I’d like to take the opportunity of welcoming you to Liverpool, whether it is your first visit or indeed one of many visits to this wonderful city. We have spent the best part of a year in organising the events and are confident that Beatle Week 2000 will be the best yet, certainly believe that this is the strongest musical line-up we’ve ever had. It has been another busy year for Cavern City Tours. It began with the news, just after last year’s Convention that we had been awarded £3 million towards the building of the Hard Day’s Night Hotel’, which was obviously a time for celebration. The party didn’t last long though, as the news was followed up with a phone call to say that all the grant money had been used up and that the pockets were empty. We were invited to re-apply and are expecting the news literally any day now’ We have our fingers crossed that by the time you read this, the new announcement will have been made. At the very latest we will know the outcome in mid September and we are quietly confident that we will get a positive result and that the hotel will be open by Easter 2002. Whatever the outcome we’d like to place on record an appreciation for the patience shown by Shannon, who has been commissioned to complete all of the artwork in the hotel. It has been very frustrating but it is by far the biggest project we have ever been involved with and it will be worth it in the end. On the morning we heard the bad news about the hotel grant, we were just about to depart for London to attend Paul’s launch party at the Equinox in Leicester Square. It was a great evening as we mingled with Bill Wyman, Dave Gilmour and of course Paul himself. Karen our Secretary even got a kiss on the cheek from Paul. What a night — or so we thought! We didn’t really know at that time just what would be in store for us a few weeks later. Of course I am referring to Paul’s shock decision to come back home to the Cavern Club to play one more time. Now that was a great night!
I’ve been asked a number of times to reveal the ‘inside’ story but I’ve saved it for the Convention. It will be really strange being a guest speaker at my own Convention, but it seems the perfect place to tell one or two anecdotes. I’ll be joined by Chris Hall who of course played accordion on ‘Brown Eyed Handsome Man’. It goes without saying that it was the highlight of my year (or any year for that matter). Another highlight of the year was the number of great bands who have played the Cavern, including Wishbone Ash and Paul Rodgers (Free) who unsolicited called his Cavern gig “his best club gig in over thirty years in the business”. Hundreds of bands have played the Cavern over the last year and there is a great buzz about the place, especially since we have installed two new sound systems into the Club. Much of the credit must go to Alex McKechnie who organises the live music programme at the Club. Alex incidentally makes his farewell appearance with his band ‘Up and Running’ at the Mathew Street Festival on Monday, as he concentrates in the future on his role as Entertainment’s Manager at the Cavern

Changes
It must be noted that there are three changes to the original brochure. The Quarrymen from Ireland will not perform as stated in the brochure and on the tickets. Apologies for any misunderstanding but Bill jumped the gun and included them before everything had been fully agreed. The positive news is that they have been replaced by an equally great band from Devon, The Fab Beatles. Another change is that the tickets for the Unplugged festival features a picture of none other than Laurence Gilmour. Unfortunately for us, but not for Laurence, he recently moved to Pittsburgh, USA, where he will live and work for the next two years. We wish him and his family all the best and look forward to the day when we can welcome him back. It’s a case of au revoir not goodbye.

A couple of advertised changes to this year’s Beatle Week are the inaugural Cavern Pub Festival and the Unplugged Festival at The Adeiphi.
From Thursday August 24th onwards there will be live music every day and night at the Cavern Pub and of course entrance is totally free. Most of the bands appearing during Beatle Week will play at the Cavern Pub at some point during the week. Most of the bands will also perform at the ‘Unplugged Festival’ which will take place immediately after the Convention on Sunday. There’s an opportunity for the fans to sing at the ‘Unplugged Festival’ —just ask the bands. There will, be unplugged stages in Jenny’s Bar, Cromptons, The American Bar and Fridays. It should be fun —and something we hope to repeat in the future.

Other things to do
I defy anybody to do everything over the long weekend, but if you are up to it, there are many other events and things to do during Beatle Week. Beatles Story is always worth a visit and for those who have been before, it’s worth going again just to see the piano on which John composed ‘Imagine’.
The piano will remain at the Beatles Story till John’s birthday on October 9th. Beatles Story also houses a great art exhibition featuring the work of Stu Sutcliffe. There is also a great Pop Art exhibition in Liverpool’s Tate Gallery in the Albert Dock, It has been put together by Peter Blake, he of Sergeant Pepper fame.
The show features among other things a collage of John’s from his student days which has seldom seen the light of day and a brand new collage by Paul, who actually attended the ‘~ Opening Night on April 6th. Paul also provided an 18-  minute sound collage called ‘Plastic Beatle’ which plays at the exhibition, and was subsequently re-mixed by the Welsh group ‘Super Furry Animals’ — Good stuff eh! Don’t forget the John Lennon Art Gallery above the Beatles Shop and the magical Mystery Tour departing from Beatles Story at 1 2.3Opm and 3pm every day. If you don’t get to see it all, why don’t you come back October 7th - October 9th for the celebrations to mark what would have been John Lennon’s 60th birthday.
Ask at the Cavern City Tours desk for details. Incidentally the desk will be in the foyer of the Adelphi Hotel and open at the following times:
•Thursday 10am to 7pm;
• Friday 10am to 7pm; ‘Saturday 10am to 7pm;
• Sunday, Cavern City Tours will have a stand in the Convention throughout the day;
• Monday 10am to 2pm:
‘Tuesday 10am to 2pm. 
Don’t forget our very own Sports bar and restaurant (De Coubertins), open early till late on each day and situated In North John Street around the corner from the Cavern Club. Indeed, Paul McCartney himself staged his post-gig party there after his Cavern performance, so it has its own Beatle heritage. The Cavern is open all weekend with free entry by showing your hotel key card and of course the Pub also features free live music

Finally a plug for two related projects. A big thank you to the Brazilian band ‘Abbey Road’ for the use of their photograph on the front cover of this programme and on the official T-shirts for Beatle Week 2000. What a great image. Thanks guys!
A big plug for conventioneers Jo Rishton and Nina, who have a new project called ‘The Word is Love’ — a fanzine for all of the Beatle bands around the world highlighting the ones that appear at the Liverpool Beatle Week. So instead of seeing the Overtures once a year or wanting to know if Diego of the Beats has egg on toast for his breakfast, you can find all of this out by e-mailing Jo and Nina. Seriously though it is a great way of staying in touch with your favourite band, and the girls will be able to tell you about the bands forthcoming gigs etc. A great idea and one we fully support. Best of luck girls! You can reach them on www.angelfire.com/pop­thewordislove
Hopefully one of the first things the girls can do is to review our album which has taken three years to record in the Abbey Road Studios featuring, Wishing, Tunel Do Tempo, The Beats, Instant Karma, Lenny Pane, Hard Night’s Day, Bob Barley’s Banned on the Run, Fab Faux, Gary Gibson, Haré Georgeson, Aleph, Ringer, Clube Big Beatles and the Overtures. An album of original songs - it should be available by Christmas, engineered and mixed by Will Schillinger the leg-end from New York City. (See the way I got a plug in for Cavern City Tours right at the end. Tacky eh!)

Have fun, get hoarse, make friends. Cheers, Bill, Dave, George, Sieve, Ray, and Karen