1964 The Tribute

1964 the tribute strive for authenticity in their portrayal of The Beatles, but not everything they do is the same. Two areas that differ are sound quality and set length. Mark Benson who portrays John Lennon in the band, says the original Beatles live performances in the 1960s, the fans were lucky to hear the music. You have to credit The Beatles with revolutionising the sound reinforcement industry, says Benson. Back then they had these little speakers that you couldn't hear anything out of. The way concerts were Amplified had to be changed. Benson says fans who saw the original shows notice the difference. People will come to us and say, I saw the Beatles in 64 and the only difference is I can hear you, Benson says. Another difference is set length. The Beatles did to 30 minutes at sin there early shows and never did on course, while 1964 the tribute performs to 45 minute sets. We tried the half-hour show initially but it didn't go over well, says Benson. The members of the group decided which member would portray which Beatle based on the instrument he played. I was a guitarist, so the natural thing was the John or the George character, says Tom work, who portrays George Harrison. The way I got into this was, the fellow playing John Lennon, join the band that was a local Beatles tribute at. This was around 1981. After about a year, he got his buddy Gary Grimes to join and play Paul, and I was friends with him. About a year later, he got me to join and play George. Over the years, the lineup has included; Mark Benson 1984 to present as John Lennon Gary Grimes 1984 to 2009, Todd Rainey 2009 to 2010, Ricky Vacca 2010 to 2011, Graham Alexander 2011 to 2013, Mac Ruffing 2013 to the present as Paul McCartney Tom Work 1984 to 1986, 1990 to 1993, 2006 to the present, Robert Miller 1986 to 1990, Tom Teeley 1993 to 1994, Jimmy Pou 1994 to 2006 as George Harrison Greg George 1984 to 2006, Terry Manfredi 2006 to 2010, Bobby Potter 2010 to the present as Ringo Starr The band's mission is to accurately recreate the 1964 Beatles invasion of America. Members play a set of early Beatles music, with some middle Beatles thrown in. Sometimes the group's costumes reflect the Beatles early period, and sometimes members wear replicas of the Shea Stadium concert apparel from 1965. The concept is performing a show that gives you an idea of what it was like to see The Beatles when they were touring, says Benson. It's definitely a music gig, but there's an acting element to it says Work. None of us is really an actor per se. I probably come closes because I've done some plays, just in Community Theatre. But there's some acting. You need to adopt the body language, the speaking voice. Those two things, I guess, for this kind of role are two aspects that resemble acting. Everything else is more musicianship and vocal impersonation singing I mean. The group separates is life on stage from off stage. We didn't want to be them, just wanted to portray them says Work. No one really considered wearing those boots around all the time or the tight pants for having hair that look like that. We were musicians before, professional, full-time musicians. We didn't start doing Beatles until we were 30. The members are getting older, but are doing better than ever. 1964 the tribute, originally called 1964 as the Beatles is a Beatles tribute band that was formed in 1984. The origin is in the United States and they are active to the present day. The group plans to continue performing. Asked about their future, Tom work, who portrays George Harrison said , "the answer to that is the answer Gary gave his dad. His dad asked him how long are you going to do this? And Gary Grimes who played Paul McCartney until his death in 2010 said, until they stop coming. We are not anywhere close to the age The Beatles were. I'm sure many people will comment, they're starting to look a little old to be doing this, but people are still coming. Just being a musician keeps you young at heart.