Rock fans with memories that go back that far will remember 1964 as the “Year of the Beatles”. The year began with Bobby Vinton holding down the top of the pop charts, but within a month the Beatles began their strange hold on the charts - they held the No. 1 spot for 14 straight weeks beginning the first week in February.
“1964” is thus an appropriate name for a band that recreates that era, aiming its appeal at those who can remember what it was like in 1964, and those who can only imagine what it was like. Assembled only two years ago to play at a Beatles convention in Pittsburgh, the quartet of musicians have traveled extensively in both the United States and Canada, showing audiences an accurately as it can what a Beatles show would have been like.
The group features Mark Benson as John Lennon, Gary Grimes as Paul McCartney, Greg George as Ringo Starr and Bob Miller (the newest addition who joined the group early this summer) as George Harrison. Except for New Yorker Miller, the musicians all hail originally from the Akron, Ohio area where they had spent many years in popular bands like Kids and Dogs and Bock. Miller had been a member of The Beatlemania road company.
Recalls Benson, “We got involved in an original project with some Cleveland area musicians - Chris Blackwell from Island Records came in to check us out and that nearly happened. But that spoiled us for Top 40 and we decided to put a show group together. We decided that if you had to imitate someone, you might as well imitate the best. That way people would come to see you because of what you did not just because they’re going to go out and see whoever’s playing that night.” 1964 became a serious project for the group. They decided off the bat that since so many other Beatles groups in the past had done “history” type shows, complete with multi-costume changes and narration, they would try something different.
“We decided to put a show together that was more like what you would have seen if you went to see the Beatles perform,” says Benson. “You can hear the Beatles on radio and records and you can see videos but you can never see them live; this is for all the people who never got to see them, as well as those who did. Of course, they only played 30 minutes - that was how things worked in those days. We play longer.”
The group concentrates on recreating what the Beatles were like as a live band, their show only includes material up through the Revolver album, since the group stopped touring in 1966. “We try to pull off as much as we can with two guitars, bass and drums. We don’t use any extra musicians or synthesizers,” says Benson. The band’s devotion to accuracy is complete. When they began the group, they sat down and watched hours of film: old Ed Sullivan shows, concerts from around the world, films and outtakes from films, studying the group’s sound, movements, gestures - every nuance. “We accumulated all the guitars and amplifiers that were the exact same years and models that the Beatles played,” explains Benson. “Whoever saw the show in that era will recognize the stuff. People who are into trivia really like it; they come up to us and say ‘Where did you get that stuff?’”
“That stuff” includes the black Pearl Ludwig drums that Ringo played, Vox AC 30 amplifiers, an AC 100 bass amp, Gretsch Tennessian and Country Gentleman guitars, a 12-string Rickenbacker and left handed Hofner basses. Bassist Gary Grimes - a natural rightie - taught himself to play left-handed, a painstaking six-month process, because the group felt that the look was so much better. “It took a lot of work and devotion and we’re really proud of him,” Benson relates.
Benson had been a guitar-maker who dealt in vintage guitars so he had connections all across the country to find the stuff the group needed. “there were not a lot of people looking for it. It’s really only good for this.” Still, it took the group almost two years to assemble everything.
The group has two sets of outfits it wears on stage, both duplicating outfits that the Beatles wore: the black tuxedo suits and the collarless grey chesterfield suits. Though their attention to detail extends to things like flat-wound strings that don’t sustain, producing the distinctive plunking sounds associated with the group, there’s always something else. Benson recalls the night in Indiana that a fan came up to them after the show and told him. “You guys are great, but did you know you’re using the wrong snare stand?”
Benson also recalls playing at a Beatles convention in Washington, D.C. where Alistair Taylor, formerly of Apple Records, was in attendance. “He was put off at first because we weren’t English. We saw him at the back of the room listening and then he shook his head and left. We thought, oh no, he really hated us. But he told us later, ‘Your voices sounded so much like the boys, that I found myself looking around the room for old mates of mine that I used to stand with - it just got weird.”
1964’s show is split into two 50 minute sets, with the second featuring a little more uptempo rock ‘n roll including songs like “She Loves You” and “Twist and Shout,” the first a little more laid back, includes ballads like “Michelle” and “And I Love Her.” “People are less likely to be energetic during the first show,” Benson points out. “they haven’t loosened up yet.”
What kind of audiences respond to 1964’s music? “It doesn’t seem to make that much difference,” says Benson. “There’s no age group that doesn’t like this - everybody from 7 to 70. We did a county fair down south and afterward, during the autograph session, there was this little kid who had one of our photos rolled up, and he kept poking me with it. I turned to him and asked him, ‘What’s your name?’ He said ‘Jimmy.’ I asked him, ‘How old are you?’ and he said ‘seven.’ ‘Are you a Beatles fan?’ I asked. ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘I have both of your records!’
“That same evening, there was this couple who had to be in their 70s. I thought maybe they had a granddaughter there. They were just standing off to the side during the autograph session. They stood there this whole time and finally they came up to us and said, “You know, what you do is such good, clean fun, we wish our daughter were here to hear it.’ They stayed the whole time just to tell us that!!” “It makes you feel good to see all these people smiling and clapping and having a good time. And it’s not us - it’s the memories we bring back. You don’t have to be a Beatles fanatic or collector of records to enjoy it. Anybody who grew up in the 60s would be hard pressed to say that they weren’t influenced in some way by the Beatles. But it amazes me when you get six or seven-year-old people in the audience singing along word for word, with songs that are more than 20 years old. And we get so many people coming up to us and saying, ‘My name is Michelle and my mom named me after that Beatles song.’”
With such a wide potential audience range, there are few types of gigs that 1964 hasn’t played, ranging from 200 seat clubs to 35,000 listeners at an outdoor show. Showrooms, Holiday Inns, rib offs, county fairs, opening slots on concert shows - these are all the types of places that 1964 plays and has played. “Most of our shows now are in the 1,500-3,500 seat range, mostly theaters and concert halls.”
Recently the group played at a fair in New Jersey on a Saturday night and attracted 35,000 people, the largest crowd of any show at the fair. The group also played at the Executive Inn chains in Kentucky and Indiana, a series of complexes with hotels, malls and showrooms.
“Our first was in Paducah, opening to Lee Greenwood,” Benson recollects. “I was apprehensive. I thought it was a strange billing. But it went over tremendously. Greenwood has a crossover crowd - the kind of people who get decked out to come see a show. They really liked us, which made me stop and think, ‘These people grew up on the Beatles, too.’”
“We still do some rock clubs. We also do a college circuit in Canada known as Coca. Last year we won their award for the best non-recording band in all of Canada!” The group has played along the length of Canada, including major cities like Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, Windsor, London and Hamilton. It even had a date up in Yukon territory. “That one fell through, though,” Benson notes.
Recently, during Canada’s equivalent of the 4th of July weekend, the group played a date at Toronto’s waterfront Ontario Place Forum. “We played there two or three times last year,” says Benson, “opening for people like Donovan or Jan and Dean. This year they gave us a headliner slot. I thought we might fill the Pavilion, which holds about 5,000. But we sold the place out - all 12,000 seats.”
1964 works constantly, booked an average of four nights a week. Generally, it plays in the United States about eight weeks and then does two weeks in Canada. Most of those dates are one-nighters. “we don’t time off per se,” says Benson. “we try to schedule a week in some place like the Caribbean and take everyone along. We did a date at Myrtle Beach. We’re looking at something in the Caribbean in January.”
Benson notes that the group would tell all eventually like to get into doing original material, but feels that it would be wrong to attempt that with 1964. “We don’t have any aspirations of spawning a Beatles-sounding group. It’s a mistake to say you’re trying to be the next Beatles. And we don’t want to be ‘famous’ Beatles impersonators. We don’t even say our names on stage - we just present ourselves as John, Paul, George and Ringo. We do everything we can to let people see what it was like.”
“We’d like to travel out of the country and do some dates. The major thing we’d like to accomplish is to bring back and keep alive memories, since the Beatles can never get back together.”
Would Benson like to have seen that happen, if not for the untimely death of John Lennon? “Yes, but not to be ‘The Beatles.’ I would like to have seen them get back together to hear Paul and John sing together again. I certainly wouldn’t have expected them to put on their little grey suits and do ‘Twist and Shout.’”
Stage Productions is the major agency in the U.S. booking tribute acts, having started with Doors tribute band the Back Doors over four years ago and later handling the Revival, a tribute to Creedance Clearwater Revival. He was told by a friend about 1964 about a year and a half ago. “They sent us a tape and I was absolutely blown away,” says Sadlier. “They started out playing for low money and in a year and a half, have quadrupled their money.”
“We attract things from a marketing and promotion standpoint. That’s what these bands live and die on. You’re selling the Beatles - not the group. I’ve never heard anybody who saw 1964 say anything other than this is the best Beatles group they’ve ever seen. We don’t claim they look exactly like the Beatles group,” continues Sadlier, but their attention to detail is amazing. Mark chews Dentyne when he plays, just like John Lennon did. But the sound is the most amazing part - the harmonies between Mark and Gary. They have the costumes - they have the accents down perfectly.”
In connection with promoting the group’s appearances, its members have appeared on TV shows including Entertainment Tonight, P.M. Magazine and A.M. Philadelphia. Sadier relates, “We rarely do nightclubs anymore. We’re aiming for classier venues, the type of place a 40-year-old banker will bring his wife and feel comfortable. The group played the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C. on Valentine’s Day and sold it out, 2,000 tickets. We’re starting to work with the major concert promoters around the country. They’re skeptical. It’s tough to convert them to be believers.”
According to Sadlier, he’s had interest expressed in the group from Germany, and he’s been talking to people in Australia as well about taking the group over there. So 1964’s desire to take their act abroad may very well materialize. “The crowds keep getting bigger and bigger,” says Sadlier. “The Beatles have the wildest demographic group of any band. The music is timeless