Abbey Road on the River - a Beatles Festival featuring a multitude of Beatles bands and guests took place in Cleveland 9th to 11th August 2002. According to TWILer Martha Guillams who attended the festival, it was a great weekend. We will bring you a full review of the event in the next issue of TWIL.

The First Caracas Annual Beatles Festival takes place in Venezuela 16th to 21st October 2002. Among the bands playing are Los Beat 3.

And lastly, the biggest gathering of US Beatlefans takes place at Beatlefest Chicago from 16th - 18th August. The event features many bands as well as a plethora of memorabilia stalls and guests. We will also have more news on Beatlefest in issue 9. (It's all happening in August!)

Los Beat 3's Axel is recovering after a car accident. He escaped serious injury and told The Word Is Love that he has some bruises, but is otherwise OK. We wish him a speedy recovery.

The Fab Faux's Jimmy Vivino (right) takes over as bandleader for the Conan O'Brien Late Night Show band, while Max Weinberg tours with The E Street Band and Bruce Springsteen.

The Queen's Golden Jubilee in June saw thousands of people gathering all over the UK to sing 'All You Need Is Love', and anyone who saw the footage on television may have been wondering the same thing as the TWIL team… where were the Beatles Tribute Bands? It was a perfect opportunity for the bands to have played and would probably have given the crowds something decent to sing along with! If your band played please let us know!!

The Backbeat Beatles played a hugely successful concert with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra at the city's 'Summer Pops' event in July. Emma Gunby, of the Liverpool Echo reported that "The evening was billed as The Phil plus special guests the Back-beat Beatles. But these four boys from Liverpool were anything but the support act. With the opening performance of All You Need Is Love the audience rose to its feet and filled the Big Top with as much noise as if John, Paul, George and Ringo had been there themselves …the night really belonged to the Backbeats."

Ananova reported that a Beatles Tribute Band were involved in a misunderstanding recently when they stopped to cash a cheque at a branch of the Firstar Bank in Wisconsin, USA. Police were called after bank officials were suspicious of the four men who had arrived in a van with tinted windows, wearing dark suits and sunglasses! The group has not been named but were said to be a touring band from New Jersey!

'Beatlemania' of Philadelphia were featured in the Leader-Telegram, as they began a 6-week run in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Eric Smith, who plays Ringo, said, "To really play a Beatle, you have to love the music." And George Williams (George) said, "The Beatles have always been, will always probably be, my favourite group. No matter what mood I'm in, I'm happier listening to some Beatles." Hear hear guys!

The Fab Faux have announced two dates at the Bowery Ballroom on April 9th and 10th. Tickets available from www.boweryballroom.com

The Concert For New York is now available on CD, featuring Paul McCartney and various artistes, ably supported by Paul Shaffer and the CBS orchestra including the Fab Faux's very own Will Lee and Tom 'Bones' Malone. A Video and DVD are also available, but currently USA and Canada only.

Still with the Faux… Jimmy Vivino recently played with Bruce Springsteen in New Jersey, with Late Night with Conan O'Brien's 'Max Weinberg 7'. They played five benefit dates in Asbury Park with guest appearances from Willie Nile, Elvis Costello, Bruce Hornsby and Nils Lofgren. On the opening night, December 3rd, Bruce opened with 'Something' and 'My Sweet Lord', saying "Bless George. We're gonna miss him."

The West-End Musical based on the music of The Beatles was named the biggest 'turkey' of last year in a whatsonstage.com poll. 'All You Need Is Love', which closed after just 6 months, was a collection of Fabs songs, performed in various styles by 12 singers and dancers. I saw the show myself, and wouldn't have called it a 'turkey'… but it wasn't quite as good as seeing the songs performed live by a tribute band!

17 Beatles songs have been covered by major artists for a new film soundtrack. 'I Am Sam', starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Sean Penn, features an entire soundtrack of Beatles covers by artistes such as Stereophonics and Sheryl Crow. Check out the samples at Amazon.com

The art of John Lennon has been on exhibition in Florida, USA. 'All You Need Is Love' featured over 100 drawings, paintings and lyrics. The programme included a foreword by Yoko Ono which read "It was always John's dream that his art be shown and accepted for what it is. Thanks to you that dream has become a reality. Listen to the Art…" Thanks to Claudia Espinosa for the information! …

STOP PRESS…STOP PRESS…STOP PRESS…STOP PRESS… This years Academy Award Nomination's have just been announced, and a Beatle is up against a tribute band member for best song from a movie. Paul McCartney has been nominated for 'Vanilla Sky', while 'There You'll Be' from Pearl Harbor, sung by Faith Hill and featuring The Fab Faux's Rich Pagano on drums, is also up for an Oscar! Fingers crossed that one of them wins!!! Thanks to Frank Agnello for the information!

The tragic events of September 11th obviously dominate the news all over the world. TWIL has many friends and readers in the US and we would like to extend our condolences to anyone who may have been affected by the attacks on New York and Washington. The Beatles wrote and sang many songs about love and peace and it's in times like these that those songs seem especially meaningful. Paul McCartney, who had been in New York on that terrible day, headlined a star-studded concert for the Fire-Fighters, Police and Port Authority workers at Madison Square Garden on 20th October. He was joined by many artists including David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, Elton John, The Who, Macy Gray, Goo Goo Dolls, Bon Jovi, U2, Melissa Etheridge as well as Jim Carrey, Salma Hayek, Edward Norton, Meg Ryan, Richard Gere, Senator Tom Daschle, Bill & Hillary Clinton and many more. Macca closed the show with a rocking version of 'I'm Down', two new songs from his new album 'Driving Rain'; 'Lonely Road' and 'From a Lover To a Friend', 'Yesterday', 'Let It Be' and a song he had written especially for the event; 'Freedom', which is being released as a single with all the proceeds going to the relief fund. Backing Paul, and many of the other artists throughout the 6 hour long concert were David Letterman's Late Show band featuring the Fab Faux's very own Uncle Will Lee! Will played his Hofner bass and seemed to be having a great time! Hopefully he'll give us an exclusive report on the event when he comes back down to earth!

Christmas is fast approaching and many tribute bands are getting ready for winter tours. The Bootleg Beatles are about to begin their annual Christmas Extravaganza in theatres across the UK, but fans will be in for a big surprise. They've got a new 'Paul'!! Well actually it's an old 'Paul'… David Catlin-Birch who was replaced by Paul Cooper in 1981 is back in the blue Sgt. Pepper suit, while Cooper has gone to pursue his solo career. Latest tour info and news available from www.bootlegbeatles.com

The Backbeat Beatles are preparing for a new tour beginning in January next year. This band are great live, mixing brilliant versions of the Beatles songs with 60's favourites courtesy of a female singer and dancers, and smatterings of their inimitable Scouse humour. Visit www.backbeatbeatles.com for more information, and don't miss the second part of our Backbeat Beatles interview in this issue!

The Overtures have a Christmas show in Hoddesdon, Herts on 19th, 20th & 21st December, while The Cheat Beatles host a party at the Gladstone Hotel, Liverpool on December 1st. Meanwhile for all your New York TWILer's, The Fab Faux will be playing the White Album in it's entirety at Manhattan's Bowery Ballroom on 18th & 19th December. Info at: www.thefabfaux.com

Yesterday have been chosen to perform as support act on a few live dates, for the one and only *Ringo Starr* on his 2002 tour! They told TWIL that are over the moon to be asked and can't wait for the gigs. "It's fantastic! We would love him to join us on stage!" It's great to hear that The Beatles appreciate the tribute bands who keep the spirit of Beatles music 'live'! We here at The Word Is Love think it's totally gear! Hopefully, they'll be able to tell us all about it as they would love to come and play at Liverpool Beatle Week in the future.

Fab Faux's Rich Pagano is the drummer on the new blockbuster movie 'Pearl Harbour' and just to prove we're right - buy the album and see his name on the credits!

The Apple Pies recently appeared on Rai - Italy's national television station playing with one of their hero's, the amazing guitarist Jose Feliciano!

Alexandra from Los Beat 3 will be leaving the band to move to the States. She will be in Liverpool to say farewell to Beat 3 fans though so you'll be able to enjoy her fab keyboard playing one last time! We wish Alexandra all the best in her new home!!

'Imagine all the people living life in peace… and the world can be as one.' A petition to declare October 9th 'John Lennon Day for Peace and Love on Earth' is in progress and will be submitted to the heads of state of every country on Earth. Visit www.petitiononline.com/Imagine/petition.html and add your signature to the 14,000 who want to see October 9th named as John Lennon Day. They need at least a million signatures so please add to this worthy cause…

As you all know, George Harrison has been treated for a third attack of cancer. We wish him well and hope that his seemingly unlimited strength is able to help him through. Peace and love to George, Olivia and Dhani.

Finally, good news came recently when Sir Paul announced his engagement to Heather Mills. We wish the happy couple all the best for their future together! The Word Is Love!

Instant Karma front man John Keats recently appeared in a Littlewoods advert as a customer in the underwear department!! He is also currently starring in the Liverpool based soap 'Brookside'. We wish him well in both his musical and acting career. It's great to see a familiar face on our TV screens, and don't forget that you can see John's only performance at Beatleweek on Friday 24th August at the Barcelona Bar. We'll definitely be there!!

On a sad note, we have received news that two of Conventions' most well loved musicians have parted company with their bands. In March this year, Pascal left The Overtures, to continue to work within his own recording studio. The parting is amicable and we here at The Word is Love, join Den, Tony and Steve in wishing him all the best. The Overtures have enlisted a new keyboard player called Chris, and we would look forward to seeing him with the Overtures in August!

The second departure came as a big shock to us. Aggeu Marques has left Hocus Pocus to pursue his own solo career. Although we will miss him as the voice and soul of Hocus Pocus, we wish him well with his own music. We will be here to support him and keep you informed as career progresses. We are not sure, at this precise moment whether Hocus Pocus will attend the 2001 convention, as soon as we find out well let you know…

Just recently Scottish band Ringer were invited to appear on 'The Kirsty Wark Show. The band were interviewed and played the wonderful Beatles track 'Norwegian Wood'. During their interview they mentioned The Fab Faux! Now that's what we call cool!

As we all know, a few month's ago, Lawrence Gilmour moved to the states with his family, to live in Pennsylvania. The news is that all is well and he has been continuing to perform as Paul in the USA - they don't know how lucky they are! He has also been interviewed for local TV and radio and has caught the eye of Tim Piper from Working Class Hero! We will pass on news of any possible collaboration as soon as we hear of them!! Lawrence would like to send his warm 'Beatling' wishes to all his friends and fans here in the UK and told us, "I'll see you all soon".

Other wonderful news follows an article in issue 3 about The Beat Brothers; Phil and Eddie Gillespie. We are pleased to tell you that the boys, will be following in the footsteps of Sir Paul McCartney by playing at the legendary Cavern Club, during Beatle Week 2001! When father Shaun Gillespie wrote and informed Bill Heckle of the boys, he was more than impressed and booked them too play two shows. We look forward to hearing the sound of The Beat Brothers 2001.

Faux frontman on Ricky Martin album.
I read the news today, oh boy… that Will Lee from the amazing band The Fab Faux sings the double track vocals on Ricky Martins' 'She Bangs'! Not only does he sing the second male vocal with Mr Martin, but he also plays bass and provides backing vocals! The CD is available from all good record stores, so if you want to hear Will strutting his funky stuff - and so brilliantly too, this is the CD for you!

Tribute Bands in NBC Movie of Lennon's life.
As you will probably be aware, NBC recently made a film about John Lennon in Liverpool. The soundtrack to the film, called 'In His Life', was recorded by three bands who are all friends of The Word Is Love! Film producer Michael O'Hara wanted to make the film as authentic as possible, and wanted an English band! He approached Bill Heckle who took him along to watch The Overtures stunning Royal Court Show during Beatleweek! Michael O'Hara was so impressed he asked them to provide the soundtrack! Denis Pugsley, from The Overtures told us "We explained, we are not a Beatles Tribute Band - we don't do the voices." They agreed to record the overall music for the film along with The Backbeat Beatles - whose 'George', Chris O'Neil had actually played his on-stage character previously in the movie 'Backbeat'. Chris O'Neill was made 'music choreographer' for the movie and the producers continued to search for the perfect Lennon vocalist! It was in Los Angeles, that Tim Piper was recommended to them. The star of 'Working Class Hero' and 'Revolution' provided the finishing touches to the sound track! They did not have time to audition Tim, instead auditioning him over the telephone! He went to the studio and spent two days recording the vocals. All three bands will be appearing at Beatleweek 2001, and along with Cavern DJ, Neil Brannan, who played Pete Shotton in the movie we can only hope the guys provide us a with a live version of that soundtrack!