Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Kolosej / Slovenia
Concert date: 03.01.2017
Attendance: 200
Ticket price: €0.00 (free admission)
At Kolosej in Ljubljana, the premiere screening of an excellent documentary about the most important band of all time, ‘The Beatles – Eight Days a Week’, was kicked off with a short set from the international lineup HELP! A Beatles Tribute Band. This great ‘tribute to’ The Beatles band, which is almost constantly on the road while diligently keeping alive the legacy of the legendary ‘Fab Four’ from Liverpool, opened its short but very entertaining set with two ‘movie’ classics: »A Hard Day’s Night« and »Help!«.
The international band is made up of American Ernie Mendillo (Paul McCartney in HELP!) and some ‘homegrown boys’: guitarist Matic Pelcel (John Lennon in HELP!), guitarist Žiga Stanonik (George Harrison in HELP!) and drummer Gašper Oblak (Ringo Starr in HELP!), who are, by the way, excellent musicians. They then won over the ‘cross-generational’ crowd that had gathered in this rather unusual concert setting with »I Want To Hold Your Hand«. The four of them have the instrumental parts of the individual Beatles classics superbly down, while the vocal harmonies are good but occasionally ‘creak’ a little in the higher registers. Mendillo’s vocal resemblance to Paul McCartney isn’t exactly brilliant either, and Matic Pelcel, who handles the vocal (and visual) role of John Lennon, is actually a bit more convincing there.
The run through classics from the days of ‘Beatlemania’ continued successfully with »Eight Days A Week«, which is also the title of the aforementioned documentary about the unforgettable foursome’s concert tours. This time, HELP! decided to play only Beatles classics from the hottest period of ‘Beatlemania’, meaning the first half of the sixties, so performing love-song evergreens like »Can’t Buy Me Love« and »She Loves You« was pretty much a given. This choice for the eight-song set was probably down to wanting to match their performance to the documentary, which focuses on the concert tours of the most famous band of all time. The Beatles played their last concert tour in 1966, while their unforgettable farewell gig on the roof of the Apple Corps building took place in 1969. A neat version of »I Feel Fine« also helped spread the good vibes in the middle of Kolosej.
The small crowd numbered around two hundred souls. They sent HELP! off after a closing, energetic take on »Twist And Shout« with long, well-deserved applause, and then headed off to watch the documentary about the concert tours of the legendary foursome from Liverpool. With their short but heartfelt set, HELP! got everyone in a great mood ahead of the screening of a documentary that fans of the unforgettable ‘Fab Four’ simply have to see, since the big screen has never offered such a detailed look at their live adventures before.
Setlist
1. A Hard Day’s Night
2. Help!
3. I Want To Hold Your Hand
4. Eight Days A Week
5. Can’t Buy Me Love
6. She Loves You
7. I Feel Fine
8. Twist And Shout
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