GIG NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-TWO

Who
The Bootleg Beatles
Where
Stoke Victoria Hall
When
16th March 2012
Price
£23.50 (FREE for me!)
Who with
Dad
Position
Seated, towards the front
Comments
I last saw The Bootleg Beatles an astonishing 12 years beforehand at V2000 but I can't really say I was paying much attention, for some reason thinking they looked fat when they clearly didn't. Also at this time I astonishingly had next to no knowledge of the music of The Beatles and had a pretty massive hangover to boot as well. However my love for The Beatles had finally kicked off in 2003 before peaking in 2008/10 with the delirious Macca live shows and when my Dad offered to buy my ticket it was a very hard offer to refuse. I heard through the entire Beatles back catalogue beforehand, following it with the solo music as well since I was at it, incredibly finishing the exercise on the very evening of the show without rushing it. I also was pumped up by the brilliant-if-somewhat-dubious "I'm off to see The Bootleg Beatles, as the bootleg Mark Chapman" lyric from Half Man Half Biscuit, which they'd sung passionately two months before this in Bilston, and I was able to get through a horrific day at work knowing my weekend would be kicking off in a positive manner with this show. I came back home and got changed before my Dad drove us to Stoke-on-Trent, although it was hard to tell we'd arrived as the "city centre" seemed less developed than most suburbs! We'd arrived earlier than necessary to be on the safe side and enjoyed a decent Indian meal with my obligatory keema naan, following it up with a trip into the very centre to enjoy a Yorkie McFlurry, both of which I paid for to help return the favour of the free ticket. I wish I'd taken my camera with me as Hanley Town Hall was beautifully lit up, changing colour regularly, but I did my best with the phone camera and we wandered around a bit, doing our best to kill time as the band were clearly advertised as starting at 8pm and there was no mention of any support. Being a Friday night though wandering around Stoke-on-Trent wasn't the nicest thing to be doing so we were happy to head back towards the Victoria Hall and hang inside the modern extension, which was pretty rammed with other punters already. There were plenty of Bootleg Beatles t-shirts along with concert programmes but I'd much have preferred if they were selling the real thing? Maybe they weren't allowed to but a band would be foolish to turn down the extra sales, although The Beatles are famous for controlling their back catalogue to an insane degree. It's quite silly actually as hearing their later albums through my headphones demonstrated how utterly shit the stereo mixes were, so The Beatles quality control clearly isn't perfect!

In fact the tourist information was inside the venue and there were loads of flyers for us to look through advertising the many things we could do, including an insane number of steam railways in the vicinity (plus in north Wales which was very well represented by the information too). I set my eye on a Diamond Jubilee spoon in a cabinet but was informed by the box office people sharing the same desks that the tourist information office was in fact closed and "to come back tomorrow", which simply wasn't going to happen! We bided our time amongst the many people congregating around the bar area before an announcement was finally made that we could take to our seats, as the stewards started to let us in rather than blocking the doors. In fact my Dad had been sold the wrong ticket and mine stated it was for "seniors", but thankfully their mistake didn't come back to haunt us and I didn't have to resort to the back-up plan of pretending to be unemployed! I must stress though that the organisation of the venue was pretty excellent, with the stewards being there to serve rather than to impose petty rules, with helpful announcements and even an array of entrances to make sure everyone entered through the most appropriate door for their chosen seats. The seats were reasonably comfortable despite being temporary fittings and the band were onstage quite promptly at 8pm. Naturally the twats next to us showed up a couple of songs in, forcing us to stand up to let them past, but otherwise things worked out pretty well. We were on row E with a decent view of the stage just to the right of the centre. Dubiously the venue had decided to put the main thoroughfare in the very middle, taking away the space where the very best seats should be situated, but as we were pretty central it wasn't too bad for us. The room was pretty busy with barely any empty seats and the venue was very nice with two levels of balconies, including to the left the seats where we should have been situated to see Status Quo in 2009 if they hadn't pulled out at the last second before cancelling the rescheduled date! But anyway, although writing this is a bit trickier as I can't seem to find a complete setlist, I think it's about time I start to talk about the actual show...

The (Bootleg) Beatles started off rather strongly with I Want To Hold Your Hand, which some fans would argue is their greatest ever song! Although there were signs saying we couldn't take photos the band said that they had no objections at all and that we could snap away before reminding us not to use digital cameras as they hadn't been invented yet! This was taken as a sign that they were reasonable people who understand their audience want to take some shots and my phone camera emerged at several points through the evening to document the event, doing a better job than I'd expected if still not as good as my proper camera would have managed. The set was cleverly structured so we could watch the band evolve before our eyes, with the first segment including a lovely take on Do You Want To Know A Secret which it turned out was led by George, a fact I didn't know. I'm still not too bothered about Can't Buy Me Love but it's impossible to argue with Please Please Me or She Loves You, and the crowd rose to their feet as requested for an electric take on I Saw Her Standing There, with some embarrassing dancing being done in the aisles. The audience were a harmonious mix between young and old, pretty much what you'd expect Beatles fans to be, and it was fascinating to compare the band with the real thing. I thought John was by far the best, holding his guitar high with an attitude you'd expect the real Lennon to possess and looking eerily similar. I'm shocked to learn that he'd been in the band less than a year because the original John Lennon had left, as you'd never have guessed. George Harrison was an original member and looked a bit old for the part but this is the point where I should mention that they'd been going for a stonking thirty years, considerably longer than The Beatles themselves had managed! It was tricky to judge Ringo's appearance as he was behind the drum kit and a bit further away but in my opinion the weakest visual link was the second fellow original member - albeit one who'd left the group for 14 years in the middle - namely Paul, who just didn't look right, although he certainly sounded the part! In terms of sound they were pretty much spot-on with the singing being mostly as you'd expect, only let down by a muddy sound mix, the fact that the harmonising wasn't quite as electric as you'd presume the real Beatles to be and the ultimate fact that we knew they weren't real so it was impossible to get as excited about it all. They'd clearly gone to a lot of effort to do the same little things that you'd expect from the real band, including bowing at the end of each and every one of the early songs in the set. They also joked about playing Victoria Hall, stating that bands play here twice in their careers - on the way up and on the way down - and so it was very nice to be back!

John and Paul sung a lot of the leads together in the early songs whereas George took the centre-ground, occasionally approaching Paul's mic so they could harmonise when John took the lead. It would be interesting to learn if they'd precisely mimicked the live/studio breakdown of duties or if they sometimes just played to their strengths, but I strongly suspect that they were doing the former. I think Help! was the only other tune played in the first part before it was drawn to a close with the legendary Twist And Shout where the whole crowd, including us, rose to their feet in excitement! The Bootleg Beatles then left the stage, except Paul, who remained to do a lovely take on Yesterday before the band returned, now sporting a slightly different uniform to represent their middle period. The seamlessness of this was comically undermined as they all had to wait a few more seconds for Paul to leave and complete the same costume change himself. This is the point where I wish I had the setlist as I have no recollection of how they opened this section, but I recall that the token random b-side was No Reply, which was entirely pleasant but unnecessary, whereas the intro of A Hard Day's Night was pulled off brilliantly. Eight Days A Week was also lovely and encouraged a mass clap along and stamping of feet which grew tiring for us due to its innovative arrangement whilst Day Tripper was definitely a highlight, provoking some of the excitement we'd experienced when the real Macca had pulled it out of the bag himself at Hyde Park! I still can't say I am much of a fan of Paperback Writer though but the band certainly made the most out of it and they left the stage for a break with everyone on a high. During the interval we resisted ice cream and were conveniently coaxed back into the theatre by a loudspeaker announcement saying that the band would be back on in a couple of minutes. I was particularly keen to see the latter day songs as The Beatles themselves had never toured them and it would be intriguing to see how well they would work in a live environment they'd never been intended for.

We returned to our seats and observed that the drum kit was now decorated with the classic Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band logo, replacing the simple band name on white background we'd had during the first half. As hoped for the band re-emerged wearing the classic Sgt. Pepper's outfits, which strangely enough glowed in the dark and probably weren't as immaculately tailored as the original costumes had been. The real masterstroke though was that their hair had changed accordingly, from the mop tops of the outset to genuinely reflect the appearance of the band at the time. John in particular looked the part with his glasses and shorter haircut and we were very much up for the opening salvo of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which segued into With A Little Help From My Friends as you'd want to hear. This was the first time we got to hear Ringo singing but I felt he didn't seem quite right, although to be fair Ringo does have a very distinctive voice in the first place. The video backdrop featured a Bootleg Beatles version of the Sgt. Pepper's cover, presumably changed due to copyright laws, and if you're wondering what this is like you can see it in the picture above. In fact there was a video screen utilised throughout but it featured largely static backdrops, many of which weren't directly related to The Beatles but served to add atmosphere. Also before the band came on they'd played snippets of other 60's songs and some period archive footage but it would be nice if The Beatles just authorised The Bootlegs to use actual band footage? Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds featured a wonderfully psychedelic video backdrop and was pleasantly slowed down as John performed it from behind beautifully decorated keyboards to the right of the stage but I was glad when they broke away from playing Sgt. Pepper's songs to deliver a bit of Yellow Submarine! Some people look down on the song but it went down a storm in a similar way to the delirium that greeted Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da when Macca himself had played it, which you probably don't expect to feel until you experience the excitement first hand. One I'd been especially looking forwards to was Magical Mystery Tour which I'd flagged as a potential show opener, but that would have gone against the generally chronological nature of the evening and it definitely worked its magic just as well nestled comfortably amongst the classics.

Exaggerated Liverpool accents and playful attempts to recreate the onstage banter of The Beatles were a welcome staple of the evening and no better was this done than when John announced that Paul would be singing Penny Lane before pointedly stating that firstly he'd like to do its a-side! The real Lennon wouldn't say it as it simply draws attention to how utterly superior a classic Penny Lane is, whereas Strawberry Fields Forever is a pleasant but hopelessly overrated number which was quite rightly left off the 1 album. Penny Lane was much more exciting, even featuring a guy playing a fire hydrant for the ringing noises, and this seems a good time to mention that the band were backed by a small but effective orchestra for the second half, helpfully recreating the more expansive sound that you'd want to hear from a live performance of late era Beatles songs. If anything the second half was more exciting than the first and made you realise that, excepting the shortfalls in 1960s technology and a lack of desire to do it from the band, they could have utterly kicked the shit out of The Rolling Stones as a stadium band if they'd so chosen to. All You Need Is Love is almost a nursery rhyme in its simplicity, much as you could say about Hello, Goodbye which does a similar thing but even more strongly, but it was a natural set highlight and provoked a lot of clapping along before the pace of the show was brutalised by an unnecessary take on I Am The Walrus. The comparison between Oasis and The Beatles is one of the most unwarranted in music history, as Oasis were never on the same level and simply don't sound anything whatsoever like their heroes, but one thing any unbiased person would agree with is that the Oasis version of I Am The Walrus kicked the crap out of the original! Much like The White Album version of Revolution, the original is slowed down for no reason and has all the melody sapped out of it as a result, and it was no wonder that this was the point when my Dad started to fall asleep and couldn't be fully roused again until the storming finale. After the third segment the band left the stage again to leave the orchestra to perform a delightfully pretty instrumental rendition of The Long And Winding Road, which featured shots of Liverpool in the background, although I only recognised the Anglican Cathedral, and it acted as a nice statement of "look how far they've come from their origins".

At one point in the show the band hinted that they were time travelling in their moments offstage and it clearly formed the unique selling point which no real band could possibly be nostalgic enough to either attempt or to get away with! The costume change for the final section featured John in his white suit and now with long hippie hair and clearly the intention was to bring the Abbey Road cover to life. The drum kit also was changed back to the simple Beatles logo and, after a tease of I Want You (She's So Heavy), the band played the similarly drawn out Come Together which served to put my Dad even further into his golden slumbers. The first song that I failed to immediately recognise turned out to be Happiness Is A Warm Gun, which I only recalled once it approached the chorus. I'd thought at first that it was a rare solo Lennon track or even an attempt by the band to create their own Beatlesesque tune, but I should have known better as tonight was entirely about The Beatles and not what followed after. Although he didn't stand out for much of the evening George proved himself to be a more than capable star turn with his lovely take on Here Comes The Sun, but the moment the crowd woke up and strangely went utterly apeshit was still to come. I still don't think too much of it but Get Back was the catalyst that got everyone on their feet and almost foaming at the month with excitement but I was happy to join in the fun as I was starting to feel a little lethargic myself and it was a welcome bit of action. While My Guitar Gently Weeps attracted a similarly ecstatic response and it seemed to go on for a very long time but the show was finally launched into the stratosphere with an astonishing take on Hey Jude. This was the moment when the crowd seemed to forget that they were seeing a mere tribute act and were overwhelmed by the power of the music, and also Paul's excellent imitation of Macca which probably couldn't have been done any better in a venue of this size. The song is that rare breed which demands to be sung at a stadium and bellowed by tens of thousands of people so inevitably it would lose a little something in a mid-sized venue, but it still held up remarkably well.

After the inevitable audience participation which we were more than happy to join in on the band left the stage but were quickly drawn back with a disappointingly short yet highly effective encore of Back In The U.S.S.R! They'd earlier made some half-hearted praise of the crowd but now we'd all properly woken up and were making quite a noise I'd like to think they were as pumped up as we were. The Bootleg Beatles linked together for a final bow, except for Ringo who strangely chose to stay apart from his band mates, and left the stage, leaving us to make our way outside reasonably quickly and to laugh at the massive queue for the expensive car park right by the venue which we'd wisely avoided. By now I was pretty thirsty but resisted the urge for a drink and we got back okay as my Dad thankfully wasn't as prone to falling asleep whilst driving! I was pretty tired myself as it was a Friday night which, although better than a midweek slot, isn't the Saturday night that I'd select given a choice. The downfall of course is that my late trains randomly don't run on Saturday night but if I can get a lift or stay somewhere close overnight it works out perfectly. The show had been as strong as I'd hoped for, losing points for understandable issues such as just being a tribute thus lacking the excitement of a "real" concert, the seated atmosphere and the few completely unnecessary b-sides that had found their way into the set. It's almost impossible to do full justice to a catalogue as rich as The Beatles in two hours but crucial omissions included Hello, Goodbye, Let It Be, Something, Eleanor Rigby and Drive My Car which I'm sure they could have found room for by cutting out the fat and playing closer to the usual 11pm curfew. In their defence they did start at 8pm so I'm probably asking a bit too much, although if it were completely up to me the evening would finish with a flurry of classic Wings songs! It's true that you can't beat the real thing but The Bootleg Beatles certainly gave it a good go which, in the absence of the real thing, will do just fine.

Mark: 7.0/10