The Bootleg Beatles

[admiralvanderbilt]

Went to see this UK tribute band on Saturday night.

Great show, and musically incredibly accurate. The right guitars (the Hofner and Ric basses, the Epiphone acoustic, John's Ric and Epi Casino, even the correct Vox amps). Three costume changes - the Shea Stadium outfits, the Pepper uniforms, then the Abbey Road cover. Complete with changes of wigs / moustaches / glasses etc.

The voices were also very close - they even did the start of Sgt Pepper going into With A Little Help - made me think again how cool that would have been if Ringo had turned up on the tour.

The "Paul" also very close on voice, which is not easy. He had the sound, the vocal mannerisms and the phrasing pretty close. The only thing that let his down slightly was the high chest voice - eg Got To Get You Into My Life, Hey Jude coda.

The had a small orchestra - horns and strings - which reminded me how you can't beat real instruments (great though Wix is).

A couple of things that definitely weren't right:
1 Paul was right handed! I guess a lot of people wouldn't notice, but just looked odd to me - especially as everything else was so close.
2 On "Let It Be", Paul played bass and John played piano. Eh? (Obviously they should have been the other way round.) Also, John played piano on Fool On The Hill. I was beginning to think the Paul couldn't play piano - but he did on Hey Jude at the end. Hmmmmm....

Overall a great show though - and a great atmosphere. Highly recommended to anyone who gets the chance to see them. The following Paul songs were done (no order): Can't Buy Me, Fool, Got To Get You, Sgt Pepper, Hey Jude, Let It Be, Yesterday, Penny Lane, Get Back (with "Billy from Preston" on Hammond..).

Nice line in humour too:
"I can't see very well, everything's a blur - I don't get the glasses 'till '66"
"OK, we're going to break up after this next number.... and start suing each other"

[admiralvanderbilt]

PS, they're going to be doing some US shows in mid September - details not announced yet.

See also bootlegbeatles.com

[admiralvanderbilt]

Oh, and the biggest liberty take of them all was George playing the Taxman solo...

The George guy did a beautiful solo version of Here Comes The Sun though....

[Steve-o]

When I saw "Beatlemania" in 1980, the bass player was a lefty, and it's the first thing I looked for. Nice info....sounds like a great time!!

[admiralvanderbilt]

Just booked to see the Bootlegs at their traditional end-of-year show at the Albert Hall on 11 December. Selling out fast...