Roll Up, Roll Up For The Mystery Tour -- Step Right This Way!

Today is the first day of your Beatleful dream-come-true. Meet fellow Beatles fans and travelers from all over North America and depart for the ultimate Beatles experience. “It’s guaranteed to raise a smile!" Meet at the airport terminal where your MMTour host will surprise you with a goodie bag of Beatles gifts. Meet your fellow travelers. Check-in at the airline counter, and fly with the group to France. Speaking of groups, we will be bringing one of the world's greatest Beatles tribute bands along with us for the entire tour. We will be announcing the name of the band soon. They will hang out with us as we do our sight-seeing, they'll party with us at our functions but they'll also perform throughout the vacation! Their involvement in this trip is just one of many once-in-a-lifetime MMTour 2005 exclusives. So try to get some sleep on the flight. . . the fun and festivities begin in full force once we land.

Arrive in France and transfer to our hotel. Our first stop include 2 nights/3 days in Paris, as we journey to the land of their savage young performances. "There were more boys than girls in the audience," appears to have been the main impression Paris made on the Beatles: they said it at the time, and in retrospective interviews as recently as the "Anthology." Yet some of their best live recordings come from their two visits to the City of Light, the first in January and early February 1964 just before their first visit to America, and the second on June 20, 1965, their first live shows after finishing work on "Help!"
Paris also has the distinction of being the only city outside London where the Beatles held a formal recording session, that being the January 29, 1964 session at Pathé Marconi studios that produced "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand," "Sie Liebt Dich" and "Can't Buy Me Love." And it was in Paris that they wrote and probably recorded the demo for "One And One Is Two," a song that they did not revisit in the studio, leaving the demo as the only available performance.

After breakfast, there will be a comprehensive fully-escorted Beatle tour hosted by a very special Beatles associate serving as our personal tour guide. Paris also has the distinction of being the only city outside London where the Beatles held a formal recording session, that being the January 29, 1964 session at Pathé Marconi studios that produced "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand," "Sie Liebt Dich" and "Can't Buy Me Love." And it was in Paris that they wrote and probably recorded the demo for "One And One Is Two," a song that they did not revisit in the studio, leaving the demo as the only available performance. While in Paris, we will go on an extensive panoramic sightseeing tour. This tour is a discovery tour by air conditioned bus of the most beautiful monuments to be seen in the City of Lights - Paris. During your tour, we will enjoy a boat cruise along the beautiful Seine River where you can admire the city once again from a different perspective. Continue onto the magnificent Eiffel Tower - the main icon of Paris.
We will continue the tour of the city with a stop at Notre Dame followed by a stop to admire Montmartre. Here you will enjoy some free time to discover this famous area of Paris on foot. Sights we will see include the Louvre, Madelaine Square, Opera, Vendome Square, Arch de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, Sacre Coeur, the Moulin de la Galette, the Palace du Tertre and many more.

We spend the night dancing and partying at a nightclub with invited French Beatle fans while being entertained by the official Beatles tribute band of the tour. (TBA)

After breakfast, check out and jet to London for our first day in merry ol’ England. After we check in to our London hotel, enjoy a late afternoon/early evening group meet & greet with a very special fan-friendly celebrity guest. We then board a luxury coach with our tour guide Richard Porter, albeit with a video and audio presentation, for a unique panoramic tour of London and Beatle sights.

2005 DETAILS COMING SOON!

In the evening, dance the night at our annual "Twist & Shout" Party in London's original Hard Rock Café, with Beatles and solo music played by guest DJs Danny Levine and Charles F. Rosenay!!!. Members of the Mexican Beatles Fan Club and London Beatles fan Club, join us, along with other special guest celebrities, including Gordon Millings of the famed Millings family. It was his Dad, Dougie, who designed and outfitted The Beatles in their famous collarless jackets. Food and drinks will be available. Upon arrival, we will explore "The Vault" at the Hard Rock, the underground museum inside the gift shop that features the Café's rarest memorabilia. Expect to party late! We return to the hotel by coach.

Breakfast begins the day, followed by the most comprehensive London Beatles tour hosted by Richard Porter of The London Beatles Walk. Please refer to past Tour Reports on this website to read about all the amazing places that we visit along the way. Be sure you have enough rolls of film in your cameras, because you will see every locale you've ever heard about in books, seen on postcards, or dreamed about someday visiting.

Pray for sunny blue (suburban) skies this morning, because we go straight from breakfast onto the Magical Mystery Tour of all the Liverpool sites. This is it! There are places you'll remember forever: Strawberry Field, Penny Lane, the Beatles’ homes, birthplaces, schools, early hang-outs, etc. You name it -- we see it! Don’t run short on film!

The Beatles Week Festival in Liverpool is by far the biggest (and the best) Beatles celebration of them all and typically attracts bands from over 20 countries and fans from over 40! The City of Liverpool’s theme is "The World in One City" and it is never more true than during Beatle Week. To this end, the Friday afternoon celebration features four of the best Beatle bands in the world, from four very different cultures – Liverpool (from Sweden), Johnny Silver (from Germany) The Parrots (from Japan) and, topping the bill will be Club Big Beatles (from Brazil), who will be celebrating their tenth consecutive appearance at the Festival. Entertainment from bands representing three different continents!

Liverpool realizes that 2004 is the 40th anniversary of the British Invasion of the USA which began so spectacularly by the Mop Tops’ performance on the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964. To celebrate this anniversary, the city is staging . . . what else . . . a U.S. invasion of Liverpool! America's finest and most well-known Beatle bands "invade" England to repay the compliment. The first of our three American shows at The Royal Court is staged tonight and features "1964 The Tribute," (one of the world's most famous Beatle bands). Whilst they will concentrate on the Beatles earlier career, "American English" returns to Liverpool after their triumphant 2002 performances to concentrate upon the Fabs’ later repertoire. A tremendous blockbuster of a show! As soon as this finishes there will be time to get over to the Adelphi for "Frantic Friday" which will be held in Friday’s Bar, Cromptons and The American Bar, as well as featuring Jon Keats and Instant Karma, who will be hosting a "Bed In" in the Adelphi lounge into the wee small hours.

Begin with another endless breakfast and enjoy the Morning Tour of Liverpool Beatle Sites. You will see landmarks you've only read about or seen in pictures, along with places (and corresponding stories) you may not even have known existed. After the Beatlerific tour, experience city’s much-heralded Mersey Music Street Festival, the region’s top outdoor festival. This year’s Mathew Street Festival will begin at 12 noon when the QE2 will sound her pipes from her mooring in the River Mersey. Over 300,000 fans will be entertained by over 200 bands in the city centre. Every bar, pub, restaurant and club will echo to the sound of Merseybeat! Over 80 indoor stages are supplemented by six huge outdoor stages in the city centre – and this free festival will continue until 8pm. The Mathew Street Festival is every Liverpudlian’s favorite day in the calendar, and if you haven’t experienced it yet, you’ll soon understand why! As soon as this finishes you will just have time to get to the Royal Court Theatre for the third and final installment of the American Invasion. This concert will feature the aforementioned British Export (from Chicago, but they cheat a little by having Gavin from Liverpool as their George!). British Export will feature Beatles music between 1963-1966, before the mercurial talent of the Fab Faux (from NYC) take the stage to perform their “Psychedelia” show in its entirety. Do they look like The Beatles? No! So why are they the band everybody’s always raving about? You have to see them to understand. It’s Beatles music as The Beatles would play it themselves today if they could. World class, multi Grammy award winning musicians combine their talents to provide what will undoubtedly be the highlight of the week. Will Lee, the bass player, was voted world’s greatest living bass player by Billboard magazine and has played bass for Ringo, George at the Albert Hall, and Paul, too! Yes, he played bass for Paul at the New York City Freedom Concert! Some pedigree). After catching your breath it is over to the Adelphi and it comes full circle to where it all began. The VIP Party this year is entitled “Liverpool Entertains” and the finale will feature Instant Karma, The Mersey Beatles, George Harry’s Son and Mike Penders Searchers ("Needles & Pins"). All scousers from Liverpool and guaranteed to knock your socks off. What a way to end an unbelievable day!

We begin our final full day in Liverpool (after another full breakfast!) by boarding the yellow Magical Mystery Tour bus for a two-part all-day all-inclusive exhaustive and comprehensive sightseeing Magical Mystery Tour of Liverpool. Part One (the A-side) starts with everyone's favorite guide, Eddie "The Walrus" Porter. You will pass every imaginable sight on this expanded tour of the city center, including homes, schools, hang-outs, and other landmarks including Penny Lane and Strawberry Field. Forever, you will cherish and remember this day, which continues on to the outskirts of Liverpool in Part Two (the B-side) as hosted by tour-guide extraordinaire Hilary Oxlade, who will take everyone to Wirral and the lesser-known sites. This is the true fanatics part of the tour. Make sure your cameras are loaded with film, and expect to see some truly obscure but wonderful locations.

This will be your final chance to buy some last-minute souvenirs at the Beatles Shop on Mathew Street, or visit the Beatles Story exhibit at the Albert Docks. A nap is permitted but don’t forget to get over to The Cavern Club for the final onslaught. The Fab Faux is only playing three shows during Beatle Week and you will probably be reeling from their first gig at The Royal Court the night before (Monday). Seeing is indeed believing, but Tuesday at The Cavern Club will be something else. The Fab Faux are playing their first ever gig at The Cavern Club and are going to play a gig that will be the complete antithesis to their Royal Court Psychedelia show. Back to basics, in yer face rock ’n’ roll stripped right down. It will be hot, it will be sweaty, but one cannot think of any better way to finish Beatle Week. These Cavern gigs will be historic occasions that will be marked by an addition to the Cavern Wall of Fame in a special ceremony. An absolute must for all true Beatle fans. Of course while this show is in full swing, the Cavern Pub and the front of the Cavern will be shaking with the sounds of the best live Beatle music in the world. At night, we can grab dinner at the Cavern Pub, but we’ll wind up across the street at the most famous club of all, The Cavern Club, known to locals as the “best of cellars.” This is where we spend our last night together as a group. After our farewell party at the Cavern, you should be “sleeping like a log,” but you won’t. You have been transported back to the early 60s, and you won’t want to return to the year 2004.

"There are places I remember…" and this is the hardest part of all - saying goodbye to all the Beatleful new friends we have made during our stay in Great Britain, both within the tour group, and with other fans from countless nations.

Sometime during the stay in Liverpool, we'll have also gone on spending sprees at both the "Beatles Shop" and at the "From Me To You" collectors store in Liverpool as well as the London Beatles Shop; we'll have taken a "Ferry `Cross the Mersey" just like in the Gerry & The Pacemakers song; we'll have made our way to the Albert Docks for the incredible museum/exhibition called "The Beatles Story"; and we'll have somehow fallen unconditionally but fully in love with this seaport city.

We depart Liverpool as a group for our return flight to the United States, with magical memories that will live with us for the rest of our lives. We fly back to America non-stop …but we don't really say goodbye, because even if we leave the city of Liverpool, the city of Liverpool will never leave us.

All activities and events are subject to change