The Nurk Twins - Unplugged!

John and Paul played together once again on Friday afternoon in the Barcelona Bar! Jon Keats and Bob Bartey are two of the conventions most popular acts - their respective bands 'Instant Karma' and 'Banned on the Run' regularly providing the solo aspect of Lennon and McCartney's best songs.

Being fans of both these guys we got a spot right at the front and even though it was a bit cramped, the show was worth every aching minute! Wearing fab t-shirt's - Jon's stated 'I Love Paul', while Bob's read 'I Love John' they played one of the best sets of the week. Accompanying themselves on acoustic guitars they kicked off with 'Twenty Flight Rock' and 'Tell Me What You See', playing together before Bob took centre stage for a couple of Paul numbers; 'Blackbird' and 'Man We Was Lonely'. Jon then sang 'God' and Lennon's beautiful 'Watching The Wheels'. And so it went on - two of Paul's, two of John's and then a few Beatles numbers together in between. With songs like 'Love', 'Everynight', 'Working Class Hero' and 'Mother Nature's Son' the set couldn't fail to satisfy the audience of eager Beatlefans.

Surprises included one of the highlights on the Imagine album, 'How' and an unreleased song from Paul 'Press to Play' sessions called 'Yvonne', but the most memorable moment was surely Jon's curse spattered performance of 'Serve Yourself' which Lennon wrote as a parody of Bob Dylan's 'Gotta Serve Somebody'. It was especially amusing as Jon had spent the entire show trying to convince us that he didn't swear - even passing the blasphemous lines in 'God' to Bob to sing! We don't know how Jon remembered all the words but he gave a fantastic performance; exaggerating his scouse accent and spitting-out the colourful words with all the disgust of the original version! You can bet John Lennon was laughing along as he looked down us all!!

With 6 days of Beatle madness it's refreshing to hear the odd solo set to rid one of the 'She Love's You' blues, and although George fans were disappointed by the absence of Hare Georgeson this year, Bob and Jon gave us an afternoon to remember.

Jo Rishton & Nina Douglas
TWIL Issue Six November 2001