Eleven bands to take part in Beatles Tribute Night Saturday at The Hideout on Queen Street East
Fans of the Fab Four’s voluminous original and cover repertoire have a treat instore at The Blue Room in the Beach this Saturday (April 18) night.
Live onstage, in the upstairs lounge at The Hideout, local musician and promoter Tony “TonyO” Oldland is presenting not one, not two, but 11 local bands from 7 to 11 p.m., playing 33 different Beatles’ original, covered, and composed tunes.
The Blue Room lounge is upstairs at The Hideout, 2282 Queen St. E. just east of Silver Birch Avenue.
There is no cover charge for Saturday night’s four-hour presentation. Oldland has adopted the PWYC (Pay What You Can) tip jar format “to help support the local music scene.” All ages are welcome to attend, and pub grub will be available.
TonyO, well known for his local cover-tribute band The Beachles, called this no-cover Beatles Tribute Evening “a jamboree”, a fast moving show of different bands each playing a unique three-tune 15-minute set in their own style.
“The show keeps moving right along because each group just plugs into and unplugs from the same amplifiers, and uses the same drum kit and microphones,” said Oldland.
There will be no hauling amps in and out, no redundant setting up, and only one sound check to start.
Oldland has imported the format from clubs he has played as far apart as Liverpool and Buenos Aires. “We run it like an old-time jamboree. Every band gets equal time, and the audience doesn’t have to wait to enjoy the next act’s different style and interpretation.”
Examples of the eclectic Beatles repertoire over their career start in the first set. It includes That’s All Right, an Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup rockabilly tune which Elvis covered and was his first hit. The set also features Act Naturally, a Buck Owens’ hit, which also earned millions in royalties for its composers when Ringo recorded it. Act Naturally was released as the flip side of Yesterday! (And the last non-original composition released in The Beatles canon.)
Other Beatles rarities scheduled for Saturday night include John’s proto-psychedelic She Said, She Said from Revolver, George’s For You Blue from the unhappy Apple basement recoding sessions, and Paul’s Hey Bulldog, an ad hoc contribution to the Yellow Submarine movie and built on an outstanding boogie woogie piano bass line.
More frequently performed compositions to be heard will include A Hard Day’s Night, Help, Imagine, and in TonyO’s The Dance Beatle’s closing set, the rocking I Saw Her Standing There. His final words about the evening are an apropos promise from one of the Beatles most famous albums: “A splendid time is guaranteed for all.”
