07/07/2025
I finally visited the original Portland that my hometown of Portland, Maine is named after - Portland, England! It was the ultimate research trip for my tour. The trip also included a stop for a few pints in Dublin, a Stevie Wonder concert at the Lytham Festival in Lytham, England, a stay at the Hard Days Night Hotel in Liverpool with a Beatles tour, and an Oasis concert at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. It was 3 countries in 4 days with my longtime best friend, Jeff Morris. We’ve been friends since we were 5 years old growing up in Portland, and being able to fit all this in in 4 days was epic. We arrived in Portland, England on July 4th, which was 239 years to the day that Portland, Maine was incorporated as a city and named after Portland, England (we were incorporated as a city with the name of Portland on July 4, 1786). The similarities of the two Portland’s are pretty amazing - Portland, England has 3 lighthouses, we got a tour of the inside of the main lighthouse on their rocky coast (called Portland Bill Lighthouse) and walked the 153 steps to the top. Next to the lighthouse is a restaurant called the Lobster Pot (yet they have no lobster on the menu). We ate fish and chips at the Lobster Pot, hiked the southwest coast path on their rocky coast, and hit up the local Portland pub, called The George Inn. We walked in the pub and Shipyard Pale Ale from Portland, Maine was on draft (a coincidence I still cannot believe). There is a group of locals that hang out at the bar on Friday evenings. They invited me and Jeff to their table, bought us some pints, and we shared stories of both Portlands. They had no idea of all the similarities, it was a wonderful night of many stories and laughs. I grabbed my guitar, Jeff sang, and we did a song list of Beatles and Oasis, singing along into the night at the pub with our new friends from the original Portland. The greatest tour research trip I could have ever asked for - Jeff and I have referred to this trip as The Songs in the Key of Our Lives…
