When 1964's agent first called me in 1987 I almost hung up on him. "I hate tribute bands, especially Beatle tribute bands. No way am I booking this act." Twenty two years later, having presented 1964 a total of 23 times in five different states and having sold over 27,000 tickets to their shows, I've honestly come to regard 1964 as one of the most extraordinary acts I've ever seen on any stage anywhere.
When I was a kid, in August of 1965, I was lucky enough (Thank you Dad) to see the Beatles at Shea Stadium. The electricity in the crowd as we walked through the gates into the stadium could have lit up Manhattan, with 56,500 Beatle fans about to explode. At the time it was the biggest concert ever held. Today, 44 years later, I can remember the ocean of screams and flashcubes that erupted when John, Paul, George and Ringo came out of the dugout and walked towards the stage. For me it was a life experience and I can remember it as though it happened last night.
But I never heard a note of music against the ceaseless, deafening screams. I saw them a year later at Suffolk Downs racetrack in Boston. Couldn't hear a note of music.
In the late Eighties when I was running the 1,350 seat Capitol Theatre in Concord, NH, we were proud to have developed a loyal audience base that had grown accustomed to a certain level of high quality nationally touring concert acts. B.B. King, Cheap Trick, Harry Belafonte, Manhattan Transfer, Johnny Cash, the Four Tops and Temptations, etc...
Which is why, when I was first offered a 1964 gig, I refused it. To me, Beatle tribute bands belonged in bowling alleys and oldies clubs, not in concert halls. "But I swear, David," the agent said, "these guys are phenomenal. They sound exactly like the Beatles. EXACTLY. " Yeah sure, I thought. I told him to fax me a list of venues they'd played in the last two years and I'd call around.
What I expected was list of nightclubs. What I got was a list that included some of the most prestigious theatres in the US and Canada, so I got on the phone and called my fellow executive directors to ask their opinions. Their comments ranged from "You won't believe it" to "Our audiences love them and we book them every year" to "Do it, you'll sell it out."
In a last ditch effort to be appropriately Scrooge-like I asked the agent to send me a tape of the band. What arrived was a six song cassette of the band live during a rehearsal in Washington DC, at the Warner Theatre. I was, as the British say, gob smacked, and my resistance fell.
What harm could it do? Surely we'll sell enough tickets to break even. Maybe we'll have some fun. I finally told the agent to send me a contract after he made me an offer I rationally couldn't refuse. "I think you're gonna be very surprised," he said.
Well, we were surprised when we started to get calls from Boston, an hour away, asking about the show before we'd even run any ads. We were really amazed when we got a call asking if we could help get hotel rooms for a group of a dozen 1964 fans coming down from CANADA. And, in less than two weeks, we were totally, speechlessly shocked to have sold out. All 1,350 seats gone after two newspaper ads and a one week radio campaign.
Now we were nervous. Is this act as good as we've told people they are?
On show night 1964 arrived late due to snow problems on the highway. Because the crowd was beginning to line up out front, we decided the band would get in costume (just black suits, no problem,) do a quick sound check, duck back into the dressing rooms and we'd open the doors. I was up in my office under the balcony, getting cash drawers ready for the concessions stand, when I got a call from our stage manager "You'd better get down here fast," he said. "You're not gonna believe this." These are not words you want to hear just before the show.
|
|
I ran down the stairs to the back of the hall prepared to deal with a crisis, but soon realized what he'd meant... for standing on that stage, blasting out a PERFECT rendition of "A Hard Day's Night" was the Beatles. I knew it actually wasn't the Beatles but from 26 rows away, they looked, moved and sounded precisely, a hundred and one percent like the real thing. Our light sound engineer walked up to me with a grin on his face and said "Totally weird, huh? "
When the show began and 1964 came out on the stage, because they'd never played the market before (and because it was about 18 degrees outside) I could see that the audience was welcoming them politely but cautiously. But within minutes people here and there were actually screaming, and by the end of the third song the crowd was out of their seats and never sat down again for the rest of the first half of the show. What followed, especially after intermission, was controlled hysteria, as a crowd from 8 to 80 years of age danced and sang at the top of their lungs for two hours.
I stood in the wings watching the audience's faces and thought, "What on Earth is going on here?." After the show, audience members came up to theatre staff and just babbled on with silly grins on their faces about what a great night it had been, and one fellow's comment made me realize what had created such an intense reaction to the band. He said "I've waited my entire life to hear this music live." Bingo!
1964 returned to that theatre three more times and ended up selling more tickets there than any act in the theatre's 61 year history, beating out everyone from the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra to Aerosmith. Since then I've had the pleasure of presenting 1964 so many times that I'm beginning to lose count. I especially remember bringing them into the Fox Theatre in Salina, Kansas before we started restoration. No live act had played on this beautiful old theatre's stage since before World War Two, when they welded a movie screen into place. There was no functioning electricity, no rigging, no plumbing, it was essentially an abandoned theatre into which we had to bring everything - we brought in power from huge generators in the alley, and lights and sound, we had to hand clean the musty old place, we wiped down every one of the seats... it was an adventure. Very tough but worth every minute.
Because the band was known to our south, in Wichita, the show sold out in a remarkable 53 hours. And 1964 brought that theatre back to life. At the end of the first encore the crowd actually chanted We won't go, We won't go...and as we raised almost three million dollars over the next year, it seemed as though every donor had been inspired to give by that very special night. It came up in every conversation, without fail.
Now, I'll admit that it's my job to tell you how great our 1964 concerts will be here in Shelby. I know this might all sound like hype. But I want you to know that as a lifelong Beatles fan, it goes way beyond that responsibility for me. This will admittedly sound foolish to anyone who isn't a Beatle fan, but real fans will understand when I say that...
If there is such a thing as magic in this world, it exists in the music of the Beatles. I honestly believe that, for how else can you explain this continued passion for a band that broke up almost 40 years ago? And how can we explain the cross generational appeal? My best memory of a 1964 concert was in Florida, two years ago, when a local lawyer I knew walked up to me with his teenaged daughter wrapped around him, a huge grin on her face. "I get it. I finally get it," she said. "He's made me listen to them all my life but now I get it. Wow."
And to anyone still hung up, sometimes with good reason, on this whole "tribute band" thing... let me put it simply and without hesitation. This band has sold way over one million tickets during their career, and for one reason and one reason alone. 1964 are to the Beatles what the Boston Symphony Orchestra are to Beethoven and Mozart.
|
