The Fab Four

Thanks to all who posted such nice words regarding my last post. I am back to normal now,and this last week has been fine. We have had a bout of very hot and humid weather,and very little rain. My heart goes out to those who have been dealing with this for longer than a week here in the US. This is the hottest year on record. We are lucky that out heat spell has now been broken,and today we are enjoying dry air and temps in the low 80's. The turkey cage has been torn down. It's time to trellis our grapes,cukes,and peas. Our red raspberry bushes are doing fine for a first year,and I have been picking the few that ripen and putting them in the freezer. I might get enough to make something at some point!

Rick and I have had a plan up our sleeves for a few months now. I grew up a HUGE Beatles fan,and still am a HUGE Beatles fan. To me,they are the greatest band of all time.My love for the Lads From Liverpool has rubbed off on The Boy.The one group he would love to see: The Beatles (of course!) Naturally,with the murder of John Lennon,any hope of a Beatles reunion was dashed forever. To be honest,I would've paid anything to see them in concert.

Zach had been asking about going to a concert,so one day I looked on line at the (fairly) local Hampton Beach Club Casino. It's an old venue for bands and comics-dating back to Louis Armstrong. It has also hosted The Doors,Led Zeppelin,U2,George Carlin,Jerry Seinfeld,and many other bands and comics (we saw the B-52's there last year). I was perusing the line up,when lo and behold,I see 'The Fab Four-A Tribute Band." I looked up some reviews,and they all were stellar,so I scoffed up tickets the day they went on sale-third row.

We then had to keep the secret from Zach and make sure we gathered the mail everyday so he wouldn't see the Ticketmaster envelope with the tickets! Luckily,I was actually able to see The Fab Four on a PBS special,and I knew it was going to be a great show!

We "decided" to go visit Rick's Dad who happens to live in North Hampton,about 10 minutes from the venue. Rick then "suggested" that since we were so close to the beach and we hadn't been to the ocean for a while,why didn't we go to Hampton Beach? Zach was all for it,of course. So we parked,and walked around looking in shops,playing in the arcade,and walking the boardwalk. The doors didn't open until 6:00,so we were trying to kill time until then without arousing any suspicion. We "happened" to be standing in the crowd of folks waiting for the doors to open,and when they did indeed open and we proceeded to go in,Zach looked very, very confused. "What is this?" he asked. I held up the three tickets,but he didn't see what was written on them. "This is Club Casino and we are going to see the show,"I told him. "But I'm only 14! I can't go into a club!" he protested. (He didn't realize that since he is underage he could go with a parent-and it's not really a "casino" as we think of casinos nowadays)."It's OK,Buddy,you're with us,"Rick assured him.He still had no idea what we were doing,and he asked,"What are we seeing?" "The Fab Four Tribute Band!" I told him. A big smile broke out on his face and he said,"Really? Awesome!"

No photos or video were allowed but we could snap some pre show photos. I took a couple:

A close up of the drum kit and a couple of guitars.I loved the pink one.

A very surprised young man!

I have never seen a tribute band before,and I am glad that this was my first experience. "Ed Sullivan" (who happened to appear in Pulp Fiction!) came out and introduced the Fab Four just like on the real Ed Sullivan Show. The first set was in the Mop Top Suits. Not only do they resemble ( "George" really looked like George Harrison,and the other three were really close) the Beatles,they had the mannerisms,voices,singing,and music down pact. No taped music or lip syncing here, folks-these guys played their instruments and actually sang. They sounded just like the real thing,and  looked like the real thing. The second act was in their Shea Stadium beige suits with the sheriff star on them. The third was their Sgt Pepper outfits.( when they played "The End" they got a standing ovation-it was amazing) and the third had "John" come out first,in long hair,military jacket and glasses.He sat at the keyboard,and talked about how John was his hero,how he wasn't afraid to speak for peace,and how he fought to stay in the US (since Nixon kept trying to deport him and had massive files on him-sad,but very true)because we had freedom of speech here. He said this all in full John voice. He then played "Imagine," which he did a fabulous job on-and received a standing ovation. Then "George" came out in some early 70's clothes,played a snippet of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Something",then broke into "Here Comes The Sun" with the rest of the band.Paul and Ringo were dressed like in the "rooftop concert" footage that is so famous. They then played a few early 70's songs,and ended with "Hey Jude",which had everyone on their feet and swaying their arms in the air.The only thing that did disappoint me was they didn't play anything from "Abbey Road",which is my favorite album.However,that was a fleeting disappointment. I loved the fact that they told jokes and interacted with the audience just like the Beatles did. It must've taken a lot of studying of old concert footage,etc to get everything down so pat. A couple of times,I could see where one would lose themselves in the moment and actually think they were seeing the Beatles.

One of the really cool things about the whole night was the spectrum of ages. I saw folks in white hair with canes,middle aged folks like us, down to little kids.One elderly gentleman in the second row kept standing up after every song,giving them his own ovation. When they got to the Sgt Pepper part and played "Strawberry Fields," "John" asked if there were any "psychedelic hippies in the audience." He pointed to the gentleman,and said," I bet you were a hippie," and apparently the gentleman didn't answer quickly enough,because "John" then quipped,"Well,you know what they say,if you don't remember being a hippie,you were a hippie," which made everyone bust out laughing.

They played for two hours (no opening act!) and it was FABulous. The show started at 8:15,and ended at 10:30.We wound up getting home around midnight. Both Rick and I are dragging this AM (we had to get up early for  a VA appt in Somersworth,which had been cancelled and rescheduled for next week-though they failed to tell us until we got there. They are good about that,usually).It's a great tired though-FABulous show and FABulous family memories!

Have a FABulous day on this FABulous planet,where ever you might be!