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Backbeat
Beatles at The Summer Pops
IT IS not every day that you
find yourself sitting in a big top in the Albert
Dock listening to high-brow classical musicians
bashing out I Am The Walrus alongside a Beatles'
tribute band.
This song's conception probably had more than
a little to do with hallucinogenic drugs.
And as I watched the Backbeat Beatles and the
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra come
together in tribute to the greatest band in
the world I had to wonder whether someone had
slipped a little something into my hugely overpriced
glass of wine as well.
The evening was billed as The Phil plus special
guests the Back-beat Beatles. But these four
boys from Liverpool were anything but the support
act.
As soon as they arrived on stage the half-full
Big Top at the Kings Dock erupted with something
like Beatlemania.
Earlier the Philharmonic musicians had kicked
off the concert with the jubilee anthem All
You Need is Love and a medley of Lennon and
McCartney hits.
For me this was the slowest part of the show,
which resembled the sort of Classic Rock album
my uncle has forced upon him every Christmas
- admittedly it was a very polished Classic
Rock.
The Philharmonic only really came alive in
the second half when they performed a classic
Beatles' medley led by conductor John Wilson.
But the night really belonged to the Backbeats.
Although some bright spark had decided to squash
the band into the left hand corner they still
managed to capture the whole of the audience,
even us poor souls on the right who could not
see them properly.
But the true joy of the evening had to be when
the musicians pulled it all together.
With the opening performance of All You Need
Is Love the audience rose to its feet and filled
the Big Top with as much noise as if John, Paul,
George and Ringo had been there themselves.
Somebody once told me this band were better
than the Beatles, I think last night's audience
might just agree.
by Emma Gunby, Liverpool Echo
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