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A review from 5D Music & Theatre writer Maria Robertson
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Proclaimed as the world’s premier Beatle band I had been hoping to see them for quite some time. I now have a Beatle loving son so we were both thrilled to get the opportunity to review the Bootleg Beatles, and we were ready to Sit back and let the evening go.We had not been sure what to expect, would there be a narrator telling the story of the band, would they play all the hits, would it just be a normal concert as if it was the Beatles?
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It was in fact, a glorious show. Yes they played a lot of the hits, yes they acted out their parts, yes there was some of the band’s stories in clips and stills projected behind them and yes, they made quips to show they knew they weren’t really the real ones!! George Harrison made a comment about sharing things with Eric Clapton, referring to him stealing his wife. There was chat with Paul McCartney about not still doing this when he was 80, referring to his recent performances, aged 80.
Some of the conversations were a bit staged and cheesy, but it was nice to feel “in on the joke” as mostly they referred to band history that everyone knew.
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The songs were played in chronological order and the outfits followed the ages and stages. We think there were 3 songs we were not familiar with, and my son was thrilled when Let It Be was one of the encore songs. He was singing away happily to that. although disappointed they did not play his favourite song Here Comes The Sun, and he also commented on Yellow Submarine missing. I guess we just have to catch their next tour for those!
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As tribute bands go, these guys were good. They dressed like them, spoke like them and acted like them. Paul McCartney even played his guitar left handed as Paul does. We cannot ever see the real deal but I will happily accept these were the next best thing. We cannot travel back in time to be at the rooftop gig when the police came and pulled the power, but they acted this out with pictures on the screen and two crew members in police outfits. As “next best thing”s go this was a pretty perfect thing!
Further information: https://bootlegbeatles.com/
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Maria Robertson is the Chief Music & Theatre Writer for the 5D Pop Culture Website and provides reviews & coverage of local Aberdeen music & theatre gigs. She’s an experienced writer for numerous sources and is a self-confessed live gig addict ever since seeing The Counting Crows at the Barrowlands in 1994.
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