To The Philharmonic again this Sunday for In My Life - Mark McGann doing a brilliant job of being John Lennon in both words and music along with Pepperland - a Swedish Beatles Tribute Band. My wife saw MMG do this some time ago and has pictures to prove it so this was a bit of a nostalgic trip for her and while I like the Beatles, I'm not that much of a fan. However, I was rewarded with the support band, a couple of Brazilians, a guitar and a tea chest. Well they had effects pedals as well but the entire band that came out of the speakers came from just them. At one point, the guitarist kicked the jack plug out of his pedals and in putting it back in made a wince-making electronic crack which he immediately looped in the digital delay and turned into an awesome percussion loop for the backing of a trace-like jam. Occasionally he would throw in some out-of-context Beatles Lyrics just to keep up with the spirit of things. I'm not sure the now-little-old-ladies who once stood on the seats screaming at J,P,G and R were that impressed but I was.
And Mr McGann himself sold me - the encore of Help, Twist and Shout and Give Peace a Chance had a good proportion of the audience up on their feet and I imagine gave a good impression of what concerts were like in those heady days. And as a bonus, almost next to us in the audience was Jilted John himself - Graham Fellows - now sadly (or maybe not) needing far less make up to turn himself into John Shuttleworth. I was going to shout something but I bottled it as usual.
