Edinburgh Usher Hall
Am
slightly ambivalent about these Tribute Band things. There are so many of them about these days
that I suppose some of them at least, must be doing something right. I should imagine they service a need on a
number of levels, really.
At their most fundamental
they offer fans of long gone (or long past their best) bands the opportunity to
hear music performed live they may not otherwise hear. The long-running Australian Pink Floyd Show for
example falls into this category, I feel.
A
number of tribute acts go a step further and will dress up and indeed act like
the individuals they are paying tribute to, thereby one imagines, heightening the
experience. Taking this to its extreme I
have heard tales of Elvis impersonators so convincing some fans for the brief period
of the gig actually believe they are in the presence (ot at least the spirit)
of The King himself.
I
would suggest The Bootleg Beatles fall somewhere between these two ends of the
spectrum.
Daughter
and I went along to see the BBs, partly because my Brother had for years been banging
on about how good they were, but mainly because Daughter during the regular archaeological
digs into my MP3 player had unearthed Beatles’ tunes she really liked: Help,
Octopus’s Garden, I am The Walrus and most especially Here Comes The Sun.
We
had left things quite late to obtain tickets so ended up with seats high in the
second balcony, probably as far from the stage as one could be. But this, conversely, I found not to be a bad
thing; because from our distance the BBs were pretty much indistinguishable
from the real thing. Something I only
realised when we bought seats much closer the stage the following year, and
could see the facial similarities were tenuous at best.
This
2010 show began with a short slide show depicting news footage from the early
1960’s before the BBs opened with I Wanna Hold Your Hand. And, if one could ignore Bootleg Paul playing
his Hofner violin base right-handed the verisimilitude was flawless, even down to
the gracious bow at the end of each song.
The
set followed a chronological order, with the group nipping off to change
costumes on a couple of occasions, so we were treated to the lads in their collarless
suits, the Sgt. Pepper bandsman uniforms before, finally, the Abbey Road album sleeve casual-wear. For the second half of the set the four BBs
were joined by an eight-piece mini-orchestra, to help beef out the renditions of
the more complex later songs.
Highlights
were Day Tripper (rocking out as I am sure it never did when the real ones
performed it), Penny Lane, A Day in the Life and I Am the Walrus. The show closed with the probably obligatory
sing-along to Hey Jude; the encores being a poignant Happy Xmas/War is Over
followed by a barnstorming Back in the USSR.
If
I had one criticism (less a criticism than an observation) it was that the
strict adherence to chronology interrupted the flow of the show a tad. The less self-conscious members of the
audience would just be getting up to dance to the likes of Day Tripper and
Paperback Writer…… and then along would come Yesterday, and everyone settled
down once more.
Having
said that, Daughter and I both had such a great time we decided there and then
to come back the following year.
Which indeed we did.
Which indeed we did.
Set
list
I
Wanna Hold Your Hand
I’ll
Get You
Roll
Over Beethoven
Help
Can’t
Buy Me Love
Taxman
In
My Life
We
Can Work it Out
Day
Tripper
Paperback
Writer
Yesterday
Sgt
Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
I
Get By With a Little Help From My Friends
She’s
Leaving Home
Strawberry
Fields Forever
Penny
Lane
A
Day in the Life
Magical
Mystery Tour
Hello
Goodbye
The
Fool on the Hill
I
am the Walrus
Yellow
Submarine
All
You Need is Love
While
My Guitar Gently Weeps
Come
Together
Get
Back
Here
Comes the Sun
The
Ballad of John and Yoko
Lady
Madonna
Hey
Jude
Encores
Happy
Xmas (War is Over)
Back
in the USSR
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