(alas, not all western icons are welcomed as warmly in Japan as Bobby Valentine)

Mr. & Mrs. Howie Rose spent the All-Star Break on a trip to London, affording the couple an opportunity bask in a bit of rock history.  While the Roses didn’t get around to visiting the Bruno Wizard Museum, Mets’ radio announcer Howie does have a few recommendations for his fellow tourists (link courtesy Repoz and Baseball Think Factory)

If you’re a fan, and you appreciate the history, I would strongly suggest a trip to 3 Savile Row. That’s the building the Beatles bought for their Apple offices, and eventually they installed a recording studio in the basement. This is where a big chunk of the Let it Be album was recorded, but it’s best known for it’s rooftop. That’s where the Beatles performed their last live “concert”, an impromptu show held in the middle of a business day until it was eventually broken up by police. It’s all in the Let it Be movie, and although we weren’t allowed on the roof, I gazed at the iconic site like an awed teenager. The building looks just as it did in the film 40 years ago.

Later, it was on to the Abbey Road studios where much of their music was recorded. Naturally, we went to the crosswalk where the famous album cover was taken. If you looked at it from the same vantage point as the one used by photographer Iain MacMillain, you would have thought it was 1969 again.

The coup de gras was the Paul McCartney concert at Citi Field on Friday night. If you are of a certain age and have a certain reverence for the Beatles, you probably felt as though the soundtrack to your life was playing out right in front of your eyes. It was incredible. Paul McCartney is 67 years old, and moved energetically around and across the stage, changing instruments, talking to the crowd and playing one historic song after another. I couldn’t help think that he has the stamina to do all of that, and the Mets have world class athletes in their 20s and 30s who can’t run out a pop up.