Fab Four experience is about detail and admiration

By Jim Dail

In February 1963, Vee Jay Records released “Please Please Me” by The Beatles, and it rapidly sold – very few copies. The entire year, The Beatles were a bust in America, all the while England started to get into The Beatles in a big way.

However, everything changed in early 1964, when “I Want to Hold Your Hand” brought the hysteria to the United States, just the start of The Beatles becoming the most successful and important group in history.

Decades later, the band remains big and has spawned a number of tribute bands, including The Fab Four, who will perform Friday and Saturday at The Pechanga Showroom.

“We go beyond the traditional Beatles tribute band,” said Ron McNeil, who plays the role of John Lennon. “There’s so much to imitating the Beatles. When you think about it, you have to be a pretty good musician. You have to be a pretty good singer. They had high voices, so you have to have that, and you have to look something like them.”

But it goes beyond just the music.

“You have to be a bit of an actor,” he said. “There’s a bit of orchestration involved and we’ve spent a lot of time watching John, Paul, George and Ringo.”

While a number of bands simply perform the music, not paying close attention to the details, Newman and his colleagues focus on every minute detail.

“We do play everything live with no backing tracks whatsoever,” he said. “We don’t shy away from any of the songs. A lot of tribute bands focus only on the early stuff but the catalog is open for us. For example, I really like ‘Penny Lane.’ There might be other bands doing that song but they do it with a click track. But we sat down and realized that ‘Penny Lane’ has a piano, not a rhythm guitar. The guys asked me, ‘John, can you play a piano?’ I could so that’s why we can do it. We can find a patch on a keyboard to sound like a trumpet. We go above and beyond the typical.”

That leads to how the band actually puts together a set list.

“There has never been any of the typical songs that we said no way,” he said. “I like ‘And Your Bird Can Sing,’ which features John and George playing lead parts separately, but there’s also another rhythm guitar in there. It doesn’t come off as well live for us.”

So what else is usually off the list?

“Things like ‘[I am the] Walrus’ and ‘All You Need is Love’ we don’t do unless we are performing with an orchestra,” he said. “For the most part, we stick to the recorded versions, though sometimes we create a hybrid between what it sounded like live and on record. But we do stick closer to the recorded versions. I mean, people who have the Hollywood Bowl album have one idea of the sound, but most of the people who show up, like the 12-year-old girl who likes Paul probably has never heard that record, but she’s heard the studio songs. And it’s the recorded versions that are really selling The Beatles with Rockband and iTunes.”

In addition, there are other important songs, at least one of which wasn’t actually a Beatles song.

“We’ve always done ‘Imagine,’ even though that wasn’t a Beatles song,” he said. “It was John solo, but it is important in the show and we kind of focus the show around it.”

It’s no surprise that McNeil was a Beatles fan early on, but it wasn’t John Lennon who was his favorite at first.

“Growing up, I liked Paul and bought every album,” he said. “I wasn’t a bass player though because I’ve always played keyboard and guitars. When I became part of the band, it was clear that Artie has such a McCartney likeness that I became John. My voice is a little higher than John’s but Paul’s voice was much higher. So, that’s how we are now.”

Lennon’s death also played a role.

“When he died, I got a better appreciation of what he did and I started getting into his catalogue a bit more,” Newman said. “And the ‘Imagine’ message is so relevant to the world.”

Ironically, it was the Broadway show “Beatlemania” that made him realize that a tribute band could work.

“I always wanted to be a Beatle, and when I was growing up there were no tribute bands,” he said. “Then, Beatlemania came out and my dad took me to see it. At the time I wondered how they did that. How come this sounds so cool? I thought, ‘Oh wow there are guys imitating the Beatles.’ It was something I wanted to do. The show made such an impact on me.”

It also provided some future lessons for the band.

“You have to do it the right way, all on the up-and-up,” he said. “Initially, the band was cool with what Beatlemania was doing and granted them the rights to do the music, as long as they didn’t try to release any music or film. They got greedy and released an original cast album and The Beatles sued and won.”

So how do The Beatles members feel about The Fab Four?

“We know that they are aware of us because last year we were invited to be part of remake of the movie “Yellow Submarine in 3D,” he said. “We provided the movements and expressions that were then animated. We are excited abut that. We did get to meet Danny Harrison, George’s son, and Olivia, George’s wife.”

There’s also been a meeting with McCartney.

“Our George, Gavin, is from Liverpool and he met Paul in a special concert that his former Beatles group was giving when they were still in Liverpool,” McNeil said. “Paul just showed up, sang ‘Yesterday’ and met with the band and signed guitars and stuff. He went up to Gavin and said, You look like George!”

So who typically sees the show?

“We do play to the diehard Beatles fan who knows what he’s talking about, where George should stand and who should sing what,” he said. “But we also play to the person who just recently heard their first Beatles song. We try to entertain anyone as a broad stroke.”

Ultimately, The Fab Four has developed uniqueness.

“One thing that does separate us from others is we have guys who look and sound like The Beatles, rather than just stand up there and do some of the music,” he said. "We try to do the best we can. There are no real egos and that helps us. I think it makes us more focused as a group.”