When I visit Liverpool, I'm prepared to go anywhere Teatle Huw is willing to take me, and on this occasion, it's the exterior of an abandoned tea warehouse where the Beatles once posed for a photo shoot. He furnishes the photographs of the Beatles in question, like we are gumshoe detectives familiarising ourselves with the case at hand. I don't recall ever seeing these photos before, but I clocked that it must have been early, and it was, 1962, in fact. There they stood in their suits, amongst the overgrown grass and the rubble.
The backdrop is cold and austere and were it not for the Beatles, it could be a photograph from the 1890s. There are variations of the photo at hand, in one they look more taciturn, standing several feet apart from one another, Ringo holds his drum sticks in vain, I imagine he is ready to attack if any unscrupulous characters were to approach. In another shot, they are much more lighthearted, John is mansplaining something to George, Paul is visibly cackling and it's just beautiful. Ringo looks on in amusement. You wonder what they were talking about, you wonder why they were there...
A magical Teatle time for all...
We approach the site in question. It isn't far from the docks. We quickly realise the sightline is obstructed by the back of one-storey industrial estates on Saltney Street, so we take a closer look on Dublin Street. Teatle Huw informs me that this was not only a Beatle location, Bob Dylan came here too - his photos reveal a much more Victorian outlook, interacting with the scene and posing with street urchins. The building itself looks more dilapidated - sprigs of greenery appear from the jail bar windows and corroded copper doors. There's illegible graffiti tags, but it's a million miles from the loving inscriptions at the wall at Abbey Road Studios.
Teatle Huw takes a photo of me by the factory, allowing a sunflare to dramatically filter through. Teatle Huw would later use his stealthy Photoshop handiwork to scale himself down so he is very, very far in the background, gleefully photobombing the band. I tweet: "Today we investigated an abandoned tea factory where the Beatles made their own Teatle pilgrimage!" It's a thoroughly farcical prospect, but posing it in such a way seemed rather plausible, especially given their undeniable love of tea.
Less than a month later, I am in the audience for a preview of Mark Lewisohn's talk, Evolver '62. Late in the talk, this very photo comes up on the screen (although Teatle Huw is unfortunately omitted from the background). I hold my breath as I hear the truth behind this rare Teatle pilgrimage: it was actually a photoshoot to promote their first single, Love Me Do, which had just been released by Parlophone in October 1962. The curious thing about this photograph is that although John Lennon is actually standing in the spot where his great-grandfather James Lennon had settled with his future wife, Jane McConville. Around 1849 they had settled in Saltney Street. There, they lived in cramped squalor, where typhus, dysentery and cholera swept through the community.
But why were the Beatles there in 1962? Lewisohn said something to the effect that it looked cool, and I suppose that's reason enough to do anything. Despite the lack of tea in their real motive, the photoshoot suddenly take on a poetic dimension: The Lennons survived, this is who John became, little did he know what he was about to become...
Cassettes & Chocolate Milk: Yugowave Podcast #68
Neki to vole vruće - Teška Vremena, Prijatelju Moj
Data - Neka Ti Se Dese Prave Stvari
Oskarova Fobija - Beli Dekolte
Videosex - Videosex
Max & Intro - Beogradska Devojka
Oliver Mandic - Smejem se a plakao bih
Denis & Denis - Ja sam lazljiva
Stil - Fiks Ideja
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