The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour, Liverpool

...– buys a ticket for the Magical Mystery Tour, they know what to expect; we guarantee them a trip of a lifetime, and that’s what they get – the incredible Magical Mystery Tour!’

Indeed, you should have an idea what to expect when you sign up for the Magical Mystery Tour; having seen the movie a good couple of times, with zany skits of nonsense pushing the boundaries of surrealism to the very limit, I became rather excitable when I discovered ...
...the same name. Liverpool’s interpretation of the Magical Mystery Tour offered Beatlemaniacs of all ages the opportunity to ride around on a replica bus from the 1967 film whilst uncovering some of The Beatles deepest, darkest secrets in their home city.

Or alternatively, you’ll find out where John, Paul, George and Ringo grew up and perhaps where they went to school.

Being overly fanatical about the whole thing (yeah, ... more

‘When a man – or woman – buys a ticket for the Magical Mystery Tour, they know what to expect; we guarantee them a trip of a lifetime, and that’s what they get – the incredible Magical Mystery Tour!’

Indeed, you should have an idea what to expect when you sign up for the Magical Mystery Tour; having seen the movie a good couple of times, with zany skits of nonsense pushing the boundaries of surrealism to the very limit, I became rather excitable when I discovered that Liverpool’s tourism industry had manufactured a sightseeing event of the same name. Liverpool’s interpretation of the Magical Mystery Tour offered Beatlemaniacs of all ages the opportunity to ride around on a replica bus from the 1967 film whilst uncovering some of The Beatles deepest, darkest secrets in their home city.

Or alternatively, you’ll find out where John, Paul, George and Ringo grew up and perhaps where they went to school.

Being overly fanatical about the whole thing (yeah, I bet you’re surprised!) and reserving enough spaces on my camera to bask in the full glory of the streets and sights of Liverpool that became famous in an array of the bands back catalogue of music, it would soon become apparent that I’d been taken in by the charm of the shiny, colourful website for the Magical Mystery Tour rather too easily...

WHERE DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR?
Way back during my first Beatlemania month last year, when I was searching around the internet for images of the original Magical Mystery bus, I found out that there were tours in Liverpool where you could sit on a coach, that looks shockingly similar to the one in the film, as you listen to a trained Beatlemaniac who discusses the sights and sounds of Liverpool through the eyes of the cities favourite sons. It sounded like something I would more than happy pay money to go and do (or to be precise, it sounded like something I would be more than happy to pay to go and do using my Dad’s money) just for sitting on a makeshift bus all afternoon! Sad, I know...

Promising an epic trip, in which you ‘immediately feel alive with Beatlemania’ once you’ve got one foot on the coach, this notion was from a mini review by an actress called Helen Noble, who claimed she had been on the Magical Mystery Tour before and rather enjoyed it. I’m not sure whether she’s a proper actress or whether she’s just branded herself as an actress for pretending to like this version of the Magical Mystery Tour as much as she did but from the description, I really was expecting something spectacular; I was hoping for a dodgy, over crowded bus that smelt of weed and a Miss Winters clone who hosted the tour so we could yell ‘Good morning Miss Winters, Miss Winters!’ every time she opened her mouth to speak.

Alas, maybe for once in my life I was looking through rose-tinted specs about the whole thing but Nobel’s account did give that kind of impression; that the Magical Mystery Tour was the perfect trip for any Beatle obsessee and a must for anybody in or around the city of Liverpool.

Reviewers - who trusts them?!

HOW DO YOU BUY YOUR TICKET FOR THE MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR?
Turning up on the day would apparently be a bad idea and I second that; the bus WAS full of Beatles fans, well at least on the day that we happened to take the trip. So, booking in advance is necessary which some people may be a bit uneasy about (too many modern moral panics to mention here) but it is really the only way to truly secure a place on the Magical Mystery Tour bus for a date and time which is convenient for you.

By visiting the Cavern Club’s official website, you will first need to email the company and tell them which day you want the tickets for. Within about three hours, I’d gotten an email back saying that there were tickets still available for the following Monday, either at 11.40am, 2.10pm or 5.15pm. Because I had reckless images of sitting in the Hard Day’s Night Hotel in Liverpool for the duration of the afternoon and trying their entire list of cocktails, we opted for the 2.10pm trip because it would have been a bit too naughty to get drunk immediately after lunch.

That was in the August of 2008 and there now seems to be only one tour per day, leaving at 2.30pm. There are apparently more tours on weekends and school holidays, well an extra one at 12pm, but it’s interesting to see how the recession has hit tourism already in this country; with the news predicting that more people will be staying at home to holiday in 2009, the organisers of the Magical Mystery Tour may be shooting themselves in proverbial here by reducing the number of tours they do daily. However, the only days when there are no Magical Mystery Tours are Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day so unless you’re spending a couple of nights in the city over Christmas, there shouldn’t be a problem in terms of booking a date that is best for you.

The tickets themselves cost £12.95 per person in 2008 (now tickets cost £13.95) and I don’t think there is a discount for children or indeed concessions but there is a reduction if you’re booking for a party of ten or more. It does sound a little bit pricey, but when you consider that you are paying for over two hours worth of Beatrivia* (in theory) for a guided tour, I don’t think it’s all that bad. Plus, when you are a dedicated fan, it’s easy to spend your parent’s money on such fanatical goodness!

Purchasing your tickets is fairly simple, as long as you are familiar with the internet service of Paypal. That is another snag of the tour from the customer’s perspective as you can’t pay on arrival. It’s good for the company because even if you can’t go for some reason or another, they’ve still got your cash but to be able to pay, you must email the company first in order to reserve the seats on the bus for the desired day. The seats are only confirmed once the Cavern Club company has emailed you back and given you a link to process your payment and you get a printable receipt again via email once the payment has been processed. You will need this piece of paper and the valid tickets, which are sent to you via the Royal Mail, on the day as it’s your proof of purchase although it’s a good idea to remember that you don’t have a designated seat on the bus so it’s a bit like ‘first come, first served’ really.

If you’re not a fan of paying for things over the internet, there are another few options available with the first of these allowing you to reserve your tickets over the phone. Again, I think you’ll need your credit or debit card at the ready so that the phone operator can process your payment but it’s obviously a better idea if you don’t have permanent internet access or are more concerned about fraud issues. If you’re still not a fan of using your debit or credit card either on the internet or over the phone, you can purchase tickets from a couple of points in Liverpool itself, such as at the Beatles Shop on Mathew Street, The Gallery next to the Hard Day’s Night Hotel on Mathew and North John Street or alternatively the Tourist Information centre at the Albert Dock or the one at Whitechapel.

I’m not quite sure how far in advanced you do have to book your tickets if doing so over the phone or on the internet but considering it did take a couple of hours in order for me to process the payment and such, it wouldn’t be a good idea to set about doing this the day before you want to go on the Magical Mystery Tour as you could inevitably miss out on reserving enough seats for you and your guests.

WHERE DOES THE MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR BEGIN?
Starting at the Gower Street bus stop, in close proximity to the Beatles Story Museum which we had already spent all morning gazing around, the Magical Mystery Tour is due to roll up at the said time on the tickets. I was looking forward to cramming more Beatles related information into my head at this point and thank Maharishi for the Beatles MA at Liverpool Hope University!

Anyway, it isn’t overtly clear as to where you meet up beforehand with the Magical Mystery Tour; sure, it says that the journey begins at the bus stop on Gower Street but if you are not overly familiar with Liverpool, you could find yourself scratching your head and hoping that you are actually stood waiting in the right area. Thankfully, we weren’t the only ones who thought we were lost - another lady did too which makes me think that there should be a signpost, just so that you know, for your own peace of mind if nothing else, that you are in the right place and not about to miss out on the trip.

IS IT NEARLY HERE YET?
In true public transport style, the bus was late; granted, it was only tardy by about ten minutes but – typical of the so-called British Summer – it was peeing down with rain and many poor souls who had wondered up to the bus stop after us didn’t get the luxury of queuing under the bus shelter itself. It did make for a rousing and competitive game of ‘I don’t spy the multi-coloured Beatles bus’ but it would have been a nice touch if the coach could have actually gotten to the designated spot at the correct time.

I was perhaps a little over zealous in wanting the bus to roll up with its title track blaring out of massive speakers, with a total disregard for peace and quiet in an inner city area during broad daylight. Needless to say, that didn’t happen which was the first disappointment of the afternoon. The bus took its sweet time getting around the corner to the stop and nearly ran somebody over! Ok, it was perversely funny but otherwise, that kind of inattentive behaviour on the part of the bus driver was only just beginning that afternoon...

There was a pick up point from the tourist information centre at Whitechapel (I think!) which would have literally been about a five minute walk down the road from the Gower Street bus stop. One of my Dad’s grumbles (and believe me, there are a lot of those sometimes) was why the people couldn’t get picked up at the same point we’d been specifically ordered to be at on the confirmation email. It took a lot longer to get to that Tourist Info centre than it perhaps should have done, due to the bustling mid-afternoon traffic, meaning that the tour was inevitably a bit rushed down the line. It took the three people at the Tourist Info place aaages to get on the bus but least it gave Dad and me an opportunity to work on our tutting skills.

Oh joy...

ATMOSPHERE AND SETTING
Second disappointment of the afternoon: the tour guide bumbles off the bus and is dressed in a shirt and jeans; I was expecting him to be donned in a replica white outfit like the tour guide in the actual movie was. A little touch like that would have made the Magical Mystery Tour a bit more atmospheric before it had even begun. Unfortunately, the bus driver didn’t seem that forthcoming to the passengers and, needless to say, he wasn’t in the get up that Mr. Bloodvessel was!

Visually, the bus on the outside looked fantastically like the one in the actual film and in fact looked in fairly good condition, so it must have been recently painted in the blues and yellows of the original Magical Mystery Tour bus, with rainbows and stars on the side panels. However, once you get on board, the bus did lose a bit of that sparkle. It reminded me of a bus I once rode to school on, so instantly, there are some negative connotations there (who said school was the best days of a person’s life?). Some of the chairs had seen better days which would naturally be a product of general wear and tear but it still made the whole set up look a bit cheap before the guy had even opened his mouth to talk.

To me, one of the biggest faults of the tour was that it lacked a real kind of fun attitude about it; the Magical Mystery Tour movie itself – if viewed in the right way – is an hour of comedy gold. Yet, here, it felt a bit passionless and uneventful, with the tour guide just going through the motions of his job. It’s probably to no fault of his own but at some points he didn’t come across as being all that interested, which did lower the tone a bit for me. It could be because he does the job everyday of his life but this is the Beatles, dammit, and they deserve some enthusiasm!

In between each of the main points where you gawped at street names and peered at dusky buildings, some of the bands biggest hits were played, so surely the tour guide should have been excited enough to get everyone singing to ‘Yellow Submarine’ or ‘All You Need Is Love’, right? Nope and in fact, from that stand point, the enthusiasm from a lot of the passengers was a bit unspectacular too and it was difficult to believe that anybody on the bus actually liked the band at all. The whole affair just seemed a bit uninspired and lacklustre from the get go, when it didn’t need to be like that at all.

Of course, it could have just been that I was stuck on a bus with a load of misery-guts and if I was booked on the tour for a different time on a different day, there could have been some more die-hard Beatlemaniacs along for the ride. Alas, no matter whom was on the bus, that didn’t stop the tour guide himself being a little apathetic at times which did undeniable do nothing for the atmosphere.

WHERE DO YOU GET TO GO?
I’m not going to spoil it too much for you but the main destinations are pretty much self explanatory and some are highlighted on the receipt that you get sent from the people at the Cavern Club upon purchasing your tickets. It is pretty much a strict guideline of events, especially with the fact that the tour guides used to cram three tours into one day, so with the exception of exceptionally slows tourists, everything has to run like clockwork.

The exploration involves many basic elements that you’d expect upon signing up for the Magical Mystery Tour in which you get to see the areas where John, Paul, George and Ringo grew up, with none of the Fab Four coming from particularly glamorous parts of Liverpool. The tour guide does milk this a bit, in light of their meteoric rise to superstardom, and makes it seem as if their families were desperately poverty ridden and on the breadline right up until their sons hit the big time, so much so that the Lennon’s, McCartney’s, Harrison’s and Starkey’s could afford to buy their kid’s pricey musical instruments...

With two of the four houses still occupied, one of the most important things to remember if you go on the Magical Mystery Tour is that you won’t get to go into any of the houses, but merely get to look at them from afar. Yes, there is only about two hours twenty minutes of time allowed for each tour, but just going and standing outside of the houses isn’t all that interesting and there isn’t that much information that you couldn’t find elsewhere. It’s handy to find out where the houses are – and surely it looks a lot less suspicious clumped together in a big group rather than on your own with a camera, right?

Perhaps but I honestly feel a bit sorry for the occupants of the terraced house which was the birth home of one of the band members. It must wear awfully thin if people are forever staring at your house because one of the city’s famous folk came out of the womb in that exact same building! With it being bad weather as well, its important to be prepared to get off your butt and walk at some points; as the tour guide pointed out at the very beginning, the bus can’t get down some of the back streets of Liverpool so if you have problems with mobility, you will certainly have issues with getting to all of the essential parts of the tour.

If you did stop on the coach though, you would be missing out on some of the very key moments of the actual tour. Having said that, there wasn’t time to get off and see everything which was disappointing; there were pivotal sites that I think the company should have allowed time so that people could get off and explore a little more than they did. We passed the church yard where the real Eleanor Rigby’s grave lay and – although it would be morbid and disrespectful to go and see the tombstone – it made the presentation seem a bit rushed and haphazard in places, because the tour guide merely skimmed over the brief details before the bus driver sped off down the road again.

Maybe taking pictures of headstones isn’t everybody’s idea of a good time so when you do stop off at the publicised Strawberry Fields site or Penny Lane, there are plenty of photo opportunities. In order for my camera not to crack, I avoided standing there, posing like a majorly obsessed fan and just zoomed in from the coach to get a picture. Why the unwillingness? A) I could see the whole bloomin’ coach getting off to have a look, so getting a snap from my window which was directly opposite the sign whilst the tour guide was talking about staying clear of the road sounded like a good idea. B) You couldn’t get far enough back without standing IN the said road to get a full image, providing the bus wasn’t in the way. C) It was still raining and I wanted to buy a map.

In spite of the tickets costing nearly £13 (now almost £14), with the promise of a free gift at the end (wow, you’ll never guess what it was!) there was no indication as to where you were throughout the tour, without one of the nifty maps that were only advertised at the Rigby graveyard point. The Eleanor Rigby spot was roughly half way through the tour and we did decide to buy a map in case we wanted to visit some of the key areas the next day for a closer inspection. Plus, the map was a nice little memento for £3 (not sure whether the maps themselves have increased in price). However, it could be argued that it wouldn’t have harmed the company too much to have given a map to each group of people who had booked. The map itself is a bit cheap looking and looks very 1990s-esque so they’re probably not updated or redesigned very often.

Yet, it did seem that some of the sights were very, very loosely linked to the band and were only mentioned because it was the direction we were heading in to get dropped off near Mathew Street. The Cathedral, although impressive, was only mentioned because of the ceremony held there after the untimely passing of John Lennon. This was also a similar case with Liverpool’s performance collage which has Sir Paul himself dropping by every year to hand out certificates. Being a life-long Macca fan, my Mum nearly rang UCAS up to swap me from my firm University choice to go there...

In spite of some of the less attentive moments, the stops at the Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane provided some excitable and ‘Oh my God, am I stood right next to this sign?!’ moments but the only places where I honestly felt I learnt something were the stops outside some of the band members houses, in particular John’s. Many were unsure as to why Lennon’s house had a special plaque on the front whereas McCartney’s didn’t but this was explained by the tour guide and it certainly got people talking which made for a nice change!

Finally, parking right outside the aptly named Hard Day’s Night Hotel, the Magical Mystery Tour came to an end. Cheekily, the tour guide told everyone there was a donations basket at the front of the bus where you could reward the bus driver. Yes, you did read that right; we were being asked to pay the same man again who couldn’t even manage a friendly hello when people were getting on the bus, leapt for joy off the coach when the journey came to an end for a cigarette – which, of course, prevented him from saying goodbye to everyone – and nearly got into an argument with the tour guide when he didn’t park in the right place so we could see one of the houses, as fascinating as it was. Not only that but I lost count of how many red lights he jumped throughout the afternoon; whether it was general practise for this particular bus driver or whether it was just because he was going to be working overtime on this particular trip, I don’t know. But it was slightly laughable when you consider that there must have been nearly 40 people on the bus who had each paid £12.95 for a ticket to be asking for more cash for somebody who added very little to the tour at all.

The tour guide himself was friendly enough though and pointed everyone in the right direction towards the final part of the tour, the self explanatory, Cavern Club. It was one of those places where you have to go in Liverpool for the novelty value of it being the Beatles’ palace in the city and hopefully, forever more. As dark and, it has to be said, dingy as it appears in other accounts or pictures, seeing the Cavern in full is a must for any Beatles fans. Unfortunately, there was some moron in there murdering ‘Imagine’ so, we grabbed our free prezzies of – wait for it – an exclusive picture of the band, licensed only by the Cavern Club itself (although I could have sworn I’ve seen it somewhere else before...) we made a bid for freedom in the form of the exit doors, up the hundreds of stairs and into the Hard Day’s Night Hotel round the corner where I proceeded to sample a few of the bars alcoholic beverages.

Trust me, in light of some of the events, a tipple or two was certainly in desperate need!

OVERALL WAS IT ‘SATISFACTION GUARENTEED’ WITH THIS MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR?
Uh, yes and no: I think the Magical Mystery Tour is something that many people would be able to appreciate because it’s solely about the Fab Four and their connection with their home city. However, whether it is for the mega diehard Beatles fans or not is to be debated; I more-or-less knew everything the tour guide was about to say before he had even said it so in effect I perhaps ruined the tour for myself by already knowing a lot about the band in the first place and it possibly didn’t help that I’d visited the Beatles Story museum earlier on in the day. However, I don’t think the tour was necessarily giving anything away that many folks wouldn’t have already known about the group. Sure, it was nice to know the exact location of the lads houses and things like Eleanor Rigby’s grave but if you’d managed to get a map specifying places of interest in Liverpool, the chances are that you’d already be well aware as to where certain places within the city are so paying nearly £13 (now £14) to have a tour guide who sounded a bit unenthusiastic to point them out to you is perhaps a bit needless.

Although filling in the gaps between points with both music that the band had created and been inspired by was lovely and all, to be fair it further adds to the speculation that a fan could just about manage to conduct a tour of The Beatles themselves; sticking on a copy of ‘Octopus’s Garden’ may seem like a luxury for some poor, misguided souls but it just disguised the lack of Beatrivia* on offer at some moments. Having said that, comparisons between some of Paul McCartney’s early vocal performances with that of Little Richards and Roy Orbison was interesting but again, if you have Youtube or a decent pair of ear drums, do you really need this indicating to you? ‘Perhaps not’ would be the generic answer here.

I’m not quite sure how people with limited mobility would cope on the tour; no one on the bus trip I went on required the aide of a wheel chair – or even had a small child who required a pushchair along the way - so I’m not entirely sure if the bus had a ramp for any disabled customers or not. However, judging by the space – or rather lack of – on the bus, it would seem unlikely that the company would cater too much for those customers who are not able to walk up the steps. I couldn’t see any room for a wheelchair other than at the front of the bus where the tour guide was standing so this is something to keep in mind whilst deliberating as to whether to go on the tour or not.

There isn’t a massive amount of walking but there is a fair bit and because of the pace of the tour, you get the impression that you do have to be fairly steady and speedy on your feet in order to keep up. A lot of the back roads of Liverpool are simply not wide enough to fit the bus down so it’s important to bear the walking element in mind too when considering taking the Magical Mystery Tour. There are photo opportunities but again, if you do have limited mobility, you may not even get the chance to take snapshots of the visit because of some of the walking involved on cobbled streets and such.

Having said that, the Magical Mystery Tour does cater for non-English speaking customers, well, as long as those non-English speaking customers are masters of French, Spanish or German as the company does provide MP3 players with such audio tracks so that anyone speaking those languages can still appreciate the sights of the tour whilst being able to understand the dialogue. These MP3 players must be requested in advance and there is a £1 charge if you do not have your own headphones to listen to the MP3 players with which is, again, a little bit cheeky considering the price of the tickets and I’m sure they could throw in a set of headphones anyway without any additional costs.

There are also no toilet stops or anything along those lines whilst the Magical Mystery Tour is running but considering the trip lasts just shy of two hours (in spite of a larger time frame being allocated to each tour) this might not be essential anyway but again, it’s another thing to consider before taking the trip.

Overall, was this version of the Magical Mystery Tour providing satisfaction guaranteed? Not for me, no. It was all a bit rushed, a bit cheap and a bit cold in places considering the attraction was meant to be in celebration of the four lads from Liverpool. It was worth the experience – and perhaps would be even more so for people that don’t know quite as much about the band as I do – but whether it’s worth spending nearly £14 on is questionable when you could just buy a Beatles sightseeing map and spend more time looking around different parts of the city yourself.

Think of this Magical Mystery Tour as just a taster into a far greater realm of Beatlemania.

CONTACT INQUIRIES AND OTHER DETAILS
Website: http://www.cavernclub.org/mystery_tour.php
Email: bookings@liverpoolmagicalmysterytour.co.uk
Phone numbers: + 44 (0) 151 236 9091 (for the Cavern City Tours information service from 9.30am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday)
+44 (0) 151 233 2459 (for the Liverpool Tourist Information Centre)

*’Beatrivia’ is a word I kindly stole off obscuredbykep for the purpose of this review. If anyone knows how to get such a fabulous word in the Dictionary, please let us know! 

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