Our Carnival
What goes on in the Brazilian Beatles Scene

After all these years you might have noticed Brazil is a country with a very strong Beatles " tradition". The Beatles themselves never came here as a group (what would the world be like if they decided to come here instead of Philippines?) but Paul had his largest audience (and the all-time record) in 1990 at Rio de Janeiro.

There are many Beatles fans around here, and though I don't know what the statistics are, I can tell that there are a lot of young fans, some weren't even born by December 1980 - like myself... And of course, there are plenty of Beatles Tribute Bands, and you all know some of them very well - like Tunnel do Tempo, Clube Big Beatles and my friends from Hocus Pocus (but I won't talk about them now or I'd have to fill at least 10 pages or so!)

So the reason I'm here (besides Jo and Nina's kindness to allow me this space!), is to talk about some other bands who are just as good as the ones mentioned above but they aren't quite known by you all. They're very popular in their own cities and they have got their own die-hard fans just like all Beatles Tribute Bands. I hope you can get to see any or all of these bands in upcoming Beatle Weeks - or even better - drop at their gigs when visiting Brazil! (By the way, you are more than welcome!)

Rubber Soul is a band from Fortaleza, which is a sunny and beautiful city in the North. Their members are Kildare Rios (bass and vocals), Arnobio Dourado (rhythm guitar, vocals and percussion), Regis Damasceno (lead guitar, vocals) and Bismarck de Oliveira (drums and percussion). They got together in 1991 and they're very popular in Fortaleza, always playing in crowded places every weekend. Their site, (www.rubbersoul.hpg.com.br) even mentions their intention to participate in the next Festival!!! Beatles Forever are from Brazil's main city, São Paulo. They began playing in 1979 and are still very loved today. Marcus Rampazzo, the lead guitarist, is praised as one of the best Beatles guitar players in Brazil. George Harrison himself, after receiving a tape with Marcus' solo, said it was great. The band is completed by Celso Anieri (bass &vocals), Nelson Artuzo (rhythm guitar & vocals), and Ricardo Felicio (drums). Alison plays keyboards sometimes. You can find them writing to beatles4ever79@hotmail.com
Pepperband is a band from the most known city in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro. They're together since December 1998, but they're already famous in Rio and São Paulo, where they were 2nd place on a Brazilian Beatles Competition Festival - first place to the public! Their fans say that the band is very special because they have a unique and original style that makes each presentation different than the other. The band is: Emerson Ribeiro (guitar, acoustic guitar and vocals) Gustavo Camardella (guitar and vocals), David Jair (bass), Rachael Alhadeff (keyboards and vocals) and Mauricio Borioni (drums and vocals). They can be found at the address leilanecozzi@yahoo.com Alencar, from Rubber Sound Beatles Band, tells us about the group: "The Rubber Sound Beatles Band exists since 1998 and is from a very small town in the south of Brazil called Joacaba, state of Santa Catarina. Composed by 5 Beatlemaniacs, the band keeps the original arrangements and the vocals' main characteristics of the Beatles songs and shares with the public the magic that has gone through the 60s. The concerts are very exciting, with ballads, dancing rock'n roll and psychedelic songs, covering all phases, specially the latest one. Our web site is at http://rubbersound.cjb.net Watch us and feel our passion for what is best in rock and roll music. Maybe we'll be in Liverpool playing soon…"

There are of course many more - Comitatus, Abbey Road, Friends and Graphite are among then, but they were also in this year's Beatleweek so you might have checked them out. But I can tell you more about them in the next issues too, as they're all great - Friends has been in Liverpool many times, Abbey Road made a great impression in its first participation and so did Comitatus - who will be showing up in Liverpool again this October as they won the Brazilian contest mentioned above. (The contest was held in São Paulo, and some bands from other states were not in the competition, like Clube Big Beatles, Sgt Pepper's Band and Hocus Pocus and so on).

Finally, I'd like to report that many Brazilian cities are arranging their own John Lennon Tributes, either this October or in the end of the year, in December. These include Hocus Pocus' " Lennon- All You Need is Love" celebration, where they'll play with orchestra and choir and everything - we're really looking forward for it. In fact, most bands (and fans!) are involved in some way or another with Lennon tribute events and I think Brazil might experience a meaningful increase in its Beatlemania because of those events, along with Anthology book thing. All in all, don't be surprised if Brazilian people invade Liverpool next year as in a pilgrimage!!! See you there!!!

Julie Ciccarini
Belo Horizonte, Brazil
TWIL Issue Two October 2000