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Showing posts with the label Liverpool

Album Covers Featuring Vans & Campervans

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  Music Album covers-featuring vans & campervans... I thought it was about time that I combined my love of  music, with my passion for campervans, and light commercial vans in general. What better way to accomplish that, than taking a look at the various campervans and basic vans which have appeared on album covers over the years. As you might expect, it is the iconic VW marque which leads the way, appearing not only on 60s and 70s album covers, but is still very much in vogue with young musicians of the present. What follows are a sample of album covers which feature either a campervan or basic light commercial van....I'll add more as I discover them. Bob Dylan---Freewheelin So, what ranks as one of the most well known album covers featuring a van? For many it will be the 1963 album by Bob Dylan, 'Freewheelin', which has that famous picture of Bob and his then girlfriend, Suze Rotolo walking down the centre of the street (West 4th Street, New York), with the iconic spl...

On tour in The Beatles vans...

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  Beatles tour vans 1960-66... and other famous band-vans An Austin van, similar to this one, also with two-tone pantwork, was owned by the first Beatles manager Alan Williams, and used by them in the UK and on their journey to Hamburg As a freelance writer, author of four books, and historian on the subject of campervans and motorhomes, I also have an avid interest in classic light commercial vehicles/vans of the 50s, 60s and 70s. Another of my interests is music (listening not playing), and in particular the music and bands of the 60s and 70s. I was fortunate to see many great bands play live during those decades, some at the height of their popularity and some much later on the cabaret circuit. My two interests came together after I began to research which tour vans some of the 60s bands had used, The Beatles in particular as I was/am a huge fan, but this did lead me to go on the hunt for info relating to other UK 60s bands, and how and what they used to cover eve...

The Beatles in Worcester....shire 1963

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                                              The Beatles in Worcester....shire Given that The Beatles played just about every corner of the UK during their pre-1966 touring career, it was only natural that they would play some counties in Britain more than once. First performing as the 'Quarrymen' and later 'The Silver Beatles', before becoming simply, 'The Beatles', it goes without saying that their hometown of Liverpool was treated to more performances than anywhere else between the late 1950s through to 1963.  I am a first generation Beatles fan. My first encounter with Beatles music was sitting as a passenger in a Morris J2 pickup in the mid-60s, driving up Tolladine Road in Worcester, when a Beatles track came on the radio. Unusual for a light commercial vehicle to have a radio fitted in those days, but I remember it distinctly, and the grey colour of the Morris ...