Love Me Do, the Beatles’ debut single, was released on 5 October 1962, a week that “changed the world forever”. Now, sixty years later, the song is being celebrated at the house where it was written, 20 Forthlin Road, Allerton, Liverpool.
The childhood home of Paul and Mike McCartney, is now cared for by National Trust. The charity is marking the anniversary by asking two up-and-coming Liverpool acts, selected by Mike McCartney, Pete Paphides and National Trust representatives, to perform their cover versions of the song, sixty years after its first release. The acts both say their music has been inspired by the music that came from ‘the birthplace of the Beatles’.
Ni Maxine is a neo-jazz singer-songwriter. In a lovely coincidence, she lives in the same area of Liverpool as Paul and Mike McCartney did as infants, which is also just across the park from where her mum was raised.
TRAITS is an indie pop quintet from Liverpool. Their singer Kieran and lead guitarist Matty met at school in Woolton, near St Peter’s Church, again showing how places are weaved into and inspire multiple stories and lives.
Ni Maxine and TRAITS’ performances will premiere on the National Trust YouTube channel on 5 October 2022. They will also be given the opportunity to record some of their original music at the house.
The McCartney family moved from Speke to 20 Forthlin Road, a post-war terraced council house, in 1955. Devastatingly, within a year Mary McCartney died, leaving husband Jim to raise 14-year-old Paul and 12-year-old Mike alone. Jim brought music back to the house to help the boys through their grief, with first a trumpet, then a guitar and then drums that in Mike’s words “fell off the back of a lorry”. In 1957, Paul McCartney was introduced to John Lennon at the St Peter’s Church fete in Woolton, halfway between their two homes. The chums rehearsed and wrote at 20 Forthlin Road, writing around 30 early songs, including Love Me Do, in school books, on the front room floor.
