ALL YOU NEED IS A WIG!

Liverpool went back to the 60s: the city celebrated The Beatles Day for the first time. Actually, since 2001, according to the decision of UNESCO, the World Day of the Liverpool Four is January 16. And the idea of the current holiday was suggested by local actor and screenwriter Ricky Tomlinson. In this way he proposed to celebrate the anniversary of the musicians' return to their hometown after the American tour in 1964.

Beatlemania once swept both the Old and New Worlds: the countries were gripped by a mass musical psychosis that seemed never to happen again. However, the inhabitants «of the most musical city in the UK» proved that you can enter the same river twice. The organizers, wanting to recreate the spirit of the time, prepared twenty thousand wigs (they were sold for five pounds sterling each) in the style of the famous foursome. «A wig — is all you need» was the main slogan of The Beatles Day. All proceeds from their sale will go to charity: in aid of Alder Hey Children's Hospital and a memorial fund for schoolboy Reece Jones, who was murdered about a year ago.

A grand The Beatles parade covered all parts of Liverpool,– featuring musical groups from all over England. They performed hits from Let It Be, driving double-decker buses to places mentioned by the Liverpool Four in songs: «Strawberry Fields», Penny Lane and Williamson Square. And at the local Cavern Club in Matthew Street, where The Beatles used to hold concerts, school choreography groups performed to the music of the famous group. Musical guests at the Liverpool fete included Backbeat Beatles band, members of the Merseybeats and Mike Pender of the Searchers, who performed on the ferry across the River Mersey. The day before, Chris O'Neil of The Backbeat Beatles had confessed that he and his mates intended «to shake their heads all day, just as the Beatles did to the beat of the music». All this large-scale action ended with another big concert at the main venue of the city - Echo Arena Liverpool. The organizers noted that the holiday, in fact, became the Day of Liverpudlians, for whom The Beatles – are an integral part of the city's history.

And in London, Beatle fans recalled a spontaneous, unannounced 1969 concert on the roof of Apple Studios, where The Beatles recorded their albums. It was then that the musicians played together for the last time. On London's fashionable Seville Row, on the same rooftop, the main musical-theater production of the day – was no less crazy than that memorable concert. The Beatles Day is planned to be held not only in Liverpool, but also in other cities in the metropolis and even possibly outside England.