The Mersey Beatles

Like the original Fab Four, The Mersey Beatles were all born in Liverpool and as Scousers through and through, they are very proud of their city's cultural history. The band formed in 1999, when school friends Steven Howard (Paul) and Brian Ambrose (Ringo) got together with Steven's cousin David and fellow aspiring musician Jason Murray (John). Just like their musical role models, the boys' early performances were around the social and cabaret clubs in their home city. The Mersey Beatles have since performed in many clubs where The Beatles themselves performed during the Sixties. The Mersey Beatles first took part in the festival in 1999, playing on a floating stage in Albert Dock.

In 2000 The Mersey Beatles became the first Beatles tribute to perform in Croatia, where their performance brought back scenes of real Beatlemania, and in 2004 they attended the first Australian Beatles Festival in Adelaide.

When Liverpool was chosen to be the European City of Culture in 2008, the Mersey Beatles were given the honour of being official city representatives and last year received national media coverage when they attended each of the three main political party annual conferences.

This year has seen a change in the original line-up with Robbie Hughes taking on the George role in time for a UK theatre tour. He describes himself as a really big Beatles fan and is no doubt looking forward to taking part in the largest Beatles Festival in the world!

The Mersey Beatles will once again be packing in the crowds at the Mathew Street Festival on the Beatles Stage on Monday… just a few streets away from where exactly 34 years earlier The Beatles were playing one of their Cavern Club lunchtime sessions.