Saturday, 25 May 2013 04:27

“Imagine that we had a great new tourist attraction, imagine that  it was down at Casemates, and imagine that it was all about John Lennon. What a pleasure to open this exhibition,”  Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said when he cut the red ribbon at the Gustavo Bacarisas Galleries in Casemates last Thursday(pictured R) to officially open the doors to the international Beatles Memorabilia  and Julian Lennon Collection.

It is the first time the exhibition has been shown outside of Liverpool.  The Chief Minister told those present that "it is fantastic for us to have the opportunity to see this part of his life in Gibraltar, so that all of us who are members of this community have the opportunity to understand that part of the life of the man who has become a modern icon and to see it from the point of view of his family and son.”

Jeremy Nicholls from Copywrite, the company responsible for bringing the exhibition to Gibraltar had nothing but praise for the Gibraltar Government support for this project. He said the exhibition would be open until December 31st and, if successful, the plan was to keep it going after that.

After opening the exhibition, the Chief Minister told reporters that the exhibition married the old and the new Gibraltar. He said:  “John Lennon is a modern icon, he is not someone from our prehistoric or military history, and this exhibit brings into what is an old barracks something that is related to a modern icon who has a relationship with Gibraltar.”

He added that the exhibition would give local residents the chance to know another side of John Lennon and give visitors to Gib the opportunity to see “what we are all about”.
“Yes, Gibraltar is about its military heritage but it is also about using it in a modern way to be able to exhibit our relationship with modern icons of the 20th Century.” 

He added that to have had Gibraltar chosen for this very high profile exhibition "demonstrates that she continues to be hugely important in geographical terms, because that is what promotes the numbers of tourists that actually come here and gives us the chance to say to other the similar ventures Gibraltar is a good place to show your wares." 

The exhibition is open to the public from 9 am to 6 pm, Monday to Saturday, and from 10 am to 4 pm on Sunday.