There beneath the blue suburban skies

On Sunday we visited the childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, both of which are now open through the National Trust. The house that John grew up in is remarkably unchanged, with many of the orginal fixtures and fittings, and very middle class - hardly the home of a working class hero - it has a 'morning room' for goodness sake!

Paul's home is lower down the social scale, being a council house, with a small garden and an outside toilet, and is more of a re-creation of what it would have been like. What makes it is particularly evocative are the photographs, taken by Paul's brother Mike (late of The Scaffold), which are placed in the parts of the house in which they were taken. These black and white images show John and Paul in a corner of the living room, writing 'I saw her standing there', Paul stumming a guitar in the back garden (a scene that they have tried to re-create, by placing a deckchair beneath a line of washing, however, visitors can no longer sit in the chair since a large visitor sat in it and broke it), and climbing a drain pipe. Images of life before it all began.

Whilst my reaction wasn't that of some of the American visitors that they get - some of whom have been known to kiss any original artifacts - seeing the houses really helped me understand a little more about how incredible it must have been when Beatlemania really kicked in, and for a while, they were still living there. You forget that they were really part of the first generation that had the opportunity to be 'teenagers' rather than just go out and get a job.

I don't think you can be of my generation and not have been touched by the music of the Beatles - a memory evoked by a particular song, a particular lyric - and it was fascinating to see where they came from and learn more of their backgrounds. I have been playing my Beatles cd ever since the weekend and finding a new resonance in Penny Lane, having seen the bank, and the shelter in the middle of the roundabout.