Way back in January one of my closest friends approached me with an interesting idea; to go see a tribute band (a very well respected one at that) that is dedicated to The Beatles. This band call themselves, The Bootleg Beatles. At first I wasn't too sure, given that I hadn't heard much of their stuff. But he said that I would have enough time to listen to some of their mountain load of albums to get a general picture. So without too much fuss, we bought two tickets for a reasonable price in the stalls. I hadn't thought about it all that much until, a few days ago, both he and I started having nervous spouts of excitement. He feels he's some teenage alternate version of John Lennon (all the power to him I say), and according to him after commenting on a photo of me I am some sort of George Harrison. It wasn't until Friday night that I realised how awesome this compliment was.
I'd like to congratulate myself and Tom for making one of the most solid plans in the history of my life. Everything went to plan; picked Tom up from his place, went to the train station, didn't have to wait long for the train, bought tickets on train, got to Oxford in record time, managed to get a cornish pasty and Burger King before heading into the theatre, got in there and then had our minds blown away and still managed to get the train back and arrive home without getting frozen, being chased by angry drunk people, beaten up or killed. I'd added some of their songs to Libby (my ipod) and hits like Yesterday, Day Tripper, All you need is love, Hey Jude, Penny Lane were all quite nice to listen to as I made my way to school. But if any credit has to go to the Beatles or Bootleg Beatles in this case (which it should) I would say that they're nothing on cd compared to what they are live. Seriously, I can't remember the last time I got up and sang and clapped along with the audience.
The really cool thing was that they acted like the Fab Four; they had very good Liverpool accents, dressed in amazing costumes, played really well on authentic instruments and talked, yes talked in conversation just like them. I don't know much about them to be honest, but from what I have heard Paul, John and Ringo certainly did sound a lot like their predesessors. Such as Paul's short pauses after a few words "So yeh, we're going to introduce you to that man, over there, who's on that keyboard, which makes a nice sound" and being encouraged by Harrison to clap all the way through didn't annoy me for once "Yeh so if you could clap all the way through this time, that be really nice, make a nice sound" and John being the polite gentleman as always "Thank you kindly" Ringo was just Ringo, lapping up all the joy when we got to Yellow Submarine.
Tom was just smiling all the way through and to be honest, I was glad to see he could get away from all the shitty stuff at school for just a few hours and really enjoy seeing his favourite band of all time. I'd have to say I had a great time too. As Tom said "That's got to be the first time i've ever heard 'All you need is love' and not argued with it". In fact, nothing went wrong except for a very brief moment when fate tried to slip us up and steal Tom's wallet, but after checking under his seat, we became relatively calm again.
Now I can see why the real Beatles gave note of how much they appreciated and respected this tribute band. It really did feel Tom and I had warped back to the 60s. What was really funny about them aswell was that the totally random, tanjent type conversations they had between songs was just so them. I think at the end I managed to wave to Harrison and he saw me, but i'm not sure. Either way, we both had a great night and haven't been that excited since...um... bingo night I reckon.
Check out Tom's post if you'd like to see some footage that was very slyly taken.
P.S. - If the man with the yellow Wolverhampton F.C. shirt who was there on Friday is reading this perchance, YOU WERE AMAZING!
P.S.S. - I think my tweed jacket and waistcoat outfit fitted the mark pretty well, and also kept me warm.
P.S.S.S - Will in next blog attempt to write a review for a video game, probably Mass Effect 2.
