‘Beatles Brunch’ Showcases Timelessness of Band’s Music

Most Beatles fans remember the last Sunday in June of 1967 as a special occasion. As many as 400 million people around the world watched the satellite-beamed, BBC broadcast of the Beatles, a symphony orchestra and assorted family and friends performing “All You Need Is Love” in the Olympic Sound Studios in London.

The crowd will be somewhat smaller when local radio personality Norman Flint stages his “Beatles Brunch Live!” on the last Sunday in June of 1991. But, if everything goes as planned, it, too, could be a memorable day for San Diego Beatlemaniacs of all ages.

The event represents a grand, public variation on the theme of Flint’s “Beatles Brunch” radio program, which airs Sundays from 11 a.m. to noon on “Classic 103 FM” (102.9-FM). On his show, Flint and a guest attempt to provide an interesting context for the spinning of selected recordings by the Fab Four. One Sunday, for example, Flint’s guest was a transplanted Brit who sat in for drummer Pete Best one night 30 years ago when the pre-Ringo Beatles played the Casbah Club in Liverpool.

The show’s thematic scope will be exponentially expanded for this weekend’s live Beatles Brunch, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. poolside at the Hill Club--the centerpiece of the La Mirage apartment village now under development in Mission Valley.

Union Jack flags hoisted along Friars Road will direct drivers to the complex’s parking area. From there, double-decker buses and London-style taxis will shuttle patrons to the site, where uniformed British bobbies will be standing guard over various Beatles memorabilia and collectibles.

Entertainment will include rare, underground footage of the Beatles, shown by a local video archivist, and an outdoor performance by the local band Rockola. The band will perform one song from each of the British-released versions of the Beatles’ albums, while wearing black coats and ties for one segment and Beatle-style “Nehru” jackets for another.

The “brunch” will be a six-course Liverpudlian affair served by Del Mar’s Bonny Lad restaurant. Those wary of “bland” British cuisine will be relieved to know that the special menu items, which include “Sgt. Pepper Eggs” and a “Strawberry Fields” dessert, will be seasoned to suit the American palate.

Flint, 51, temporarily moved into the La Mirage complex Tuesday to remain closely involved in the preparations. In a phone interview Friday, he was understandably excited about the project, which he has been coordinating for the past two months.

“Like my radio show, the live brunch will be more than just playing Beatles records and reading trivia out of a book,” said Flint, who once worked for John Lennon’s Karma Productions, which in 1969 tried, unsuccessfully, to organize a massive pop festival in Canada. “As a showcase for the timelessness of this music, this brunch event will have the same feel, live, that the radio program does.”

Memorabilia will provide much of the all-important “context” for this Beatles gala. Blue Meannie Records of El Cajon will display more than 3,000 Beatles album covers printed in foreign languages, and a glass-enclosed exhibit will feature 1,000 collectible articles. These will include the infamous “butcher” cover for the “Yesterday and Today” album, which was recalled by Capitol Records shortly after its 1966 release.

Admission to Beatles Brunch Live! is free, but brunch tickets are $8.50, from which $1 will go to benefit the Casa de Amparo shelter for abused children. Tickets can be purchased in advance at: Classic Reprographics, 1975 5th Ave.; the Bonny Lad, 2236 Carmel Valley Road, Del Mar; Blue Meannie, 916 Broadway, El Cajon; the Hard Rock Cafe, 909 Prospect, La Jolla; the T-Bird Diner, 601 North Broadway, Escondido; and the Hill Club in the La Mirage complex, 6530 Reflection Drive, Mission Valley.

GRACE NOTES: “Classic 103 FM” also is co-sponsoring, with the Ocean Beach Merchants Assn., this weekend’s 12th Annual Ocean Beach Street Fair and Chili Cook-off. There will be plenty of live music alternating between “East” and “West” stages along Newport Avenue. Included in the Saturday (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) lineup are Beer Feat, Bob McMahon and the Real Band, the Impounders, the Blazers, Voices of Fulfillment, Candye Kane and the Sheiks of Shake, Earl Thomas and the Blues Ambassadors, the Paladins, Blond Bruce, and Dave Alvin. Sunday’s (10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) action includes the Point Loma High School Jazz Ensemble, Fish and the Seaweeds, Camel Toe, the O.B. Geriatric Blues Band, Forbidden Pigs, RV and the Shadows, Tomcat Courtney, and the Mar Dels. . . .

Next month, it will be known to concert-goers as Bonnie Raitt’s backup band. But for Tuesday night’s performance at Winston’s, its billing will read “Little Whisper and the Rumors.” The quintet features keyboardists Glen Clark and Danny Tims, bassist Hutch Hutchinson, guitarist Steve Bruton, and onetime Beach Boys drummer Ricky Fataar. The Rumors’ Ocean Beach gig will be one of its last before it joins Raitt in July for the start of her national tour. . . .

Call it a major coup for the Belly Up Tavern: The red-hot Divinyls, whose single and video “I Touch Myself” is a current smash, has signed for a July 24 gig at the Solana Beach venue. . . .

Acoustic performer-songwriter Deborah Liv Johnson ventures from the local folk-club circuit for concerts at Elario’s on July 1 and Aug. 5. Johnson will give two shows each night. . . .

Two weeks ago, it made front-page headlines in Nashville’s daily newspaper The Tennesseean, but last week the news reached the San Diego media in the form of a brief press release from the Del Mar Fair: The Gatlin Brothers are hanging up the singing spurs for good after a final tour in 1992. In the meantime, head brother and solo act Larry Gatlin will undergo surgery on his vocal cords June 27. As a result, the group’s July 5 performance at the fair’s Grandstand Stage has been canceled. Filling the Gatlins’ July 5 slot is R&B; star Freddie Jackson.

CRITIC’S CHOICE: ‘AFROPOP DANCE PARTY’ AT THE BELLY UP

KPBS Radio is sponsoring its second annual “Afropop Dance Party” at the Belly Up Tavern on Tuesday night. George Collinet, host of the National Public Radio show, “Afropop Worldwide,” will serve as host of the 8 p.m., open-to-the-public soiree. Featured recordings will include Soca music from Trinidad, merengue from the Dominican Republic, chimurenga from Zimbabwe, samba from Brazil, salsa from Colombia, and highlife from Ghana.

Creole-Caribbean food, prepared by Richard Taylor of Lagniappe, will be served. Admission to the dance party is $15 for the general public, $12 for KPBS members.