Beatles tribute bands to perform local shows
For many would-be musicians growing up in the ’60s, seeing the Beatles live on “The Ed Sullivan Show” as a child was like being hit by a bolt of lightning. It changed their lives and inspired many to pick up a guitar.
Jim Owen, the 48-year-old Huntington Beach native who plays John Lennon in the Beatles tribute act Classical Mystery Tour was too young for that. Instead, his life-altering musical moment came in 1978, when he was 12 and saw “Beatlemania” at the Shubert Theatre in Century City.
“They went that extra step in the Broadway show where they dressed in costume, had costume changes and portrayed all the various eras of the Beatles,” he says. “What was great about the show is that it was exactly what I wanted to do — have four guys in the group who would play the instruments live, sing live and recreate and not rearrange it, and be as authentic as possible.”
The culmination of that dream is Classical Mystery Tour, a high-concept tribute show with a central idea: what if the Fab Four hadn’t stopped performing live in 1966 and took its more complex, strings-laden music to the concert stage, backed by a full orchestra. The ensemble’s performance Saturday at the Los Angeles Arboretum and Botanic Garden in Arcadia coincides the same night with another performance by the Fab Four at Burbank’s Starlight Bowl.
“We love the music of the Beatles and try to give their songs the precise attention to detail that they deserve,” says the Fab Four’s Ron McNeil, who plays John Lennon. “When our fans come to our shows, we want them to think they’re seeing the real thing.”
For Owen, by age 11 he was already playing Beatles covers in a group with some school chums. When the guitarist and bassist in that early nameless combo wanted to move onto Led Zeppelin, Owen and his Ringo-loving drummer had no interest in making a change. For them, it was Beatles or nothing. At 18, Owen landed a gig in the international production of “Beatlemania,” which toured Japan, Korea, China, Canada, Mexico and parts of South America.
With that experience under his belt, in 1996, he launched Classical Mystery Tour. It was the perfect musical concept for Owen. Before he discovered the Beatles at age 7, he was raised on a steady diet of classical music and studied piano. “I think that’s how this really came together years down the road,” he says. “My love for the Beatles combined with my really strong classical background from early childhood.”
Although Owen’s been playing Lennon in the show for more than 15 years, when the group first started in 1996, he had the role of George Harrison. “As a child learning guitar I didn’t think about singing, I just learned the George Harrison guitar parts that sounded so great on the records. That’s what I wanted to do. Later as a teenager, I realized I had to sing those songs, and I really enjoyed singing the George Harrison vocals — ‘Something’ and ‘Here Comes the Sun.’”
However, after a few years in the Classical Mystery Tour, Owen began to take note of some of the feedback from fans. “People would come up to me and say you look more like John Lennon, you should be John Lennon,” he recalls. “So, I finally thought I should give it a try and I’m really glad I did, because I really enjoy the John Lennon part now.”
Owen is joined in this incarnation of the Classical Mystery Tour by Tucson, Ariz., native Tony Kishman, who spent six years in the national and international cast of “Beatlemania” as Paul McCartney. “He’s the most convincing Paul McCartney tribute artist there is,” Owen says. Asked if Kishman plays bass left-handed like McCartney, Owen quips, “He sings left-handed,” adding that Kishman is so good, you’ll soon forget he isn’t holding his bass exactly like the icon he’s emulating.
In the role of Ringo Starr is Chris Camilleri, who has been with the band since 1999 and has toured with such Beatles peers as Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits, Badfinger and Micky Dolenz of the Monkees. David John usually fills the role of George Harrison, but he’s unable to play the show this Saturday, so Joe Bithorn — another alumni from the “Beatlemania” cast who’s also played in the tribute band Rain — will fill in.
The set-list for Classical Musical Tour came naturally, as Owen explains Beatles’ classics such as “Yesterday,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “The Long and Winding Road,” and his personal favorite to perform, “A Day in the Life,” fit nicely with orchestrated backing. The format doesn’t necessarily work with the Beatles’ earliest material, so after its first few gigs, the band added a portion of the show without the orchestra, so it could touch on all the different eras of the Beatles.
Of course, there have always been plenty other Beatles tributes. Aside from the Saturday shows by Classical Mystery Tour and the Fab Four, there is an Oct. 17 concert by the Fab Faux, a Beatles tribute led by late-night TV musicians sans Beatle-costumes, who will play the set-lists of the Beatles’ Hollywood Bowl and Dodger Stadium shows at the Valley Performing Arts Center at Cal State Northridge.
So what sets the Classical Mystery Tour apart from the rest of the Beatles tribute pack? It’s not just an orchestra performing Beatles songs and not just another Beatles tribute band, but “an authentic recreation of what it would have been like if the Beatles played live backed by a live orchestra,” Owen says, adding. “It’s the concert they never gave themselves...and we’re really happy to still be doing it after all these years.”
--
What: Classical Mystery Tour with the Pasadena Symphony and Pops
Where: Los Angeles Arboretum and Botanic Garden, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, grounds open for picnicking at 5:30 p.m. with food trucks and other dining options.
More info: (626) 793-7172 or PasadenaSymphony-Pops.org
--
What: The Fab Four
Where: Starlight Bowl, 1249 Lockheed View Drive, Burbank.
When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday; parking opens at 4:30 p.m., gates open at 5:30 p.m.
More info: (818) 238-5300 or starlightbowl.com.
--
CRAIG ROSEN is a regular contributor to Marquee.