They don't really want to stop the show, so they'll come back Sunday for another

Friday, January 28, 2005
By JOHN A. ZUKOWSKI :: The Express-Times

By the summer of 1966, the Beatles stopped playing music to fans who screamed more than they listened.

They wanted to spend time in the studio recording music that was more sophisticated and experimental.

So they walked off the stage of the final show of their tour at San Francisco's Candlestick Park and never played a concert again.

The only time the Beatles ever performed in public again was when they had an impromptu rooftop concert filmed for the movie "Let It Be."

But between those two live performances was some of the most creative music of the Beatles career.

Two albums released during that time were "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Abbey Road."

In an era where "classic rock" sometimes gets thrown around too casually, those albums are legitimate rock masterpieces.

But since the Beatles didn't tour during that time, no one ever heard the Beatles perform those songs.

However, one group has been painstakingly reproducing songs from those and other Beatles albums, learning 175 songs in almost seven years.

The Fab Faux is a group of musicians including Will Lee from "The Late Show with David Letterman" and Jimmy Vivino from "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." They perform what critics and Beatles fans say are the most authentic representations of Beatles songs of any tribute band.

After playing a sold-out concert in Easton last year, the Fab Faux is returning to the State Theatre to play the entire "Sgt. Pepper" album Saturday and the entire "Abbey Road" album Sunday. On both nights, the Fab Faux will also perform other Beatles songs.

Lee has been a Beatles fan since he first saw them on "The Ed Sullivan Show'' in 1964. But reproducing the songs has made him appreciate the Beatles' creativity even more.

"They did what a lot of bands today don't do, which is take chances," Lee says. "Many bands today look for a formula and stick to it. The Beatles were always looking for new ways to do things."

The Fab Faux also insists on recreating the sounds of the albums with extra vocals and musicians. So real musicians will play the horn parts instead of using a keyboard and a harpist will play during "She's Leaving Home."

Lee says the Beatles were the major influence on him and many other musicians who grew up in the 1960s. The release of a Beatles album was an event, he says.

"When you played the 'Sgt. Pepper' album you held the album in your hands the whole time you listened to it because it was the first time the lyrics were printed on an album cover," he says. "There are so many things like that the Beatles did first that we take for granted."

Lee's even been on stage with his idols, including Ringo Starr and George Harrison at what would be his final concert at Royal Albert Hall in London.

"My brother does a perfect Liverpool accent, so I didn't call George back for two days because I thought the message was from my brother," he says. "But it really was George who invited me to play. I was so excited before I went on stage that I did a cartwheel."

Lee's recording studio also is a mini-shrine to the Beatles he says, complete with Beatles wigs, Beatles lunchboxes and other Beatle collectibles.

Hawk 99.9 FM DJ Samantha Layne says the Beatles continue to gain new fans.

"Everyone uses the word 'timeless' to describe the Beatles, but it's true," she says. "Their songs don't just relate to people from their generation, they're universal."

She also sees "Sgt. Pepper" and "Abbey Road" as two of rock's most important albums.

"It was a tumultuous time for the world and it was goodbye to the innocent of the 1950s and hello to the mind expansion of the 1960s," she says. "The Beatles changed when the world changed and they were able to touch a lot of people."

Lee says he's glad that the Fab Faux has helped people realize that. Even people who don't know much about the Beatles before they come to a Fab Faux concert.

"I think once people get past the 'yea yea yeas' and the 'woohs' and whatever else people associate with the Beatles and see our band play, they realize just how much is going on in those songs," Lee says.