Today, we're going to take a little time and review a pretty good concert that came through Westbury last night.
Billed as the "British Invasion Tour", the show celebrates the 50th anniversary of the introduction of The Beatles, and all of the British acts which followed 'the lads' across the pond. This tour has been making the rounds of the East Coast, and looks like it's about over; they have a couple of more shows here in the east, then head out to CA.
Upon entering the Theater last night, we were greeted with a sign that said "Gerry Marsden of the Pacemakers will not be appearing at tonight's show; Terry Sylvester of The Hollies will be replacing him". Well, that was a disappointment, as Gerry & The Pacemakers were one of the best groups to come over after The Beatles. It was later announced that Gerry has had to miss the entire tour due to being hospitalized. During a break in the show, a video clip of an old performance by the Pacemakers was played.
So, off to the show! First up, Terry Sylvester, long time member of the Hollies, who joined that group when Graham Nash left. His set was pretty short, just 5 songs, and only three Hollies tunes; I Can't Let Go, Bus Stop, and Carrie Anne. His last two songs were ones he'd performed as a member of the Swingin' Blue Jeans, You're No Good (the Ronstadt song), and Hippy Hippy Shake. Unfortunately, Terry was not in great voice, particularly on I Can't Let Go. His rather off pitch performance was made even more noticeable by the excellent background vocals provided by the band. Still, the first and last songs he did were good, high energy tunes, appropriate for the 'opening act'.
Up next was Mike Pender, lead vocalist for The Searchers. Now 73 years young, he played a nice lead guitar and did most of the Searchers hits; Sweets For My Sweet, Don't Throw Your Love Away, Sugar and Spice, When You Walk In The Room, Take Me For What I'm Worth, Needles and Pins, and Love Potion #9. Mike sounded pretty good, and though he seemed to be having problems hearing his guitar on stage, it sounded fine to the audience, especially the cool licks on When You Walk In The Room. Good performance of some very popular hit songs; the only one some of the audience was unfamiliar with was Take Me For What I'm Worth, which I don't recall as getting a lot of airplay here in the States.
Closing out the first half of the show was Chad and Jeremy, who did another short set of 5 songs, including an a capella version of You Are She, followed by Distant Shores, Yesterday's Gone, No Other Baby, and A Summer Song. Upon entering the stage, Jeremy, dressed to the nines in a lovely black suit and Chad, dressed in a fine "Canadian Tuxedo" as he called it (faded jeans, faded jean jacket, black shirt, casual shoes) picked up the excellent harmonies from 50 years ago as if they'd never been apart. Intertwined with some cute stories of appearing on 'Batman' and 'The Dick VanDyke Show', the performed their hits perfectly sounding almost exactly like their records. It was obvious to all that they were enjoying themselves as well, which only enhanced their performance. I was only disappointed in the shortness of the set, as they were easily the best vocalists to appear.
The second half of the show was opened by Billy J. Kramer, who his hits with the band The Dakotas. Several of these were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and Billy told a few short tales of being in the studio with John when he gave Billy "Bad To Me", and of being managed by the late Brian Epstein, who was also The Beatles manager. Billy has been living here on Long Island for the last 30 or so  years, and I actually met him years back when we had him appear at the Garden City Gazebo. His set opened with a song he just recorded called I Won The Fight, which he explained had to do with being able to survive in the music business as long as he has. I'll Keep You Satisfied, another Lennon-McCartney tune was up next, followed by From A Window, Do You Want To Know A Secret (which he recorded before The Beatles, and which was a #1 hit in England), I Call Your Name, Trains & Boats & Planes, Liverpool With Love (a tribute to Brian Epstein & The Beatles), Little Children, Bad To Me, and The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore. All in all, Billy  sounded okay; his voice has gotten deeper over the years, and he can't quite sing in the keys the songs were originally recorded in, so they sound a little 'off'. But he had a lot of energy on stage, and was really giving it a great effort. His closing song, The Walker Brothers Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore was easily his strongest, and best, vocal of the night. Great ovation for him, the crowd really took to him.
Closing the show was Denny Laine, original lead singer of The Moody Blues, and later on, a founding member and lead guitarist with Wings. Denny did a short, but energized set, comprised of I'll Go Crazy (James Brown cover), Say You Don't Mind, and Go Now. His voice was good, Go Now was spot on, and his guitar work was excellent. For his closing number, he did the Wings tune Band On The Run, and for the final verse was joined onstage by the rest of the performers. Band On The Run was a dead on cover of the Wings version, albeit lacking in Paul's familiar vocal. Too short a set would be my only complaint about Denny's performance.
Can't go without mentioning the excellent backing band, who played behind each of the 'stars'. They were a very tight knit band, with a terrific drummer who had the 'British Beat' down pat. The guitarists were all quite good, and the fellow who played guitar and keyboards was very talented.
It may have been 50 years since these artists first came over here, and the years have certainly caught up to them in some ways, but for a couple of hours on Sunday night, it WAS 1964 again, and the songs, the memories, and the smiles came flowing back easily and with great joy. This is a show which is highly recommended!