Sunday 7 September 2014

Review: Fab Four Taxi Tours - Beyond Fabulous!

Ernie, Ian our guide and his taxi "Dear Prudence"

Fab Four Taxi Tour
August 2014

Having been coming to Liverpool since 2005 for Beatle Week, we only took this tour as our webmaster had made the trip from the USA. Terry and I had seen most of the sites such as Mendips, Forthlin Road, Strawberry Fields, which Michele hadn't seen before. However, we were all pleasantly surprised as we were also shown a number of sites Terry and I had never seen.

Ian, our guide was great, and is a huge fan himself and very, very knowledgeable.

When we said we were from the British Beatles Fan Club, Ian went out of his way to take us to more obscure sites.  We started with the usual ones, the registry office where John married Cyn, John's birthplace, Penny Lane, Newcastle Road, Admiral Grove, Madryn Street and more.

Then however; we were taken to the house Ringo bought for his parents on the outskirts of Sefton Park, George's house in Mackets Lane and to John Lennon's Uncle Norman and Aunt Harriet's house.

None of us knew of this house and then Ian produced some amazing photographs of John and Yoko visiting the house in 1969 while on their way to Scotland. This was the trip where John crashed the Austin Maxi and the pictures show John and Yoko on the street and the maxi in clear view on the drive.
George's Parent's house. Girls used to camp out in the garden

Having booked a 3 hour tour, we were now approaching 6 hours when we reached St Peters Church in Woolton. We were due at an event there that night and Ian said he had a couple more places to take us to, but agreed to drop us near the church where we found somewhere to eat.

Anxious to show us everything, he arranged to come back on Tuesday and take us to these remaining places.

True to his word on Tuesday he returned and took us to Huyton to see the grave of Stuart Sutcliffe and then to the Sefton Park Hotel, which were previously flats where Stu lived.
On the site of Stu's flat is a bar in the hotel called Astrid's bar. This lovely bar is modern but decorated with photos of the band from the Hamburg days and a gig list written in Stuarts hand on the walls.

We all had a great time seeing sights new to all of us.
Stuart Sutcliff's grave with Ian's guitar & mementos from fans

If you only have 3 hours to spare, the 3 hour tour is great value and you will be both informed and entertained; however, it is well worth it if you have more time to grab 4 friends (the taxi holds 5) and go for the longer tour. You won't regret it.

We couldn't have asked for more, Ian was fantastic and we can highly recommend this as the best taxi tour in Liverpool.  If you do book a tour, don't forget to tell them the BBFC sent you!

- Terry, Ernie and Michele


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