The Beatles, Irish Pubs, and Sea Shanties

Liverpool City Center

Brandon and I had a chance to visit Liverpool this past weekend, in order to attend an ethnomusicology conference at the University of Liverpool. For those who are unfamiliar with the geography of the UK, here is a map, so you can see that Liverpool is much farther north than London, and was therefore much colder than the fantastic weather we have been experiencing here.  As you can see, it is also close to Ireland and therefore has a large Irish population.

The conference we attended had a theme of 'Trans-Atlantic Journeys' and focused mainly on preserving and researching old sea shanties, so one evening we had a special pub experience, listening to an Irish band, and singing sea shanties along with other ethnomusicologists.  Watch a short video here:

Liverpool is also known for being the hometown of the members of The Beatles, so of course we had to visit some famous Beatles sites.  We actually forgot to bring our camera when we went out to visit some of these places, but we were lucky enough to meet a nice young man from Brazil while on the bus and he kindly took our pictures for us, then sent them to us via email.  He was on a whirlwind tour of the UK and Ireland, and was a die-hard Beatles fan so he was on a mission to visit all the famous spots. 

At the Strawberry Field gate

In front of John Lennon's childhood home

"Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes..."

John Lennon statue outside the Cavern Club

Liverpool is historically a sea port, and was the home of the White Star Line, which was the company that built and owned the Titanic.  Although the ship never actually docked in Liverpool, there is a memorial to all the workers who lost their lives on its famous voyage, and we also saw the historic building where the White Star Line had its headquarters.

Titanic Memorial

Plaque at the Memorial

The building that used to be White Star Line Headquarters

And here are a few more pictures from the trip.

City Center

World Museum

At the docks

Panorama of the docks area

It was nice to stay in a hotel in a big bed and take a little time for ourselves.  Now we are quickly preparing for hand ins at the end of April and the arrival of the Stover family in mid May (with a trip to Edinburgh and Bath).