It's coming together: Get back to the Beatles with not one but two events this weekend
You certainly can meet the Beatles this weekend in Abilene.
John, Paul, George and Ringo will be making not one but two appearances, each completely different than the other. With one exception.
It's the Beatles.
On Friday and Saturday at Play Faire Park, the popular BeatlesFest offers the music of the Fab Four as interpreted by 10 artists, five each night.
On Saturday at the Abilene Convention Center, the Classical Mystery Tour arrives with four musician-singers taking a role to perform with the Abilene Philharmonic.
The music begins nightly at 7 at Play Fair, 2300 North Second St., and at 7:30 Saturday at the concert hall, 1100 North Sixth St.
They'd love to turn-turn-turn-turn you-you-you-you on-on-on-on ...
Bassoons and Beatles is better
Meet Jim Owen, better known as John Lennon.
It was his idea to blend a Beatles tribute performance with an orchestral performance. While the Beatles' popularity has far exceeded the 10 or so years they ruled the world, his show has surpassed 25 years.
Owen missed the band, though he has seen Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr shows.
He still kicks himself for not traveling to Japan in the 1990s to hear Harrison, believing he'd come to the U.S. Harrison did not.
"I wish I had gone," Owen said.
He grew up with music, but it was classical that played at home. He began piano lessons at 6 with a youngster's dream of becoming a concert pianist or composer.
Once an aunt introduced him to the group, the "Meet the Beatles" album in 1973, he no longer was just hooked on classics.
"For me, that was my 1964," he said of the group's first world tour. "I was immediately taken by their songs, their guitars ... just the whole sound of the Beatles."
Beginning at age 7, he wanted the Bs to include Bach, Beethoven and the Beatles.
Not arrangements but exactly how the band did it.
He got that chance by creating the Classical Mystery Tour after seeing the Broadway revue titled "Beatlemania."
"That's exactly what I wanted to do," Owen said. "Play Beatles music live as if you could go see them."
He also played in tribute bands over the years.
"They are such a dynamic group," he said. "We try our best to play, sing, look and act like the Beatles."
What to expect
Owen provided a few hints about the show, which, he said, varies.
The concert will begin with an orchestral performance of "In My Life." It's a new arrangement, Owen said.
"I think it's really a gorgeous piece," he said, adding that orchestral arrangements are duplicated from original Beatles recordings.
"Like the band. It's not arranged to sound like somebody else's interpretation."
Then, John, Paul, George and Ringo appear as the early Beatles, he said. There will be two more costume changes, one in the first half as they slip into Sgt. Pepper mode, then return in the second half as the later Beatles - the "Magical Mystery Tour," "The Beatles" (aka the White Album) and "Abbey Road."
The guys, Owen said, resemble the particular musician each portrays.
The songs are not interpretations but exactly follow the music.
"The main objective is to be as musically accurate as it can be sounding like the Beatles," Owen said. "The music is the focus of what we try to do. This is a symphony orchestra concert, so it has to be serious musically."
Suspend your belief and embrace your imagination, Owen urges. Pretend they're back or you've gone back in time.
"By coincidence and over the years, the reason we've gravitated to our parts that we play is because there is a resemblance. That's also a part of what we try to do is resemble the Beatles on stage in the costumes and the way we look and act, our mannerisms," he said.
"It's kind of like getting a feeling of what it would be like to see the Beatles in concert."
'Yellow Submarine' docks at Doc's
The two-night event at Play Faire is a different take on the Fab Four.
It's outdoors, not indoors.
The artists generally don't look anything like the Beatles, and don't try to.
"Who doesn't love the Beatles," said Chris "Doc" England, who admitted to being more of a Rolling Stones fan. You know, the Ford or Chevy thing.
"I like my butt to shake a little more, and the Stones have more of that nasty blues thing going," he said, laughing. "But (the Beatles) are my youth."
He does not take credit for now 12 years of BeatlesFest. That goes to local musicians in cover bands who wanted their own event. Others at Play Faire were devoted to original music.
They came up with a tribute to the Beatles, but offering their interpretations of the big hits or lesser performed songs that are personal favorites.
Scheduled to perform Friday are:
The Dial Surfers, Jamison Priest, Daughters of Wanda, Happy Fat and 3 Stories High.
On Saturday, it's:
School of Rock, Terri Knight, the Borrowers The Soul Mates and Out of the Blue.
There will be food and merchandise vendors and, of course, mini golf.
Up for Ringo Bingo? This is the place.
Cost is $10 per person nightly, or $15 for a two-day pass. There is a $5 cooler fee.
Greg Jaklewicz is editor of the Abilene Reporter-News and general columnist. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.
If You Go
What: "Classical Mystery Tour," final concert for 2021-22 Abilene Philharmonic season
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Abilene Convention Center, 1100 North Sixth St.
Tickets: Range to $47.50, depending on main floor or balcony location. Student tickets are $5.
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Get back to the Beatles with not one but two events this weekend
