I'm on a day trip to Liverpool, the gruesome twosome won't be arriving until 5pm, it's one o'clock and although the sun's out, it's bloody freezing.  ​So, what do you do besides buy a new jumper.

Well I paid a visit to the Beatles Shop, 'Strings For a Beatle Bass' immediately caught my eye to keep me company with my pint in the Cavern Pub.

Besides Mark Lewisohn's Beatles books and publications dealing with the Fab Four's formative years there isn't many books around which say buy me, but strings did...

​It covers Yuri Pelyushonok's life with and without the Beatles from his schooldays through to his life at sea as a doctor in 1991.
Along the way we meet a variety of characters who do anything to listen to Beatles music or play music in 'beat' groups using homemade instruments

Living around 30 miles from Liverpool and having a collection of Beatles music, sometimes we don't appreciate how lucky we are, in 1986 the only Beatles albums available in the U.S.S.R. were 'A Hard Day's Night' and a compilation album of their first three albums titled 'A Taste of Honey' until John Lennon's classic 'Imagine' and Paul McCartney's 'Back in the U.S.S.R. were released in 1987.

'Strings For a Beatle Bass' is a delightful book, definitely recommended, full of Beatles anecdotes as Yury and his mates try to outsmart the Russian authorities determined not to have their youth corrupted by these Beatles.
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It also describes their feelings over John's death and how doors began to open with the arrival of Gorbachev.

Information about 'Strings For a Beatle Bass' can be obtained from Ply Publisher, Ontario, Canada but if you want to buy a copy I'd go to the Beatles Shop.

Eddie M