New Beatles L.A. stage musical to be previewed at concert

Celebrating the Life and Works of John Lennon
9/10/40 – 9/12/80

A special preview of a new L.A. stage musical based on The Beatles early years at Abbey Road Studios has been added to the line-up of Lennon Remembered on 9^th December at the Liverpool Echo Arena. The Sessions, due to open at Paramount Studios next May has legendary Beatles recording engineer Geoff Emerick as the musical producer.

Geoff Emerick was a trainee recording engineer at Abbey Road studios in the early 60’s, and on his third day at work, aged 15, he was sent along to a session by a new group from Liverpool. It was of course The Beatles, and Geoff went on to work with John, Paul, George & Ringo throughout their recording career as the Beatles. Geoff is widely recognised as one of the best recording engineers in recording history.

In April this year, Geoff, along with Artistic Director Stig Edgren, spent two days at the world famous Cavern Club in search for the next John, Paul, George and Ringo for The Sessions. After a search which took in auditions in New York, LA and London, Geoff Emerick, musical producer of the show, chose 5 singers from the Cavern auditions, including four of the Cavern’s resident artists.

For Lennon Remembered, Soundstage Theatre Company, under the musical direction of Geoffrey Foskett, (Brian Wilson’s Musical Director), will perform a special preview of the show to focus on John’s Beatle years. The Sessions will join a whole host of friends and artists at the one-off concert who worked with the late, great John Lennon.

Jon Keats – Concert Director and Operations Director for Cavern City Tours Ltd “We are delighted to have THE SESSIONS as part of our bill for Lennon Remembered. They are featuring some of John’s finest Beatle songs and the attention to detail is incredible. To have our resident artists working alongside Geoff Emerick will be an absolute honour for the Cavern”.

The concert will see 9 periods of John’s life represented by those who were there, including John’s first band The Quarrymen, the Beatles fellow Hamburg musician and lead vocalist on ‘My Bonnie’ Tony Sheridan, art school friend and editor of Mersey Beat Bill Harry and Beatles Press Officer, close friend and ex CEO of Apple Tony Bramwell. Also appearing are Alan White who played drums on Lennon’s classic hits including ‘Instant Karma’ and ‘Imagine’. Joey Molland, guitarist with Apple signed Badfinger who played on Lennon’s Imagine, Grammy award winning sound engineer Dennis Ferrante who worked on a plethora of Lennon’s albums during his New York years, as well as Liverpool born actor Mark McGann who is famed for his honest and powerful portrayal of John both on stage and film. He will present a special performance of his award winning stage show, John Lennon – In My Life.

Co-event organiser and Cavern Club owner Bill Heckle says “Anyone who loves the music of John Lennon and The Beatles should not miss this night. You will be witnessing history with contributions from those who helped John create it.”

Profits from the entire night are going to local charities Alder Hey Imagine Appeal, Radio City’s Cash For Kids and the Mathew Street Festival.

PERFORMANCE DETAILS

LENNON REMEMBERED - The Nine Faces of John

Liverpool Echo Arena

Thursday 9 December,

Doors open 6:30pm, show starts 8pm.

Tickets: £27.50 (plus a limited number of higher priced gold circle tickets)

A limited number of Gold Circle tickets and VIP tickets are available. For VIP packages, including food, beverages and after-show hospitality please contact Jan Owen (0151 708 6050 / 07932 763107 janowen@cmplive.com)

LENNON REMEMBERED tickets are on sale now from:

Echo Arena (0844 8000 400) www.echoarena.com

Ticketmaster (0844 844 0444) www.ticketmaster.co.uk

Ticketline (0151 256 5555) www.ticketline.co.uk

See Tickets (0871 220 0260) www.seetickets.com

Gigantic (0115 959 7908) www.gigantic.com

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Ringo Deathstar @ The 02 Academy Liverpool

Ringo Deathstarr. Sound like something out of Star Wars? Well nothing could be further. Hailing from Austin, Texas the trio consisting of singer and guitarist Elliott Frazier , Bassist Alex Gehring and Drummer Daniel Coborn have gone through numerous line up changes to end up at the O2 Academy supporting The Wedding Present.

Their sound is an amalgamation of Grunge, My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain but with more of the intensity that Nirvana brought to the world.

The first thing you notice about the band is the contrasting figures within the band. Elliot with his intense, downtrodden and focused image along side Alex’s rock chick look and with Daniel on drums counter-acting the both of them with his almost bright and cheeky look the trio work because of the variation. As does the contrasting vocals from Elliot and Alex. His deep, disturbed sound as opposed to Alex’s high pitched approach which puts you a little off guard at times.

The music itself is full on. Elliot’s guitar thrashing and wailing reminiscent of Mr Cobain himself. Throwing himself into the guitar solos with total abandonment helped along by Alex’s more down beat bass playing.

Unfortunately it seemed the soundman at the 02 had not done his job as the bands vocals were barely audible and the music drowning out the lyrics of which I would have liked to hear and with not much consideration for the band itself in the form of still showing the upcoming events on screens either side of the stage did not help the band showcase themselves properly, which I felt was a shame as they seem to have a lot of potential and would likely attract a good audience of young and old due to their new yet old sound.

http://www.myspace.com/ringodeathstarr

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