Talk:Penny Lane

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[edit] Almost Famous

Almost Famous reference: Kate hudson's character in the movie Almost Famous was called Penny Lane, as a tribute to the song.

In fact that's where I first heard of the name. --Migs 19:05, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A lane like Penny

How is this relevant: "Many cities have a street or region that is similar to Penny Lane. Sheffield's Penny Lane would be Eccleshall Road." I don't mean to be rude, but I don't get it. --Nevilley 22:15, 30 May 2004 (UTC)

I'm afraid I didn't get it, either, and so I deleted the Sheffield reference. Of course "many cities have a street or region that is similar to Penny Lane" -- any city has scores of them. The whole point of Penny Lane is that the Beatles took an utterly undistinguished road junction cum bus stop cum public convenience and fashioned such a memorable song on such a flimsy foundation. –Hajor 23:21, 30 May 2004 (UTC)

Hi guys. On reflection maybe my addition wasn't suitable for an encylopedia. What I meant was that Penny lane (the place) has certain characteristics (strong student presence, many "alternative" shops (wholefood shops and secondhand clothes etc), and a friendly atmosphere. Many cities have a street with a similar feel, in the sense that many people would, if asked "where is Sheffield's Penny Lane?", immediately identify one particular place. In Sheffield's case this would be Eccleshall Road, for Cambridge it would be Mill Road, and for Auckland it would be Karangahape Road. YMMV; this is all waaay too subjective for here.

best wishes

Robinh 20:50, 31 May 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation. That's true of Penny Lane to some extent nowadays (and yes, the Oxfam shop round the corner has an excellent selection of books and clothes, and there are a good number of bars and bistros and takeaways, particularly if you include the adjacent stretch of Smithdown Rd), but it probably wasn't the case when John & Paul wrote the song a generation or two ago and, as Lpool's quintessential studenty/alternative street, it probably comes a poor second to Lark Lane. Even so, perhaps your comments and mine should be incorporated into the article, fleshing out the view of what Penny Lane is like today. Cheers, –Hajor 21:08, 31 May 2004 (UTC)

sounds sensible, as long as it does not lead to people adding lists of what Penny Lane is like locally in every city in the UK or world! For this reason it might be better to stick to a description of the kind of place, rather than an actual example like in Sheffield, perhaps??

Um, yes, that's what I meant (though, looking back, perhaps not what I said). The idea would be to take Robinh's comments (on this page), and mine (ditto), and turn them into an empirical description of the Famous Lane as it stands today (ie, without comparisons to other places). –Hajor 23:59, 31 May 2004 (UTC)

That's an excellent addition! Well done both of you for pushing the article on, it's brilliant. --Nevilley 07:29, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Hello again folks. Wiki editing at its best! My original edit was inspired by the recent featured article on Chinatown. Maybe we should create a new page, listing studenty/alternative streets in Britain (I'm struggling to think of a good name: List of Penny Lane-type places? List of trendy student hangouts? List of studenty/alternative streets?) and put a link on Penny Lane. What do you think? Robinh 08:51, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I threw in a couple of links to Sgt. Pepper and the Magical Mystery Tour--Penny Lane was recorded during the former, and released on the latter. Hope no one minds. Vague Rant 11:40, Sep 9, 2004 (UTC)

As a student living on Smithdown, I would argue that Smithdown and the surrounding are isn't 'Alternative' at all. It's a bit rubbish to be fair Lukeitfc (talk) 23:16, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Behind the shelter, in the middle of a roundabout"

I'm sure they were just messing with us, but anyone know why the roundabout would be behind the shelter? I mean, don't buildings usually face the roundabout? Deltabeignet 20:11, 29 May 2005 (UTC)

Nah. The bus shelter was in the middle of the roundabout (more of a traffic island than a roundabout, really). Pretty nursey is standing behind the bus shelter, round the back of it, near the entrance to the gents'. –Hajor 22:50, 29 May 2005 (UTC)

Oh, a bus shelter. Thanks for that. Deltabeignet 21:05, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] on Trivia

Hi there. I just added the entry on Abbey Road Appartments on Penny Lane in Austin, Texas for the fun of it, because i find that so tacky (and the building is uh-gly! i wish i had a pic). I'm not sure whether this is correct, relevant to the article. Jerome Potts 06:36, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Where did the information about Douglas Adams come from? Sounds like utter rubbish to me! Unless someone can find a reference for this, I think it should be deleted. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.189.172.226 (talk) 15:10, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Picture

If any Liverpudlian Wikipedians are in the area, could we get a picture? It'd be nice to know just how undistinguished the place is. Mark^{your words} 12:19, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

I was just in Liverpool and went on the Magical Mystery Tour. I happened to get a couple pictures of the intersection, but I'm relatively new at Wikipedia. I will try to get them uploaded soon and put in the page, but I'm warning you seasoned users out there, my work might need some revision. :) xgravity23 (talk) 10:19, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Okay, I have uploaded the pictures to three of the places in the Penny Lane roundabout, but I don't know how to put them in the article. Penny Lane bank Penny Lane roundabout shelter Penny Lane barber shop xgravity23 (talk) 20:23, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

I decided to have a go at inserting the pictures, so now they appear in the article, but they need a more knowledgeable user to fix the formatting. They are all right aligned and interrupt the flow of the page. xgravity23 (talk) 20:30, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The real Penny Lane

Starting the article with talking about the actual street probably isn't the best thing, since this article is about the song. The intro should be moved down in the article. WesleyDodds 20:26, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Well, Penny Lane the place did come first Wesley. Does anyone know whether it is true that the Beatles were describing Rose Lane in this song, but named it Penny Lane because this scanned better? After all, Rose Lane is the junction of Allerton Road where you actually DO find a fire station, bank (now a branch of the Schoolteachers' Friendly Society), a barber shop, etc. --SoniaUK 23:05, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

I've never heard of any suggestion that they were initially descrbing Rose Lane. You are right that the fire-station is at the top of Rose Lane, not Penny Lane, but all other featues of the song clearly describe the Penny Lane roundabout. I don't remember whether there was a barber in Rose Lane at the time, but there certainly was one in Penny Lane - which is also a lot closer to where the young McCartney lived. Also, the roundabout area was referred to as "Penny Lane", whereas the junction at the top of Rose Lane has never been known by that name in my memory (I was born in Penny Lane, and brought up off Rose Lane in the 60s) Paul B 10:39, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

I've created Penny Lane (street); it's currently a redirect, but if anybody wants to make an article out of it that would be cool. Then just link to the article (and add a dab header) from here; the song can retain this primary slot as it's more well known. --kingboyk 17:05, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Well it means a lot to me, but it's really only notable because of the song, otherwise we could have articles on every street in the world! Paul B 17:08, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Yep, but not many streets have Lennon/McCartney songs named after them :) --kingboyk 17:15, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lyrics

Didn't John contribute to the lyrics? I read that somewhere, but I'll leave that to someone more informed to decide whether to add that. Abstrator 19:03, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Jenkins

I removed the following:

Regarding the changing of place names, in a recent article in The Guardian , the journalist Simon Jenkins says "I wish people would stop changing place names. The latest to succumb to this silly habit are the Mongolians, who have decided to rename Ulan Bator airport after Genghis Khan. 'Name-change syndrome' has also struck in Britain. Proposals to rebrand Heathrow as Diana International Airport thankfully came to nothing, but Speke Hall in Liverpool has been wiped off the airport map in favour of John Lennon, while Aldergrove in Belfast has become George Best airport. A Liverpool councillor, meanwhile, proposed renaming Penny Lane the other day because it recalls a slave trader. This is the sort of insecure behaviour one associates with banana republics. Place names are part of our country's heritage and should not be replaced according to the whims of fashion. Colchester has a Stalin Road, dating from the time when Britons regarded the Soviet dictator as an ally. Stanley in Durham has a Lenin Terrace; elsewhere there are dozens of Mafekings, Lucknows and other potentially offensive names. We can't change them all. I sympathise with estate agents, but history is history." (from THE WEEK, 22 July 2006, page 14)

Only one sentence directly refers to Penny Lane. Even the other Liverpudlian reference is bizarre. I don't know how Speke Hall has been "wiped off the airport map"! The airport was previously known as "Speke airport", but that was just the name of suburb of Liverpool it's in. It was not named after the hall. Paul B 10:11, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sources!

This article keeps changing but without references. Cite your sources, please. Thank you. John Cardinal 13:05, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Facts and Figures

In the blurb about Almost Famous, there's the sentence "Hudson's character also attempts suicide." What does this have to do with the song? OK to delete? CaptainJae 20:35, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "Original" Mix

I edited the discussion of the original mix with the final trumpet phrase as it seemed to imply that this was identical to the version that appears on Anthology 2. Unless I'm very much mistaken, the Anthology version is a mix based on a different take (or takes) and featuring a quite different arrangement, whereas the alternate mix played by radio stations was more or less identical to the official release apart from that final trumpet figure.

[edit] Importance of the intersection

The article currently says "McCartney and Lennon grew up in the area and they would meet at Penny Lane junction to catch a bus into the centre of the city." But I just went on the Magical Mystery Tour in Liverpool and the tour guide said that actually Harrison and McCartney took a bus line every school day for years into their school in the city centre that passed through the Penny Lane junction. The guide cited this as the potential inspiration for McCartney to write the song and why the intersection was significant in his and Harrison's lives, not because after the Beatles formed, McCartney and Lennon met there to ride into town. (In fact, I do not recall the guide mentioning that McCartney and Lennon met there often at all, although that doesn't mean it didn't happen.) Their daily bus rides would have occurred several years McCartney and Lennon officially met, since that happened right before the Beatles formed. Can we add this to the main article, or does it need verification of some sort? xgravity23 (talk) 10:19, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Penny Lane junction was the central location for the area. Both McCartney and Lennon would have travelled on it repeatedly from childhood. Paul B (talk) 00:29, 25 March 2008 (UTC)