From the Beatles to the Crown: a Spiffing Tour of Britain
I was more than halfway through a recent “London Rocks” tour—a jaunt which promises to lead its customers through the landmarks of British popular music—when I noticed that our guide had pointed out many more things that no longer exist than ones that still do. We’d peaked through the windows of the former Musicland record shop where a young Elton John worked in the late ’60s (now, it’s a store that sells pricey wedding gowns). We strolled the alley where Marianne Faithfull languished as a homeless heroin addict in the mid-’70s (currently, it’s headquarters to the Good Housekeeping Institute), then breezed by the studio where Queen recorded key parts of “Bohemian Rhapsody” (a locale since privatized into a $10 million single family home), before gazing at the vestigial entrance to the Marquee Club, where everyone from Hendrix to the Sex Pistols wailed. (It’s now—what else?—luxury lofts).
Source: Jim Farber/thedailybeast.com
