Liverpool Celebrates Its Musical Heritage With Lennon Festival

 
Almost every major city in the world has its own musical heritage worth investigating. As you can see from our “Music + Travel Worldwide: Touring the Globe Through Sounds and Scenes”, Moscow has its underground clubs, rife with punk acts influenced by over a century of chanson protest music, Los Angeles has its own Californiacated version of country and Mumbai throbs with the sound of Indiepop. Few cities, though, have a musical legacy that can be defined by one act. But such is the case with the Merseybeat genre of the 1960s—a sound that emanated from the town of Liverpool beside the river Mersey, defined by the Beatles (as well as bands like The Dave Clark Five, Herman’s Hermits, and The Searchers) and celebrated by the upcoming two-month-long festival in that post-industrial town dedicated to the late Beatle, John Lennon.

Created to celebrate what would have been Lennon’s 70th birthday, the festivities will kick off this October. As noted in the BBC piece on the planned event—which will include film, stage, artists and other non-musical contributions as well as multiple concerts—the initiative, led by the city of Liverpool’s municipal government, will also mark the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Beatles and the 40th anniversary of their famous split. Amazing, isn’t it, that the four lads of the Beatles were able to achieve a level of international fame that made them Liverpool’s most famous Soucers of all time (the childhood homes of both Lennon and Paul McCartney are national heritage sites) in the span of a decade (several years of which were spent playing the rowdy clubs of post-war Berlin in almost total obscurity).
 

 
So, if you’re planning a musical tour of Europe, a la our “Music + Travel Worldwide: Touring the Globe Through Sounds and Scenes” make sure you set aside some time between early October and December 9th to check out the city that raised one of the 20th century’s most iconic songwriters.
 
Image: A statue of John Lennon outside the The Cavern Club in Liverpool.