Fab!

There was a time when Dan had to be reminded to do his guitar practice but then, suddenly, maybe eighteen months ago, you never seemed to see him without his guitar in his hand. More often than not, he was to be found hunched in front of his laptop, playing along with Green Day performances.

Initially, of course, his chord changes were inexpert and imprecise but he'd sit there, hour after our, tongue poked out the side of his mouth, practising, practising, practising. And next it was Muse and while the chords were better now, he was back to square one with the riffs and lead guitar. But he practised relentlessly.

And now it's The Beatles. When he's not adroitly playing one of those splendid mid-period riffs on the guitar, he's listening to one of the albums or he's got his nose firmly wedged in Ian MacDonald's very brilliant 'Revolution In The Head'. 

A couple of weeks ago he asked if we could go to The Beatles Story exhibition in Liverpool. I must admit I was a bit dubious: you know what these places can be like. But he was so keen that I said sure, thinking that if it wasn't very good or there wasn't much to see, we could have a drive around and I'd show him some of my old haunts.

Abi was determinedly not interested in coming, so it was just me and Dan who parked up in the Albert Dock and found our way in. We were both hungry and decided to go to the exhibition's café for a quick bite to eat. Which was the first pleasant surprise: two drinks and two (good) hot dogs for eight quid.

And then the exhibition itself was excellent. I mean, if you aren't a Beatles fan, then I wouldn't recommend going. But if you have more than a passing interest, it's great. As you go through the exhibition, each room is done up differently, exploring aspects of the band's career chronologically (although, inexplicably, they appear to have Sgt Pepper's and Magical Mystery Tour in the wrong sequence).

The (free) headsets are great, too; they even have some video on them. So, in each room, you could hear more detail about the period, see clips of the band, and listen to interviews. I reckon it took us about two hours to get 'round and it was all great.

Our ticket also entitled us to the other part of the exhibition down the road at Pier Head. That was a bit poor, to be honest, including the pants 4D show. But we did take our turn to grab a photo with these larger than life statues of the Fab Four.