THE Beatles Story was conceived in the minds of Bernadette and Mike Byrne in 1987 after a visit to America with a previous Beatles attraction, Beatle City.
That experience was to prove useful in the research and development for their 'new' Beatles Story, which today is an award winning world-class attraction
Beatle City had failed in Liverpool for a number of reasons and there was no alternative but to close; but not before its new owner had decided to take the whole exhibition over to America for a temporary display deciding later where it would go next. This was 1987, before tourism became the success story it is today
The exhibition went to Dallas, Texas and opened in August 1997 with an amazing amount of publicity. 40,000 visitors from across America came in 4 months but there was no sign of Liverpool being interested in a new exhibition despite it being the Beatles' birthplace
At the end of 1987 Mike and Bernie returned to Liverpool with a dream of opening the Beatles Story. It would be totally different to Beatle City; it would not rely on memorabilia but was to be an audio/visual 'experience' to take the visitor back in time to recreate the real feel for the '60s.
They were able to draw on factual memories because Bernie knew the Beatles personally and Mike was a musician who performed with the Beatles at the Cavern, toured Germany and many other Liverpool venues
It took two years research and development to get the project off the ground. Mike and Bernie created the design and Bernie wrote the 'story'. Mike wrote the business plan and raised the finance.
