Beatlemania for 1984

Press, 19 August 1983, Page 4

Beatlemania for 1984

NZPA London Twenty years after the Beatles took the world by storm, the pop group’s native city of Liverpool hopes to cash in on a new x wave of Beatlemania in 1984. “The Great 1984 Beatles Bonanza” was announced yesterday by Merseyside County council and the British Tourist Authority, in hopes of luring fans to next year’s events. A new $2.36 million “Beatle City” exhibition centre will tell how John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr rose to fame.

In addition, the city’s Walker Art Gallery, which houses the second biggest paintings collection in

Britain, will stage an “Art of the Beatles” tribute. It will include the original drawings from the cartoon film, “Yellow Submarine,” and drawings by the Beatles themselves.

“This exhibition is about 15 years overdue,” said the museum organiser, Mr Mike Evans. On the derelict Matthew Street, site of the former Cavern Club, where the band was discovered by its later manager, Brian Epstein, in 1961, a shopping centre will house a new Cavern Club, using some of the original bricks. Cynthia Lennon, the first wife of John, who was murdered in New York in December, 1980, will provide decorative terracotta

for the building. Twelve official “Beatle Guides,” including one who speaks Japanese, have been trained to lead fans round Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, and other landmarks.

The original Magical Mystery Tour bus, and the model yellow submarine used for the premiere of that film, will be on show, and a Beatle extravaganza with live bands is planned for August 25 to 27. “With all these Beatle goodies on offer, we are expecting a dramatic increase in tourism,” said Mr Ron Jones, tourism officer for Merseyside, the northwest England region round the Port of Liverpool and the River Mersey.