Thursday, 3 September 2009

The Mersey Tunnel


Gerry and the Pacemakers classic 'Ferry Across The Mersey' later popularised by Frankie Goes To Hollywood is sung in karaoke bars the world over, but the Queensway tunnel deserves it's own song. It stretches two miles from Liverpool to Birkenhead (home of Davida helmets). It took nine years to build and was completed in 1934. It's circular in cross-section (the bottom curve originally intended for a tram, is hidden under the road surface). It's free for motorbikes. I have a very happy memory of the sound of an orchestra of Dunstal decibel, reverse-cone mega, Lanfranconi, Conti, Norton pea-shooter, and Luccinelli race pipes on full song, reverberating off the walls. The Mean Fuckers rode up from London on 13 bikes, and stayed at the Bunnymen's warehouse on the dock Road on their way to the Isle of Man TT in 1993. There is light at the end of the tunnel. BP
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4 comments:

  1. Mick P3 September 2009 at 09:06

    "Like waving a banana in the Mersey Tunnel." Words that still cut me to the quick even today.

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  2. Sideburn Magazine3 September 2009 at 10:07

    ! where's that classic from?
    The Liver Birds?
    - or was this said to you personally?
    BP

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  3. Anonymous8 September 2009 at 20:26

    hey that was my warehouse them MF stayed in...the bunny's next door was actually full to brim with dead rats, pigeons and seagulls, we had better clientelle....F, Real People, Oasis.....ducati, guzzi, bmw etc.....and a lot of scrap

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  4. Sideburn Magazine9 September 2009 at 00:23

    correction, Yes it was Simon!
    & a jolly time we had too
    BP

    ReplyDelete