Monday 22 June 2009

Thank You, Girl


From the Greensboro News and Record
Sunday, June 21, 2009
By Jeri Rowe
Staff Writer
Photo: H. Scott Hoffmann (News & Record)


GREENSBORO — The portrait of John Lennon hangs in the basement of Stan Bullock’s house.

It’s from his daughter, Amanda. She gave it to him last year for Father’s Day. She did it herself, in charcoal pencil, while lying on her living room floor, watching the 2007 musical, “Across the Universe.’’

It took her three days, and it’s beautiful. The detail. The shading. The capture — her capture — of John Lennon, defiant, arms crossed, in his New York City T-shirt, a pop culture pose as ubiquitous as Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe.

She gave it to her dad a few weeks after they performed for the first time together at Abbey Road on the River, one of the country’s biggest festivals honoring The Beatles.

“I don’t feel like I’m done,’’ she told him, handing him the portrait. “But here you go.’’

“Mandie,’’ her dad responded, sounding surprised. “You did this?’’

The drawing is now framed and matted, hanging amid Stan’s collection of everything John, Paul, George and Ringo. Her gift celebrates her father’s gift to her.

But this is where it gets interesting, particularly today on Father’s Day.

“It hasn’t always been peaches and cream between us,’’ she says.

A father and daughter. Not getting along. Imagine that.

Stan traveled a lot while he ran his own independent insurance agency and performed as a drummer in all sorts of places — close to home and as far away as Liverpool, England.

He exposed Amanda to The Beatles all the time. He even sang the group’s tune, “Little Child’’ to her as a child.

But that was a long time ago. She later forgot her dad’s music because, well, it was her dad’s.

But as Amanda grew into a teenager, she discovered the heartache of love and crushes. And she rediscovered her dad’s music.

The Beatles sang about her feelings, her thoughts. So, three years ago, after she graduated from Grimsley High, her dad asked her if she wanted to go to Abbey Road on the River in Louisville, Ky. She jumped.

He performed; she watched; she began to understand.

She saw her drummer dad, not as the adult, but as the 9-year-old boy, living in Winston-Salem, watching “The Ed Sullivan Show’’ mesmerized by the four young Englishmen from Liverpool.

The following year, when her dad picked up the guitar, he asked if she’d sing with him. She did. She had performed in community theater, and she had taken a voice class at UNCG that year.

She felt confident. It showed.

Then came this year. And a bigger stage.

Again, it was Abbey Road on the River. She mentioned to her dad about performing the soundtrack to “Across the Universe,’’ an inventive musical that uses the music of The Beatles to frame a love story.

He bit. He recruited musicians, including one from Russia. She was Alyona Yarushima, the 25-year-old daughter of a Russian rock star. He had performed with her during Beatle Week in Liverpool, and he wanted Yarushima to sing — with his daughter.

It happened last month over the Memorial Day weekend. Amanda stood in the wings of the festival’s big stage, pacing and forth in her feather earrings and hippie dress.

Before she stepped on stage in front of at least 5,000 people, she kept telling herself, over and over: “I’m going to knock it out!’’

She must’ve. After Amanda sang “I Want to Hold Your Hand’’ and played tambourine and sang backup, a little girl named Rachel came up to her, hugged her and gushed, “I’m coming to your next show!’’

Then, there’s Amanda’s dad. During their four shows that long weekend last month, he played the drums about 20 feet from her and watched her glance back, smiling at him, her dimples creasing her cheeks.

“It’s a wonderful thing,’’ Stan says.

They will perform again, maybe later this summer in Greensboro, definitely next year at Abbey Road on the River.

But whenever that happens, they will get what Stan calls the “Beatle Bubble,’’ that feeling of peace and love. And they will get it together, these two people from different generations who once were hardly close.

Not anymore.

“I feel like we’re closer than we’ve ever been,’’ said Amanda, 21, a rising senior at UNCG. “We’re doing the same thing, making music that people enjoy. They’re dancing, smiling and I love to make people feel like that. He does, too.

“So, I realize we’re more alike than I thought,’’ she continued, “and that has helped me understand more things about him and our lives.

“I don’t know, but it seems like a good thing.’’

A good thing? When you ask Stan, her 54-year-old father, about that, he quotes the last line The Beatles sang as a band:

“In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.’’

And today, on Father’s Day, that seems pretty appropriate.

Wednesday 17 June 2009

"Sgt Pepper Live" featuring Cheap Trick to perform at Las Vegas Hilton


"SGT PEPPER LIVE" Featuring CHEAP TRICK
To Perform At LAS VEGAS HILTON
SEPTEMBER 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, & 23
Tickets On Sale June 13th at 10:00 am

SGT PEPPER LIVE Featuring CHEAP TRICK is confirmed to perform nine very special shows with a full orchestra and special guest artists at the Las Vegas Hilton on Sept 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, & 23.

Tickets are priced at $65, $80, and $95. and as of SATURDAY JUNE 13, 2009 can be purchased at the Las Vegas Hilton box office or by logging onto www.vegas.com,www.ticketmaster.com, www.lvhilton.com, or phone at 702-732-5755 or 1-800-222-5361.

Tuesday 16 June 2009

Beatles Day in Liverpool 10th July 2009


Beatles Day Goes Global

BEATLES DAY 09 was officially launched today by John Lennon’s sister – Julia Baird and TV star Ricky Tomlinson at Alder Hey Children's Hospital. Julia is a Trustee of the newly formed Beatles Day Foundation and Ricky is a Patron of the charity. She and Ricky handed over cheques raised by the Beatles Day appeal last year to the Imagine Appeal and Liverpool Unites worth £45,000. The patients and staff on the Oncology ward joined in a singalong to 'She Loves You' and 'I Saw Her Standing There'.

The 10th July will be forever known as BEATLES DAY and that date was chosen for this celebration as it is the anniversary of the Beatles triumphant return to Liverpool from the States and the premiere of the film 'Hard Day's Night' in 1964. The streets were lined with thousands of adoring fans and we intend to re-create the same sort of Beatlemania this year.

Monday 8 June 2009

Beatlemania lives


And a Sutcliffes fan is sending the band to Nirvana, a.k.a. the Cavern

By Adrian Chamberlain, from The Times Colonist, Saturday, June 09, 2009.

Until lately, the Sutcliffes -- a fine Beatles tribute band -- played the Fernwood Inn every single Wednesday night. And for the past 18 months, Superfan Dave has attended every show. Well, almost. He did reluctantly miss one night when he was called out of town. Taking into account the odd week off here and there, that's about 70 shows.

Superfan Dave is crazy about the Sutcliffes. He never gets bored. "You can tell they do it for the joy of doing it. They believe it," the 46-year-old said. "They're a gas. There's never a bad time. If you have a s----y day, you think, well, at least there's the Sutcliffes."
He said this with some zeal, in the manner of a body-painted dude cheering on his favourite football team.

Superfan Dave -- sporting gold earrings in both lobes and a foot-long chin beard -- always sits at the Table 45 in the Fernwood Inn. It's the best seat in the house, right at the back by a window.

Does the pub reserve this table for him?

"I just call them when I'm not coming," he said. I expected him to pump both fists into the air. But Superfan Dave, if stirred by such an urge, contained it.

These are the kinds of followers bands dream about. They're the die-hards, the ultra-loyalists, the breast-beating aficionados, the (insert band name here)-heads. Aside from helping jam the joint, such fans can be tremendously helpful. For example, Superfan Dave -- whose full name is Dave Copeman -- is the chief fundraiser and primary strategist in the Sutcliffes' bid to play Liverpool this August.

They're booked to perform for five nights at the famed Cavern Club (or at least, the facsimile Cavern Club), an early venue for the Beatles before they became the Biggest Thing in Pop. The Sutcliffes' shows are part of Liverpool's International Beatles Festival, hosting performances from top Beatles bands from around the globe.

Playing the Cavern is more about glory than cash. That's because there is no cash. The Sutcliffes and about 60 other acts (including an Argentinean outfit playing exclusively Beatles music from 1969) play for free and pay their own way. Here's where Superfan Dave comes in. On his own dime, he's purchased Sutcliffes souvenir merchandise to raise money for the trip. There's Sutcliffes hoodies, T-shirts, hats, tank-tops and lighters. It's raised $1,500 so far.

On June 13, the Sutcliffes will crank their fundraising efforts to 11. For $25, fans can see one of three consecutive shows at the Fernwood Inn, starting at 3 p.m. As well as a concert, patrons will eventually receive a recording compiled from the afternoon, to be titled Live at the Fernwood Vol. II. Superfan Dave's home company, Fathead Productions, is recording it for free. With luck, the event will gross $4,500.

Sutcliffes guitarist Chuck Simms says Superfan Dave is a godsend, given that musicians tend to be "very lazy people." As well as the merchandise, Dave booked and made all the arrangements for the Liverpool trip.

"My two requirements are: Can I trust a guy, and does he get things done? Dave does both these things," Simms said.

Superfan Dave looked pleased at this. He got hooked on the Sutcliffes almost by accident. He lives just "a drunken stumble" away from the Fernwood Inn. "I was walking by one night, minding my own business. And I heard the Beatles."

The early Beatles, to be precise. The Sutcliffes specialize in songs the Beatles performed in the early '60s, when they played Hamburg's red-light district. Back then, the Fab Four wore leather jackets and gobbled amphetamines to survive shows lasting up to eight hours. It was rougher music, more rock'n'roll. None of that cutesy Maxwell's Silver Hammer stuff.

It's that rawness and energy that the Sutcliffes aim to capture. "We play it like our lives depend on it," said Simms.

Because the Sutcliffes' lead singer recently had a child, the band was recently forced to cut back to playing every second Wednesday. These bi-monthly gigs are now so popular, patrons are advised to reserve two weeks in advance.

Naturally, the Sutcliffes are thrilled to be playing the Cavern. If you're a Beatles band, it's like the holy grail. True, the original club was bulldozed in the '70s. But the new one, erected in 1984, is a duplicate built partly on the original site. It even uses some of the original bricks. Oasis and the Arctic Monkeys have played it. So did Paul McCartney ... which in Beatles-land, is akin to receiving the Pope's blessing.

So ... is Superfan Dave is coming to Liverpool with the Sutcliffes?

Is he ever!

"Absolutely," he said. "It's gonna be a riot."

Note: Tickets for the Sutcliffes' June 13 fundraising shows are available from Long & McQuade, 756 Hillside Ave.

Saturday 6 June 2009

A digital tribute

The Fabs have hit the digital age at last... but not quite in the way most fans expected. September 9th is going to be an expensive day for fans what with the release of this (if you like this sort of thing!) and the remastered albums. At least our nearest and dearest will know what to buy us for Christmas this year!

Wednesday 3 June 2009

Hello from Britishmania!


UPCOMING SHOWS
June 19 Oliver Fest, N. Wilkeboro, NC
June 26 Elvis meets Beatles, Claymont, DE
July 5 Nazareth Boro Park, Nazareth, PA

Please visit our "Tour Schedule" page for more details on show. www.british-mania.com

Dear Friends, Family and Fans,
We look forward to seeing you this summer at our upcoming shows! Look for the release of Britishmania's new CD recorded live in Washington DC this past March! We appreciate your love and support!

Tuesday 2 June 2009

85 days til BW2009...

I'm not even going to begin to explain the recent lack of activity on thewordislove.com, suffice to say I am just one person and sometimes life gets in the way...

However, with the highlight of the Beatle year in the UK just a couple of months away, and with my brain firmly in tribute band mode as I work on the biographies for the programme for the event, I thought I'd try and reinvigorate TWIL and all that it stands for.

A website, and especially one which covers so many bands in so many different countries, takes a lot of time to run. The internet is constantly evolving and these days one of the main ways of communicating is by blogging. It seems appropriate that I try to relaunch TWIL in true 2009 style and so hopefully this blog will be much easier to update. I'm not quite sure what format it will take. It too will evolve. If you have any ideas please leave a comment below, or email me: ninatwil@gmail.com