How Does The Musical Legacy of The Beatles Affect The Musicians of Liverpool Today?

Sit a moment on any bench in Liverpool, and think. It is almost as if you can hear the music calling to you from across the years. Prop yourself up against a wall in the famed Cavern Club, located on Mathew Street, the centre of Beatles mecca and imagine for just a few seconds that the greats of the past are on the stage.

Liverpool is a city rich with cultural history, sitting on the banks of the River Mersey, however it is perhaps most famous for two things: football, and The Beatles - though around the same time as the Fab Four, Liverpool also churned out acts such Gerry & The Pacemakers, and singer Cilla Black. For the last sixty years, Liverpool has attracted tourists from all over the world. In 2015, Liverpool was made a UNESCO Creative City - a world heritage site, such as the Great Wall of China and the Pyramids of Giza.

But one question has always been posed, and nobody has ever come close to answering it - what is it that spurs such a talent for music from a city that is so incorrectly stereotyped as sub parr?

I have interviewed four artists who, prior to the pandemic, regularly performed in Liverpool; one of whom, Tony Skeggs, currently holds a residency at the aforementioned infamous Cavern Club, where The Beatles appeared 292 times between February 1961 and August 1963, and Cilla Black, then known as Priscilla White, was the cloakroom attendant.

I want to know how the legacy of the Fab Four affects the music of my artists, and also them as people. I want to know how the tourists who come to Liverpool to embark on the well-documented Beatles pilgrimage drive the thirst for music in Liverpool. These four artists have agreed to share their experiences to answer one overarching question:

How does the musical legacy of The Beatles affect the musicians of Liverpool today?

April Moon are a band originally from Saskatchewn, Canada. Jaime and Jason, the duo that make up the band, moved to England in 2012 to work as musicians, moving to Liverpool in 2018. They worked a lot in Liverpool before moving there, however, and found that there was a big audience for them in the city, "there's always somewhere in Liverpool to play, and always an audience to watch and appreciate what you're doing." Jaime remembers the first time she came to Liverpool, "I was with friends and Jason, and he wanted to take us on a 'Beatles Tour' - never mind that he hadn't been to the city since he visited as a kid - he took us on a tour that I bet rivalled the official ones!" It seems then, that once one visits Liverpool, they do not forget it, as shown in how Jason was able to give a very good tour of Liverpool even years after he had last visited.

My other three artists; Tony Skeggs, Barry Jones and Ian Prowse, are all slightly older than the members of April Moon, and some of them can remember Beatlemania - the name given to the fanaticism which surrounded The Beatles in the 60s, though many people have made the argument that Beatlemania has never really gone away, only faded into the background. Those same people argue that when you find a Beatle fan, especially one of a younger age as a lot of the original fans were, they are fanatics. "I was born in the 1950s," said Barry Jones, "and for as long as I can remember, I've been interested in music and acutely aware of Liverpool's musicians. Beatlemania started when I was around 9 years old. My brother and I - he's two years older than me - would wait up at night to listen to Radio Luxembourg," for context, Barry and his brother would wait up for a family friend's band's song to be played, "and for a while, our next door neighbour was Pete Shotton's brother. Pete was John Lennon's closest friend for many years, even during the height of The Beatles' fame, so I've always been quite close to the Merseybeat sound and the story of The Beatles. That's never left me. I like all kinds of music, but I've always been a Beatles fan."

Similarly, Tony Skeggs remembers when his sister, who was ten years older than him, saw The Beatles at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1965, "I waited up to see her get home, it was so exciting. She got home in a flood of tears. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before... The Beatles were always in the air when I was growing up." Skeggs then goes on to say, "they [The Beatles] are my biggest influences, I think. Between The Beatles, the Stones, The Who, the Kinks and everybody else, I have a backbone to my music."

The Beatles, who, on average, account for around £82million out of an estimated £94million of Liverpool's tourism industry a year, have a real impact on the city. Over fifty years after they were first formed, The Beatles are still bringing tourists to their city, "all day everyday, I am in The Beatles' company." Ian Prowse said, "I have lived opposite Mathew Street for the past fourteen years, so they're always in my ears and in my eyes, as McCartney says, and there are some Beatles songs that I wouldn't miss if I never heard them again because they're played nonstop at the Cavern... but there's a certain magic about knowing that you're tramping the same streets that they did."

Skeggs agreed, "the Cavern is a massive part of Liverpool culture, especially for the tourists. It draws them in," some have compared it to a Mecca for Beatles fans, "when you play those Beatles songs and you've got a whole audience going crazy for them, well it's incredible."

In the early 70s, Tony Skeggs founded a band called 'The Overtures', a cover band for 60s, 70s and 80s music that is still going today, albeit without Skeggs. He cites The Beatles as one of his biggest musical influences alongside the likes of The Rolling Stones and The Who. For him, The Beatles have always been a part of his music, not least as a resident musician at the Cavern Club, "they [The Beatles] are played continuously in the Cavern. They're a massive part of the culture, and I consider them everyday, musically. I love to cover Beatles songs - 'Twist and Shout' is my favourite and I've done it more times than I care to admit."

Likewise, Barry Jones feels that his music is quite close to that of the early Beatles music, before even they were The Beatles, calling themselves The Quarrymen instead, "I play acoustic guitar and harmonica, so my own roots are in skiffle which is what the Quarrymen were doing originally..." Fans of The Beatles appreciate and enjoy his music, "I've played Mathew Street, the Cavern and mainly the Cavern Pub about 400 times over the years. Most of the audiences are Beatles fans in some way - thankfully they've seemed to like what we're doing and I have social media friends all over the world now as a result." Jones' has felt the impact of The Beatles in the friends that he has made and the audiences which have come to appreciate his music during live shows.

April Moon play their own material, but also are a members of a cover band. "You can't go wrong with Beatles tunes!" Jaime declares. Many would agree; in 2019, The Beatles had over 1.7 billion streams on Spotify alone. It would seem, then, that the members of April Moon moved to Liverpool due to a demand for their music and are now finding that The Beatles have led them to join a cover band and to draw in audiences who love a Beatles song. "We try and do our own arrangements and versions, but there's a certain point in the night when it just feels so good to pull out 'I Saw Her Standing There' and have everybody dancing and singing along and sharing the happy moment that the song captures."

Ian Prowse is in the band's company all day, and having lived close to Mathew Street for almost fifteen years, is always listening to their music. Whilst he may say that there are some songs that he wouldn't mind if never heard again, I have a sneaking suspicion that he is not quite serious and may even miss those songs if they were never played again, or simply wiped from existence the way they were in 2019's Yesterday, a romantic comedy film where the entire world forgets about The Beatles and their music other than three select people.

So, is it fair to say that the musical legacy of The Beatles has an impact on the musicians of Liverpool today? I think it is. The four artists interviewed here have all been inspired by the music of the Fab Four. They are in the company of John, Paul, George and Ringo daily - some of them more than others - and their audiences are made up of Beatle fans. I very firmly believe that the musicians of Liverpool will never escape the legacy of The Beatles - and I do not know why they would want to. The legacy is a large tourism industry, avid audiences and beautiful songs which will always belong to everybody. Perhaps it is a beautiful thing to be surrounded by the personas of four lads from Liverpool who made it big, with the possibility of it happening again never far away.