ACCORDING to the Fab Four, All You Need is Love! Were they right? KATE CLARKE was a day tripper in Liverpool, touring some of the Beatles-centric sights and enjoying one of Britain's most stately cities.

WITH their names on the lips of every up-and-coming band and, with the Beatle cut, Beatle suits, Beatle boots, Beatle harmonies and Beatle chord progressions part of our daily lexicon, John, Paul, George and Ringo are an unshakeable part of the British cultural landscape.

Presenting the music, the lives, the humour and the legacy of the most famous little rock and roll band in history might be a daunting task, and in different hands it could have been a ponderous one to experience.

However, The Beatles Story, in Liverpool's Albert Docks, manages to encapsulate reams of information and meaty minutiae, and to present it with the light-hearted fizz and cheek the band deserves.

A walk-in Yellow Submarine, a mock-up of Brian Epstein's NEMS record store, complete with listening booth, as well as one of The Casbah — the coffee house Pete Best's mum Mona ran from her cellar, and where the first incarnations of the band played their first faltering chords, are wonderful pit-stops.

One of the scoop-necked grey suits is there, looking too flimsy to withstand much twisting or shouting.

And there is a collection of equally thin and scrawny guitars from the band's early years, which look as if they would struggle to muster anything very musical.

And a fascinating postscript details the post-Beatles careers of John, Paul, George and Ringo.

We were in Liverpool for just a one-night stay, and though that was way too fleeting, we enjoyed the best kind of taster — it gave us enough time to pick up strong impressions of a city we are now hankering to return to.

Stepping out into the dockside sweep from James Street Station, we found noble Georgian buildings in Portland stone, beside ultra-modern cubes and triangle constructions, which showed stoic steel-and-glass planes to the icy wind, whipping in from the Mersey.

We left our luggage at The Premier Inn, which sits right beside The Beatles Story, and which gave us a home-from-home welcome, top-notch service and a fine view of the handsome Albert Docks span.

As charismatic as The Beatles were, and as charismatic as The Beatles Story is, the strongest impression I will take home with me from Liverpool is of the personality of the city itself.

It shouldn't have been a surprise to me.

Liverpool has given us more than it's share of colourful characters over the years, and they aren't shy about promoting their home city as a blessed place.

Standing at the foot of Tom Murphy's long-limbed statue of Billy Fury, which casts him looking lean and handsome in classic, regal rock and roll stance, a woman walked by — in her mid-30s — too young to have felt the impact of Fury or of The Beatles first hand.

And she explained to her little daughter, who was aged about five, with reverence and affection in her voice, who Billy was, how important he was to the city and why he is remembered.

It was a lovely snapshot, and one of many we will remember, which distilled some of the spirit of Liverpool and of the Liverpudlian sense of pride.

It is a spirit, I guess, which comes from knowing about your home town's central place in the story of Britain.

A tour on the Mersey Ferry, which brought our trip to a close, underlined that point too.

We stepped on board The Royal Daffodil to take one of the most famous ferry crossings in the world, and to see and hear more of the splendour of Liverpool — from that dockside skyline, which looks more like Chicago than any European dock (Lennon said he loved New York so much because it reminded him of Liverpool), to Birkenhead Park, which was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, who later created Crystal Palace, to Rock Park, which the Massachusetts writer Nathaniel Hawthorne called home, and was enchanted by, while he was American consul in Liverpool.

All in all, a perfect visit.

How to find out more? www.beatlesstory.com

www.whitefeatherexhibition.com

www.ArrivaTrainsWales.co.uk

www.merseyferries.co.uk

www.PremierInn.com

0151 709 1963