Beatles musical Let It Be was a West End hit and now it's on tour and headed for Belfast and Dublin. Ahead of the Irish dates, Brian Campbell saw the show and met the cast in the Fab Four's hometown of Liverpool
FIFTY years ago, Beatlemania took America by storm. The Fab Four were already a huge success in Europe but 1964 was the year that John, Paul, George and Ringo became household names in the States. They landed in New York and mistakenly thought that the deafening roars of their devoted fans waiting for them at the airport were actually the plane's engines. Their subsequent tour and TV appearances made the Liverpool band a global brand.
Forty-five years ago they recorded in a studio for the last time.
While the album The Beatles recorded last was Abbey Road, the one they made previously and then released last of all was Let It Be.
The band's astonishing recordings from 1963 to 1970 have seen them rightly hailed as the best of all time and now a West End stage show named after that last album - Let It Be - is on its way to Belfast and Dublin (Grand Opera House in Belfast from June 9 to 14 and Bord Gais Energy Theatre in Dublin from June 16 to 21).
I had the pleasure of speaking to some of the cast and seeing the show when it came to Liverpool last month and it really is a brilliant production.
It takes you from the early days of The Beatles in the pubs and clubs - most famously The Cavern - to their time in Hamburg, their conquering of America and their musical progression from rock'n'roll and Merseybeat to psychedelia and their ground-breaking later albums. The performers are first-class musicians and give note-perfect renditions of almost 50 Beatles hits over the course of the show, helped by a stunning sound system and periodic TV newsreel footage that lets you know what was going on in the world at the time (be it the World Cup in England in 1966 or the Vietnam War a few years later).
The Let It Be tour features nine musicians who take turns at being the Fab Four and in Liverpool I met Michael Gagliano (John Lennon), James Fox (Paul McCartney) and Ben Cullingworth (Ringo Starr).
Fox sums up neatly what the show offers. "It's a theatre show but it's a live band and it's a gig. It's a concert that never really happened. You can watch footage of the Beatles online but there was never a concert when they did all of the songs chronologically with this amount of detail and the lights and footage and the set. It's the concert that never was. "It's as close as you can get to experiencing the band that changed music forever."
Gagliano says he knew Beatles songs when he was a child because his mum listened to the band when she was pregnant with him and when he was a toddler. "I remember playing their songs as a small child on a one-string guitar. And we all love The Beatles. You can't escape the quality of the songs. "This is the biggest and most lavish and most intricate and most serious production of Beatles songs throughout their entire career. Every sound the audience hears comes from us and the keyboard player behind us."
James says the band uses 25 guitars in each performance of Let It Be. "We know exactly what each Beatle played on every record, so we've scrutinised everything - even the mistakes."
Drummer Ben - who has shaved his head so that his Ringo wig fits him snugly - agrees that the on-stage band can never mess with the original material. "We try to make the songs sound the way they do on the records."
And he explains why the show has been something of a global success already. "It's been to Broadway, Germany, Japan and Russia. The great thing about it is that it doesn't need to be translated. "All the songs connect to people in different ways. There are so many points in the show where you can see old couples reliving 50 years' of memories. It's lovely. "Sometimes you see people slow-dancing in the aisles to something like The Long And Winding Road. And then obviously Hey Jude is a big one. And little kids really love the show too."
Gagliano says the show has been attracting fans of all ages. "We've been getting everyone, from small children up to old people. Then you get cool dudes and musicians coming in. We've had Roger Taylor from Queen, Chris Martin from Coldplay and Cilla Black in too."
The Beatles remain a phenomenon and over the course of my brief visit to Liverpool there were several reminders that they are more than just a band.
They have an excellent interactive museum dedicated to them in their native city (The Beatles Story), there is a hotel called The Hard Day's Night Hotel and the rebuilt Cavern -- an homage to the original venue where The Beatles started out -- is one of the city's top tourist destinations.
The airport was renamed Liverpool John Lennon Airport in 2002 and as I waited for my flight from Belfast International Airport, what was playing over the sound system? Rufus Wainwright's cover version of Beatles song Across The Universe.
And while talking to the Let It Be guys at the Empire Theatre - a theatre The Beatles actually played in their heyday - a Magical Mystery Tour bus drove past. Michael Gagliano says the band "weren't just musicians - they were magicians". What does he think the two surviving Beatles, Paul and Ringo, would make of Let It Be? "They'd love it, man. They know about the show. One of the other guys in the show, Mani, met Stella McCartney and talked to her about it and she said her dad knew everything about it. But it's almost as if they can't be seen to endorse the show."
Gagliano has been playing the guitar since he was seven and he has his own band, The Sails.
James Fox was first in the spotlight when he took part in BBC talent show Fame Academy in 2003, before representing the UK in the Eurovision in 2004.
Fox's stage roles to date include Jesus Christ Superstar and Chess he says he has been to Belfast on several occasions. "I did Chess there a couple of years back and I was on tour supporting Lulu and Westlife. I love it there. There's always a buzz about it."
He says his favourite Beatles song is probably The Long And Winding Road, drummer Ben opts for She Loves You and Gagliano goes for Strawberry Fields Forever.
He says it's important that Let It Be tells the Beatles story chronologically. "It tells a story and most people who come to the show know what the story is and they've got their own version of how it goes in their minds. "If you tell that story out of context they're not very forgiving; they're almost like Star Trek fans and they know every detail. "We all have a passion for this music and I think that comes across. And the thing is, we could do 44 different Beatles songs and it would still be a great show."
* Let It Be runs at the Grand Opera House in Belfast from Monday June 9 to Saturday June 14. For tickets (£18.50 to £32.50), call 028 9024 1919 or visit Goh.co.uk.
* THE FAB SHOW: Hit Beatles musical Let It Be started on London's West End, has been to Broadway and comes to Belfast next month