Retrofitting South Liverpool - Penny Lane - very strange

      Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes.

 There beneath the blue suburban skies 

I sit, and meanwhile back

  BIT# 1    

 

• Songwriting History 

• John Lennon: “Penny Lane is a suburban district where I lived with my mother and father up until the age of four...It was one of those row houses like they always picture in the early Beatles' life stories.

• Paul: “There was a barber shop called Bioletti's with head shots of the haircuts you can have in the window and I just took it all and arted it up a little bit to make it sound like he was having a picture exhibition in his window. It was all based on real things. 

• In 1967, Paul explained: “It's part fact, part nostalgia for a great place – 'blue suburban skies,' as we remember it, and it's still there. And we put in a joke or two: 'four of fish and finger pie.'

McCartney and Lennon would meet at Penny Lane junction to catch a bus into the centre of the city. During the 1960s, this was a significant bus terminus for several routes, and buses with "Penny Lane" displayed were common throughout Liverpool. The name Penny Lane is also used for the area that surrounds its junction with Smithdown Road, Smithdown Place (where the terminus was located) and Allerton Road, including a busy shopping area.

Today the street is an important landmark. (source wikipedia)


  BIT# 2   

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A BRIEF AUDIO HISTORY OF THIS SONG ON OUR PARTNER WEBSITE "THE BEATLES SONG BY SONG"

Answer these questions:

1. What has become abundantly clear in the decades since The Beatles breakup?
2. How were Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever released? 
3. How did they work together?
4. when did recording begin for the Sgt Pepper LP?
5. Who was it named after? 
6. When they started recording the song, which was the main instrument?
7. How was Paul influenced to add another instrument?

  

  BIT# 3    

 Penny Lane Development Trust is a HUB in the local community. 

We are striving to engage our community by offering opportunities to participate in community life. 

The Beginning

Penny Lane is famous world wide for its association with the Beatles. In a local context Penny Lane is famous for its football. The Grove Mount playing fields was home to the hugely successful Liverpool School Boys FA for many years. When the Football Association moved to a new home, the site on Penny Lane became derelict, the changing rooms and no. 70 Penny Lane became unfit for purpose. The land on Penny Lane quickly became an eyesore for the local community and attracted vandalism and anti-social behaviour.

In 1998, the Liverpool City Council wanted to sell this derelict land to housing developers. A group of locals campaigned against this and a new Trust was set up. Part of the Grove Mount site was gifted to the Penny Lane Millennium Green Trust. At this time Paddy Ashdown, Leader of the Lib Dem Party showed his support to the Trust. Soon after, Cllr Mike Storey, the Leader of the City Council opened the Millennium Green to the community.

In 2003, Penny Lane Development Trust gained Charitable Status 1099720 with the aim of campaigning to improve the Grove Mount fields and the burnt out building for the benefit of the local community and surrounding area in South Liverpool.

After several long years of campaigning the Penny Lane Development Trust was successful in gaining an award from the Community Asset Fund to refurbish the burnt out building to create a warm, safe and welcoming facility for the local and wider community.

In 2010, the result of everyone's determination, campaigning and hard work paid off. The Penny Lane Development Trust community centre had been built.

source:  http://www.pldt.org.uk/the-history 

  BIT# 4    

What is Penny Lane by the Beatles about??? -yahooanswers

In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs Of every head he's had the pleasure to know. And all the people that come and go Stop and say hello.  

On the corner is a banker with a motorcar, The little children laugh at him behind his back. And the banker never wears a mack In the pouring rain, very strange. 
Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes. 

There beneath the blue suburban skies I sit, and meanwhile back 
In penny Lane there is a fireman with an hourglass And in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen. He likes to keep his fire engine clean, It's a clean machine. 

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes. A four of fish and finger pies In summer, meanwhile back 

Behind the shelter in the middle of a roundabout The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray And tho' she feels as if she's in a play She is anyway. 

In Penny Lane the barber shaves another customer, We see the banker sitting waiting for a trim. And then the fireman rushes in From the pouring rain, very strange. 

Penny lane is in my ears and in my eyes. There beneath the blue suburban skies I sit, and meanwhile back. Penny lane is in my ears and in my eyes. There beneath the blue suburban skies, Penny Lane.