The Getting Back Tour
The Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth
Saturday 2 April 2022, 19.30
SET LIST
READY STEADY GO!
She Loves You
All My Loving
I Wanna Be Your Man
I Want To Hold Your Hand
BEATLEMANIA
A Hard Day’s Night
Can’t Buy Me Love
Yesterday
Help!
Another Girl
In My Life
Day Tripper
Twist & Shout
SGT PEPPER SET
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band
With A Little Help From My Friends
Penny Lane
Strawberry Fields Forever
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band (reprise)
A Day In The Life
THE WHITE ALBUM
Revolution
Lady Madonna
Hey Bulldog
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Across The Universe
UP ON THE ROOF
I’ve Got A Feeling
Don’t Let Me Down
One after 909
Get Back
LET IT BE SESSIONS
The Long and Winding Road
I Me Mine
Two of Us
Let It Be
ENCORE
All You Need Is Love
Give Peace A Chance
Hey Jude
MUSICIANS
Tyson Kelly as John (since 2018)- vocal, guitars, piano, 6 string bass
Steve White as Paul (since 2012) – vocal, bass guitar, piano, acoustic guitar
Stephen Hill as George (since 2014) – vocal, guitars, 6 string bass
Gordon Elsmore as Ringo. (since 2016) – vocal, drums
+ Max Langley – keyboards, percussion as ‘Billy from Preston’
Plus the five piece backing musicians. They’re hard to name because there are alternates, and some gigs have a larger four piece string section. They named Matt Grocutt and Rob Woollard, though I thought the female string player did the cello part (which is listed in the programme as him) – I’ll make corrections if I’m told.
??? – cello, violin
Rob Woollard – violin, viola, fireman’s bell
Matt Grocutt – trumpet / piccolo trumpet / flugelhorn
??? – French horn, percussion, vocal
Katie Samways – tenor saxophone . flute
SEE ALSO REVIEW of BOURNEMOUTH 2018
Our tickets read 25 March 2020. A two year wait for our first live concert since February 2020. Just bring your original tickets, just as you were told to in February 2021 but that got cancelled too. It worked. The row behind us (Row G) was completely empty. I’d bet that was a coach party that never managed to co-ordinate a return. There were odd pairs of empty seats in prime places too, including next to us, so we were quite socially distanced. Covid is running wild in Bournemouth currently, which would account for no-shows. We were masked. We were in a small minority, even though the venue sent out an e-mail earlier in the day. I was surprised so few complied.
The Bootleg Beatles have been going four times as long as the originals managed … this is their 41st Year (with changing line-ups). Steve White, as Paul, has been a member since 2012. Ten years. As long as Paul McCartney was a Beatle. I wondered aloud if they’d ever progress to a solo post-Beatles show. Karen said, somewhat unkindly, ‘They could get Ken Dodd to do Paul in 2022. Paul does look increasingly like him.’ I was thinking 1970s.
Numbers. As we wait to go in, I look directly across the street at the now derelict and boarded-up Gaumont cinema, where I saw The Beatles FIFTY-NINE years ago. They did a week of two shows a night, which with their Winter Gardens concerts makes Bournemouth their third most played town. The sleeve photo of With The Beatles was taken that week at what used to be The Palace Court Hotel, next door but one to The Gaumont.
The set list is considerably different to last time I saw them as well, and the changed member is Tyson Kelly as John. They keep things fresh, changing the focus of each tour onto different albums. This one, Getting Back Tour, is inspired by Peter Jackson’s Get Back trilogy of documentary films from 2021, so the focus is heavily on the rooftop concert, then the Let it Be sessions. Inevitably, that is less interesting musically than when Abbey Road and Magical Mystery Tour were the focus of shows.
The Bootleg Beatles is a combination of musical performance and theatre, with considerable film projection too. Everyone stays strictly in the allotted role (and for economy here I’ll refer to Beatle roles, not real names). The instruments are always authentic, as are the costumes, always referenced by actual Beatles pictures.
It means they’re stuck with The Beatles own quirky choices of guitars … Paul’s signature Hofner Violin bass guitar, Rickenbakers and Gretches, Fender 6-string bass for John or George when Paul was at the piano..
(Non-musicians scroll down two paragraphs!)
It extends to amplifiers … Vox AC30s and Vox T60 bass amps in the first half of the show, Fender amps in the second half. The Fender amplifiers are only referenced from the rooftop concert, because they never played anything in the second half live. All of the amps have mics in front feeding into the mixing desk and PA system. While early 60s shows easily filled the Pavilion and the much larger Winter Gardens with Vox AC30s and without mics on drums, they’re feeble in modern terms. More to the point, no one now would forsake the control of a sound engineer on a mixing board.
When we saw the Fender amps after the interval, I remember George’s mournful complaint in the Get Back film that Fender wouldn’t even give them free amps. That is surprising too, and dumb of Fender … but then they probably knew the Beatles weren’t going to be showcasing their Fender Showmans live. I’m sure that when Vox introduced the then incredibly loud 100 watt Beatle Amp (AC30s are 30 watts, T60s are 60 watts) for their US stadium shows that the Beatles would not have had to pay for them.
In fact of the six sections of the show, only material in parts one (Ready Steady Go) and part two (Beatlemania) were ever played live by the originals. That is of course the entire joy of their show – the great Beatles songs the originals didn’t (and given extra instruments, couldn’t) play live.
The Bootleg Beatles can play it live, with a little help from their friends on horns and strings. A point on this. After one show, my friend, the late John Wetton (himself one of the greatest rock bass guitarists) was asked who the world’s best bass player was. He answered instantly, ‘Paul McCartney.’ The questioner was surprised and said he had expected someone like Jaco Pastorius. John explained that while Jaco was indeed technically brilliant (and few could play his bass parts, though as he added, he could), a decent bass player could reproduce Paul’s bass lines … but this was the key point … none of them would have thought of choosing those notes in the first place. Incidentally, Steve White, playing Paul, is not left-handed and had to learn to play left-handed for the role.
The first two sets were as expected. The first set had film of Ready, Steady, Go! to Manfred Mann’s 5-4-3-2-1, the second had The Swinging Blue Jeans doing Hippy Hippy Shake and The Dave Clark Five doing Bits and Pieces. Watching Dave Clark (a dreadful drummer, though Clem Cattini played the parts in the studio) reminded me what a superb interpretation of Ringo Starr’s parts we get all night from Gordon Elsmore in the Ringo role.
Yesterday is outstanding with ‘Paul’ on acoustic guitar, and for the first time the small string section joining in (in the shadows) to accompany him. It was followed by Help!
They like unexpected songs, and tonight was Another Girl from Help! The Beatles did play (or rather mime) this in the film on a coral reef, but they never performed it live … its first airing was Paul McCartney solo in 2015. This was an instant flat spot in the Bootleg Beatles set. I don’t know why, but it suddenly sounded badly mixed, messy and rough. It was inexplicable to me – though they had flat spots later. Maybe Stephen Hill earlier losing the Rickenbacker guitar he was playing as ‘George’ had thrown them (!). I don’t know what it was – I think he broke a string. He switched to the previous Gretsch and the guitar tech whisked it into the wings never to return. Paradoxically, Another Girl has stuck as the ear worm since the concert.
They picked up when Tyson Kelly as ‘John’ did In My Life from Rubber Soul on acoustic guitar, with Max Langley on keyboards (on a harpsichord sound). In the original as all Beatle nerds will know, the part was George Martin playing piano, which was sped up to sound like a harpsichord. It’s a good song to do- John Lennon once said it was his first serious song, and various polls rate it as one of the best Beatle songs (which is saying something). They end the set with one from earlier, Twist & Shout but then it was played on the stadium shows.
The Sergeant Pepper set was in last time, though it’s shorter now and combined with 2018’s Summer of Love set. That brings in the horn and string section, an instant lift. Penny Lane was outstanding, most especially with the piccolo trumpet by Matt Grocutt. That part on the original (by David Mason) has always been praised to the skies. Hearing it live is a treat.
‘John’ joked (as last time) that they’d now play the A-side (as it truly was), Strawberry Fields Forever. Yes, my ultimate Beatle song. See the 2018 review for more. A Beatles tribute show is heavy on nostalgia and the first time you heard these songs. This was a five star rendition. Marvellous. I loved every second of it.
A Day In The Life is another powerful one, ending the set. It’s definitely, how are they going to manage this? But they do.
So the interval comes here. Then we’re into the White Album set. I’m out on a limb on The White Album, rated as one of the best by so many. Like Exile on Main Street by The Rolling Stones, it’s one of the albums I like least. This to both of us was easily the weakest of the six segments.
They started with Revolution and it was clangy and messy. In a way it befits the song, but the sound mix, impeccable in the Sgt Pepper set was muffled and all over the place. Was it the switch to Fender amps? (I do retain an underlying query about whether the amps are actually what they appear to be). We were in Row 6, directly facing the bass amplifier. Even though they were all mic’d into a mixing board we were close enough to be experiencing the actual bass speaker sound. Maybe that muddied the mix from our position … I have found a few times that bands sound better further back in the Pavilion hall and it’s mixed from the back. We’re almost between the large PA speakers rather than in an ideal triangle position from them. Anyway, I thought the sound and mix was poor throughout this segment.
Lady Madonna, which in any case isn’t on The White Album, wasn’t any better. I have heard far better live covers.I was wondering what had happened. Then ‘Ringo’ started talking about theYellow Submarine film. As he’d only sung two, we were waiting for that jaunty singalong title track. No, they did Hey Bulldog (which is also not on The White Album). Why? It must be among the weakest Beatle original songs. It was never much good by The Beatles. A bizarre choice, though I commend the exploration of the corners of the catalogue. Here it was really dull and still the sound was messy, totally unlike the first half.
Last time, I’d be impressed by While My Guitar Gently Weeps, but here it plodded, bass thudding away. I was wondering about the sound still, and it improved greatly with Across The Universe, probably because it was just John, George and the backing sections. It made me think it was that Fender bass amp facing us.
Then we were into the rooftop show and the sound improved. I’ve Got A Feeling and Don’t Let Me Down both worked, and One After 909 too. All basic Beatles four person instrumentation plus Max Langley as “Billy From Preston” now out front with the others, as that was what Billy Preston did.The costumes were exactly as the film. Get Back was the best number so far in the second half, with the audience asked to stand, and enlivened by two comic policemen trying to stop the show which they finally did.
The Let It Be recording session had ‘John’ on the Fender 6-string bass, then George, as in the film. Paul was on piano for The Long and Winding Road. Then George for I, Me, Mine. Two of Us, done repeatedly throughout the Get Back film was another that benefitted from two acoustic guitars … Paul and John. The segment finished with Let It Be. The sound had improved. This set was much better.
An ideal show saves the very best to last and they did. The encores were as good as you get on any show. Absolutely wonderful.They started with All You Need Is Love with the audience swaying, and of course the horn section coming to the fore. At this point, we were totally absorbed in the show. It switched to Give Peace A Chance, led by John, unaccompanied. Was this a Ukraine addition? Whether it was or not that was the mood. We loved the little girl near us holding her hands up in peace signs (as we all did) as the whole house chanted the words. (If I were them, I’d have projected a Ukraine flag, but it must be meticulously programmed in advance … perhaps unfurled one).
Then, in the end, a rousing full-on Hey Jude, and ‘George’ moved to 6 string bass. I do watch the bass parts. We all sang along with the chorus. It was long and could have been three times as long. We’d have stayed there all night. The encores were splendid.
So, a show that had weak spots, but one that resolved itself in the end. Comparing with 2018, it’s the later elaborate material where they com into their own, rather than the basic four piece, which they do well, but it’s something we have seen The Beatles perform. Not the more elaborate material.
I think they’re unmissable as a musical and theatrical evening. But I’d drop Hey Bulldog and Another Girl and sort out why the sound mix dipped so badly for the first part of the second half. It may indeed be our hall position, though I’ve been right up front for Van Morrison (several times) and Art Garfunkel, among many others, and the sound can be excellent at the front. Whatever, it was still a great evening.
LINKS TO MY OTHER REVIEWS:
SEE ALSO: GET BACK (PART ONE) linked
SEE ALSO: GET BACK (PART TWO) linked
SEE ALSO: GET BACK (PART THREE) LINKED
plus
Full review of the LET IT BE album in the Reviled series at Around and Around (linked)
Review of Beatles For Sale – at Around and Around (linked)
FILM REVIEWS
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