Bristol Rocks Bootleg Beatles Review

"The Bootleg Beatles" Colston Hall, Bristol. - Friday 7th December 2007
"The Bootleg Beatles pass the Bristol Audition."

		By Kathryn Courtney-O'Neill
Time and again I have been told "Oh you have to see The Bootleg Beatles, they are the best you'll see when it comes to paying tribute to The Beatles". And every time they arrived in Bristol I just wasn't able to make it because their show clashed with a prior engagement. This time around I was going to make sure I saw them. I know that "The Bootleg Beatles" originated out of the very first band story musical depicting "Beatlemania" and since then there have been one or two line up changes. I've also been to a number of Beatles Week's over the past few years held in Liverpool, encouraged by my good friends the Turner family, so have seen a number of varying Beatles tribute bands from around the world. I even invested in adding The Beatles catalogue to my record or should that be my CD collection. So with my friend Emma, who remembers Beatlemania first time around, we were looking forward to a good night of entertainment.

According to the tour programme this was show with a difference and split into six eras of Beatles history. Certainly different. It wasn't long before The Bootleg Beatles were on stage and running through the Beatlemania era. Emma and I were there singing along in our own way but ummm... what is wrong with the audience? They were all too pleasant and twee and the band were greeted with a pleasant round of applause each time. I just couldn't understand it. Were Emma and I from a different planet? In fact throughout the first half the audience didn't get much better and The Bootleg Beatles did their very best to bring the audience alive.
Now these guys are at the top of their game and were maybe too polished, but there was no atmosphere and that took me by surprise. John, Paul, Ringo and George or in this case Neil, David, Hugo and Andre played on regardless along with their mini orchestra which was a welcome edition to this show for me. The guys do have stage presence, 'The Beatles' look and sound down pat, but this audience was proving difficult to please. In fact the last time I witnessed an audience like this was when I saw 'Deacon Blue' a few years ago at the same venue. And personally for me I did find the audience reservation annoying at times.
I just couldn't put my finger on it at the time but the way the show was set out just didn't flow as freely as I was expecting, it didn't gel right and was disjointed at times. I got the feeling of a theatrical production in parts and I felt that the films shown on the screen at the back of the stage didn't work that well with every song. It was slightly distracting. But I liked the idea I read in the programme, its just that it didn't always work that well in practice for me.

Now you are wondering what the other era's were. Quick speed through. 'Beatlemania' and the band dressed in black, 'USA and The World' with the foursome wearing brown collarless jackets and 'Sgt Pepper' with those famous costumes. The second half opened with 'The Summer of Love' and befitting costumes, 'Apple and India' followed by the final section 'And In The End' all looking casually dressed.

And "The Bootleg Beatles" performance? They did some all inspiring stuff that did shine bright at times and Emma and I really appreciated was we saw and heard performed on stage. I even found an old work colleague of mine at the concert during the interval and at the end of the show she gave them 5 out of 5. Gloria was an original fan of "The Beatles" and many were there. And I did hear and spot one pocket of enthusiasm in the balcony, an audience I was expecting to be present that night ....... from Badminton School. It's such a shame their part of audience participation wasn't catching for the rest of the hall.
But the highlights for me was great harmony in the song "This Boy", "Help" was so upbeat yet the crowd remained downbeat, don't worry lads Emma and I were singing along! "Acting Naturally" allowed Ringo into the spotlight for a change. John's "Hide Your Love Away" seemed to wake up people in the audience and got a loud round of applause and by the time we reached the Sgt Pepper era some of the crowd did start clapping along with some encouragement to "With A Little Help From My Friends". However the banter between the band and the audience wasn't as receptive as I was hoping for.
The only time I felt the film on the back screen worked well was when they played "Penny Lane". All the images took you on a trip through Penny Lane and the people. It was rather effective and has always been a favourite song of mine. Surely this would get a reaction and it did. Cheers and applause, but we were soon back to square one with the audience.
By the second half the audience seemed to have livened up a bit and did clap along to most of the song "Yellow Submarine" and Ringo with his Liverpudlian accent. Most of the night he hammered those drums. David Catlin-Birch certainly pulled off his impression of Paul. Emma and I agreed on that and he was star of the show that night. His rendition of "Eleanor Rigby" with effective lighting of purple background and spotlight along with the harmony made it one of the songs of the night. And the images on screen for the song "All You need Is Love" was more effective than old film footage shown with previous songs.

At this point some people were up on their feet swaying along. "Lady Madonna" was another superb highlight but it was Andre Barreau with his portrayal of George and his performance of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" that gets top marks and possibly the loudest cheer of the night. The song "Get Back" got most of the audience in front of us to their feet .... oh and the Badminton crowd too were still dancing. With the show almost at the end "Hey Jude" eventually got the audience singing and swaying along but it was all too late for them.

There was an encore and Neil did his John Lennon bit and cracked a joke about being alone on stage. "We've split up and I'm on my own here" which did raise a chuckle and he did a fabulous solo of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" with a picture of John Lennon put up on screen at the end of the song as a poignant reminder of the anniversary of his death. Neil was soon joined on stage by the other three band members to round off the show with a selection of songs taken from 'Finale' beginning with "Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight" and "The End". By the end of it the band left the stage with great applause.

During the show John said "I hope we passed the audition". Of course they did! The show format may not be to my liking and maybe I did put "The Bootleg Beatles" up on a pedestal and it came crashing down on something different. Maybe I expected too much in the first place? But I have to say they are damn good if you put my negative comments to one side. Especially knowing that friends of mine have seen different shows to this one. As for the audience. Well, they failed the audition so it's on to the next bunch of auditionees who I hope have more energy and enthusiasm in their veins.