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When a local radio station gave me tickets to see Rain, a Beatles tribute band, I really didn’t know what to say at first. I mean, I’m a life-long Beatles fan and for me to see a Beatles cover band just felt sort of blasphemous, you know what I mean? Why should I support a band that makes a living off of music that they have absolutely nothing to do with?? Come on, I’d go see Paul or Ringo in a heartbeat but these guys??? I mean, who are these guys? Yes, I understand that Rain is one of the bigger Beatles tribute acts and they even did a stint on broadway. But, I just didn’t feel the need to see some faux-Beatles group.

So, after all of my whining and huffing & puffing, I ended up realizing that I could simply just do this for my ten year old son. Yes, chalking this whole thing up to my kid’s musical education gave me a reason to go to this show.

Anyway, Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles, were scheduled for two performances at the Durham Performing Arts Center this past week. My son and I attended the tuesday night show.

Essentially the show is a live recreation of the Beatles’ musical career from ’62 to ’70. In addition to the band playing and looking like the Beatles, there are elaborate stage setups, synchronized lighting and videos. The goal is to transport the audience back to the ’60′s. They even show TV commercials from the era on the video screens to set the mood.

Honestly, the concert was better than I expected. It all sounds cheesy on paper but the whole show was actually a fun experience. The band did a great job in trying to recreate all the sounds correctly which is a tough feat since most of the audience knows these tunes backwards and forwards. And kudos to the stage and lighting designers. The visuals were very well done and took the show beyond merely just being another run of the mill Beatles tribute night. There were four stage design changes to cover the major eras – “The Ed Sullivan Show” setup, “Shea Stadium”, “Sgt. Peppers” and the “Let it Be/Rooftop” setting.

It wasn’t all perfect though. There were some lyric flubs here and there, and the synths covering the string parts on “Yesterday” and “Eleanor Rigby” were mixed way too loud during the songs. And quite frankly the mimicry including the body movements/mannerisms and the heavy accents when speaking with the audience kinda got old after a while.

A highlight for me was during the “acoustic set” when they played songs like “Girl”, “In My Life” and “I’ve Just Seen a Face”. It felt a bit more natural during this set since it didn’t rely heavily on visuals or mimicry. It felt less constrained and they even did an extended guitar jam during “I’ve Just Seen a Face” which was a nice change of pace when everything else was almost a note for note carbon copy of the records.

All in all, my son and I had a fun night singing along to a bunch of Beatles tunes. Rain did a commendable job in recreating the look and sound of the liverpool lads. Nothing earth shattering here but it’s great to be able to share the experience with your kids.

retroGrade: B

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Here’s an interesting lil’ video clip I recently came across featuring an interview with Paul McCartney’s long time guitar tech Keith Smith (or as Smith says in the interview, “Paul’s Technical Manager”), backstage at the Israel gig in 2008. It’s a guitar fanatic’s dream to get to see some of the rare & valuable instruments Sir Macca uses on tour. And this is as good as it gets for most of us since we’ll never see these guitars up close and in person. Smith shares some neat tidbits about the various vintage guitars including the 1963 signature Hofner bass, the Epiphone acoustic and the extremely rare left handed Gibson Les Paul goldtop.

holy crap! Paul McCartney joined Ringo Starr on stage last night to sing “Birthday” to celebrate Ringo’s 70th birthday!!

Ringo and his All-Starr band had a gig at Radio City Music Hall in NYC and played their usual set. But it wasn’t just another ordinary day, it was Ringo’s 70th b-day. So to commemorate the occasion, a whole slew of famous friends attended the show. Most came on stage to singalong to “With a Little Help from My Friends” including Yoko Ono, Jeff Lynne, Joe Walsh and Max Weinberg. But the biggest thrill of the night came afterwards when Sir Paul put on his signature Hofner bass and counted out the start of “Birthday”. Definitely an amazing moment. Thankfully it was captured on video for all to enjoy. kudos to the original uploader for sharing the video clip!
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Like most Beatles fans, I’m a bit torn about the remastered albums being released in September. I mean, do I really need to purchase ANOTHER set of CDs that I already own? As a fan, I really DO want to get the newly remastered versions but I don’t think my wallet can take the hit. I’ll definitely wait to hear the verdict on whether there’s a clear distinct difference in the audio quality. and although it would be great to just get the whole entire set, I might just end up choosing specific titles that are my personal must-haves: Abbey Road, Revolver, Sgt. Peppers and the White Album.

additional tidbits about the CDs:
- release date: September 9, 2009
- each release features extended liner notes, original artwork and additional rare photos
- each release will contain a short “making of” documentary
- besides the original studio albums, Past Masters Vol. I and II will be released as well
- a box set of the CDs will be released. one set in stereo. a separate set in mono.
- the complete remastered titles are: Please Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night, Beatles for Sale, Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, The Beatles (The White Album), Abbey Road, Let It Be, Past Masters, Yellow Submarine
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Paul McCartney got back together with Ringo Starr on stage this past weekend to benefit The David Lynch Foundation’s
drive to bring Transcendental Meditation to our troubled schools. The April 4th concert was held at New York’s Radio City Music Hall and the event was hosted by Mr. David Lynch himself.
the highlight was of course reuniting Starr and McCartney on stage. The former Beatles performed separate sets during the evening and then got together for three songs that concluded the event: With a Little Help from My Friends, Cosmically Conscious and I Saw Her Standing There.

Other artists that performed at the show included: Eddie Vedder, Ben Harper, Moby, Donovan and Sheryl Crow.
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Ringo Starr recently announced that he will no longer be responding to any fan mail after October 20th. I’m not sure if this is some sort of elaborate PR scheme to get some buzz going but I’ve got a feeling that Starr won’t be getting any sort of positive buzz from all this. According the AP news story, the 68 year old former Beatle posted an angry video clip on his website saying that he will not autograph any fan-sent items nor respond to any letter addressed to him. He goes on to say “I’m warning you with peace and love, I have too much to do. So no more fan mail. Thank you, thank you. And no objects to be signed. Nothing. Anyway, peace and love, peace and love.” This comes as a bit of a shock to me. I mean, who knew an actual rock icon sorted through, read and responded to all of his fan mail???? I’ve always assumed celeb fan mail went directly into the dumpster. or at least sorted and then tossed by a lowly personal assistant. And why did he feel the need to even announce this to the world? Didn’t his handlers warn him about all the bad press he’d receive for dissing his fans? And it seems he’s only referring to physical mail. What about email? Will Ringo respond to email?

For further information, read the original news article from the Associated Press.

how about some fun Beatles covers for today’s edition of the Retroblog mix tape.

Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs – And Your Bird can Sing : With the splendid guitar riff and wonderful harmonies, you simply can’t go wrong with covering this song.

the Smithereens – Hold Me Tight : from their 2007 Beatles cover album – Meet the Smithereens. the whole album is fun to listen to every now and then.

Sara Gazarek – Junk : sorta counts as a Beatles cover since Paul McCartney worked on an early version of this song during the filming of Let it Be. Garzarek performs a nice lounge version of it here.

Todd Rundgren – While My Guitar Gently Weeps : It simply isn’t a Retroblog mix tape without me trying to insert Rundgren somewhere. here he is performing a searing guitar solo at the end of the track. lovely.

Laurence Juber – Oh Darling : yup, an ex-Wings member doing a Beatles cover. it’s actually pretty good. Juber shows off his acoustic guitar chops here with an instrumental version of one of my all time favorite Beatles song.

Paul McCartney – P.S. Love Me Do : yes, even old sir Macca can’t help but do a Beatles cover. actually a re-recorded “mash-up” of P.S. I Love You/Love Me Do! It’s a rare late 80′s track that is absolutely CRINGE-Tastic!!

enjoy!

if you like the music, please consider purchasing the albums at amazon.com: