The Beatles are back

by Tiffany Royal
THE POST

Pull out your vinyl copies of The White Album: John, Paul, George and Ringo are back.

But these are not the same men everyone gaggled over during the early days of rock. The national cover band Get Back - A Tribute to the Beatles will be making an appearance at the Paul Bunyan Festival this weekend in Nelsonville at Stuart's Opera House.

Performing since 1984, the Youngstown-based band has all the elements of a Beatles cover band.

"No one has as much original equipment as us," Gilbert said. "We use everything the Beatles themselves used, in order to keep up with the vintage sound and as part of the show."

They also have custom-made costumes and outfits, tailored identical to what the Beatles wore, he said. Liverpool accents and Beatles hair-do's come included.

"We really do look like the Beatles, down to the faces," he said.

This is the closest they have come to looking like the original group, with Gilbert as Paul, Marty Cohen as Ringo, Mark Pringle as George and Dave LeMasters as John.

But they have back-ups for everyone.

"We have three Johns, two Ringos, two Georges and two Pauls - but John plays left-handed and the other guy plays right-handed," Pringle said.

"We're like impersonating Elvises, but we impersonate the Beatles," he said. "(People) want autographs and everything. It's really bizarre."

The last time they played in the area was in 1999 at the opera house, where their show was the first and only sold-out show since the opera house reopened in 1997.

"We invited them back since their show last year was so huge," said Amy Browns, program director for the opera house. "Everyone has been asking for them to come back. We decided to do it this weekend as a way to have another entertainment option for tourists and members of the community area attending the festival."

"People are astounded by our shows." Gilbert said. "We really work hard at this band, as it's a show band, and we are very professional. We are right up in the top five bands in the U.S. that covers straight Beatles tunes."

They have opened for Tom Jones at the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City and for Davy Jones (of the Monkees) in Illinois.

"We were invited to perform over in Japan but none of us could really make it because of our jobs," Gilbert said.

Of the original Fab Four, Get Back has not met anyone except Cynthia, Lennon's former wife and the original guitarist Peter Best, when the Beatles were the Silver Beatles in Hamburg, Germany.

"(Best) told us some of the interesting stories of the early days," Gilbert said. "(The Silver Beatles) used to play for six to seven hours straight for six to seven days a week back then."

Get Back-A Tribute to the Beatles will be performing two 45-minute sets on Saturday. Their material mostly covers early "Beatlemania" from 1963-66, including "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," "She Loves you," "Hard Days Night" and "Ticket to Ride."

"It would take two to three nights to cover the 20-year span of the Beatles music that we do," Pringle said.

Stuart's Opera House is located at 34 Public Sq., Nelsonville. Tickets are $10. They can be purchased over the phone at 740-753-1924 or at the ticket office.