In their movie from 2019, Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis explore the premise of a world without The Beatles (except the main character, who remembers them and rips them off/ recreates them to share with the world). The film itself has the sentimental kitsch often associated with Curtis, but is nevertheless an interesting concept and largely makes the point that The Beatles changed the world.
I think few people would question the impact that these four people had on our collective psyche and, Paul McCartney at Glastonbury aside, it is obviously no longer possible to experience their back catalogue live without the help of a cover band.
I first saw The Bootleg Beatles in December 2001 at (what was then) the Colston Hall in Bristol. It was shortly after George Harrison had passed away and, as well as being generally impressed by their set, have fond memories of the moving solo tribute to George, performed well by the late Andre Barreau.
Fast forward 24 years and I thought I would take my wife and two daughters along to see the show and discover if there had been any changes to the way the band had approached their craft since then.
The current line up consists of Paul Canning as John Lennon (since last year) and Miles Frizzell as Paul McCartney, who joined this year. Stephen Hill (George Harrison) and Gordon Elsmore (Ringo Starr) have been performing in their roles for longer – 2014 and 2016 respectively. They were all generally good, though Paul was slightly too cheesy and John not quite funny enough between songs.
The audience were, it’s fair to say, of a high average age. Given the ubiquitous nature of their music, this surprised me a little but probably didn’t start my teenage girls off on the right foot, looking and feeling rather out of place and adding to the general vibe of “What the f*ck has Dad brought us to this time…” I took some solace in a few other 6Music Dads who had dragged their families along with them too.
On to the Set list – basically it can be viewed here at the excellent and nerdy Setlist.fm – lhttps://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-bootleg-beatles/2025/beacon-hall-bristol-beacon-bristol-england-3b5a90e8.html
36 songs from their top 5 selling albums – Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt Pepper, White Album and Abbey Road. Plus Twist and Shout to finish. Some more obscure stuff, but generally a good mix of beautiful, fun, inspirational songs that have soundtracked.our lives for so long.
The main point of the article though, and second “WTF” exclamation generally thought by everyone in our party is… “Who the f*ck is this guy?!?!?”
He can here be seen dressed in a rather fine jumper that his wife seems to have bought him for Xmas, though this definitely made him seem slightly less bond villainy than the plain black top and plain white top he wore earlier in the show.
He was on for most of the songs, occasionally doing a piano slot (though both John and Paul can of course both play). At other times he was playing a tambourine, other small percussion instruments or just clapping like a loon. It was like Bez had morphed in to a weird Uncle Quentin character and gatecrashed the set.
Obviously the most glaring weirdness of him being there is that the Beatles are meant to be the Fab Four, not five. They had a backing band for some of the larger songs (strings on the right, brass on the left) but somehow they looked like they belonged, rather than someone had wandered on by mistake and they were too polite to ask him to leave.
They introduced him about three quarters of the way through as “The amazing Steve Earle”
Not of Nashville fame. This Steve Earle is mostly just a session musician for the Bootleg Beatles.
I just don’t get it.