(LIVERPOOL) - Liverpool is enjoying a surging revival of Beatlemania, as its favourite sons take the spotlight to help celebrate the city's role as European capital of culture for 2008.

The two surviving members of the Fab Four, bassist Paul McCartney and drummer Ringo Starr, are among the star attractions as the north-western English city cements its transition from fading port to arts hub.

Starr performed at the official weekend grand opening, starting the show with a drum solo and wrapping up the event with "Liverpool 8", the autobiographical title song from his new album, out this week.

McCartney plays a June 1 concert at Liverpool Football Club's Anfield stadium to celebrate the city's status as the "world capital of pop".

"It's the first time I've seen Ringo. I've come just for him," Ian Dring, 52, from nearby Manchester, told AFP in the 50,000-strong crowd.

Likewise Kevin, 71, who travelled from Halifax across the Pennine mountains with his daughter Kate.

"I was a big fan but I never saw them in real life. I've got all their records," he said.

Sandy Tatham, 51, who came with her sister Valerie, 50, said: "We were too young when The Beatles started but it's not the case anymore!"

Starr, 67, has been turning on his old cheeky charm to promote "Liverpool 8", named after the postal district where he grew up.

Tickets for the Anfield gig being headlined by McCartney have been distributed by ballot.

The world-famous Liverpudlians are the common thread running through the 2008 capital of culture programme, which numbers more than 350 events, of which 70 percent are free entry.

Take the traditional Mathew Street festival at the end of August, celebrating Liverpool's musical heritage -- "Beatles Week" as it is more commonly known.

On the street are The Cavern Club, where the group honed their act night after night in their early years, and a luxury hotel due to open in February named after their record "A Hard Day's Night".

The organisers are counting on the city's musical culture to sustain the 2008 programme.

Artists such as Atomic Kitten, Cilla Black, The Boo Radleys, The Christians, The Coral, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Farm, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Billy Fury, Gerry and The Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer, Lightning Seeds, Space and The Zutons have roots on Merseyside.

But sport, architecture and art all feature heavily on the programme, available on the www.liverpool08.com website.

Exhibitions of works by Niki de Saint Phalle, Gustav Klimt, Le Corbusier, Claude Monet et Camille Pissarro are among those going on display.

Several events are being held in Liverpool to tie in with the festivities, such as the BBC Electric Proms concerts and the MTV Europe music awards.

Liverpool is expecting an extra 1.7 million extra visitors and a rise in tourist spending to 1.5 billion pounds (three billion dollars), up from 1.2 billion pounds in 2006.

The capital of culture title is also a chance to show off the new face of Liverpool, thanks to years of work giving the city a makeover. Organisers hope to banish lingering impressions of 1980s Liverpool and associations of social deprivation and poverty, hooliganism and the Toxteth riots.

If the transformation has almost been realised in the city centre, in gritty inner-city districts such as Toxteth, deserted roads filled with boarded up windows are still waiting.

The wave of regeneration has not yet swept over Starr's old stomping ground.

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