William Mews

Alas, the pickings are meagre these days to say the least. The Beatles' London book lists Williams Mews as being the home of George and Ringo in '64 and the place wot was visited by burglarrrrsss. So, whilst waiting around Knightsbridge station (as you do) directing pretty Italians to 'Arrods' (that wasn't the main reason for being there, urm...) I wandered off down the side streets of this most exclusive of neighbourhoods and eventually found it. Quite surprised by the naffness of this building amoung otherwise such appealing mews houses. Worth noting a couple of excellent pubs nearby, The Wilton Arms and The Nag's Head, the latter being of particular interest. Definitely a place where all heads turn to observe newcomers who dare to set foot over their threshold - 'Mine's not a Babycham' but welcoming after the locals adjust to your look. Look at the graininess - gotta get a camera

When did you first realise you were mad ?

Having failed miserably in my early years of schooling I found myself idling away my teens in a 'Secondary Mod' which the Head constantly referred to as a Comprehensive. It was not such a beast ! We had all failed the 11+ and the Grammar was just down the road. We were not the brightist Mr Boulton (obviously) but hey pal - we were not stupid ! Actually some were. Let's move on (if only I could).

There was this art teacher, young and keen, who wanted to expose us to the 'shock of the new'. He started well - surrealism, dadaism etc etc all raised titters and kept us amused but when some more robust members of the class cut down the school tree and hailed it as an 'event' and claimed to have been encouraged by the hippy art master, Mr Boulton was not amused and the young and keen become dull and boring. Back to drawing apples and pears and making montages out of old sunday magazines.

Now this was 1974 and all the kids (not me of course) sported Ziggy Stardust cuts and platform shoes. So to the old magazines with scissors in hand. Hold on, what's this ? An old Sunday Times (11-Jan-1970) with an article about the Beatles Appple empire. Why this caught my attention so much I am not sure but this was the moment when I thought 'What the heck happened to the Beatles ?' And so it started. Cut the magazine up anyway...never thought I'd be searching for it 37 years later and willing to pay £30 for it. Mad ? Relative to what ?

Sunday Evening

Antiques Roadshow - absolutely Sunday Evening. This lady has the single Please, Please Me signed by all four Fabs. In fact, Macca signed it twice. She always liked him best. Worth £3000. So it goes.

Ain't much going on..

Was it Andy Warhol who said 'Boredom can be fun' ? Or was it 'Everybody will be bored for 15 minutes' or was it 'Obsessives are boring in less than 15 minutes'

A combination of kids' parties, sleep-overs and work committments (blimey yes I do have a job and how it distracts from the more important things in life like Fab Four sluething - urmmm....I mean looking after the Brilig clan) ..yes, yes all these things meant a trip to olde Londinium was out of the question (well I did actually ask the question and discovered that it was actually out of the question). So my mis-adventures were once again restricted to a couple of hours in the Olde Worlde Wells of ancient West Cantium. Ho hum Ho Hum Ho Hum. So what's happening here and what has these amateur Beatle Nut to report ? Ain't much I am afraid....Beatles never visited this place so really meagre pickings. Bored, bored zzz..

So, I walked into this tiny shop tucked into a corner of the majestic but rarely visited Corn Exhange. A place where the foot-fall (did I just say that ?) is quiet to the point of silent. A place where I feel so sorry for the little cafe in there that I have been known (Ok - always) to buy a coffee and a scone (that's scone ryhming with ....moan ?) having just had a coffee at Starbucks. I worry that they plan the number of scones they need to bake on a Friday night based on a view as to whether that strange chap with Beatle cufflinks might drop in. Do they ? I don't want to know. How do I get out of that committment ? Stop thinking about it. Anyway, very quiet. But this little place is great. A tiny space dripping with 60's and 70's nostalgia. Got chatting with owner and turns out he runs major nostalgia-fests all around Europe ! He tells me he used to be the football manager of a local non-league team and shows me a photo of himself back in the day with members of the '66 World Cup squad. Glad I made the effort to talk - that doesn't always happen. Note to self - be more sociable. It doesn't hurt does it for christsakes ! Anyhow....as I am leaving, I spot the paperback 'All You Needed was Love'. Read half of it straight off when I went back to Starbucks - why do I do that ?

Next stop - the multitude of chaaaarity shops on the off chance that someone may have dropped off a book, record or some other flotsum or jetsum since last visit (which was last week - gosh what a sad-o). It occurs to me that when you are that in-tune with the evolving itinary of such shops, you get a feeling about who may have 'passed-on' to other places. Don't wanna think about that one. Anyway, Twiggy autobiography catches my attention and I flick to index - as one does (from age about 14). She mentions that McCartney had a pyschedelic mural on his wall at Cavendish Rd painted with JL (check, check) and it is still there - re-decorations painting around it. Well he would, wouldn't he ?

And then the clock strikes and I am once again caught up in the wirrlygig of fantastic family committments which - thank God - draw me back to reality and purpose. The Briligs are home for tea and that is always good.

Our neighbours of ten years are moving on. This is not good news in the Brilig house and we shall miss them. They are having a sort-out and mindful of my interest (obsession ? No, no just a healthy interest surely ?) pass on to me a whole host of Beatle Stuff. I'm lovin' it as the kids never, ever, ever say...

Warbleton

Reader look at this ! This is where Brian Epstein lived '64 to '67. We all know that. This is where he threw the Sgt Pepper party, this is where he got upset coz Macca did not turn up at his party. We know ! We know !It is from here that he set off the night before he died. All very well documented by Mr KenwoodLennon. In true to form style, Brilig drove in circles around this tiny hamlet before pulling up in the middle of nowhere in total desperation (the hours were passing having wasted an hour in The Wrong Place ie Wivelsfield - well its starts with a W and it is in Sussex). Happily, a local who appeared out of nowhere told me 'Its behind you !' and it was - literally. She also then confirmed the stories of the old pile being owned by Americans and that 'there be walls in that there place wot are psychedelic !' She was really very helpful and did not really speak like that and I am very grateful to her.

Here it is from all directions - my obsession knows no bounds.

Looks like there used to be a set of step here - you can see there used to be a gap in the wall..

Here is a 'Beatle Apple' that fell into my hands as I leanred over the fence. Pathetic, pathetic !! But in terms of a good two hours snatched, it was one of the best snatched two hours. Pity I did'nt stop at
No. 41: The Merrie Harriers, Cowbeech, East Sussex on the way back to Chez Brilig. Maybe the next snatched two hours.

An amateur's day out in London

On occasions, I manage to steer the conversation at Casa Brilig in the direction of a London visit, ostensibly playing to the consumerist urges of the younger members of the Brilig clan whose thirst for over-priced trinkets knows no bounds, but at all times planning a parallel path through similar haunts of adjacent places which appealed to these same hedonistic instincts but four decades earlier (albeit with better taste if that means anything other than confirming I am old, old, old). And so, when the family plans point us in the direction of the cathedral of all things shallow and meaningless - eg. Westfield, I 'drop them off' and make a flying visit to Portabello and 'les environs'. Then on to TopShop Oxford Circus - quick detour to Kingly Street...you get the idea. Do I feel bad about the deception ? No, yes, no yes..it will get me in the end but where The Book points me, there go I (Beatles' London Book of course)

So here goes. First up in this Mini Mystery Tour is the Mercury Theatre where the Fabs started their very strange Mad Day Out with parrot, piano and a big board. I wonder about the extent of the planning for that July day in '68. I think I have read that the venues were chosen by Macca's brief girlfriend Francie Schwartz - what lead her to choose those places ?

With Londom AZ in hand I managed to find the site of the Portland Pub around which they zoomed in a deleted scene from A Hard Day's Night. This whole area is just a short walk from the north end of Portabello Road and is now sehr gentrified. The said building is now a Health-Spa-type-thing called Cowshed where one can have one's whole body massaged in an upper class kind of way for a mere...enough of that already.

Still a few minutes before the clan grow bored of Holister hankerchiefs (cheives, chieves ??) at £10 a pop. Quick ! Where next ! Round the corner man - and make it snappy. Here is the Police Station that never was in same film.

Faster, faster ! Some (understatement) embarrasment as I searched for the elusive Heathfield Street where the Four scratched their collective head at the end of a cul-de-sac in same film. The Book said it would not be easy but as I searched in vain I ended up in someone's back garden. Sunbathing on a deck chair, the young chap asked me politely if he could help. He couldn't and I quickly backed away. O joy ! Could this be it ? It is the back of Winterbourne House but the backdrop does not look right. Is it really the place ? Not a road, just the back of the housing estate and no entrance without the key to the big padlock.

Time to pick up the kids and off to Oxford Street. Safetly esconced in Top(myself)Shop with vouchers to spare I dipped down into Kingly Street. First up is Number 9 and the Bag-of-Nails where the Paul met the Linda and Jimi Hendrix first played. This venue is still an exclusive (?) club and across the way at 62 the buidling now looks an unlikely venue for La Valbonne night club. Further up there is 21, previously hosting the Picture Story Publications business.

Enfin, time to eat and why not try The Pheasantry Club Pizza Express in King's Road - everyone's happy and they don't all need to know that this is where Macca chatted-up Julie Felix on 21 January '67. And look at the mural on the wall ! Why the connection with Lou Reed ?

And then a pleasant walk back along 'the street' pausing briefly at 161 which is now a gallery exhibiting the following interesting (same story) pics - also the venue of the first Beatle and last Beatle shop,

Then home - everybody happy ? Yes !

Hold on ! What's this..Logged onto the intraweb only to discover from Mr KenwoodLennon that there was some form of Abbey Road re-enactment on the very day I was sneaking around the city ! I could have been there ! I could have been THERE !!

And with soft, deceitful wiles... serves me right.