Location: Ljubljana / Kolosej / Slovenia
Date: 03.01.2017
At the premiere screening of the excellent documentary about the most important band of all time, ‘The Beatles – Eight Days a Week’, at Kolosej in Ljubljana, the international lineup HELP! A Beatles Tribute Band kicked things off with a short set. This superb tribute to The Beatles, which is almost constantly on the road while it keeps the legacy of the legendary ‘Fab Four’ from Liverpool alive, opened its short but very entertaining gig 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 talent: 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 ‘multigenerational’ crowd, gathered in a rather unusual concert venue, with »I Want To Hold Your Hand«. The foursome has the instrumental parts of the individual Beatles classics down perfectly, while the vocal harmonies are good but occasionally ‘creak’ a little in the higher registers. Mendillo’s voice isn’t exactly a brilliant match for Paul McCartney’s either, and Matic Pelcel, who handles the vocal (and visual) role of John Lennon, is actually a bit more convincing there.
The run of classics from the Beatlemania days carried on with »Eight Days A Week«, which is also the title of the documentary mentioned above about the live tours of the unforgettable foursome. This time HELP! chose to play only Beatles classics from the hottest stretch of ‘Beatlemania’, meaning the first half of the sixties, so the evergreen love songs »Can’t Buy Me Love« and »She Loves You« were pretty much a given. The choice for the eight-song set was most likely driven by the wish to match their gig to the documentary, which focuses on the live 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 happened in 1969. A nifty version of »I Feel Fine« also helped spread the good vibes in the middle of Kolosej.
The small crowd numbered about two hundred souls. They sent HELP! off with a long, well-deserved round of applause after the energetic closer, »Twist And Shout«, and then headed in to watch the documentary about the live tours of the legendary Liverpool foursome. With their short but heartfelt set, HELP! got everyone in a great mood before the screening of the documentary, which fans of the unforgettable ‘Fab Four’ simply have to see, as there has never been such a detailed look at their live adventures on the big screen before.
author: Peter Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
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
