Everyone knows The Beatles, so going to a show like ‘Get Back‘, you kinda know what you’re going to get. The trick here would be how the story is actually told.
Entering the Tivoli, the auditorium is a definite reminder of the sixties era, spacious tiered red cinema seats facing a stage with a drumkit and some guitar amps set up. Strawberry Fields roadsigns and images of the Fab Four hang in the venue. From the offset, everything is Beatle-esque, even the mandatory fire announcement are voiced by the quartet in a Scouse accent. Funny as hell and of course informative.
The show starts in Liverpool’s legendary Cavern Club and immediately its aurally hard to tell the difference between our performers ‘The Classic Beatles‘ and the real thing. But after a couple of tracks, I questioned if this would be interesting enough to last the full length of a show. Two minutes later, my question was answered as a large screen at the back of the stage transformed into what looked like a 1960s television broadcast. Really clever and this worked a treat.
This screen was used to show news reels re-enacted with The Classic Beatles in place of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Famous press conferences and events from the era were used in the telling in the nine years of The Beatles. Everything from the legendary appearances at Shea Stadium in New York to actually being a part of the audience at The Ed Sullivan show. The four musician/actors on stage were dressed in what we would know of The Beatles from each part of their career. The moptop haircuts, the suits, the long hair on the way to hippydom and of course the suits from Sgt Pepper.
I lost count of how many songs were played on the night and it was lovely to see people of all ages there from young kids in Beatles t-shirts to a few who probably could have seen The Beatles play The Adelphi in Dublin in 1963. All songs on the night were generously applauded by the crowd by the first one that seemed to really get them going was the ‘George’ solo ‘Here Comes The Sun’. The audience even attempted the high notes. The show ended with a singalong and a dance, what more could you ask for?
Get Back runs at The Tivoli until February 14 2012, tickets are priced from 20.
I think I discovered something on the night, I prefer everything from Sgt. Pepper onwards and I think my favourite Beatles song is ‘A Day In The Life’.