Beatles bonanza
Tribute bands touch generations of fans
by Gregory A. Hall
The Courier-Journal

Fans from many generations soaked up the sun and the sounds yesterday of the Beatles, the British band whose music still draws crowds despite their breakup 35 years ago.

Among the crowd at the Louisville riverfront festival of about 40 tribute bands were a 56-year-old who saw the Beatles in concert three times and a 4-year-old dancing in the front row who is young enough to call any of the Fab Four "grandpa."

Abbey Road on the River, which had been held in Cleveland for three years, drew hundreds of people to the Belvedere in the afternoon.

After a dance with her father, the 4-year-old, Julia Carney of Columbus, Ohio, said "Hey Bulldog" is her favorite Beatles song.

Julia has been to all four of the Abbey Road events with her parents, Stephen and Amy Carney. Her sister, Jane, who is a year and a half old, has attended two festivals.

"After we saw the first one, we decided to do it every year," said Stephen Carney, 35, who has been a Beatles fan since childhood.

Another Ohio resident, Linda St. Jean of North Canton, said she saw the Beatles three times -- twice in Cleveland and once in Chicago.

She was 15 at her first concert. "I was just happy to be in the same room" with them, she said. Flashbulbs made Cleveland's Public Auditorium look "like daytime," she said.

So when you've seen the real thing three times, why come to Louisville to see a festival featuring tribute bands?

"It's like reliving it again," she said. "It just brings back the memories and happiness of seeing them for the first time."

Jenny Shanks of Lima, Ohio, walked around the concert grounds yesterday in the red sweater she made that has "The Beatles" on the front and "Crosley Field, Aug. 21, 1966" on the back.

The Beatles show that day at the then-home of the Cincinnati Reds had been scheduled for the night before, but an electrical storm postponed the show until the next day, Shanks said.

Sitting behind home plate about midway up the lower level, Shanks watched the band, which she said played in center field.

"I never heard a single note," she said, because of the screaming crowd. That night, the band played their second concert of the day, at St. Louis' Busch Memorial Stadium.

The closest the Fabs came to Louisville was Cincinnati in 1964 and 1966 and Indianapolis in 1964, according to Beatles fan Web sites.

Although "there's nothing like the real thing," Shanks, now 54, said the Abbey Road show was fun and the wide range of ages in the crowd surprised her.

"I thought it would all be people my age," she said. "This is phenomenal."

In the younger set, 23-year-old Eric Schulz of New Albany, Ind., said he would give "everything I have" to have seen the real thing. "Take my left arm."

Many in the audience -- regardless of age -- mouthed the words or sang along to Beatles' classics. Joe Gibson, 62, of Danville, Ky., who attended the festival with three generations of his family, said, "Back in 1963, I read about them in Time magazine before they ever came over" to the United States and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Gibson said he never went to any concerts but has a complete set of Beatles albums, as does his 42-year-old daughter Lisa Terrell and his granddaughter, 14-year-old Brooke Terrell. All three were at the festival yesterday.

The ongoing popularity of the Beatles doesn't surprise Gibson.

"Hey, look at Elvis," Gibson said. "He's making more money now dead than when he was alive."

Wearing a T-shirt of the modern-day band Jimmy Eat World, Brooke Terrell said she came to appreciate the British band because of her grandfather.

The girl's mother, Lisa Terrell, said her father would play the Beatles at night when she was going to bed. Gibson's wife, Paula, said she "didn't have any choice" but to be a Beatles fan.

For at least one person in the crowd, the Beatles represented the apex and the nadir of life itself.

Dancing near the main Belvedere stage, Barbara Simpson of Falls Church, Va., recalled "the worst moment of my life."

In 1966, she had tickets to see the Beatles in Boston but was stuck in the hospital with pneumonia and couldn't go.

Happily, though, Simpson, who yesterday wore John Lennon Chuck Taylor high tops and had a purse with the band members on it, said she has since seen all the band members in person -- either in concert or by happenstance.

She met the late George Harrison in 1992 at a Ravi Shankar performance in London. Harrison was in the row in front of her, so she introduced herself, shook his hand and apologized for bothering him.

Harrison told her " 'No, actually you're very nice,' " which she said rendered her speechless.

"That," Simpson said, "was the best moment in my life."

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