The Backbeat Beatles in 'Beatlemania' @ Nottingham Royal Concert Hall - July 2001

5 guys, 4 legends, 3 lovers, 2 friends, 1 band. That was the tagline to 'Backbeat', the 1993 film about Stuart Sutcliffe and the Beatles in Hamburg, starring Stephen Dorff, Sheryl Lee, Ian Hart and Chris O'Neill as George Harrison. Chris, a lifelong Beatlefan, decided to continue to be a 'Beatle' after the film and formed The Backbeat Beatles tribute band with two friends. After recording some of the soundtrack for NBC's John Lennon Story: 'In His Life' last year, the band have spent 2001 playing various venues across the country and have just completed a theatre tour of the UK. I went to see them at The Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham, a week after a sell-out show at the Liverpool Empire, which is not only the hometown of the Beatles, but also of The Backbeat Beatles!

The show opened with a 'Ready Steady Go' style number. Five girls dressed in 60's style black and white checked dresses and white knee high boots singing 'Walking Back To Happiness', getting the disappointingly small audience in the mood for the Beatles show that was to follow. The band came on stage with their guitars wearing black velvet collared suits and Beatle boots. Their wigs were excellent - the best I have seen in a long time! They opened with 'She Loves You', the unique drum roll launching into a song which still gets the pulse racing nearly 40 years after it's release. They continued with the first UK number one 'Please Please Me', the voices of 'John' and 'Paul' harmonising perfectly in the Everly Brothers style which Lennon and McCartney made their own. Chris O'Neill looked the part of Paul McCartney (you think you're confused now - he used to play John Lennon!), and quickly proved that he could play the part too. Singing 'All My Loving', his bass playing was spot-on and he has Paul's mannerisms down to a tee. The most distinctive part of being 'Macca' is being able to cover his wide-range and unmistakable voice, and Chris managed it with ease! The go-go girls returned to the stage and danced as the band played 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand'. Dave Reilly's excellent Ringo drumming really shone through in this number, while Paul McDonough was able to really 'be' John Lennon for 'This Boy'. The newest member of the group, Paul joined them in January 2001 from the Cavern Beatles. He has a real Lennon look - off-stage as well as on, and seems to be in his element performing as his hero. Paul is the best 'Beatles-era John' I have ever seen, and the audience captivated as he sung and strummed his acoustic guitar for one of Lennon's most heartfelt early songs. The harmonies provided by Chris and Gary Harmon, as George, once again were superb. The Backbeat's brought things back up-tempo again with She's A Woman - Chris once again rocking with McCartney's 'Little Richard-esque' vocals. They closed the set with 'A Hard Day's Night', which had the audience tapping their feet. The dancers returned to keep the 60's show feeling going with amongst others Little Eva's 'Locomotion' and 'The Leader Of The Pack'.

The Backbeat Beatles returned to the stage in black polo-necked jumpers and the show continued with the 64/65 era. 'I Feel Fine', an excellent rendition of 'No Reply' and 'Help!' 'Drive My Car' was great, and the groups' tight harmonies were demonstrated once again as all four sang on 'Nowhere Man'. Gary Harmon stepped up to take the microphone for 'Taxman', one of my favourite George songs and he has the Harrison voice to do it justice. It was one of the shows many highlights for me. The first half closed with the excellent 'Paperback Writer' along with the dancing girls.

During the break I spoke to my friends, one of whom is himself in a Beatles acoustic duo, and we all agreed that the band were excellent, and that we were very impressed with the show so far. We took our seats once again for second half and the music of the later part of the Beatles career. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was an obvious choice to open act 2 and the band came onstage wearing excellent replicas of the Beatles Pepper suits. A backing track was used to provide all those weird sounds and instruments The Beatles used on the post-Revolver albums. I spoke to the band about this after the show and they hope to be able to one day reproduce the sounds with strings and horns on stage. However, the backing track was excellently recorded by Dave Reilly, and effectively provided that distinctive Sgt Pepper's sound. The show continued through 1967; 'With A Little Help From My Friends' (with good lead vocals from Dave but slightly off key backing vocals in a few places), 'Penny Lane', 'I Am The Walrus' in which 'Ringo' once again impressed with his drumming. Peace and love was the order of the day with 'All You Need Is Love', which had the audience on their feet and dancing in the aisles!

The dancers returned while the band went off for their final costume change. The girls were dressed in 'hippy-style' clothes but the songs they sang and danced to were not; 'Sunny Afternoon (1966)', 'Summer Holiday (1963)', 'Dream A Little Dream (1968)' and 'Downtown (1964)'. Wearing 'rooftop' style costumes, including a big furry coat for Paul McDonough, the band returned for the Apple Years set. Opening with the second Apple single, 'Get Back' they covered some of the highlights from Abbey Road and Let It Be including 'Here Comes The Sun', 'Don't Let Me Down', the brilliant Abbey Road medley; 'Golden Slumbers/ Carry That Weight/ You Never Give Me Your Money/The End' during which Gary impressively played John, Paul and George's guitar solo parts! 'Revolution' was excellent too. Then it was back to the earlier hits with 'Can't Buy Me Love', 'Roll Over Beethoven', 'Eight Days A Week', with Paul and Chris imitating John and Paul perfectly. Chris O'Neill took to the piano for the encore with a rousing rendition of Hey Jude, and the audience sang along enthusiastically.

Finally there was just enough time for two of The Beatles most rocking songs; Chris blew the Royal Concert Hall cobwebs away with the fantastic 'I'm Down' leaving Paul to finish with 'Twist and Shout', which he performed with the same energy and vigour as John Lennon himself did, when recorded it in two takes at the end of the 17 hour 'Please Please Me' session, way back in 1963! The band took a traditional Beatle bow and the lights came up. It was the end of a spectacular show, which, despite difficulties with the curtain-less modern stage of the Concert Hall, demonstrated the Backbeat Beatles talent, energy and obvious love of The Beatles. They have a little bit of fine tuning to do on the show and have plans to include a 'Ready Steady Go' style set with podiums for the girls to dance on, but their enthusiasm and fun loving attitude shines through. This will be a band to watch… I think they're going to go a long way!

Nina Douglas
TWIL Issue Five August 2001