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| Photo: WdN-vdB |
The previous time I was ill and had to give my ticket to a friend. This time I was there and listened to a selection the four imitation Beatles made from the five best selling albums of The Beatles. 'Rubber Soul', Revolver', 'Sgt. Pepper's', The Beatles' and 'Abbey Road'. The five albums that can be called the big bang in pop music. The albums where the band threw away most of the existing conventions and started to blend all influences from modern pop and beyond, to create something completely new that still inspires younger generations today, to make music based on this short period of five years from 1965 to 1969. And the period in which George Harrison played an ever bigger part with fabulous songs of his own.
The Bootleg Beatles are, despite being great musicians and singers, imitators. From a distance three of the four could easily be mistaken for Ringo, George and John. Paul has the least likeness. He is also the one who changes the less of the three. The wig is just a little longer and a glued on moustache in Sgt. Pepper is all. The other three change far more radically.
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| Photo: WdN-vdB |
What The Bootleg Beatles do very well, is play a hommage to all the other things going on in these five selected years. Hitsingles come by, mostly little clips of the artists from each individual year, politics, fashion and such. It sets the stage for the next album and gives the four Bootleg Beatles the opportunity to change clothes and hair. They speak with the accents and tone of each Beatle and joke like they used to do. It gives the impression to be looking at the real thing, even though The Beatles did not perform behind three of the five albums. What we are presented, is what it could have been like had The Beatles kept playing live.
Behind the foursome were three brass players, two strings and one person who plays it all and even sings in big choir settings. That allowed for intimate songs like 'Eleanor Rigby' and 'She's Leaving Home' to be played, but also big songs like 'A Day In The Life' or 'Good Morning' in a very convincing way. Of all possible songs, 'Yellow Submarine' was the one that got the hall going, 'Revolution' was the song where people could not remain seated.
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| Photo "Mr. Kite": WdN-vdB |
My personal highlight? "While My Guitar Gently Weeps'. I got to know the song through 'the blue one" after my birthday in 1974. I knew immediately it was special, but my appreciation of the song still grow. Of course there was much more. 'And Your Bird Can Sing', 'Come 'Together', the 'Abbey Road' finally, with pictures of all important people associated with The Beatles, that are no longer with us today, ending with George and John. This includes some contenders for the "fifth Beatle" title. In my view? Stuart Sutcliffe was physically the fifth Beatle, at the time when Pete Best played drums. But the only one really deserving it, is of course George Martin. Without his musical training and willingness to create something special for the whole of the time, Beatles records would not have been the same.
Did I personally miss anything? Yes, that song that since 24 February 2022 can not be sung any more, 'Back In The U.S.S.R.' My band decided to steal it back from Mr. Putin. F*ck him.
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| Photo "Prudence": WdN-vdB |
Although The Bootleg Beatles dress up and pretend, do not let this distract you. The quality offered is extremely high. This is not a clown show, but one that brings The Beatles as close as one can come today. This show is not at the same level as The Analogues, that can be found multiple times on this blog. They had a near academic approach to recreating the music of The Beatles and did so at an awestruck level. The Bootleg Beatles allow some fun to exist as well, just like The Beatles presented themselves in the first half of their career. When the quality does not suffer in any way from the dressing up, etc., both bands deliver, delivered for The Analogues, as the band broke up late 2024. "A splendid time is guaranteed for all", in 2026 as it was on that poster from 1843.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
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