In the heart of the city, a short stroll from The Cavern and just eight minutes from Central Station, Hotel Shankly keeps alive a telegram from Liverpool’s music legends to a homegrown football hero. Ahead of a crucial Cup final in 1965, Real Madrid’s rivals sent their best wishes by claiming their first win of the season, a moment echoed in the club’s storied stadiums and streets.
Much has been said about the Beatles and football, a pastime they never truly pursued as professionals, yet the sport colored the city’s atmosphere for everyone who called Liverpool home. The Fab Four grew up amid three distinct clubs, and their friendships with locals sometimes blurred the line between music and football. Paul McCartney, forever tied to Everton by family roots and a local pride that traced back to the Merseyside blue side, once lingered in the moments surrounding the 1968 FA Cup final as fans caught sight of him near Goodison Park. The family story for Paul begins in Everton’s sphere, a connection that still surfaces in his public sympathies.
John Lennon’s father supported Liverpool, though football did not captivate him in the same way. Lennon’s solo work, including the era-defining 1960s releases, found its own way into the city’s football culture, even if the lyrics did not always reference specific games. George Harrison chose a more cautious path, famously noting that there were multiple teams in Liverpool and that he belonged to a different group. Ringo Starr kept a more distant imprint on the sport, never tying his identity to a single club.
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Still, the Liverpool story bound music and football together. In a visual nod to the Merseyside derby, the video for Eleanor Rigby featured red and blue shirts bearing the faces of the Beatles, a testament to how deeply the city’s two great loyalties are entwined. The era’s spirit echoed in the band’s work, including the emblematic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which captured the city’s vibrant mood.
John and Paul were photographed in 1957 in the Woolton neighborhood near St. Peter’s Church, long before Bill Shankly would arrive to reshape Liverpool Football Club. Shankly’s arrival in December 1959 marked the birth of a new era, with the legendary manager turning the drive from a warehouse into the famed Boot Room, where Liverpool assembled its best players under Fagan and Paisley. The decade that followed brought a city divided by the shadow of Stanley Park and a rising identity for Liverpool. In the south, Shankly authored the club’s most celebrated chapters; in the north, Everton fans watched as Harry Catterick stirred his own rival dreams. Merseysound blossomed in this rivalry, giving the city a distinct musical and sporting pulse. In 1961, the Beatles performed at The Cavern on Matthew Street after a stint in Hamburg, and by 1962 Liverpool was promoted to the top flight as the band released its first single, Love Me Do, fueling a city-wide sense of momentum.
March 1963 proved pivotal for the Fab Four with Please Please Me, a landmark that topped British charts. Their momentum carried through the release of From Me to You, which climbed the charts as superstardom grew. A friend of the band, Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers, introduced Bill Shankly to the city with an early demo of You’ll Never Walk Alone, a tune that would become Liverpool’s anthem after Hillsborough and a central motto displayed with pride on the club’s shield in 1992. The song’s resonance traveled beyond the terraces, becoming a cultural emblem of solidarity for the city.
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Whether on the field or off it, the Beatles remained woven into Liverpool’s stadium culture. The iconic songs that accompanied match days—She Loves You and others—echoed from Anfield and Goodison Park, linking music to football in a way that still feels natural to the city’s identity. Fans remember the 5-0 victory over Arsenal in April 1964 as a moment of shared triumph, an afternoon when buses from the roundabout carried the city’s energy to the stands. Sefton Park’s junction with Smithdown Road became a cultural meeting point, a place where John, Paul, George, and Ringo met and mapped their path into the wider world. While Paul and John stayed local in their upbringing, George and Ringo followed different routes, illustrating the varied threads that shaped Liverpool’s cultural tapestry. From the river’s edge to the 14th quay, the Mersey’s banks frame Liverpool’s most enduring icons—the Liver Building, the Cunard Building, and the Port of Liverpool Building.
By the time Shankly received the telegram from the Beatles wishing him success in ’65, he had already cemented his reputation with a Grammy and a string of chart-topping moments in music and sport. The Beatles’ final show at The Cavern occurred on December 5 that year, a farewell that mirrored the city’s own changing dynamic. Fifty years later, in 2015, a bronze statue near the Yellow Submarine sculpture by the river commemorated the quartet’s connection to Liverpool’s spirit. Shankly stood at The Kop as the Shankly Hotel opened its doors in the heart of the city.
On a brisk February Tuesday, a tasting of scouse—a hearty seafood stew that gave rise to the Liverpudlian dialect—takes place at the Shankly Hotel. The city’s musical heartbeat accompanies a walk that covers the two miles from Victoria Street to Anfield, a march rich with football and music that perfectly captures Liverpool’s enduring identity.