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People define culture for themselves don't they. People recreate and re-enact the English Civil War and God knows what else ... why not celebrate something creative ? Whether or not it conforms to your construct of culture or not is your call. It doesn't so you won't be attending. It ticks the box for many others and they will attend.

I made my first ever trip to Liverpool a few months ago.

Bad luck I hear you say.

What amazed me was how reliant the place appeared to be on Beatles tourism industry.

Really sad I thought, the group broke-up forty years ago, two of them are dead, neither of the survivors lives anywhere near the place and Ringo has said he couldn't get away from the place fast enough.

It's time the city moved on I thought.

It 'made you feel a bit odd'??? How?

And Stratford Upon Avon thrives on someone who died 400 years ago. What's the difference ?

Oh, right. So you think they're odd, not you feeling odd yourself?

Magic mushrooms or zero gravity will make you feel 'odd'. Beatles fans shouldn't!

I see nothing too queer about it really. The album cover was iconic and even a lot of youngsters of today will recognise it. People have tours of Coronation St, the Empire State building, Buckingham Palace.......you get my drift I'm sure. How are these people less odd than those at St John's Wood? At least these people have proof that their idols walked there. Visiting and following Jesus' supposed path on the way to be crucified, or praying towards an old wall, or walking counter-clockwise around the kaaba in Mecca are far weirder things to do if you think about it.

"And Stratford Upon Avon thrives on someone who died 400 years ago. What's the difference ?"

I suppose you're right really.

It was just that I'd always thought of Liverpool as a big proud city and it's canonisation of the Beatles seems a bit tacky to me.

Reggie you shouldn't attribute thoughts to people and what they're looking to get out of the experience of being in St John's Wood. Everyone is different. It's just an example of people's enthusiasm just like other people are interested in James Joyce and do a Dublin tour or whatever. You believe it to be 'futile' but that's because you've decided that it has a goal which can never be achieved. Perhaps people's goal is as simple as 'I walked across the zebra crossing' and not 'I communed with the spirit of John and George'.

If you like 'The Third Man' and find yourself in Vienna you'd do a little 'Third Man' tour ... the examples are endless. It seems to me that you may still believe in a distinction between 'high' and 'low' culture ? I don't think it's about that, I think it's more about people's enthusiasm.