The Fab Faux @ The Royal Court - Liverpool 26 August 2000.

Saturday evening was the one I had been looking forward to most of all. The Fab Faux made their debut Convention appearance at Beatleweek last year, and they blew us all away with their fantastic musicianship and their energetic stage show, featuring some of the lesser-covered Beatles songs, most of which the Beatles never actually performed live themselves!!

Led by amazing bassman Will Lee, in a bright turquoise suit, they exploded onto the stage in true Faux style with the mind-blowing 'Tomorrow Never Knows'. 'Every little thing' from the original Revolver track was recreated live on the Royal Court stage, the backwards guitar expertly played by Jimmy Vivino, the amazing drum riff and fills provided by Rich Pagano, Jack Petruzzelli on keys creating the 'whirligig' atmosphere, Frank operating both the synthesiser and rhythm guitar at the same time, and Will singing Lennon's lyrics exactly as John intended - using a megaphone to create that airy sound on the second and third verses! Amazing!! What a way to open the show!!

A similar treatment was given to songs such as 'Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey', 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun', 'And Your Bird Can Sing' and lots more. Rich proved that he is more than just a great drummer when he came up front and sang 'Mr Moonlight' effortlessly, while Will replaced him on the drums! Jimmy and Jack alternated between guitar and keyboards and sometimes both, and Frank sang a fantastic version of 'Strawberry Fields'.

It was getting near the end of the gig, although I think the crowd and the band could have gone on for hours! Anyone who saw their show last year knew that The Faux had something special which was rapidly becoming their trademark final song. Jack strapped on his guitar and came up to the front of the stage, alongside Frank and Will. Then the riff began and it grew like a pounding heartbeat…and Jack screamed into the mic as the others provided the backing vocals…HELTER SKELTER!!! We all went wild and danced along to the driving song. Three guitars, a very loud bass, crashing drums … you wouldn't believe 5 guys could make so much noise… perfect noise!! It was just AWESOME - that is the only word in the English language to describe these guys! Jack was hanging onto the microphone stand, Will was bouncing up and down, Jimmy and Frank were rocking and Rich was pounding the hell out of his drums!! The coda at the end just grabbed you by the throat and dragged you along with it…like it was your life source!! I didn't want it to ever end! Jack and Will battled with their guitars creating the sort noise Jimi Hendrix would have been proud of, and ended up in a heap lying on the floor…but still playing!! Just amazing…and then it was over!

The time had flown by and it was time to return to the Adelphi for more Beatles mayhem…but for me…nothing would be able to beat that gig! We sat in the Adelphi, almost in shock, listening to Liverpool and Los Beat 3, who sounded like a choir by comparison, watching the door and hoping the Fab Faux would come back to the Adelphi so we could show our appreciation. Being the great guys they are, they were all there, just an hour later, and were more than happy to chat a pose for photos! Having been a part of The Word Is Love since the beginning, they were anxious to finally meet Jo and myself and we spent the rest of the evening chatting to them. Will was very impressed with The Fab Beatles who were performing their debut gig at Convention!!

Around 3am there was an impromptu sing-a-long around the piano, the guys eager to sing one of their favourite Beatles songs, 'Because', accompanied only by Luke from Brighton based band, Rubber Soul who were at their first convention and hope to play next year! It was beautiful, and I know it made Luke's week!! It was one of those many Beatleweek magic moments! The small crowd of about 15 or so sang along with them as Jack took over the piano, and they sang the medley from Abbey Road, which was the album they were to perform on the Sunday. Conducted by Rich we sang "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven…all good children go to heaven", getting quieter and quieter until we faded to nothing. And then it was really over, after a flight across 5 time zones, a two hour gig and then this; the guys really had given us their all and left for some well deserved rest. I went back to my room and eventually managed to get to sleep around 5am…I was kept awake by the pounding riff of Helter Skelter which kept repeating over and over in my head!! But I didn't mind a bit!!

Nina Douglas
TWIL Issue Two October 2000