A Scouse welcome to friends old and new. Eat, drink and be merry; the best music in the world in the best city in the world. What more could you pos­sibly want? (Viagra?).

Please note: Friday and Saturday evening shows are at The Royal Court Theatre. Saturday after­noon and Sunday night shows are now at L2.

Sunday, 11pm:
Adelphi Nightclub. Apple Band, Machine Guns and Friends — 3 bands (f2.50 on the door). Late bar for residents on a Cavern City Tours package. This is an extra gig.

Convention Monday:
A “Beatle Fringe” festival will take place through­out the day featuring live sets for over five hours. The bar will be open throughout the day. This is a new addition to the Convention: please support it.

Mathew Street Festival
Monday, 12 noon-7pm:
Regulars will know that Cavern City Tours organ­ised the last four Mathew Street Festivals and that the event did not take place last year due to a lack of public and private funding. This Festival was a great loss for Liverpool as it had attracted 100,000 people in 1995 and 1996.

It was a great shock to Cavern City Tours to receive a phone call from the new Liberal Council in May, to ask if we could resurrect the festival. They promised funding and in-kind support. After much soul searching and heartache, we decided that we have to give it a go for the city’s sake.
It was a mammoth com­mitment and undertaking time, but we have been impressed by the new Council who have recognised the importance of The Beatles industry to the local economy.
The new head of the Liverpool City Centre Partnership, Mr Layth Bunni, has already made a significant impact upon the local business commu­nity and it is to him that we express our thanks for breathing new life into the Mathew Street Festival, which the Labour Council were all too will­ing to let die. So, in short, the MSF is on; but where does that leave the Convention on Monday, the same day?

We implore all Beatle fans to stay at the Convention site fora number of reasons. First it is the biggest and best Convention that we have ever put on. Please support the bands who have been rehearsing “The Album Convention” for over six months! Second, please support the dealers who make the Liverpool Convention Europe’s biggest annual Beatle flea market.

If the Mathew Street Festival is a success again, we intend to go back next year to the old format of the Convention on Sunday and The Mathew Street Festival on Monday.
It may seem strange as we have organised both events, but please support the Convention and give the Mathew Street Festival a miss.
The way we see it this year, is that we have organised the Convention for you and we have organised the Mathew Street Festival for the peo­ple of the North West.

Farewell Party,
Tuesday, 730pm:
Due to the very large numbers of people stay­ing over on Tuesday evening, Cavern City Tours are throwing a farewell party at The Cavern Club. Entrance is free. Five bands — Beetles (Japan), Hard Night’s Day (USA), Ringer and Beatcombers (Scotland) and The Beats (Argentina). On the same evening at The Cavern Pub, Red House (the resi­dent band) will be providing the entertainment until 11 pm. Again entry is free.

Forthlin Road:
We jumped the gun in our brochure re visits to Paul’s former home during the Strawberry Field party. Unfortunately trips are not available on Sundays, Mondays or Tuesdays of any week. The National Trust has a very strict agreement with the local residents re visits. Thus it is not possible to visit during the Strawberry Field Garden Party. Further­more, the limited number of trips available during Beatle Week have all been booked up.
(Wednesday, 2 September is probably the first avail­able trip). We urge people to book these scarce places themselves next year or whenever you are in Liverpool. It is a wonderful visit.

Other things to do and see
The Walker Art Gallery:
is holding an exhibition of “Linda’s Pictures”. This small exhibition features 14 silk screened prints of her best photographic work. Also on show is Stu Sutcliffe’s “Hamburg Number 2”. The exhibition can be found on the gallery’s ground floor

Beatles Auction:
This has moved to the Masque Theatre, 90 Seel Street (again see map on page 20). Central Hall, the venue for the last four years, has undergone a massive facelift and reno­vation programme and is due to re-open as a bar and restaurant complex. The auction takes place on Saturday morning from 10.00am-2.00pm

Sgt Pepper Show:
Our good friend Karl Lornie and friends are staging this show at the Neptune Theatre, which boasts a Brian Epstein plaque commemorating his contribution to The Beatles success. Thus the theatre is now affectionately known locally as The Neppy! It’s a great show and well worth a visit if you can squeeze it in.

Linda McCartney Cancer Ward:
In July this section of the Royal Teaching Hospital in the city centre was dedi­cated to Linda and the dedication was overseen by Cheri Blair (Liverpudlian wife of our Prime Minister, Tony Blair). If you do go to see this, please remember it is a working hospital and not a tourist attraction.

Beatles Story
(Albert Dock):
If you’ve been before, there are no new signifi­cant exhibits so you may wish to pass on this one. However, if you haven’t been yet, do go and see it, you will enjoy it immense­ly. I defy anybody to go into the White Room and not be moved. Beatle Story and of course The Beatles Shop in Mathew Street are the best places to go for general Beatles souvenirs. If you want to buy a tick­et for Beatles Story, we have had a number donated to Cavern City Tours at a special discounted price of £4. This is a substantial saving. Furthermore any tickets we sell, the proceeds will go to the Mathew Street Festival (thanks to Shelagh at Beatle Story). Tickets from the Cavern City Tours shop in the Adelphi foyer.

Cavern City Tours venues
Cavern Pub:
Entertainment all day and night Thursday (free of charge). A great place for a pintanda pub lunch and an opportunity to buy your Cavern souvenirs. Entertainment Tuesday all day and night, Free entry.

Cavern Club:
Anybody showing this programme can gain free entry to the Cavern Club on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. A great alternative to the Adelphi Hotel after the evening shows.

De Coubertins:
Our sports bar and restau­rant has won accolades and awards in its first year of operation. We can say this with absolute confi­dence, you will not get a better meal anywhere in Liverpool.
Sporting memorabilia from all over the world. (Round the corner from the Cavern Club
Give it a try, you will not be disappointed. We are probably prouder of this venture than anything we have ever done. Incidentally, if you look at the building it is in, you will be looking at The Hard Day’s Night Hotel, which we aim and hope to open in the year 2001 (sounds a long way off, doesn’t it!).

On behalf of all Beatle fans on the 1998 Beatle weekend.
Cavern City Tours are proud, very proud, to donate two sums of money on your behalf over the course of the weekend. We will present ‘The Cavern City Tours Scholarship on behalf of Beatles fans’ to LIPA on Thursday evening. This scholarship for £2,000 will pay the course fees for a LIPA student in 1998/99.
Secondly, we will present a cheque for £3,000 to Strawberry Fields Children’s Home on Sunday. This is our way of putting some­thing back on your behalf. Thank you.

Highlights
Our personal highlight of the year was to win a libel case against our very own Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.
Last year’s conventioneers may recall that after our own amazing Cavern 40th Anniversary Party in Mathew Street, The Daily Post decided to devote the front page and two further pages to an unfounded vicious attack on Cavern City Tours, sug­gesting that we were charging tourists £12 to have their photographs taken with the Lennon statue outside of the Cavern Pub.
They also alleged that we illegally closed off Mathew Street. Well, we had three thousand wit­nesses, the whole event was also on close-circuit television and the first slur was very easily refuted.
Unbeknown to the news­paper we had also (obvi­ously) received official permission from the Council to cordon off Mathew Street, and we had full public liability insurance etc etc. The Daily Post and Echo duly published a retraction and full apology. Thank you to all of those people that supported us throughout this difficult and painful ordeal.

The Low Point
Well that’s an easy one isn’t it? We were all shocked at Linda’s death and we received calls from all over the world. We sent our own personal condolences to Paul via Geoff Baker, who we believe performed heroics in dealing with the world’s press in such a pro­tective and dignified man­ner. I met Linda on two occasions and she was such a naturally warm person, who genuinely seemed interested in what we were doing.
I felt privileged to have met her on those occasions and our thoughts, and indeed those of all of us, remain with the whole McCartney family who will perhaps never recover from such a tragic and premature loss.

I’d like to finish this welcome by officially dedicat­ing the whole week to the mem­ory of Linda McCartney, a multi-talented and corn passionate human being who will be greatly missed by all. We also remember Princess Diana who died a year ago this week.