at Home. (Eleanor is in for an earful when we get to Scotland.) As a thank you Johnnie gave Ernie a CD of the best of Gordon Lightfoot. She was really happy that he hugged her & went on & on about what a great singer Gordon was & that he really liked listening to him.
Vern found 5 of the 6 stages and listened to some of the music at each. It was amazing how the city runs this with free attendance with all the street closures, extra police and the stages and performers. Credit goes to Liverpool city council - job well done!
Sunday night we listened to bands at the hotel. they carried on to the wee hours but the cavern club had an all nighter which us old dogs passed on.
On Monday we went down to the mathew street fesival and listened at the beatles stage for 3 hours. then vern went to another stage and watched amy whinehouse. there were thousands of people watching that one. vern only got to within a block of the stage so it was watch on the big sceen.
after supper we went to the Philharmonic Hall for another special performance of beatles music. was called "word is love" so had lots of love songs done by them. also a band played a bunch of songs that the beatles wrote early in their career but gave away to other performers After that we went back to the hotel for the convention ending VIP party that started at 11:30 pm and ran all night. (if you can count, you will have noticed that for 3 solid days the activities have ran 24 hours a day with more activities than we could count)
Today Johnnie is taking a special guided tour called THE MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR.....Johnnie calls it a Magical History Tour! I think vern is just vegging out! tonight we go to the cavern club for a special presentation by the searchers. this performance is the end of beatles week
Johnnie has booked a special tour of the inside of John Lennon's house for wednesday. When we went before we could only walk around. The house is a historical site and the Heritage society gives the tours. They will take her by Paul's house too...
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