From The Washington Times – 16 January 2003

By Paul Stelter

SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust, said the late Joe Strummer, but you can see the real thing on Sunday when 1964: The Tribute plays the Birchmere.

It may seem odd to see four Yanks billed as "The No. 1 Beatles Show in the World," but they've been obsessive about details since they started in 1984. "We contacted their original tailor initially," says Mark "John" Benson from home in Akron, Ohio.

The attention to detail is the hallmark of their live show, which includes songs from 1962 to 1966 and has won applause from the likes of Dick Clark and former Apple Records chief Alistair Taylor.

The other would-be moptops take it seriously too. Jimmy Pou toured the world as "George" with "Beatlemania." Gary "Paul" Grimes learned to play bass and play it left-handed. Greg George is a natural lefty like Ringo Starr (he also seems to have Mr. Starr's face), but had to switch, since Ringo plays drums right-handed.

The best songs on their 2000 live CD, "All You NeedIs Live" — such as "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "This Boy" — sound like demos or outtakes from the real Fab Four. And "She Loves You" sounds like the real deal.

Because the vocals don't quite match up to the originals, such solos as "Michelle" are the weakest songs and the John/Paul harmonies like "Day Tripper" the strongest. But the guitars almost always sound great, and that's what the crowd seems to react to (and the tailored suits, of course).

1964 played the German reunification party in 1990 and were surprised to see the East Germans singing along. "There doesn't seem to be any place on the planet that doesn't embrace this music," says Mr. Benson.

Nor is the audience just nostalgic middle-agers, he says, noting that the recent "Beatles 1" album went to number one. "That's not baby boomers buying that, that's everybody buying that."