As Liverpool prepares to pay tribute to John Lennon, who w ould have been 70 next month, Fab Four enthusiast TINA EDISS follows in the musical legend's footsteps

THE CEILINGS are low and so are the lights. It's hot and crowded, the music is loud and the atmosphere pure magic. I'm at the famous Cavern Club singing along to Power To The People with a John Lennon tribute band, surrounded by fans from all over the world.

It's like a musical meeting of the United Nations, voices, accents and languages blending beautifully. Even teenagers get up and dance to songs that were hits before their mothers were born.

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The gig is a taste of one of many free events lined up for the city's two-month John Lennon Season. It begins on October 9, what would have been his 70th birthday, and ends on the 30th anniversary of his murder in New York on December 8, 1980. Events include the unveiling of the 18ft John Lennon Peace Monument, street entertainment, a photographic exhibition and a memorial concert at the Echo Arena Liverpool.

John Winston Lennon was born in Liverpool in 1940 to Julia and Fred Lennon. When their marriage fell apart John was brought up by his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George at Mendips, a semi-detached house in the suburbs.

The house is now looked after by the National Trust and can be visited as part of its Beatles' Childhood Homes tour.

Restored to look as it did in the Fifties, Mendips is posher than I was expecting for this rebel and so-called working-class hero. I didn't think John would have lived in a house with a morning room or bell-pulls for servants (just for show) and his aunt's prized china on display.

Elvis Presley and Brigitte Bardot smile down from posters on John's bedroom wall. It was here that he dreamt of being a star and wrote some early songs.

The minibus tour also takes in Paul McCartney's childhood home about a mile away at 20 Forthlin Road. The three-bedroom council house is scuffed and worn, as it was when Paul lived here. Yet it's the photographs, taken by Paul's brother Mike, that bring the story to life. John and Paul sitting in an armchair, poring over their guitars as they work on a song, I Saw Her Standing There, jotting down the words in a school notebook.

Later, I join fellow fans on board the blue-and-yellow psychedelic coach for the Magical Mystery Tour. With jokes, playful banter and plenty of fascinating facts, driver Lee and guide Neil take us on a whistlestop tour. We see the tiny terraced houses where George and Ringo lived, the church hall where John and Paul met for the first time and the graveyard where Eleanor Rigby is buried.

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If you want to see places the coach doesn't visit, such as the Jacaranda Club where the band played, or the Philharmonic Dining Rooms, a pub that John missed when he was famous, you could arrange a FabCabs tour.

There's only one place for a Beatles fan like me to stay and that's the Hard Days Night Hotel. Beatles music plays at the check-in and band photos line the walls. It's like stepping into the Sixties, although the electronic gizmos and bathroom are ultra-modern. There's a painting of John above the king-size bed and the do-not-disturb sign reads "I've had a Hard Day's Night."

NEXT MORNING we take the ferry across the Mersey to Seacombe and follow the promenade towards New Brighton, a walk John took as an art student. We look back across the river at a skyline dominated, as it was when John was young, by the Royal Liver Building.

About four miles from Liverpool city centre is the basement Casbah Coffee Club, where the Beatles first played as The Quarrymen in 1959. This is at the home of Mona Best, mother of Pete Best, the band's original drummer who was replaced by Ringo Starr in 1962.
Tours are led by members of the Best family. Roag Best, Pete's brother, shows us around the maze of rooms that Paul, John and George helped to decorate.

At first they played in a room so small it could have been a corridor, moving into what's known as the Spider Room, decorated by Pete, when they needed more space. The Casbah closed in 1962 yet there remains a strong sense that something important happened here, and a feeling of being left behind.

I feel that same sense of being left behind at White Feather: The Spirit Of Lennon, an exhibition at the excellent The Beatles Story at Pier Head. It's the story of life with John as told by Cynthia, his first wife, and their son Julian.

On show are family photos and papers, including Julian's birth certificate, which lists his father's occupation as "Musician (guitar)".
Most poignant is an interview with Julian. John once told his son that, should he die, he'd let Julian know he was OK, that they would all be OK, by presenting him, somehow, with a white feather. Years later, Aboriginal elders in Australia presented a stunned Julian with a single white feather.

GETTING THERE:
Hard Days Night Hotel (0151 236 1964/www.harddaysnighthotel.com) offers doubles from £110 (two sharing), room only.

FabCabs (0151 909 1964/www.fabcabsofliverpool.com) offers tours of up to three hours from £50 (five sharing).

Visit Liverpool: 0151 233 2008/www.visitliverpool.com