This video is on the subject of Beatles locations in and around Liverpool and Wirral. The Beatles legacy is a huge reason for tourists to visit Liverpool. For me personally, I love visiting the locations connected with the Beatles as it helps me to discover more about Liverpool and I can relive the excitement and fascination of growing up with the music of the Beatles in the 1960s.

The video is narrated by me in English with German subtitles. I am using German because from 2019, the main focus of my main YouTube channel is German language. The subtitles will be of use to my students of German and those on my mailing list. I also hope to reach people in Germany who are interested in the Beatles, and who will find the German subtitles helpful and welcoming.

From 2019 all my videos will have a bilingual narration in English and German. I enjoy occasionally featuring other languages as well and in this Beatles video, I’m excited to be doing a Japanese version. A teaching colleague has helped with the translation into Japanese. I’ve given the video a Japanese look with Japan-influenced music by the talented young musician Bad Snacks, featured on the YouTube Audio Library.

To make the video I  travelled all over the Liverpool region on various trips and photoshoots and I’ve been to nearly all the places connected with the Beatles where tourists like to go.

Of the many places I’ve listed so far, one of my favourites is the Casbah Coffee Club, which I visited for the first time in mid-2018. It’s an excellent place to visit as you can really experience what it was like to see John, Paul, George and Pete play in their early days.

I also love the Beatles’ childhood homes 20 Forthlin Road, home of the McCartney family,and Mendips,  where John lived with his aunt Mimi. They’re fascinating to visit as they are both time capsules of the late fifties and early sixties. It’s not possible to take photos inside the houses, so I have only exterior photos.

Just before publishing the final version of the video in January 2019, I found out that there is going to be a new Beatles attraction on the grounds of Strawberry Field. The gates will finally open and fans will be able to find out about John and the other Beatles in a visitors centre. It looks great.

It was perhaps a controversial choice to include this Japanese-style background music in a video about a famous British band from the early sixties. However I wanted to highlight the Japanese perspective. The Beatles are very popular in Japan and many Japanese fans visit Liverpool. One of my goals is to build bridges and overcome barriers of language and culture. This is my way of doing it!

The background music is by an artist who calls herself ‘Bad Snacks’. Her work is available on the YouTube audio library and I think it is superb. I loved these two tracks when I first heard them. in fact some of the content of the video was inspired by this music.

The first track we hear is called Mizuki and has a bright, upbeat character with its Oriental style memory played using the sound of an Eastern instrument, perhaps a koto.

The second track is ‘Shibuya’ and it ‘interrupts’ the narrative in two places. The first time we jump to the little known Japanese garden in Calderstones Park. I wanted to emphasise aspects of Japanese culture in Liverpool. To be honest, there aren’t that many! When I first heard ‘Shibuya’ I immediately wanted to include images of the wonderful Japanese garden.

The second time we jump to ‘Shibuya’ we see the train to New Brighton. I got the idea of using an image of a train because in ‘Shibuya’ there is a hissing sound, perhaps from a train in Tokyo. That image and concept were taken directly from the track by the supremely talented artist Bad Snacks, or whatever her real name is. She is based in Los Angeles and I think she is destined for a very successful career as a musician. Try doing a search on YouTube to find her. She is a very talented young musician.

I hope this video will be seen and enjoyed by people in Germany and Japan as well as those living closer to home. It’s been great fun making this video, though it has taken a long time from its inception to final upload and publication on 8 January, 2018. Co-incidentally, 8 January 1947 is the birthday of David Bowie, another musician I am very keen on.

I love the Beatles music. I grew up with it as a child and two of my favourite songs or theirs are Penny Lane and Strawberry Field. They had a profound effect on me as a child and I’m glad I am able to pay tribute to them in this video.

On my Patreon page I plan to provide more background information and some interesting anecdotes that I don’t share with the wider public.

If you’d like to support what I’m doing, please visit www.patreon.com/aidanorourke