This year, the world-renowned Bootleg Beatles celebrate 30 years together with a 15-date UK tour of major venues with their acclaimed homage to the Fab Four.
Neil Harrison (Bootleg John Lennon); Andre Barreau (Bootleg George) and David Catlin-Birch (Bootleg Paul) met in 1979 when they were all cast in the hit West-End production, Beatlemania. When the show finished its run the band, knowing the repertoire inside out, decided to continue performing it and thus The Bootleg Beatles, along with the entire tribute genre, was born.
Thirty years on, what started as 4 musicians with black polo necks and a wig has evolved into The Bootleg Beatles’ lauded show which combines note-perfect renditions of Beatles repertoire, spectacular costume changes and a visually stunning video backdrop. The Bootleg Beatles faithfully re-create 6 phases of the Beatles meteororic rise from a basement (The cavern in Liverpool) to a rooftop (The famous Apple concert in 1969) via Shea Stadium, Sgt Pepper and the Magical mystery tour.
As NME said, “the band are as similar to their namesakes as it is possible to be… unlike any other group in the last 25 years of rock, they can safely say that they look and sound as good as The Beatles’ And, with the inclusion of an 8-piece orchestra, The Bootleg Beatles are able to perform songs from the latter stages of the Beatles’ catalogue that the Beatles never performed live.