Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Location: Cvetličarna / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: October 21, 2010
Attendance: 1,100
Ticket price: €17.00
On Saturday, The Beatles Revival rolled into Cvetličarna, one of the best and most popular bands playing the songs of the most famous group of all time. Their visit coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ formation, the 40th anniversary of their breakup and 30 years since the death of John Lennon. The Czech band, which has been going for more than 15 years, built most of its reputation on its remarkable tightness when playing Beatles classics, its perfectionist sound and its excellent handling of the vocal harmonies, as we could see for ourselves during the show. Among other things, they can boast of playing for Queen Elizabeth II and at Liverpool’s legendary Cavern Club, which isn’t something just any Beatles tribute band can brag about.
As expected, The Beatles Revival opened the first half with a run of classics from the early days of the legendary Fab Four, the era also known as Beatlemania. After a eagerly awaited opener with “Please Please Me”, which sent most of the jam-packed Cvetličarna into ecstasy, they convincingly worked through evergreens like “Rock’n’roll Music”, “Please Mr. Postman”, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “Roll Over Beethoven”, “It Wont Be Long”, “Tell Me Why”, “Drive My Car” and “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”, wrapping up the first half with “A Hard Day’s Night”. Everything in The Beatles Revival’s show serves one single goal: capturing the spirit of the Liverpool giants as faithfully as possible, from the stage setup and choreography to the left-handed bassist, the painstaking imitation of the Beatles’ sound and the costumes. As for physical resemblance, only the Lennon lookalike really nailed it, while the other members didn’t look all that much like their great idols.
On vocals, the John and George doubles stood out the most (the latter also handled both of Ringo’s songs), while the Paul double was a touch too syrupy. Still, all three were incredibly convincing on the vocal harmonies, which they’ve got down to a T. The instrumental side, led by a phenomenal sound that successfully brought back the spirit of both the Liverpool giants and the sixties, was more than impressive.The Beatles Revival use Vox amps, Rickenbacker and Epiphone guitars, a Hofner bass and a Ludwig drum kit, which really gets them a sound identical to the original.
After a break of a bit over twenty minutes, which they also used to change into different uniforms, the second half was mostly Beatles classics from the second half of the sixties. That included the final stretch when the Beatles had stopped playing live back in 1966, so the band had to do a bit more improvising on stage. Anyone who expected them to change during the break, Bootleg Beatles-style, into the famous colorful officer uniforms from the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” cover was surely a little disappointed to see that they had swapped the iconic uniforms with ties for ‘just’ perfectly ordinary military jackets with no embroidery. The long hair and wigs, mustaches and Lennon’s glasses, which would surely have come in handy for a faithful imitation of the Beatles from their final period, stayed in the drawer too. The costumes weren’t the best on that front, even though the band supposedly owns three different sets.
Luckily, they impressed all the more on the instrumental side and with an energetic connection to the crowd, which they had no trouble winning over, witty banter included. Some people even tried to dance between songs, though, as mentioned, there was very little room to move inside Cvetličarna. For a short while you could even hear hysterical girlish screaming, though that was probably the result of some deal or bet rather than a reflection of real emotion. Thankfully, there was no mass fainting that night either, although plenty of people clearly forgot during the show that they weren’t watching the original Beatles, which is probably the best proof of how good The Beatles Revival’s performance was.
After an excellent version of “Help!”, it was time for the first three songs from the unforgettable album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band”, the masterpiece with which the Fab Four unwittingly planted one of the seeds from which progressive rock sprouted. Lennon’s ‘stand-in’ was especially impressive with a great vocal performance of the psychedelic classic “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, nailing John’s voice perfectly while playing the piano. To the delight of fans of the band’s final, art rock phase, they didn’t forget the “Abbey Road” classics either, the hard-rocking “Come Together” and the moving ballad “Something”.
For the encore they played three more classics, led by a slightly trimmed-down version of “Yellow Submarine” and “Hey Jude”. The latter, with everyone singing the chorus along, was stretched out to a full ten minutes with the crowd’s help. The band got a storm of ovations as they left the stage, ones that seemed to go on forever, and after the show you could spot nothing but happy faces in the crowd. The mission of reviving the spirit of Liverpool’s wonder boys was a success, even if not every musical wish was granted, since everybody has their own favorite Beatles classics (some of us, for instance, badly missed “Eleanor Rigby” and “Strawberry Fields Forever”). You just can’t play everything in one night, especially from the catalog of a band that in its career hardly made a single song you couldn’t call a classic.
For all of us who were too young or simply not yet born in the days of Beatlemania to ever see the most famous rock legends live, this night was a great chance to hear a very good approximation of the greatest band of all time. The sight of so many young people who came to hear the favorite classics of their ‘moms and dads’ was a real joy and confirmed once more that the Beatles remain a band for all generations. And with the Beatlemania that swept over Cvetličarna this night, you can barely imagine what kind of euphoria would break out if Sir Paul McCartney ever stopped by here.
photos: Bojan Horvat
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