My legs and feet needed some rest, so it was good to sit down on a bus and let them take me to Oxford Street. I started up a conversation with a 60-something woman who seemed fascinated I was from Washington and said she thought the sun and the heat were "simply lovely." She directed me to press the button and told me when to get off when we finally made it to Oxford Street, so I alighted from there and tried to get my bearings on the place.
Finding Argyll Street was a frustration in itself. Just so you know, there is only ONE sign for the Palladium, and if you have the misfortune to be on the wrong side of Oxford Street, you are not going to see this sign, because it is posted only on one wall of Argyll Street and not the other. So I walked for a while, gave up because I was walking uphill and running out of breath, and finally had to stop a man and ask for directions. I had walked right past Argyll Street without even knowing it. Finally, I found it and took this picture.
You're probably wondering why I wanted to go to the Palladium before the 14th anyway. One, I wanted to make sure I was going to be able to pick up my tickets from will-call that night, because I had trusted the Seetickets.com rep on the phone that they were now will-call tickets. I was too nervous to wait for them to send them across the Atlantic, worried they would arrive after I'd left for Manchester, and then I'd be up the creek with no paddle. I was so mad about these tickets as it were, since they cost me almost 74 quid for the pair of seats that were way way WAY back in the upper circle.
Once inside, I stood in awe looking at all the photos of everyone famous who's ever performed there. As a self-confessed Beatlemaniac (and I'm not backing down from that, Smiths fans and Mozettes), I had to take this photo of the Fabs and Alma Cogan. Incidentally, it has been hypothesized that she (Alma Cogan) was who Morrissey may have been referring to in "Alma Matters."
Here's the heritage sign outside the Palladium that I took a photo of after the 14 May gig.
Now it was time to find Abbey Road. I should probably give you some background on how and why I became a Beatles fan.
Around the age of 8 was "accidentally" given an audio cassette of various Beatles tracks from LPs that my uncle had, I guess, for use in a Walkman. Remember, this was the '80s. There was no such thing as an iPod! I got hooked - I think it's because I liked the pop aspect of it, it had words I could sing along to and remember, and the rock 'n' roll was unmatched to anything else I had listened to before that. I was at the tender age of 8, not like I was listening to too much besides Sesame Street. I also had found a strange fascination with what I now know as the Scouse accent; my love for anything that remotely sounds like an English accent has been with me since.
I've never been a fan of their last album "Abbey Road," which is nothing like "Strangeways" was to the Smiths' catalogue. But I figured since I was in London, I had to at least see the Abbey Road studios. Abbey Road is where all the Beatles albums were recorded, and it was where Geoff Emerick and Alan Parsons cut their teeth as musical engineers. I considered joining a Beatles in London walk but not wishing to spend another 10 or more quid on a tour I wasn't even sure I wanted to go on, I decided I could find it myself. I forget now what I read, but I heard that Maida Vale was the closest tube station to the studios, so I alighted from there. This was probably a mistake. Weeks before I left, I had expected to spend a day in that area, including a walk around Regent's Park and possibly finding some shops in and around there. But by that time in my trip, I couldn't even fathom a long walk like that. I guess I'll just have to do it next time. Probably the next time I am north of the main city, when I'm over by Angel trying to find the shopfront of my friend Gary's company.
One great thing about all the tube stations is their local maps, which can usually be found at the "Assistance" booths. I was able to get a local map and the man at the booth circled where I was supposed to go. I think he sort of smirked, because when I told him, "I heard that Maida Vale is the closest station to Abbey Road," he just smiled and shook his head. He didn't tell me what was wrong with this choice. I guess I should have gotten off at St. John's Wood (which is where the Beatles gift shop is; there isn't one at the studios proper, because it's a living studio and they don't have room for that). St. John's Wood is also closer to Macca's Cavendish Avenue flat too.
Let me tell you if you decide to get to Abbey Road from Maida Vale, you will have a long, uphill walk, and you'll be begging for mercy at the top. I had to stop a couple times to take a swig of water because it was so hot, so sunny, and I was dying. I completely abandoned my original plan earlier that day of trying to putter around Maida Vale to try and find that studio where "Quarry" was produced. Here's a photo of a church near Abbey Road, followed by the road sign that sits at the end of the street whose name I have now forgotten. But you have to turn left from that street onto Abbey Road to go in the right direction of the studios.
So I finally got to the famous Abbey Road studios. There were two security guards sitting next to their motorbikes near the gates, and I just didn't want to get barked at by these guys. The gates were open, but according to one of my friends, the gates are only open if they're expecting an artist or producer or someone else important to come soon. Frankly, I was quaking in my boots. I wasn't quaking in my boots in Manchester upon finding the Salford Lads Club, probably because I knew that the Smiths were never members of that club. Abbey Road studios is different - I mean, this is where all the Beatles audio magic was made! I walked past the studios first to find that famous zebra crossing used on the cover of "Abbey Road."
Then I finally worked up the courage to first scribble on the white-washed walls outside the gates. Then, two other tourists (probably from another part of England) made the first move and walked through the gates and up the steps. If they could do it, so could I, couldn't I? So I did, after I took a photo of the actual steps and the heritage sign for Sir Edward Elgar next to the door. Talk about all the luck - of all the photos I took on this entire trip, only 2 pictures - one of them being this one of the studios - has my stupid finger in it!
Next, I wanted to find Cavendish Avenue. Stupidly however, even though my ex-boyfriend had told me, I forgot to write down the NUMBER of the flat that Paul owns, so I think I must have walked past it, not knowing it was even his! Oops. I did however find Billy Fury's house at number 1, and as you know, Billy was one of Morrissey's heroes, so this was an unexpected find. (Just so you know, Paul's abode is at 32. But you're likely to find the high gates closed and locked.)
Does anyone know if Martha is still alive? I doubt it. Maybe some puppies exist somewhere. I guess I'll have to tip my hat to Macca next time I'm in London. I wouldn't mind to stroll around Primrose Hill, where he'd take Martha for exercise.
I unfortunately was too tired to get back (get it, "get back"? haha) to St. John's Wood tube station, where the official Abbey Road/Beatles paraphenalia souvenir shop is located. I was just much too tired. I hadn't realized walking around Maida Vale would have taken so much out of me. I had also planned on going to Marylebone and putter around there. The Marylebone train station is where the opening running sequences of the Beatles' film "A Hard Day's Night" were filmed, though I doubt the photo booth and the milk dispenser are still there. Marylebone Register Office is where in 1964, George Harrison wed his first wife, Pattie Boyd, and also where Paul McCartney wed Linda Eastman years later. But I had to save that for the next time.
That night, I got back to my hotel and nearly fell flat on my bed. At the time I thought I might have heatstroke, because I was not expecting London to be this hot and sunny. It was more like weather back in D.C., and I had gone to England to escape the heat. Later that night I had an amazing, amazing dinner at the Yo! Sushi that was located literally steps away from my hotel. This is one reason why I'd stay there at County Hall again - hahaha, whenever you have a sushi craving, enjoy yourself at Yo! Sushi. So yummy. Bottomless bowls of miso soup and cups of green tea. I could eat like this everyday. (That particular night, I honed in on some some seared tuna, a spicy crayfish salad, and my absolute fave raw fish, salmon.) However, if you saw my bills, you'd probably have a heart attack. Good sushi costs good money, and I rationalize that you can never, ever count quantity over quality when it comes to something potentially dangerous to eat like raw fish. However, I planned for this in advance - I only had two blow-out meals, both dinners, when I was in Manchester - and saved like crazy at lunch so I could enjoy myself on something like sushi, which you can't skimp on. Oh, I know my friend Sara would have loved this and I expect to take her one day. I even found out from the host at the front that they're working with some people in D.C. to open one here, so maybe we can just go to that one someday when they finally start it up. It sure would save on the airfare ;)
What's really funny that I did not mention in my Manchester photojournal was that I was highly amused by most of the telly programming available to me in the hotel. The English seem to enjoy many American films, as I saw several of them that I recognized. At the same time, I really liked the quiz shows and there was one called "The Mint" (or maybe it was "The Vault"?) in which people called in and tried to win 100 quid or so. The way the people were talking on that cracked me up. "Bubbly jubbly!"...and..."Brilliant!" I wish we'd have funny stuff like that on late at night. I also like the concept of "Late Night with Jools Holland" - no sense in having a show like Leno or Letterman where the band gets to perform for exactly how long one song is and then move on. It's also helpful to know when the weather report will come on BBC4, because it always comes on at the same time. That and having the commercials after 40 or so minutes of uninterrupted show. Instead we've got interruptions all over the place here in the middle of American telly.
Next day, the plan was to go to Kew Gardens. A dorky move on my part made me stressed out but luckily, all was well.
posted 12/04/06
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