The release of '1' sent the world of popular music into overdrive! Once again, in the year 2000 and 35 years after the band split, The Beatles became number one in the charts all over the world! With the album selling 6 copies a second, rapidly making the it a multi-platinum seller, it wasn't surprising when the papers announced that Sir Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were said to be "really chuffed" - and quite rightly so! For them, this shows that no matter how many times there is a 'Spice Girls' or a 'Westlife', for generations there will always be 'Beatles'!! It has been fantastic to walk into any record shop and hear the Fabs playing loud and crystal clear once more. I'm sure you've all dived into the door of a shop after hearing a few familiar chords… I know we have!!

This renewed surge in the Beatles popularity also meant that the demand for Beatles Tribute Bands was incredibly high!! Beatles fans and music lovers waited patiently at the doors of HMV stores, and special promotional functions, all across the county and world to hear the new Beatles record! Here are just a couple of bands that were invited by EMI and record stores all over the world to perform the 27 tracks from the '1' album - LIVE!!

The Fab Beatles played '1' live at The Cavern in Exeter. Kev Day ('John') reported the event in their monthly newsletter to fans. "The whole place was absolutely packed with all tickets sold. We played through the whole Beatles 1 CD to a very enthusiastic audience. We were really pleased with our re-vamped workings of 'Yesterday' & 'Ticket To Ride'. The EMI representative who was in attendance (Neal) was extremely impressed with our show and has promised to give The Fab Beatles consideration for any future Beatles, related 'Promo' exercises. (We are available anytime, anywhere in the world!) What did the people think of the new CD? I know some people were saying that it was a 'rip-off' because it had nothing 'new' on it etc but, we thought it was just great to package an album consisting of solely No 1 singles & anyway, it's The Beatles, so it's cool!!"

Strawberry Fields in New York City were invited to perform at an EMI album release party! The band accepted and told us it was to be a great event with all the big names in the business attending!

We think that it's great that EMI and all these other 'big names' are aware of the talent of the Beatles tribute bands and hope that the bands will continue to be invited to perform at such events! After all, you can't ever expect to see The Beatles perform at their own record launches anymore!!

Nina Douglas
TWIL Issue Three January 2001