The vast majonty of you we know, are perennial visitors to our great City and also to the MerseyBeatle Convention and to you we simply say “It s great to see you back amid so many familiar faces!” To others, who may be visiting Liverpool for the first time we trust it has been an enjoyable experience and one which you will wish to repeat in the not too distant future. Liverpool has always suffered from a bad press and when visitors come here, they always comment favourably about the City, what it has to offer and of course, the people.
Before we get any further, I would like to send our best wishes to 1000 special Beatle fans in Japan who have bought this programme in advance of the event. They are all here in spirit with us in Liverpool. Maybe they can come next year with Mr. Hamada.
From a Beatle viewpoint it has been another hectic year; Ringo has toured America and a new video of the tour has been released; “Bangladesh”, “Help” and “Magical Mystery Tour” have also been released on video at last; Paul has of course undertaken a major World tour, his best to date; George has followed up his success with the Wilbury’s with a new single “Nobody’s Child” and a new album to follow; and of course it was Ringo’s 50th birthday on July 7th and it is John’s 50th birthday on October 9th, for which there are a number of celebrations arranged all over the World.
On October 9th and December 8/9th the T.V. special “Lennon Concert” (recorded live in Liverpool on May 5th) will be shown on every continent. From a local point of view, not only has the City staged the “Lennon Concert” and the “McCartney Let It Be Liverpool Concert” it has also finally found a new permanent home for a major Beatle Exhibition “The Beatles Story Experience!”
As a result of the Liverpool concerts, Cavern City Tours have been busy for the whole twelve month period, one event has simply led to another, with deadlines to be met. After last year’s Convention, we organised a hugely successful 5 day McCartney/Hamburg trip which was sold out in advance. We then organised a “New Year in England” trip for 150 Americans and Japanese, the highlights of which was a New Year’s Eve Party at Abbey Road Studio 2, and McCartney live at the N.E.C. in Birmingham. As soon as that tour had finished, we were made the major ticket agent for the Lennon Concert by the Liverpool City Council, selling over 50% of the 20,000 tickets sold.
We also found time to organise a one day Lennon Convention which attracted lots of locals, a market which, believe it or not, is difficult to reach. At the Lennon Convention the stars of the show were “The Fab 4”, the cast from the play “Imagine” and “Cavern”. Unfortunately, the “Fab 4” (still to my mind one of the best Beatle bands ever) are in Tenerife on a long term engagement and can’t be here to emulate their May success. We were then approached by Marshall Arts, Paul’s Worldwide tour managers, to help promote Paul’s Liverpool gig. Again we were a principal ticket agent selling approximately 5,000 tickets for the show. Bill actually got to meet Paul who knew all about Cavern City Tours and Paul left by remarking, “I’ll have to come on one of your tours to find out what I was supposed to have done all those years ago!” At that same time we had 80 Americans and Japanese Beatle fans on a one week Knebworth Tour. As soon as they returned home all attention was then focused on the 1990 Convention. No wonder Dave Jones is beginning to look all of his 49 years of age!! The one event that we haven’t managed to pull off (yet) is the October Russian Convention, despite Dave’s two trips to meet Novosti Press Agency. At the time of writing it is still up in the air, but it is proving to be difficult to negotiate during the turbulent times in the U.S.S.R. However, after nearly two years of negotiating we still haven’t given up on it.
Cavern City Tours Ltd. has also tried this year to put something back into the local scene by sponsoring both the “John Lennon Liverpool Art Exhibition” and the current “Stu Sutcliffe Art Exhibition”. On a personal note, the year has seen mixed emotions (isn’t that a Stones’ record?) On a happy note, one of Bill’s best friend Billy Duncan (one of last year’s security team) married Pam, an American whom he met and fell in love with last year at the Convention!! Both are now living in Minnesota and we wish them all the happiness in the future, we will miss them both. On a very sad note you will recall last year raising approximately £600.00 for the Kathy Jenkinson appeal, a cousin of Bill’s. A couple of weeks after the Convention she had a relapse and died. Your kind donations were passed on in full by her husband to Leukaemia Research.
And so to August 1990, the MerseyBeatle Convention. This is our sixth major convention, which we believe makes us leaders in Beatle Conventions in this country. As such we will endeavour to keep the ball rolling and we will try every year to introduce new ideas, new guests and new bands, to the Annual MerseyBeatle Convention, which incidentally has now been recognised by the Merseyside Tourism Board as Merseyside’s second most important annual attraction, second only to the Grand National. That is quite a reputation to live up to!
Best wishes — Bill, Dave & Ron.

BANDS
Reunion
Cavern
Coustiks
Dark Horse
Walrus
Hitcher
Gerry Markey
Ringer
Beatles Club
Liverpool

GUEST SPEAKERS
Alistair Taylor
Mark Lewisohn
Ray Coleman
Spencer Leigh
Bob Wooler
Allan Williams
Julia Baird
Pauline Sutcliffe
Peter Doggett
Gordon Millings
Pete Frame
Alan Clayson