Members from two of Liverpool's most iconic bands have joined forces to launch an alternative music history tour.
Peter Hooton and Keith Mullin from The Farm have teamed up with Brian Nash from Frankie Goes to Hollywood to give a unique insight into the city's rich musical heritage. Peter is the chair of The Beatles legacy group, but says this tour will focus on the unexplored period after the Fab Four split up.
The 60-year-old told the ECHO: "We will be mentioning The Beatles, of course. It's impossible to ignore them, but this will be more about what happened in the 70s, 80s and 90s.
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"It's about personal experiences. It's all our stories about growing up in the city. We'll go to record shops that don't exist anymore and say 'this is where the famous record shop Probe was'.
"If you're proud of the city and you're proud of the history of the city then you want to talk about it. Ours' is the hidden side of that. People will say it's not hidden because everyone knows where Eric's was but it's the stories behind them."
The tours will be led by one of Peter, Keith or Brian who will entertain the group with personal anecdotes from one of the most vibrant music scenes in UK history. The guides were at the beating heart of the period as they shot to fame during an era that also spawned bands such as Echo and the Bunnymen and Flock of Seagulls.
Peter's lived knowledge is evident in his conversation with the ECHO as he recalls memories from the time he played with the Happy Mondays in The Picket and a confrontation with Oasis in 1993.
He said: "In Oasis' first interview they slagged The Farm off. We were getting a lot of publicity at the time and a lot of front covers. They said 'The Farm think they're The Beatles, but they're not'. We didn't know they had an obsession with The Beatles."
Peter said he thinks the animosity began when The Farm turned down the chance to have Oasis support them during a tour. He said: "We hadn't heard them yet and we already had tour support from a great Liverpool band called Top."
Peter recalls the dispute came to a head when The Farm went to watch Oasis at the Lomax, a now closed live music venue that will be included in the tour. He said: "They told the management of the Lomax, 'under no circumstances let The Farm and their entourage in'."
Peter was eventually allowed in and praised the Oasis gig as "fantastic". The singer laughs as he revealed the hatchet has been long buried between the two bands. He said: "Yeah, obviously the only animosity now is between Man City and Liverpool."
The story is an example of the sort of personal insight fans will receive on the tours, which starts off in April to coincide with the Eurovision Song Contest's arrival to the city. Peter first had the idea of running a tour before the pandemic and has long acted as an unofficial guide for friends visiting the city. The frontman was taking former NME editor, James Brown, around some of the city's most iconic places when he was taken aback by how some of the most important buildings had been overlooked.
He said: "I understand times move on and places move on, but I think there should be something there for tourism. He added: "We'll go to Cream halfway through the tour, but there's no indication that Cream was there apart from a mural on the backwall. If you were a tourist, you'd have to ask people where it was."
The tour will start off at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) and involve a two hour walk through the city centre, exploring some of Liverpool's most important gig venues, recording studios, pubs and hangouts.
The experience concludes in style in a pub where you can share a pint with whichever music icon has led your tour. The tours will feature a maximum of just 12 people to maintain a personal touch - and Peter said they wanted to end it in a pub so fans can ask any questions, take photos and get memorabilia signed in a comfortable environment.
However, the frontman laughed as he revealed the guides are still putting in the research to decide which establishment to end the tour in. He said: "I've got a few in mind. It just depends on what's accessible really. The last location could possibly be The State so it will be somewhere by there. We'll have to do some reconnaissance."
All three guides still play live, but they have worked out a schedule that fits around their busy festival gigs. Select dates are bookable from April - October and you can view full details of the walking tour here.
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