Tuesday, August 30

This morning the growling busker has another new outfit: a dayglo suit filled with dollar signs and an overlarge homburg hat.

We walk down Mathew Street to watch the tourists looking at all the made–up Beatles landmarks. They gather around the statue of John Lennon leaning in a doorway photographing each other leaning against him. They hang around the doorway leading down to something disguised as the Cavern Club.

They all ignore the oversized statue of Cilla Black, perhaps because they have never heard of her. I stop to photograph her. A couple of locals pause to read about her.

Fittingly she stands outside the original doorway to the actual Cavern Club, that closed years ago. She worked there as the cloakroom girl until Brian Epstein decided he wanted to manage a female singer and she got the job.

Later we will walk up Bold Street to look in bookshops and then up to the Philharmonic pub.