Jonathan Thomas (00:12)
Welcome to the Anglotopia podcast where we explore British history, travel and culture. This week, we're taking a magical mystery tour to Liverpool as we dive into the world of Beatles tourism and discover what it takes to become the unofficial ambassador to one of Britain's music mad cities. I'm your host, Jonathan Thomas. And today I'm joined by Charles Rosnay, a producer, actor, author, and entertainingly energetic tour guide who has been bringing Beatles fans to Liverpool since 1983.

That's over four decades of sharing his passion for the fab four with thousands of fellow enthusiasts. Charles is far from your typical tour guide. He's a Renaissance man of pop culture who published four books covered everything from horror movies to The Beatles to ghost stories. And he's the master behind mastermind behind not just the magical mystery tour delivery tool, but also spine tingling ghost tours across the UK and vampire themed adventures to Transylvania. With Liverpool's rich musical heritage continuing to draw pilgrims from around the world.

There's never been a better time to explore what makes this Merseyside city so special, not just as the birthplace of the Beatles, but as a vibrant cultural destination in its own right. We'll discuss how Charles discovered his calling as the Beatles tour guide, what hidden gems await visitors beyond the obvious Cabard Club stops, how Liverpool has changed over his four decades of leading tours, and why the city's connection to the Beatles remains as powerful today as it was in the 1960s. Whether you're planning your first pilgrimage to Liverpool, curious about the business of Beatles tourism?

or simply want to hear tales from someone who's made a living sharing British culture with the world. This conversation promises to be both entertaining and enlightening. Welcome Charles. Thank you. So, well, let's give everyone some basic background. How did you fall in love with the Beatles and what sparked your journey from a fan to unofficial Beatles Liverpool ambassador?

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (01:48)
Wow, that's a lot there. Thank you, Jonathan. Great to be here.

So I'm a first generation fan. I fell in love with them like millions of other people of a certain age on February 9th, 1964 when they appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. Watched it, fell 100 % in love with it, realized there was more to the world than just monster movies and kindergarten and baseball. And just had such an impact on my life that I wanted to be a Beatle.

had no musical talent, couldn't do that, know, wanted to go into something. literally everything that I've done, whether it's I DJ at parties, the Beatle tours, I used to publish a magazine on the Beatle, has been really based on my original love of the band in the 60s.

Jonathan Thomas (02:51)
So according to your website, your first tour was in 1983. Take us back then. What was that very first tour like? How did it come about and how has Liverpool changed since then?

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (03:03)
A lot, a lot, a lot. So the first tour I ever went on was in 83. I was invited by sort of a ⁓ tour agency to host a trip that they were hoping would work called Rock Apple Tours. And they said, you have a magazine, know, Beatles magazine, Good Day Sunshine, a lot of followers, a lot of readers, a lot of friends. Would you like to try to host this? We'll get a free trip out of it. And when I heard free trip, I mean, I jumped all over it. Growing up, I never thought, you know, that we'd be able to visit.

the land that I dreamed about my whole life. When I was young, I would clip every article, everything that said John Paul, George Ringo. But I would also, if it said the tall ships are sailing into Liverpool, I would cut that out. If there was a message about the Liverpool soccer teams, I would cut it out. Liverpool was that holy land, the holy grail destination for me. And so when this was offered, I said, sure, but I don't know who else would want to go like me. Well, the tour.

filled up like instantly. All I had to do was get word out to a lot of friends and a lot of people who subscribed to my magazine. And it was from there that I took it over. And every year, aside from COVID years, we've done trips to London. Nowadays, we stop in Henley on the way, which is George Harrison's home, and then Liverpool for an entire week, which coincides with Beatle Week. In those days, getting back to your original question, there was no Beatle Week. There was...

There were not a lot of sites to go to. We would go into the places. This is where such and such used to be. This may have been, but it may be around the corner, but maybe it's underground or above, you know, one of those you're not 100 % sure. I remember distinctly going on Matthew Street, which is the home of the Cavern Club. And it's been rebuilt since, thank goodness. But back then it was just a dingy, scaffolded, gray.

like slum backyard area. It was a place that you wouldn't go to unless you had to kind of walk through this side street. It's not a main thoroughfare. And so we went there and I remember like putting my ears against the walls and just trying to dream what it would be like. You know, some of the guy now hearing the Beatles play through these walls. And it was that's what the first trip was, a lot of imagination. We went to London, we saw the Abbey Road crossing.

and we passed Royal Albert Hall and did a lot of the things that were still so viable in London, but in Liverpool it was much, much tougher. And now it's just the opposite. It's completely embraced the entire ⁓ tourism industry. And there's three museums, everything is open and it's just, thank goodness, it's an easier trip to do than it was 40 years ago.

Jonathan Thomas (05:55)
So, since you're clearly a Beatles expert, I'm kind of curious, forgive me, this question isn't on the list, but ⁓ is... So, ⁓ what was it about Liverpool that made it such fertile ground for this group of young kids to get together and form a band? Why did they burst onto the scene from Liverpool?

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (06:04)
What list?

It wasn't just them. mean, everyone who could play guitar was picking it up. They had heard a guy named Lonnie Donigan who made it pretty popular. But in Liverpool, they were listening to pirate radio and they were hearing the R &B, the soul, the Motown, the stuff that was coming over here. And they were doing their versions of it. I mean, you couldn't do piano, you couldn't do soul singing. So you took, you really got a hold of it. You took, you know, Anna, you took songs that were...

Either rockabilly hits maybe or soul hits or R &B hits. And you were playing them the way you could with your makeshift guitar, with your bass, and maybe your one drum kit. So it was a raw sound. What was miraculous is that the stars all aligned in the right place at the right time. And what magic came down from some who knows unreal source.

Maybe some aliens, you know, planted some seeds in this, you know, seaport in Northern England. But for four guys to be that talented, to come from the same area, go to the same schools, walk in the same streets, you know, just when we go on the tour now, we kind of follow in the footpaths and the footsteps of the Beatles. We go to their homes, but we also go to their schools, the places they grew up, the places they met. And, ⁓

Now that it's so well-chronical and there's so many tours that do this, you really can get a great ⁓ overview of their history and how they just went from being these local guys in this little ⁓ grungy town to being the most famous musicians of all time.

Jonathan Thomas (08:00)
Fascinating. ⁓ So you brought thousands of Beatles fans to Liverpool over four decades. What's the most memorable reaction you witnessed from someone experienced the city for the first time?

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (08:12)
⁓ I'll tell you, it was an older couple. I think they were retired. ⁓ We get a lot of tears. We get a lot of people crying because it's like their dream come true, their bucket list. But we literally got to the Liverpool docks right where the ocean is, right where the Mersey River and there's all kind of...

events around there, but now there's huge statues. weren't statues when she was there, but she got off the coach, set foot in Liverpool, bowed down and kissed the ground.

whoa, whoa, whoa. And her husband was taking pictures of it. But I said, you guys planned that, huh? You were going to kiss the ground the second she goes, no, my gosh. That was so spontaneous. I didn't even think I was going to do that. It was just the reaction. And I understand that. I understand that. When I saw Paul McCartney live, and ⁓ I hadn't ever seen him live until 89 or 90,

And the person who I was with said, why are you crying? And I go, what am I what? I didn't realize that tears were just.

falling from my eyes over the joy of seeing him, thinking that that was something I would never have. Now I've seen him, know, dozens of times since, but, and I've met him a bunch of times, but to have seen him live, I get it. You don't know the reaction, but that's the one that stands in my mind. Cause this wasn't a kid. was, you know, she was in her sixties and first time in England and first time in Liverpool and first time with a Beatles ⁓ atmosphere. And it didn't even occur to her what was going on. She just sat and kissed the ground. was beautiful.

Jonathan Thomas (09:49)
Well, I mean, I practically kiss the ground when I arrive in England, but you So, okay. So walk us through a typical magical mystery tour. What are the must see Beatles locations that every fan wants to visit when they come on these tours?

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (09:52)
you

Well, I call it that magical history tour to do a slight derivation from the actual title. And I think there's been a bunch of things called that since, but we were the first. ⁓ For many years, we would do London and Liverpool and then throw in once in a while, an extra city that had something to do with the Beatles history. Whether it was Hamburg, Amsterdam, we did Scotland, we did Manchester, we did a lot of other places, but now it's set in stone. We spent three days in London.

Jonathan Thomas (10:09)
⁓ okay.

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (10:37)
We go to the Apple building where the Beatles of course played on the Three Savile Road where they performed on the rooftop get back session. We go to Abbey Road every few years we get inside Abbey Road and actually do a recording session.

⁓ For the people who've never been to England, unlike yourself, we ⁓ do ⁓ the regular panoramic scenic thing. I mean, I'm thinking that if someone's going to England on my tour, there's a chance they've never been England before and they may never go again. So we go to Tower London, we go to Big Ben, we do Westminster Abbey, we do Buckingham Palace. We do all the musts. Get them out of the way and then go, let's say, to the first site might be Cheswick Park.

where the Beatles recorded their Penny Lane, no, not Penny Lane, Rain and Paperback Rider videos. And we might continue on to different places where they played in clubs like the Marquis Club where the Stones also played. It's a combination of every possible site that the Beatles would have had as part of their history in London. And we try to change it up, know, because you can't fit everything into three days. And some people return from

you know, one year and maybe two, three years later. So I tried to get a good read. How many of these people are coming on this year are returnees? How many are first timers? And if they're first timers, I'm going to pow hit all the crucial, crucial spots. If they're returnees and that tends to skew more of the crowd, I'll try to hit a few more obscure places. One year we did something called the Mad Day Out. ⁓ was one of the Beatles final photo sessions and they just went hog wild in this.

portion of London and there were tons of photos of them in psychedelic outfits and crazy poses and we never until about five years ago ever went to this location so we sneak that in because there was a lot of people on that particular trip who'd never gone with us before. And then we as I mentioned we go to Henley for an afternoon which is on the way from London to Liverpool so we stop for lunch we visit the estate where George Harrison lived you know most of his life he loved

love, love Henley. And it also gives the folks a nice balance because in London and Liverpool they're seeing huge metropolitan New York, Chicago, Tokyo type cities. In Henley it's that quaint British village. So they're getting a taste of that and we'll have lunch there and then we'll continue on to Liverpool where we'll have ⁓ our orientation on the way. I'll talk to people about what we've done on trips, what to expect.

security stuff, all that, we check in. And then the first night it's a walk around. First night in Liverpool, we walk around and give people kind of an orientation of where we're at and where to get to the places. And most of the people, even though we save it for the last night as a party, will sneak their way into the Cavern Club. They want to get that first night of rock and roll. And the Cavern Club, thank goodness, was recreated pretty much to the specifications of the original, except

The original had the stage here and the entry here. Now it's the stages here and the entry is here. It's kind of flipped around, but it captures it. It's got a second huge room where McCartney has played and Adele has played and every rock and roll. So that's, then the rest of the week is just, it's Beatle Week in Liverpool. It's combinations of conventions, festivals, concerts at night and sightseeing like you wouldn't believe. I mean, most people who go to Liverpool take that cruise and they have a

half a day where they can visit Liverpool off the cruise. Or they go to London and they zip out to Liverpool for a day. And they'll do a three hour tour. Maybe they'll get to the cavern. Maybe they'll get to one of the museums. We go to three museums. We go to the Beatles story. We go to the Liverpool Beatles Museum, which is the three floor, ⁓ just extravaganza run by the Pete Best family. And the third one is the Liverpool Museum, which has Beatles exhibits and exhibits of Mersey music.

But I gotta tell you, Jonathan, if you did a checklist of places, Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane, this club, that club, it's included. One of the tours we do is an all-day tour where we start at nine in the morning, don't finish till six or seven at night. And by that time, people have noted they couldn't believe how many places we hit. And it's really important to me. think that, yes, I wanna add places and surprise people who are returnees, but if you're a one and done...

and you're only going on this tour once in your life, I want to make sure you get to every possible key place.

Jonathan Thomas (15:13)
So you mentioned the Cavern Club. For those who may not be familiar with it, what is the significance of the Cavern Club and the history there?

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (15:19)
Well,

the Beatles played there over 300 times. was their, literally their residency. You know, if you say that, you know, the Eagles are playing in the sphere in Vegas now. Well, they're playing there for a month. The Beatles played there for years. They got their start in a place called the Casbah Club. They played the Jacaranda and they built their way up to the point where the cavern was the place. It was a

a place where the no booze were served. Most of the time it was afternoon sessions and it was kids either sneaking out of school or coming right from school. But it's a lifestyle we can't even imagine because it doesn't apply to anything we've ever done in our lives. But that was life. Life was music and ⁓ you wanted to be the band that played there. And it wasn't always the Beatles as headliners. At the Cavern Club, they were the house band. They were rocking ⁓ three-hour sets. Mind you, they'd gone...

from the Cavern to Hamburg, where they were doing sometimes six hour sets a night, playing all night long and having to do song after song. And that's where they got fine tuned. And that's where they really, really got their chops down. And then they came back to Liverpool, direct from Hamburg, The Beatles. And then all of a sudden they're this polished band that has fun with the audience, that's confident, that really rocks.

and all the other bands are like, did, you know, these guys were just these local yokels and now all of a sudden they're unbelievable. So if they don't know the cavern, if you can go to one place, it's so tough to say one place, because you have to do Penny Lane's Toe Abbey Fields. But if you do one place that you want to capture the rock and roll and that era and the sweat and the music, it's the Cavern Club for sure.

Jonathan Thomas (17:09)
So, other than the Cavern Club, which is the obvious spot for a Beatles fan, what are some other hidden Beatles gems in Liverpool that most tourists may miss because they're not on your tour or they don't know about it?

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (17:12)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, the Jack-O-Rand is one that we don't always go to because it's on a side street and, you know, yes, Beatles painted the walls on it and played there a few times. But just a year or two ago, it got recognized, and I don't know if this is accurate, but it got recognized as the very first place the Beatles played as the Beatles.

They were the Silver Beatles, Johnny and the Moon Dogs, they had all these other titles. ⁓ I don't know if that's actually accurate, but there's a big plaque there, so now it's a must. We have to go there. But we go to places like Hume Hall, which is the first time Ringo played with them. Pete Best was with the original Beatles drummer, you know, for two years. And Ringo took his place, and the first time Ringo ever played, there's my friend Pete Best. ⁓

a years back. And the Beatles played with Ringo for the first time. So we go there. There's a place, woman's ⁓ barn, which has a stage where the Beatles played with their uniforms for the first time. You know, they were in leathers, they were in t-shirts, you know, they were...

They were a typical local band smoking cigarettes on stage. When Brian Epstein took them over, or Brian Epstein, ⁓ he cleaned them up. He cleaned up their act. He put them in matching suits. No more smoking on stage, that kind of thing. And the first place they ever played, we passed it. It's on this far away...

out on a countryside surrounded by cows. But that's the type of place that someone would never go to on their own. The woman's, I think it's Barnstable is what it's called. And it's pretty cool. It's just that those are the type of things that make me happy is getting to people that are, yeah, they're gonna go to the places, you know, that they've heard of and seen in every book and heard in every song and every postcard. But when we can get them to the more obscure places on the rooting, then it makes sense. And I love that part of it.

Jonathan Thomas (19:18)
So do you visit the childhood homes? Because I know some of them are part owned by the National Trust and English Heritage now.

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (19:25)
Right. So two of them are owned by the National Trust and it's complex because I can't include going inside as part of my tours. So I have to buy.

actual tickets to go inside for the people who go on the tour because we go to Harrison's Homes, we go to Ringo's Homes, we want to make sure we go to Menloave Avenue and Mendips and we want to make sure Forthland Road, those are the places that you can actually go inside. Imagine they're original homes. ⁓

made to appear exactly as it would have been in the 60s with the original stoves and the original books on the shelf, the original piano, just as it was when the guys lived there, when Paul and John lived there. Well, that's what you get, but it's a ⁓ national trust, as you mentioned, so that it's very, very curated and it's managed. You can't just bring tons of groups there. It's 15 max and all that kind of stuff. So that's always tough to maneuver to get, know, if I have

40 people on a trip, I gotta bring in 50 at one time, 15 at another, and then the other 10 at another time. So that's a tougher thing that we can't just include an hour tours. have to buy that separate, isolate it and make sure everyone gets in that way.

Jonathan Thomas (20:41)
So there's a lot of mythology and legends around the Beatles. So how do you balance the historical accuracy with all of that and make it what people would expect to hear?

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (20:53)
It's funny because we had this, my partner Danny, who's since passed was the funniest guy, because we'd be on a tour and he'd yell to the people, guys, no, you gotta look at that doorway. John Lennon urinated there once. They were all running and taking pictures and he said, I'm just kidding. How do you disseminate? Well, I'll tell you what, I think it's at a point now where there's not a lot of, it's all pretty much true and it's all pretty much accurate and it's all pretty much.

the history, you know, I do a separate tour from this. do a Dracula tour. And in that one, I have to combine and hopefully we can do a show on that someday because I do ghost tours to England too. ⁓ We combine the myth. Yup, the myth of Dracula, of Bram Stoker's novel, know, the non-history, the fiction, fiction is where I was going for, with.

Vlad Tepes, Vlad the Impaler, which is history, which is truth. And that's a tough mix, but I mix them both. So you have entertainment and you have history. With the Beatles, you're getting entertainment and history, but in a different way. The entertainment is coming from the tribute bands, from the conventions, from all the things that's planned during Beatle Week that we're then part of. But the history is when we do the touring, because we're doing the sightseeing and the touring with people who are really, really

I mean, they're A1, we're talking to David Bedford, who's a Beatles archivist, Beatles historian. You when we're in England, we meet up with ⁓ people who've written books. So, you know, we're not really dealing with the maybe they did this, maybe that. It's mostly, mostly the truth. And it's funny we say that because I just talked about the Jacaranda where this plaque says it's the first place they ever played as the Beatles. It's questionable because it's never been

proven there's two or three places where we believe that's the case. But that's fine. It's definitely one of them. And other than that, that's not someone making stuff up. That's not fiction. We're not 100 % sure.

The rest of it, yeah, we're sure. We're taking you to the place where Ringo lived from such and such to such and such. We're taking you to pass the hospital, you know, where Paul's kid was born. We're passing the place where, you know, Ringo went to school. We're passing the club, the Casbah Club, where Pete Best's mom brought the Beatles in to rehearse and be the house band. So most of it, I'd say 99.9 % is accurate.

Jonathan Thomas (23:31)
So unfortunately, I've never been to Liverpool. So as someone who has never been to Liverpool, how would you describe the city's character and what makes it so special beyond the Beatles connection?

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (23:43)
So early on when I went there and came back and I'm from Connecticut where if you make fun of some of the towns, you make fun of, I don't know, Bridgeport, there's certain towns and every state has that town that you make fun of. So people came back and you went to Liverpool? Really? Why did you just stay in London? What was there to do in Liverpool? I heard it's so kanky and look, it's the people. The people made Liverpool and when...

There was that debate, if you're a Beatles fan, the debate was who was the fifth Beatle? Was it Brian Epstein? Was it their manager? Was it Billy Preston who came in and played with them in the latter years? Was it George Martin, their producer? The fifth Beatle was Liverpool. Liverpool is a personality, it's a lifestyle, it's humor. And when the Beatles came out, bands were...

very stiff, you know, rigid, and the Beatles were funny and they had personality. They would not have been the same people coming out of London with maybe they would have the same talent, but they wouldn't have had that X factor that I always feel sets them aside. You know, I love bands like the Monkeys and the Turtles, bands that always were funny.

were great with music, with great catchy songs, but also had personality. But the Beatles, above, I mean, the above and beyond everyone. And the biggest reason was because they came from Liverpool and that was the Liverpool people were the spice, were the spice of life. mean, you could, everyone had the story to tell. Everyone in those days when I first went, everyone was, you know, I knew them. They were just local guys. We never thought they'd make it big.

But the biggest difference, and I think this is part of your question, and I hope it is, is what was Liverpool's read on the Beatles? And you know, it bothered them very much when the Beatles left, you know? They leave, but Liverpool will never leave them, and that was very true. It bothered them for many years, and people were like...

F them like, they left us. We don't care less about the Beatles. You know, there was a lot of that negativism early on. And that waned as the old timers either woke up to it or passed or didn't care anymore. But most of them passed away. And there was the new generation who said, my God, the Beatles are from our home. Why aren't we embracing that?

and eventually you know what Jonathan they did they embraced it ⁓ tourism exploded you know when I was doing the beetle tours there weren't these taxis that could take you on full day tours now you go in there and if you want to just jump in a taxi in the middle of march there's someone it'll have a you know beetles logo on the side and he knows his stuff because he studied it and he can take you from morning to night through every with all these same sites and I encourage that if people aren't caught on

with liverpooltours.com, it's okay. Go there. You're gonna have an amazing experience. And try to go to a local fish and chips place. Try to hear if there's any old timers who still have memories of seeing the beetles at the cavern or what they thought of when the beetles moved away. ⁓ gosh, how dare they have done this? Moved away from Liverpool and know, moved on to be, they had to. They outgrew Liverpool. And although they always came back,

and always did concerts and always wrote songs about Liverpool and it was always going to be in their blood. ⁓ You know, sometimes you have to move out of mom's house and sometimes you have to, you know, leave the college that you've now spent seven years studying because you don't want to get the degree because you want to keep studying. You eventually have to move out. And I think that's what the Beatles did. And Liverpool was offended by it for a long time, but they, I think they grew out of it.

Jonathan Thomas (27:34)
Yeah, so that's a good segue into my next question, which was, so you kind of touched on a little bit is how has Liverpool's relationship with Beatles related heritage evolved over the years? Are the locals now more proud of it than ever? Are they tired of it? Or are they happy to have all these tourists come visit for Beatles stuff?

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (27:53)
Yeah, I'm sure you're gonna get some, know, if you live in Memphis and it's Elvis week, you're probably gonna roll your eyes because your streets are gonna be crowded and you know, every pub's gonna be filled. And it's the same in Liverpool, but they understand the westernization and the commerce of it, you know, it's commercialized so much that, you you might have a job working in a museum now and you might be a guide where you have to know the Beatles stuff. it's...

It's brought so much economy to Liverpool that everyone kind of sees it from that point of view. But they also, you know, they cherish the Beatles. They didn't for the longest time. And maybe you'll find someone in a pub somewhere who's going to have one too many and he's going to say, ⁓ I remember when John Lennon was such a jerk to my mum and this and that. I'm sure that's going to happen. And whether it's true or not, makes for a great story. But yeah, Liverpool has changed and it embraces it. And it's...

you know, such a beautiful city now. It's cleaner, it's safer, and it's, you know, everyone knows the Beatles and they do, and most, mostly to a person love it. And I think that's gonna go on for a very, very long time.

Jonathan Thomas (29:03)
So Beatles things aside, you've obviously spent a lot of time in Liverpool over the years. what other than Beatles related stuff, what are some of your favorite things to see and do in Liverpool?

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (29:15)
I guess it's tangential because I would not so much anymore, but being a party DJ and being an entertainer, ⁓ you actually in the beginning said I'd made the tours my living. I really have never done that. It's always been like my side hustle. It's always been a side thing that started out for years. I just wanted to make enough to take a free trip and I wanted to go back year after year. And so. ⁓

What do I do? I used to go record shopping. I would go crazy. I'd go to every vinyl shop. Now more so I'll go to like the whatever their equivalent of Goodwill is. I like going to those used stores just to see if I can find old books, old, you know, Anglo stuff, old British paraphrase. Now like to shop. I like to shop for, you know, trinkets and tchotchkes and novelties. I've never gone to...

A British football game. I've never seen Liverpool or Manchester. I've never seen a soccer game. Hard to believe. But I'm at a stage now, having gone there probably 70 times altogether, maybe more, where I have so many friends there that so much of it has become a social visit if I'm not with groups.

if I'm not with groups or if I'm with a smaller group or if I can break away. ⁓ What would I recommend to people who are going to Liverpool and they're not just Beatle centric? There's one of those, you know, giant, ⁓ what do they call it? Ferris wheels like they have in every town, the big eye, you can see the whole thing. You should take a ferry across the Mersey, which is music and Beatle connected, but it's still a great thing to do. Take in a soccer game, take in a cricket game.

⁓ and just explore the culture because you'll be surrounded by Beatles without even wanting to, but it's amazing what there is beside the Beatles and they're proud of that too. ⁓ I just, being a person who if I'm going to a new city, whether it's in Detroit or Cleveland for some reason I've never been, I'm...

crazy I'll go to that you know used record store still I'll go to a theater I love seeing beautiful magnificent theaters Liverpool has ⁓ not just beautiful theaters beautiful venues beautiful concert halls it has the the Philharmonic pub which is across from the Liverpool Philharmonic which is one of the most ornate pubs you'll ever visit in your life and I think the bathroom ⁓ doors are ⁓ gold

if I'm not mistaken. So there's some hidden treasures that every Liverpool book will tell you about.

Jonathan Thomas (31:57)
So what's the best time of year to visit Liverpool? Are there any specific Beatles related events or festivals visitors should play around?

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (32:04)
Yes, sir. The best time to go on, I thought I was gonna stick to my head. Stick? No. The best time to go is when I do the Magical History Tour. Why? Because it includes Beatle Week. Beatle Week is the last, kind of last two weeks in August, and it's during ⁓ Bank Holiday. We have, as we have Memorial Day and Labor Day and all that, they have Bank Holiday. And Bank Holiday, in that part of August,

Jonathan Thomas (32:10)
you

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (32:33)
So many people will go to the shore, so many people will go to ⁓ a place where there's beach and sand if they can. And it's when so many people have vacations because the weather is the nicest. You always think of England being gray and rainy, and it is most of the time, but during August, July, there's certain, you get lucky for a few weeks and there's no rain. ⁓ During Beatle Week, makes the most sense because...

aside from me bringing people there and you'll see me. There's Beatles ⁓ convention. The Big Beatles convention takes place during Beatle Week. All the festivals around town take place during that time. And because there's a hundred thousand or whatever Beatle fans in the city, there's probably a hundred Beatle groups that come from.

Japan and Canada and the US and every other nation that has, you know, Beatle fans who come to Liverpool to play. So you're literally walking street to street to street, hearing nonstop Beatle music. And yeah, is it like that all year round? Well, yes, at the Cavern Club it is. At the Beatle shops it is, in the museum it is. But here, it's every block emanates. You just pour out.

Beatles music and that could be a plus or a minus if you're a Beatles fan this is it you're in heaven no different I keep bringing up you know I don't keep bringing up but whenever I do interviews Elvis week in Memphis you know it's very Elvis century during that week it's the same thing here during during Beatle week it's the best time to go

If you can't go during then because you know what, you're starting school or you're a teacher or that's when you have your water vacations, fine, go any time, any time. Just spend more than that one day in Liverpool because there's, can't get everything in. You need at least three days. When I tell people we do three days in London and a whole week in Liverpool, go.

a week in Liverpool? How could you fill that? go, how can I fill it? I could spend two weeks in Liverpool and not go to every possible site. ⁓ But for us, that's the perfect time and people just... Jonathan, I want to add, when you do, if you're a restaurateur or a foodie, your best restaurant will have an off day where you walk out and you...

that soup was cold or the waiter, you know, wasn't as nice as you. Even the best five-star posh restaurant will have its off day. I am so proud, blessed, lucky, I don't know what the word is, 100 % satisfaction from the people who go on the tour. And I think it's a combination of like-minded people. They're going to the place they dream of. It's, ⁓

And my personality as their tour guide, making sure they're having fun. It's all the right elements put together. And people come back and we stay friends, know, we exchange Christmas cards and it's like, hey, Charles, I'm going to go back in five years. I'm going to back in two years. have the greatest time. ⁓ So I forgot what your question was, but I think I on a little tangent there.

Jonathan Thomas (35:36)
You answered that question.

But it's a good segue to my next one, which is in 40 years of leading these tours, what's been the most surreal or unexpected moment you've experienced on these trips?

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (35:50)
The unexpected moments are the ones obviously that were unplanned. One year, this is the one that stands out, we're ready to leave London, we're on the coach and a girl is trying to get my attention from the back of the bus, waving the newspaper, what's going on? She goes, Julian's doing, Julian Lennon, John Lennon's son, is doing a signing at a toy store.

in London in two hours. What are you talking about? She brings it up, Hamley's Toys, central London, right near the West End where all the theaters are. Apparently there was the launch of an ecological game where the profits from the game benefited a charity, an ecological charity, and Julian Lennon, to support the charity, was signing copies of the game. And this was in a day when, you know,

Back then, everyone does book signings now, everyone does autograph signings, every celebrity's available. Julian Lennon did not do this often. And I said, you know what? We're changing our schedule. We can be in Liverpool two or three or four or five hours. We could go in the middle of the night. We're all going to this event. Bus driver approved it. ⁓ We did a few minutes of sightseeing and then got to that place an hour before everyone.

The 30 of us were 40 of us, 50 of us were in line for him. Eight other people came besides us. It was so ill publicized, but that was fine for us because we took pictures with them, got some autographs.

game. Some people happened by miracle to have CDs of his that they had signed and it's stuff like that. You know, people say, can we have an exact itinerary? Well, I'll give you the planned itinerary, but on every page it says subject to change or enhancement because there have been so many trips where we, you know, took that impulsive move. Another one was, it's so funny because Julian, I just mentioned him.

And it just so happened that he was a guest on a talk show in England. It was the equivalent of David Letterman show. And somehow they found out there was a Beatles fan group en route or en route in England. How can we, how can they get us in their studio? They did. We said, no problem. You let us know where it is and we'll make our way there. And we were.

one fourth or whatever of the entire audience got to see him. Never planned, Jonathan, that was never in my itinerary. I didn't have a schedule that we would see Julian Lennon in a TV show in a studio, but we always have the flexibility of that and we jump at that opportunity. There's been times where we were in Liverpool and a famous act was playing at the arena and I took a poll and who wants to go? You know, we could do this.

Or we can do that. We can see Oasis or whoever it was in concert. And, Bill Charles, can you get tickets? Yeah, I can get tickets. You want me to do this? Yes or no? Let's vote on the coach and change the itinerary. So that's happened on many, many occasions. More often it's ⁓ the celebrity that we didn't expect.

You know, there certain celebrities now who are there every year. John Lennon's sister, Julia, still alive, still healthy, still wonderful with fans. She's an ambassador at the Cavern Club. So we see her every year. But there's people like the author, Mark Lewis, and who's considered, you know, the Beatles authority. Other members of the group's, F-Finger or Peter and whatever, the Beatles associates who are sometimes not scheduled to be at the convention and show up. We try to make sure our group gets to see them and get their autograph and get pictures with them.

So there's a lot of that kind of spontaneity. But ⁓ I wish I could plan the spontaneity. That would be amazing. I guess that doesn't really exist in the world.

Jonathan Thomas (39:56)
So other than Julian Lennon, have you met any of the surviving Beatles or any other family members?

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (40:03)
Well, I have. I've met Paul McCartney on a number of occasions. There's a picture of him and myself on the back of my book, my Beatle book. And I've met ⁓ George Harrison at the airport once, and that was incredibly serendipitous. ⁓ Ringo at press conferences I've spoken to, I've spoken to Paul at press conferences. Never John Lennon.

But literally every person you can just, if you did a rapid, well, did you meet this? Did you meet this? Did you meet this? If they were relatives of the Beatles or connected somehow, I met them not just because I've done these tours and we've come in contact with them, but I used to also produce conventions in the States and I would bring them over as guests. So yeah.

Jonathan Thomas (40:45)
So how has leading needle tours changed as a business over the last 40 years now that we have the internet age?

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (40:53)
⁓ When I used to send out information, it was handwriting a postcard and telling people the tour was on. And is it easier now to press a button and send a mass email? Yes. But there's other people who do it. I was the pioneer and I was the go-to. But everyone who researches my tour can just read the itinerary and do it themselves. Everyone can go.

book a flight and follow in the footsteps of the Beatles themselves. The only thing I can offer now that's different in this day and age, in this digital age, this is an ego talk. It's my personality. It's my energy. It's my guarantee that people have a great time and that they're with like-minded people and that we've been doing it so long and have it down to a science that there's not going to be any glitches. The bus isn't going to break down on the way.

⁓ Even if does, we have it replaced within minutes. You know, it's just such a smooth sailing ship. And the people who go, you know, it's a trust factor. So ⁓ how has things changed from then to now? I mean, a lot. Everything is open. You can get inside Strawberry Field. You can get inside the orphanage and inside the museum. And there's beautiful grounds. And there's a lot of places that are open that weren't open years ago. But for me as a tour d***

operator as a host, it's changed in that you do something long enough, people know who you are and they want to go with you for a trust factor, but anyone can go on their own. It's as simple as that and they can go any time of the year. I only do it, you know, this time in August, every year at the same time.

Jonathan Thomas (42:35)
So tell us about your book, your book of top 10 Beatles list. What's in it? What's it about? And why should our listeners buy it?

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (42:41)
The book, yes,

they should buy it. Go right to Amazon. Look at my last name, Rosene, and you'll see all the books that I have for sale. It was really a unique thing. It came out of COVID because I wasn't doing tours. I wasn't DJing. I wasn't booking bands. All the things that I do, I couldn't do. So I wrote a few books. And the book of Top Ten Beatleists came about because a lot of people were home just like I was.

not touring and not doing stuff. So I got in touch with actors, rock stars, DJs, authors, people in the Beatles world, people who are relative and connected with the Beatles. And I said, you know, can you give me your top 10 Beatle list? And they said, well, what do you want? My favorite songs? I go, okay. Or your favorite albums, or your favorite memories, or your favorite places to Liverpool to go, or your favorite, I get or your, or your, or your, and I really opened it up so that people could choose what they wanted. But it's like,

Tommy Chan from Cheech and Cham and Kenzie Phillips from The Mamas and the Papas, Pete Best from The Beatles. It's literally a who's who of celebrities, 64 of them giving me their top 10 lists. I wrote their bios. I included some amazing photos. Put it out and it's not just for Beatle fans. If you love top 10 lists, you'll love the book. If you love celebrities, you'll love the book. If you love The Beatles, well, then you've got, you know, all the right.

ingredients in the stir for a fun read. And it's available on Amazon or from the website www.bookoftop10.com. ⁓

Jonathan Thomas (44:20)
and we'll put the link in the show notes for everyone. ⁓ So for my final question, after four decades of Beatles tourism, what still excites you most about sharing Liverpool and the Beatles with new generations of fans?

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (44:22)
Thank you.

There's the book, I found it. ⁓ Thank you, thank you for asking that, because I always wondered when a rock band goes out and plays their same song night after night after night, how do they not tire of it? And people will say to me, you've been taking people to Liverpool now for over 40 years. Aren't you bored of it? And I'm not, Jonathan, because it's the joy that the other people have.

And it's, you know, if I was playing my hit, it would be looking out of the crowd and the people singing along and they would be loving it, maybe hearing it live for the first time. And that would probably what, you know, propels the bands and the artists to love to play their hits over and over to visit Liverpool with a new group of people who are seeing it through the, I see it through their eyes. I'm loving it through them.

And when they get excited, ⁓ you take a picture of me crossing Abbey Road? I know it. I had that feeling. I had that same experience in 83 and 84, 85, and year after year after year. And every so often, I got to get my picture taken with that silly walk across Abbey Road that everyone does. That's what it is. It's the joy of the people going and me loving it vicariously and in actuality.

through their eyes and emotions.

Jonathan Thomas (45:58)
All right, well, thank you for joining us on the Anglotopia podcast, Charles, for those inspired by today's conversation and ready to embark on their own Beatles pilgrimage to Liverpool. You can learn more about Charles's magical history tour and his other adventures by visiting liverpooltours.com. Link will be in the show notes. If you're intrigued by his other passions, check out his books and other links in the show notes. And we will also have all the links for all Charles's stuff, because he sent me a lot of links. So they'll all be there for everyone to look at.

⁓ If you enjoy Charles' stories from across four decades of Beatles tourism and his infectious enthusiasm for sharing British culture with the world, please subscribe and like or comment on this podcast. If you enjoyed the Angletopia podcast, please consider joining the Friends of Angletopia Club where you can get early access to new episodes and connect with other enthusiasts about Britain. Join us next time as we continue exploring the people, places and stories that makes Britain's cultural heritage.

so endlessly fascinating to discover. Thank you, Charles.

Charles Rosenay!!! Tours (46:58)
Really man, thank you so much.

Jonathan Thomas (47:00)
Hahaha