Mural honors Lord Woodbine, early Beatles supporter

Community members in Liverpool, England will unveil a mural honoring Lord Woodbine, a Trinidadian musician and promoter who supported The Beatles in their early career.

Woodbine arrived in England in 1948 as part of the Windrush generation and became a central figure in Liverpool’s Caribbean music scene, introducing calypso and steelpan to new audiences with bands like Lord Woodbine and his Trinidadians. He also promoted The Beatles and drove them to Hamburg in 1960, performing alongside them.

Woodbine’s daughter, Carol Phillips, hopes the mural will increase visibility for the musicians of Liverpool 8, the district where he lived and worked. The artwork is the latest in a series commissioned by the charity Mandela8, which celebrates local heroes from Liverpool’s Caribbean and Black communities, past murals have honored a Liverpool Football Club player, a photographer, and Nelson Mandela.

Sonia Bassey, chair of Mandela8, stated that recognizing Woodbine is “incredibly significant” because the contributions of Liverpool 8’s musicians have often been overlooked. Woodbine and his wife Helen died in a house fire in 2000, and the mural aims to ensure his legacy is remembered for future generations.