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SHREWSBURY
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The Mersey Beatles - photo Eddie M
BEATLETASTIC!
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For some Beatles fans, Beatles Conventions, days, weeks, festivals, call them what you like, are a crucial part of their Beatles calendars.
The No.1 festival in the UK is 'International Beatleweek Festival' organised by Cavern City Tours in the Beatles hometown of Liverpool. It's been a permanent fixture on my calendar since 1984. A new kid on the block this year is the Shrewsbury Beatles Weekend, launched on Thursday, 19th September with a 2hr Beatles Boat Cruise aboard the 'Sabrina' on the River Severn. The Beatles themselves played live in Shrewsbury on 4 occasions: 14th December 1962 - Music Hall, the Square 19th January 1963 - Town Hall Ballroom, Dodington, Whitchurch 28th February 1963 - Granada Cinema, Castle Gates 26th April 1963 - Music Hall, the Square The ShrewsburyBeatles weekend was organised by the Lord Mayor of Shrewsbury, Phil 'Beatles fanatic' Gillam, Tim 'the main man' King and Colin 'music producer' Clews plus a host of other people behind the scenes. The event promised film screenings, live music, entertaining talks, tours and special guests, all in aid of the Samaritans, Shrewsbury. |
FRIDAY 20th SEPTEMBER
We arrived in Shrewsbury on Friday in good time for the first event, a screening at the Theatre Severn of the excellent Beatles film 'Backbeat'. It tells the story of the Beatles in Hamburg, 1961, set around the 'love triangle' of John Lennon, Stu Sutcliffe & Astrid Kirchherr, complete with a rocking soundtrack performed by 'grunge' supergroup:
Dave Pirner (Soul Asylum): vocals, Greg Dulli (The Afghan Whigs): vocals, Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth): guitar,
Don Fleming (Gumball): guitar, Mike Mills (R.E.M.): bass guitar, Dave Grohl (Nirvana/Foo Fighters): drums.
Following the film, a ShrewsburyBeatles weekend launch event was held in the foyer bar hosted by Phil & Tim.
They introduced a number of the special guests who were appearing at the weekend including Cara Spencer, daughter of photographer Terence Spencer who photographed the Beatles on a number of occasions including their first tour of the USA, Roger Appleton director of the 'Looking for Lennon' documentary and Chris Jones from Castle Fine Arts Foundry who had arranged for replicas of the 'Beatles Liverpool waterfront' statues to displayed in the Theatre Severn foyer.
The choice of entertainment on Friday evening was a screening of the documentary 'Looking for Lennon' or an event at the clamping park 'Love2Stay' featuring local band 'Hot Rubber'.
We decided to explore the wonderful town of Shrewsbury, it houses 600 listed buildings of which around 100 are Grade 1, with its quirky passages, a variety of bars and it's friendly people it provided the perfect back drop to the beginning our long weekend.
We arrived in Shrewsbury on Friday in good time for the first event, a screening at the Theatre Severn of the excellent Beatles film 'Backbeat'. It tells the story of the Beatles in Hamburg, 1961, set around the 'love triangle' of John Lennon, Stu Sutcliffe & Astrid Kirchherr, complete with a rocking soundtrack performed by 'grunge' supergroup:
Dave Pirner (Soul Asylum): vocals, Greg Dulli (The Afghan Whigs): vocals, Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth): guitar,
Don Fleming (Gumball): guitar, Mike Mills (R.E.M.): bass guitar, Dave Grohl (Nirvana/Foo Fighters): drums.
Following the film, a ShrewsburyBeatles weekend launch event was held in the foyer bar hosted by Phil & Tim.
They introduced a number of the special guests who were appearing at the weekend including Cara Spencer, daughter of photographer Terence Spencer who photographed the Beatles on a number of occasions including their first tour of the USA, Roger Appleton director of the 'Looking for Lennon' documentary and Chris Jones from Castle Fine Arts Foundry who had arranged for replicas of the 'Beatles Liverpool waterfront' statues to displayed in the Theatre Severn foyer.
The choice of entertainment on Friday evening was a screening of the documentary 'Looking for Lennon' or an event at the clamping park 'Love2Stay' featuring local band 'Hot Rubber'.
We decided to explore the wonderful town of Shrewsbury, it houses 600 listed buildings of which around 100 are Grade 1, with its quirky passages, a variety of bars and it's friendly people it provided the perfect back drop to the beginning our long weekend.
SATURDAY 21st SEPTEMBER
As with all new or even established festivals you don't know which events are going to prove popular with the paying public, unfortunately it was the 'talks & tours' that didn't go ahead in Shrewsbury.
We'd booked tickets for two classic screenings on Saturday.
David Bedford introduced the documentary Good Ol' Freda, featuring Freda Kelly telling the story of her time as secretary to Brian Epstein & the Beatles 1962-1972.
It's a fascinating film, if you haven't seen it then buy the DVD, you won't be disappointed.
This was followed by the Beatles black & white film 'A Hard Day's Night' always a joy to watch on the big screen.
As with all new or even established festivals you don't know which events are going to prove popular with the paying public, unfortunately it was the 'talks & tours' that didn't go ahead in Shrewsbury.
We'd booked tickets for two classic screenings on Saturday.
David Bedford introduced the documentary Good Ol' Freda, featuring Freda Kelly telling the story of her time as secretary to Brian Epstein & the Beatles 1962-1972.
It's a fascinating film, if you haven't seen it then buy the DVD, you won't be disappointed.
This was followed by the Beatles black & white film 'A Hard Day's Night' always a joy to watch on the big screen.
Friday evening an open mic night had been arranged at the Wheatsheaf pub just along the road from the Theatre Severn. Luckily, it proved to be a warm 'Indian summer' night as local musicians performed Beatles songs on an outside stage.
We split our time between the Wheatsheaf and The Old Post Office pub we'd visited on Friday night as we noticed that 'Hot Rubber' who played 'Love2Stay' on Friday were due to appear there.
It was a good move, the band were excellent, performing two sets of Beatles, 60's and even the good stuff from the 80's/90's, think the Jam & Foo Fighters!
The three piece, lead guitar, acoustic rhythm guitar & bass guitar made up for the absence of a drummer with guitarist Andy Mills playing a 'Cajon'. Pete Reilly took most of the lead vocals in the second half and his guitar work on 'Sunshine of Your Love' could have been straight off the Cream mastertape. We had a quick chat with bass player Stiggy Dalziel after the gig and he said the band played a two hour Beatles set at Love2Stay the previous evening. Loved to have been there...
We split our time between the Wheatsheaf and The Old Post Office pub we'd visited on Friday night as we noticed that 'Hot Rubber' who played 'Love2Stay' on Friday were due to appear there.
It was a good move, the band were excellent, performing two sets of Beatles, 60's and even the good stuff from the 80's/90's, think the Jam & Foo Fighters!
The three piece, lead guitar, acoustic rhythm guitar & bass guitar made up for the absence of a drummer with guitarist Andy Mills playing a 'Cajon'. Pete Reilly took most of the lead vocals in the second half and his guitar work on 'Sunshine of Your Love' could have been straight off the Cream mastertape. We had a quick chat with bass player Stiggy Dalziel after the gig and he said the band played a two hour Beatles set at Love2Stay the previous evening. Loved to have been there...
SUNDAY 22nd SEPTEMBER
Sunday was live music all the way with an afternoon session at Shrewsbury's 'Cavern' The Buttermarket.
It's an impressive venue with three lines of 'arches' and a small stage.
Colin Clews' band Famous Last Words were first up with an energetic Beatles set including Roll Over Beethoven and Back in the USSR.
Two Faced Tom & the Bootleg Boys had to pull out of the gig and local musician Paul Parker stepped in to play with a mere 40 minute notice.
He won me over straight away as he opened with Why My Guitar Gently Weeps moving seamlessly into Here Comes the Sun. He may have been one man and a guitar but this guy could play!
Finally, appearing at this 3 hour afternoon session were the Backbeat 3 from Yorkshire, who'd grown into 4 for the day! They performed the longest set of the three artists and were clearly enjoying playing to the crowd of over 200 who appreciated their energetic style.
They would have played forever but were told they had 2 numbers before the curfew and had to finish. 'Arrest us then' said one of the two lead singers as they played their final 3rd number 'I'm Down'. It was a great end to an excellent afternoon at the 'Cavern'.
Sunday was live music all the way with an afternoon session at Shrewsbury's 'Cavern' The Buttermarket.
It's an impressive venue with three lines of 'arches' and a small stage.
Colin Clews' band Famous Last Words were first up with an energetic Beatles set including Roll Over Beethoven and Back in the USSR.
Two Faced Tom & the Bootleg Boys had to pull out of the gig and local musician Paul Parker stepped in to play with a mere 40 minute notice.
He won me over straight away as he opened with Why My Guitar Gently Weeps moving seamlessly into Here Comes the Sun. He may have been one man and a guitar but this guy could play!
Finally, appearing at this 3 hour afternoon session were the Backbeat 3 from Yorkshire, who'd grown into 4 for the day! They performed the longest set of the three artists and were clearly enjoying playing to the crowd of over 200 who appreciated their energetic style.
They would have played forever but were told they had 2 numbers before the curfew and had to finish. 'Arrest us then' said one of the two lead singers as they played their final 3rd number 'I'm Down'. It was a great end to an excellent afternoon at the 'Cavern'.
On to the finale!
The Mersey Beatles are a top notch Beatles tribute band, '4 lads from Liverpool' who travel the World performing to sell out audiences in the USA, Australia and of course the UK.
They performed their latest show at the Severn Theatre on Sunday evening to a capacity audience. Demand for tickets were so high they had been booked for an extra date on the following Thursday.
The first half comprised of a performance of the full album of Abbey Road while in the second half they played an early Beatles greatest hits set.
The performance of Abbey Road with Tony Cooke on keyboards was flawless.
Highlights included, well everything, but especially I Want You (She's So Heavy) and of course the legendary Abbey Road medley on b-side of the album.
The band returned to perform a lengthy set of early Beatles classics from Love Me Do, a healthy helping of songs from A Hard Days Night through to Twist and Shout before a final encore of I Saw Her Standing There.
So, that was it, the first Shrewsbury Beatles Weekend.
Did the new kid on the block deliver?
You bet it did.
Congratulations to Phil, Tim, Colin and the rest of the crew for an excellent Beatles weekend in their wonderful hometown.
Here's (hopefully) to Shrewsbury Beatles Weekend 2020!
The Mersey Beatles are a top notch Beatles tribute band, '4 lads from Liverpool' who travel the World performing to sell out audiences in the USA, Australia and of course the UK.
They performed their latest show at the Severn Theatre on Sunday evening to a capacity audience. Demand for tickets were so high they had been booked for an extra date on the following Thursday.
The first half comprised of a performance of the full album of Abbey Road while in the second half they played an early Beatles greatest hits set.
The performance of Abbey Road with Tony Cooke on keyboards was flawless.
Highlights included, well everything, but especially I Want You (She's So Heavy) and of course the legendary Abbey Road medley on b-side of the album.
The band returned to perform a lengthy set of early Beatles classics from Love Me Do, a healthy helping of songs from A Hard Days Night through to Twist and Shout before a final encore of I Saw Her Standing There.
So, that was it, the first Shrewsbury Beatles Weekend.
Did the new kid on the block deliver?
You bet it did.
Congratulations to Phil, Tim, Colin and the rest of the crew for an excellent Beatles weekend in their wonderful hometown.
Here's (hopefully) to Shrewsbury Beatles Weekend 2020!
Cheers
Eddie M
Eddie M