Revisiting The Beatles at Cvetličarna (2016)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik

Location: Ljubljana / Cvetličarna / Slovenia
Concert date: April 21, 2016
Attendance: 500
Ticket price: €13.00

Help! A Beatles Tribute Band is an American-Slovenian team-up that brings any listener closer to the story of The Beatles. The band has only been around for a few years, but these are musicians with serious mileage and a sea of live shows under their belts from the lineups of past bands. The guys grind, playing pretty much non-stop, and in just about every village. That hard work is slowly but steadily opening doors to bigger and bigger stages. The band already has a solid reputation in the west of old Europe and tours abroad all the time (with regular invitations coming in from outside Slovenia), but for a Slovenian act the road to the trust and affection of the home crowd is usually a bit thorny. Help!’s gradual breakthrough to Slovenian hearts had that feel too. The band’s show at Cvetličarna with special guests counts as a kind of landmark event, finally putting Help! in front of the eyes (and ears) of the wider Slovenian music public. From here on there’s no going back. Only forward.

At Cvetličarna the band put on a two-and-a-half-hour concert spectacle with 46 numbers in total, a 15-minute break in the middle and a change of costumes. They invited four eminent guests who shape the face of Slovenian mainstream music and are very well known among the people. Some 500 heads came to enjoy a reconstruction of the life and work of the band that changed the world forever the moment it arrived on the scene.

In the first part the band mostly played songs from the earlier years, though that wasn’t a rule. Early material just took the lead in the selection. The refreshed lineup (the Lennon spot now belongs to the young but incredibly talented and confident Matic Pelcel) also let the band refresh its setlist. They slipped in numbers that demand higher vocal intonation, while letting the band’s unshakable boss Ernie Mendillo settle comfortably into the bass role whenever he isn’t singing lead. Performance-wise, Help! remain totally convincing. They play superbly. They’re superbly tight. As always with The Beatles’ music, one thing holds true. The Beatles’ music is extremely infectious to every pair of ears, but playing it can cause no small headache. Not “can” — it does, which is why it takes a ton of rehearsal. As for the vocals, nobody in the band sounds like any of the original Beatles, but everything is sung perfectly correctly, and most importantly, in proper English. On top of that, the confidently delivered backing-vocal harmonies were a treat, which takes a huge amount of skill and slogging away in rehearsals. The cohesion and focus of this crew are simply outstanding. Just look at the stage, check out the guitarist Žiga’s feet, armed with a horde of effects pedals, and the answer about perfectionism is right there in front of you.

The audience reacted emotionally throughout, which was to be expected, and a crowd of girls even screamed on purpose, trying to catch some of the hysteria that clung to The Beatles’ concerts. Among the special guests, the legendary Oto Pestner (Nowhere Man, Drive My Car) slotted into the script excellently, as expected, while Neisha (Imagine, Let It Be) “took over” almost the entire stage, since her take on the classic Let It Be demanded it, delivered with real heart and feeling, which added a special charm to the whole event. Hamo (Something, Helter Skelter) provided a bit of provocation by showing up on stage in a Rolling Stones shirt, whereupon Help! demanded an explanation: was he sure he’d ended up at the right concert? The least convincing of the special guests was Tanja Ribič, who handled Harrison’s otherwise fragile and tender Blackbird a bit sloppily, repeatedly leaving her vocals too low in the register. For the big finale the band saved Hey Jude, where it invited all the guests on stage, as expected. Among them were the until-then “invisible” “man about town” Martin Janežič “Buco” (The Sausages) and Rok Ferendža (Rok”N’Band), who added a little extra spice to the proceedings.

The obligatory encore delivered the “missed” Yesterday, the surprise Eleanor Rigby, the finale (Don’t Let Me Down) and a closer that, going by its title, announced the farewell (I’m Down). In nearly three hours the band ran through most of the hits in grand style. Some might have missed a gem like Taxman or Norwegian Wood, but the set more than satisfied the crowd and more than justified the name “Help! a Beatles Tribute”. And that’s what counts. The band competently revived the mission of the giants The Beatles, and let’s hope the next event like this is organized on an even bigger stage and with an even bigger turnout.