Three Liverpool band legends are launching a new music history tour in the city

A new music history walking tour of Liverpool is launching with members of two of the city’s most iconic bands as guides.

Peter Hooton and Keith Mullin from The Farm, and Nasher from Frankie Goes to Hollywood, will be giving people a personal insight into some of the most important venues and locations in our music heritage.

They’ll take turns to head up a two-and-a-half hour walking tour around the city centre, focused on the people and places who shaped the music scene, specifically in the decades after The Beatles.

The tour’s been created by Peter, who was approached pre-Covid by Brit Music Tours.

The company already runs Fab Four-based walking and taxi experiences and wanted to create something that explored beyond that.

Peter explains: “I’m chair of the Beatles legacy group for the city council and I’ve always wanted to do something around Liverpool’s musical heritage and the hidden histories. 

“I take a lot of people around the city when they’re visiting and they’ll say to me, ‘where was Probe Records?’ and there’s no indication unless you know where it was, or they’ll ask where Cream or Kirklands or the Lomax were.

“All these places that were important to Liverpool’s musical history have been forgotten about.

“We’ve been trying to get something off the ground for a while and I worked out a route about three or four years ago and sent it to Brit Music Tours after they’d asked me to put something together. Then the lockdowns happened and everything got delayed, but now it’s ready to go.”

Peter says he’s been acting as an unofficial tour guide around Liverpool for a while, taking visitors to see music sights.

“In the last few years I’ve had people come from America and different parts of the UK and I’ve loved doing this tour with friends of friends. We’ve also done it with our mates in the past, we’ve given each other guided tours of the city and it’s been brilliant.

“There are so many places that are important parts of our musical history that don’t get mentioned on mainstream tours. 

“When we went round with Nasher he told us they used to rehearse in the Bridewell, he said that was like their HQ, and I didn’t know that.

“Then someone from the Happy Mondays messaged me yesterday and was saying he had great memories of Liverpool. They actually played with us at the Picket in 1987 so when we do our tour we’ll be walking past places like that and telling those kind of anecdotal stories.”

With all three still playing live, they’ve worked out a schedule for the walking tours from April to October that fits around gig and festival bookings. They’ll take a date each – usually at weekends – although there is a chance they might all get together for special events.

The tours will take up to 12 people at a time, and last two-and-a-half hours, starting from LIPA.

Peter says they’ll finish at a pub where music fans can ask any extra questions, take some photos and get things signed.

“We’ll be going to see places like the Cracke and the Philharmonic Pub on the tour, we’ll just introduce people to them and then if they want to go back inside they can.

“When we tweeted about the launch, the comedian Jo Caulfield sent us a tweet saying it as just an artistic excuse for a pub crawl, but if we did that it’d end up more like five hours!”

To find out more about dates for the new Liverpool Music Icons Tour, go to: https://britmusictours.com/tour/liverpool-music-icons-tour/