The childhood home ofPaul McCartney, where the former Beatle wrote some of the world’s most famous songs, will soon open its doors to a new generation of musicians.
The National Trust has announced that 20 Forthlin Road in Liverpool will be transformed into a new creative space for unsigned artists to play and perform music within the same walls that McCartney wrote classics like “Love Me Do,” “I Saw Her Standing There” and “When I’m 64.”
The effort will be known as The Forthlin Sessions, and all performances will be recorded and publicized, “offering vital opportunities for new musical talent to reach audiences,” according to a press release.
McCartney, 79, and his brother Mike, a photographer, moved with their family to the modest home in 1955, and it often played host to rehearsals and writing sessions with McCartney and his future bandmate John Lennon.
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“It was just a normal family home. We were school kids. There was no music except that my dad would tickle, as he called it, the ivories after a hard day of work,” Mike, 78, said in a statement. “At the beginning, there was no music other than dad and no photography. There wasn’t any thought of showbusiness, I can assure you.”
Things changed, however, after the boys lost their mother Mary in 1956, and soon, the home was transformed into a thriving creative oasis.
“The idea of getting into photography or music was unthinkable for working class lads back then, but Dad saw how creativity could help us through our grief,” Mike said. “Everything that was created here — the music, the photography — was created from love. I’m delighted our house and our family can inspire new generations to follow a path that might surprise people, and that it’s been part of so many lives, not just ours.”
The Forthlin Sessions will see the National Trust, a British charity organization for heritage conservation, working with Mike, journalist Pete Paphides and the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (which Paul McCartney co-founded in 1996) to find unsigned, U.K.-based musicians to take part.
The announcement comes the same year that McCartney will celebrate his 80th birthday, and that the world will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Beatles' debut single “Love Me Do.”
“What the Beatles did was inspire a generation to feel free to be creative, regardless of who or where they were,” Hilary McGrady, National Trust Director General, said in a statement. “Much of that started at 20 Forthlin Road with the songs that were written under this roof. It’s a pleasure to care for the Beatles' childhood homes and to use the story of what happened there to continue this legacy. Our places don’t have to be stuck in time; they’re here to keep sparking creativity, dreams, and new ideas. We can’t wait to hear how what happened at 20 Forthlin Road inspired and keeps on inspiring the nation.”
source: people.com
