This is a much copied image. The article mentions some other bands which have created their own versions for album covers.
For locals it is also a source of frustration as they are held up by lots of tourists recreating the scene for a picture. Caveat: I've done that myself...
Abbey Road is my son's favourite Beatles album. We listened to it recently while on a Kent road trip.
Phil Collins was interviewed in last weekend's Sunday Times newspaper. It's an excellent and wide-ranging interview.
Phil is 75 and has not been in the best of health in recent years, but he is now feeling a lot better than a few years ago when he was in hospital and people thought he may not get out.
He has had a remarkable career and a tumultuous private life too. His children have their own careers in music, acting and football. His son drummed with Genesis on their 'farewell' tour (or will there be one final reunion: getting the band back together...).
He was the only musician to play both the London and Philadelphia concerts for Live Aid in 1986, flying on Concorde (which was the only way that could have happened really).
He has previously said that he understood why people might have got a bit sick of him in the 1980s as he was everywhere... his massive solo success, acting, soundtracks, touring with Genesis and other work.
I was fortunate to see Phil play with Genesis numerous times from the early 1980s through to the 1990s and to hear him play the drum duets with Chester Thompson, particularly the 'In the Cage Medley' from the Mama tour was a privilege...
Last week he was also interviewed by Vernon Kay for the Radio 2 series called 'Tracks of my Years'.
In a conversation based around the tracks he loves from Stevie Wonder, The Who, Taylor Swift, the Travelling Wilburys and more, Phil discusses the influence and impact these songs have had on him. Taking Vernon through his life, he talks about getting his family’s help to assemble his first drum kit as a child and then auditioning for various groups as a teenager, through to joining Genesis and writing his solo music, including the story behind creating In The Air Tonight.
Plus, he tells stories about crossing paths with the likes of Brian Wilson, Martha Reeves, Bruce Hornsby and Taylor Swift.
Born in 1951 in London, Phil loved music from an early age and was auditioning for bands as a teenager, joining Genesis as their new drummer in 1970. Five years later he replaced Peter Gabriel as the vocalist in the band, continuing their huge success. In 1981 he began his solo career with the debut album Face Value, and to date has sold more than 150 million solo records worldwide. His accolades include an Oscar, six BRITs, two Golden Globes, and eight Grammys. This November, he’ll be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for a second time, following Genesis' induction in 2010.
I've mentioned this web series before. It's produced by the Cosmic Shambles Network, and presented by Charlotte Ritchie.
It promises to tell the history of music. Early reviews have been very positive.
I'm posting links to the episodes here to increase exposure.
Part Eight: Sing to Me
What makes some music more popular and why do we all have different taste in music? We dig into this via a case study of two pop music juggernauts, The Beatles and Taylor Swift before exploring the behind the scenes process of crafting a memorable song. Finally we take a look at music for children.
Part Eight includes exclusive interviews, rare archive and performances from Paul Kelly, Kelley Jakle. Murray Cook, Sophie Galpin, Jim Bob, Philip Ball, Charlotte Church, Dua Lipa, Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift, Kylie Minogue, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, Sonny Tennet, Natalie Haynes, Dean Burnett and more.
This series is an entirely independent production made possible by fan support on Patreon and Substack.
Episode 8 is here:
Episode 9 - the final episode - is coming up next
I will post a review of the series when I've had the chance to watch and also add links to the episodes.
Think Liverpool and of course you think of The Beatles and the Cavern Club.
Image: Alan Parkinson
There are many other musicians who are linked with the city too, whether by birth or because of their career. Gerry and the Pacemakers of course, whose song plays out as you take the eponymous ferry... and then take it again to come back as there's not a lot on the other side.... (no offence).
Frankie goes to Hollywood (who appear separately on the blog) were based there. They were helped by Trevor Horn to achieve huge success in the early 1980s.
The Beatles are the main people here of course.
In 'The Pie at Night', Stuart Maconie explores the psychogeography connected with songs like 'Penny Lane' (something explored by Brendan Conway in his Storymaps which I have blogged about previously.
Back at the start of the blog I added a Google Form.
Please fill it in....
It is still there and you are welcome to complete it still.
One of the questions was about books with a musical theme which came to mind.
Here are a few suggestions from those who filled in the form so far:
Angus said:
The Philip Norman book on Elton John set an early high bar. I liked Keith Richard's candid "autobiography" "Life".
Matt suggested Neil Young's "Waging Heavy Peace".
Sandra said:
Brian Johnson's "The Lives of Brian". I loved this book. I learnt so much more about Brian and AC/DC by reading it. I didn't know how worried he was joining the band and taking over from Bon Scott. I also learnt a lot about his life in Glasgow as he grew up.
John suggested 'This is Memorial Device'.
I heard a lot about this book and bought it but it didn't click - reminded me of Iain Banks' 'Espedair Street' - Alan
Stephen was all in on The Beatles, with the recent "John & Paul A Love Story" and also Craig Brown's book on the Beatles.
Brendan was in agreement on The Beatles, suggesting 'Beatles '66: The Revolutionary Year' by Steve Turner, a deep dive into the pivotal year of 1966 when The Beatles transitioned from pop stars to studio innovators, focusing on their final tour, and the creation of "Revolver".
David suggested "Sinatra: The Life" by Anthony Summers
More suggestions in another post later in the year...
The Beatles are amongst the most significant and influential musical acts ever, although I've never really played their music yet, but have of course heard a lot of their music over the decades. They are synonymous with the city of Liverpool, and the 1960s, although they went through a number of phases before their last performance on the roof of Apple Records in London on 30th January 1969.
This was at 3 Savile Row, which was just next door to #1 where the Royal Geographical Society had their HQ between 1870 and 1912.
This map shows the locations of all the places featured in their lyrics.
Take yourself on a tour of lyric locations in The Beatles songs. From Eleanor Rigby's gravestone in Liverpool to Abbey Road in North London, see the locations behind The Beatles lyrics throughout England, France, Russia, India, the United States, and more countries, covering 25,510 miles around the world.
Image: Alan Parkinson, shared on Flickr under CC license
Brendan will be making several contributions to the blog as the year goes on - see his other StoryMap posted yesterday.
The inspiration of places had become an integral part of their music. The geographical locations linked to Sgt. Pepper and their other work in 1967 provide the focus for this Story Map.
Brendan Conway has produced a series of ESRI StoryMaps. I referenced one a few days ago, but this one is a Beatles themed one - linked to another guest blog post I shall publish in a few weeks' time. The StoryMap format lends itself very well to this sort of exploration.
I may set up a small competition at some point if we get enough regular readers of the blog to create a musical StoryMap for a favourite band or piece of music. Brendan has modelled some good practice here in that regard.
How the legacy of the greatest single ever made continues to inspire songwriters to capture a sense of place including current rising stars such as CMAT.
In recent decades, a recurring theme among the most creative and highly-regarded musicians is their influences from the past, including recordings from many years before they were born.
One example is Irish musician CMAT (Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson). CMAT’s first album in 2022 included a track called ‘Geography Teacher’. Her most recent album title and title track ‘Euro-Country’ also has a justifiable geographical ring about it, with various meanings, including her love of music from different countries, particularly when artists sing in their own language and all types of country music.
CMAT’s songwriting is strongly influenced by her experience of growing up in Dunboyne, County Meath around the time of the banking crisis of 2008, which caused a major economic crash in Ireland following the ‘Celtic Tiger’ boom years.
Songs on the album include laments about the ensuing social and economic impacts and loss of cultural identity:
‘Everybody became unemployed. Then, in the village I grew up in, there was a year or 18 months where loads of the people I went to school with, their dads started killing themselves because they'd lost everything in the crash.’ (see Middle-aged Men and Suicide in Ireland (Donnell and Richardson 2018) ).
The title track ‘Euro-Country’ starts with a verse in Irish and the video takes place in the sterile interior of the Omni Shopping Centre in Santry, northern Dublin. There is nothing distinctive about the place - it could be anywhere.
Geographers will pick up strong resonances with issues around ‘clone towns’ and ‘out-of-town’ retail-led developments.
Along with many of the best contemporary artists, CMAT actively trawls deeply and widely through musical heritage. In this video, CMAT breaks down the process behind her 'EURO-COUNTRY' album, plus 'Running/Planning' (Artist In Residence’ on BBC 6 Music in August 2025 - there is a link to influence of Pentangle and The Beatles' use of the mellotron explained here)
Her work follows a long tradition of psychogeographical songwriting which began in the 1960s.
Along with so many trends of that era, The Beatles were a major catalyst. They initiated or picked up on cultural shifts, ran with them and brought them into the mainstream, often in a profoundly influential way. In turn, their songwriting style borrowed ideas from other songwriters such as Bob Dylan and critics such as Kenneth Allsop.
A turning point was The Beatles song 'In My Life' on their 1965 studio album 'Rubber Soul'. Starting with the line ‘There are places I remember…’ it was mainly written by John Lennon drawing on reminiscences of his childhood holidays in Durness, northern Scotland.
It signalled a major shift away from The Beatles’ earlier, straightforward love songs to a more autobiographical, reflective style of songwriting. In particular, their innovative fusion of pop music with feelings and memories about geographical places unwittingly pioneered a psychogeographical approach to songwriting.
Then in February 1967, The Beatles released arguably the greatest single record of all time - a 'double-A side' of Penny Lane written by Paul McCartney and Strawberry Fields Forever written by John Lennon.Both were psychogeographical vignettes of suburban life - evoking memories of places associated with their upbringing in Liverpool.
The influence of The Beatles' new approach on other songwriters was immediate and enduring. In 1967 alone, several hits of the year demonstrated that other artists were choosing psychogeographical themes to good effect including The Kinks' 'Waterloo Sunset'; Small Faces' 'Itchycoo Park'; The Monkees' 'Pleasant Valley Sunday', and Scott McKenzie's 'San Francisco'.
It wasn’t just about the song's lyrics but its instrumentation and production as well.
The Beatles popularised the use of cut-up methods and sampling loops to paint soundscapes with early uses on songs such as 'Tomorrow Never Knows' on the 1966 album Revolver.
On their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band they incorporated cultural influences from distant times and places including vaudeville, music hall and Indian classical music. They embraced new technologies of the day such as the mellotron (a keyboard instrument which played tape loops) for the opening chords and /textures throughout 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and synthesisers on the 1969 album Abbey Road, especially on George Harrison’s classic song 'Here Comes The Sun'.
The Beatles cleared a path for other artists to experiment such as Pentangle who fused folk with rock and jazz for songs such as 'Light Flight' (1969) about challenges of life in London for three young women and 'Wedding Dress' (1971), which CMAT describes as ‘the greatest song of all time’, incidentally recorded 25 years before her birth!
Well into the twenty-first century, artists frequently gain substantial inspiration from the innovations which took place many years before they were born, five or six decades ago. For example, CMAT explains that ‘I love the mellotron… we used it on every single song on this record’ such as 'Running/Planning' to create sound imagery by fusing disparate genres such as country and western, chamber pop strings and old-school music tech.
As in a relay race, the psychogeographical baton created by The Beatles has been handed successfully from one generation to another.
For further details about The Beatles' psychogeographical song writing and other links to geographical places, take a look at these two Story Maps. (They will appear elsewhere on the blog as well).
Brendan Conway is a geography teacher with over thirty years’ experience and led his current school to the GA Centre of Excellence. He has authored a range of learning materials for Oak National Academy, Tutor2U, Collins, BBC Bitesize and has expertise in GIS. Brendan is very interested in the links between geography and music and has written far too many story maps on this theme.
