Having a beer at one of our favorite pubs - The Coal Hole - before the Beatles tribute concert. Both the Coal Hole and the Savoy Theatre are on The Strand in London. Harry - Lulu - Wanda - JP. Yes - the bar crowd spreads right out onto the sidewalk. Many people stay in town after work to see a show.
I took some small videos from my lap to hide the camera. The videos are below. They are pretty stinky but at least they capture the flavor of the show.
We have been in London 8 days a week. First we saw The Who live at Wembley Arena. Then we heard The Rolling Stones in Hyde Park. Tonight - we just got home from Let It Be - a Beatles tribute show at the Savoy Theatre.
Tickets are normally 75 pounds ($115) - but this morning at 10am - JP and I lined up at the day of show box office and got 4 tickets in the front row for 25 pounds each.
The Savoy Theatre is about one mile from our apartment. We got to the theatre early and stopped by the Coal Hole - one of our favorite pubs - for a short beer before the show. The show started at 7:30 - and the place was packed with rockers with an average age of maybe 60.
For two and one half hours - the band played song after song. You may re-call that in the 60s the average song was 2 to 3 minutes long - so they went by quickly. There were tons of costume changes - instrument changes - and highlight videos of the news of the day.
The musicians were excellent. The songs sounded as close to the Beatles as possible - considering it was 50 years ago the band was playing live. The guys really made an effort to mimic the mannerisms of the real Beatles.
The show plays every night - and twice on Saturday and Sunday. Just like the original Beatles cut their teeth on long gigs in Hamburg - the actors muscle through these songs all week. They played several songs that the Beatles never played live.
Check out the video below of Lulu and Wanda dancing to Twist and Shout. One of the "Beatles" reached out and gave Lulu a guitar pick. She still wows them like a little groupie :-)
The person playing Paul McCartney is right handed - Paul played the bass left handed. You can excuse that when you figure how hard it would be to find a left handed bass player that looked like Macca.
Listening to two plus hours of Beatle tunes in concert - one realizes how truly prolific and talented these young men were. John and George are dead now - the Beatles were a state of mind - a slice of time that makes me realize I am really happy I was part of the 60s.
My Dad's sister - Grace Everhart - was an artist. The last time I met her - she was in the advanced stages of dementia. She had a hard time remembering faces and names. But when she saw me - her eyes lit up - she thought I was my Dad/her brother. She said I know you are not him - but that's okay - you are just enough - come over here and let me hug Happy.
That is how I feel about The Beatles replica band. I know they aren't the real thing - but when the lights go down - and the music comes up - they are just enough to make me Happy.
Revolution
She Loves You
Twist and Shout
Sargeant Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band
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