Let me take you down...

I'm not making this up:


















OK, leaving aside the 'amusing' spelling and misplaced apostrophe, just what in God's name is all this about? I mean, does the world really need a '90s Revival Bar'? And just what is it that goes on in this misguided nostalgia fest: BritPop night; Alcopops promotions; 'Rachel' hairdos; 56k Internet access platforms; pre-Millennial tension (insert 90s cultural phenomenon of choice)? Of course, it's in the right place for nostalgia, sited as it is in the heart of Liverpool's Matthew Street - Beatlesville, if you like. Next door is The Grapes, an old hang out of the pre-fab Beatles. Next to that is Lennon's Bar; then another, The Rubber Soul; further up again is The Cavern - or a replica pub near to where the old Cavern was based, anyway (that was demolished: the 70s council didn't foresee the nostalgia industry that was to become The Beatles' legacy).

Except for The Grapes, I have little time for any of the above-named bars for, where The Grapes is just a pub that, owing to its location happens to have a historical link to Liverpool's cultural past, it is, nonetheless, still just a regular pub. It hasn't attempted to preserve or engender some historical authenticity just for the sake of making a few quid. I already found the Deification of The Beatles to be absolutely nauseating; the kind of thing that would have appalled every one of them (well, maybe not Ringo) - certainly it's the best justification for them never returning once they'd found London all those years ago ( this is for another post but I strongly believe that without London, and the cultural experiences it opened them up to, they wouldn't have been anything like as significant). The city of Liverpool simply doesn't deserve the reflected glory it's so content to bask in. But that said, this is The Beatles we're talking about: probably the most significant cultural phenomenon of the twentieth century so, my personal reservations aside, you can sort of see what all the fuss is about. I mean, Shakespeare has Stratford, right?

But how do we justify extending this nostalgic obsession to the '90s, when they're only seven years gone?