John Lennon
Not the John Lennon, of course, but Neil Harrison of ‘The Bootleg Beatles’ who has played him for thirty years as part of probably the most famous tribute band in history. They have played before the Queen at Buckingham Palace and appeared onstage twice with Oasis. Ahead of their appearance at The Anvil on Tuesday, March 23 the Observer sat down with the band’s leading man.
“It’s not just the people who grew up with the Beatles who come to our shows, there are an awful lot of teenagers and young people as well, I guess they’re coming along to see what it was all about,” he said of the band’s enduring fanbase. The Bootlegs were touring Britain in the early 1980s – several years before the idea of tribute acts blossomed to the huge number around today. Neil continued: “We came from a show called Beatlemania, which had an orchestra and numerous costume changes – that we had to audition for – and when that finished we decided to do our own, smaller version and starting touring clubs and colleges and gradually built it up from there.”
And they have certainly built it up: in addition to the Fab Four, they have three brass players and two string musicians as well as a large screen displaying period pictures and images.
Neil says: “Of course, these days it is possible to have all the complicated original arrangements replicated by keyboards but we think it is important to see real musicians performing the songs – costs a fortune but it’s worth it!”
In addition to musical fidelity, it is clear that the musical theatre roots of the Bootlegs has not been lost as the show takes you through the history of the Beatles with appropriate costumes and Beatle-esque humour: “We start with Beatlemania and Shea Stadium type songs and then Sergeant Pepper has its own section.
In part two we move on to the ‘summer of love’ and then kind of ‘Abbey Road/Let it Be’ with me wearing the white suit and ‘George’ wearing the denims.” One favourite song forever associated with the Fab Four but not actually written by them is ‘Twist and Shout’.
Neil admits that whether they perform it depends on the state of his voice: “We only ever do it at the end because it is such a raucous song and you almost have to blow your voice out to do it justice, like John Lennon did when he recorded it. “When we’re touring so intensively, sometimes you simply can’t risk performing it when there may be only twenty-four hours to recover”.
After a tour of provincial theatres such as the Anvil, which takes up almost every day in March, the Bootlegs move on to European dates and open-air festivals, culminating in a December tour of mighty UK venues including the Royal Albert Hall. Whether you want to wallow in nostalgia (Neil frequently sees middle-aged people in tears at their gigs) or are simply are curious to see what all the fuss was about, get tickets for the show at the Anvil on 23 March. You will not be disappointed. Call the Anvil Arts Box Office on 01256 844244
