Have any of you seen this group? I believe they are from London but recently toured the US. My wife took me to see them in Kalamazoo. It's the wierdest thing I ever saw. The majority of the people at the show really liked them. There were a few people there that thought they were the Beatles and acted accordingly. I just wanted them to go away. It made me incredibly uncomfortable. I don't know why. Maybe it was the incredible detail they put into copying every little mannerism. It was like a musical mental illness. I'm wondering what others thought. I don't mean to bash these guys. Like I said, the majority really enjoyed the show. So I'm a minority.
Never seen 'em, but there's a band based in Chicago that I always enjoy seeing called "American English". They also stay in character the whole time, but the energy of the live show wins ultimately wins out--despite the fact that usually in this type of show, endemic to cover bands, it just seems silly and uncomfortable a vast majority of the time. They have a pretty cool website at www.americanenglishbeatles.com. I'm a huge Beatles fan and they pass the blush test in my book.
I saw them about a year and a half ago and I thought they were great, but I'm a major Beatles fan. I think, though, they're actually from the States - I know for a fact the guy that played John is from NYC. This guy, had the Lennon speaking voice down pretty good but he over-talked between songs. And he messed up on the keyboard intro to "I Am The Walrus" twice before finally getting it started, but anybody can have a bad day, I suppose. Otherwise, they were excellent, especially doing the early Beatles up through Sgt. Pepper's/Magical Mystery Tour. When they got to the later period material, the cracks began to show somewhat, although "Hey Jude" was absolutely wonderful. The crowd at this show really got into them as well. If they'd come back, I'd go see them for sure.
I saw them one year ago (to the day, actually) here in Maine and they were fantastic! There are several touring versions of Beatlemania. The group that I saw had the original Broadway "Paul" in the lineup. I was very, very impressed with the detail that went into recreating the material live (including difficult songs to reproduce live such as "A Day In The Life") and the fact that they occasionally tossed in a more obscure (to most people in the crowd) nugget such as "I Dig A Pony". The only disappointment came on a personal level. Our radio station had a little boy with us who is suffering from leukemia. He is six years old and was very excited to meet them. They all but ignored the lad and begrudgingly agreed to have their photos taken with him upon my intervention. They had been given a heads up about all of this prior to the start of their performance which was beyond sold out--standing room only. Despite their lack of personal charm, they are wonderful musicians and vocalists. If they are sick of playing those songs every night--no one in the audience could tell.
I saw them WAY back in 1979 or 80...at The Okeefe Center in Toronto. Great multimedia performance.....it had THE Paul guy (his name escapes me, he co-wrote songs with Gene Simmons for Gene's solo album, Chris something?). Anyway, I enjoyed it, but I was a kid, maybe now being more cynical it might make me squirm.
They broke up. Two of them are dead. The records are enough. I love the Beatles too much to ever deal with this kind of thing. This is just necrophilia. (Official thread crap).
Since John and George were cremated a thrill would lean more towards a Pyromaniac. A Necrophiliac would just look stupid in this instance. Just stupid. Yet thanks for the happy thought. I'm on the phone with the Las Vegas Vice Squad at this moment. I think the Elvis impersonators and thier audiences need to be rounded up and offered counseling or jail time if they refuse treatment.
Beatlemania was the first Broadway show I ever attended -- I was maybe 12 or 13 and badgered my dad into taking me. IIRC, wasn't Marshall Crenshaw a member of one of the early Beatlemania touring ensembles (playing John) a few years before his debut album came out?
Mine as well, I went with the school band on a field trip to NYC to see it at the Winter Garden. I had a blast, being probably the biggest Beatles fan (if not the only Beatle fan) in my school (in the days when Kiss, Nazareth and Queen ruled the schoolyard). It was only years later that I kind of looked back and found this sort of thing a bit distasteful. I've never paid to see another Beatles "tribute", but I've seen a few in my time. I'm a bit too critical to fully enjoy them anymore, I'm constantly picking apart the flaws in their performances. 1964 impressed me enough that I grudgingly said they were pretty good, though. This is apparently true. He got the job after submitting a one man band, note for note demo of "I Should Have Known Better." Oddly though, I've never heard of a picture of him in character, or anything similar showing up. I recall they had photos of the various touring casts and understudies in the program, you'd think a shot of him from there would have surfaced. Wasn't Mitch Weissman the original "faux-Paul?"
Fortunately Beatle fans are a little more connected to reality than the Elvis fans who accept an impersonator. Do you REALLY want The Beatles to be remembered in that way? I sure don't. Besides, your original post said it creeped you out. Keep that feeling! PS--Many of those Elvis fans DO need counseling (I'd stop at the jail time, however, that should have been reserved for The Colonel)!
I agree with Larry on this. BTW, have you guys seen or heard about this Elvis The Concert deal whereby they use a video of Elvis and have the live band there. I thought this was so weird that I actually wrote a column a couple of years ago that Elvis called me on the phone to promote the "concert," thereby officially putting me in the middle of the weirdness. I would have liked to have seen "Beatlemania" on Broadway, but as a tour? Nah.
I personally don't mind this sort of thing, if it's done tastefully and with some humor too. I saw the Bootleg Beatles recently (these guys originated from the London version of the "Beatlemania" show) and they were great. A thoroughly enjoyable evening in fact.
Sorry Larry but I have to disagree with you there my friend. I don't think there's any harm in it at all. The British tribute band (The Bootleg Beatles) I saw recently were very entertaining and I'm sure if George and John were still with us, they would have a hoot at this sort of thing. George actually saw them in concert a few years back and quipped "I'd like to know where The Bootleg Brian Epstein is 'cos he's got all the money!" Cheers,
Geez, my mind is dead. I've become dumber than a box of rocks. I didn't see Beatlemania. I saw the Bootleg Beatles. Not that it makes any difference.
I don't mind tribute bands playing the music, but the whole "let's look, talk & act like them" is really strange to me. I can see it as a play maybe, but beyond that it's just weird. I saw a band in Boston one time called NOT THE BEATLES, and they were really good. The played mostly pre-66 stuff if I can remember, and there was no costuming. Tributing the music is one thing, trying to be someone else is another.
Nah, methinks Beatles fanatics are just more pretentious. No one goes into an Elvis impersonation thinking it's going to be real, for goodness sake, any more than anyone attending a BEATLEMANIA-esque gig does. It sounds like a good time. No one takes it seriously, except the performers expected to pass muster with sharp-eyed and -eared fans. Then you have faux-band films like THE BLUES BROTHERS, THE COMMITMENTS, and even THAT THING YOU DO, which are hardly "authentic," either, but thoroughly enjoyable. I'd also remind you that at least two of The Beatles were stalked and attacked by their fans, resulting in the death of one and the stabbing of another. Fanaticism has its own logic, unrelated to the object of its attention.
