Mark Benson’s band is far more than jangly guitars and mop-top wigs for the sake of rock reminiscing.
“’1964’ shows the audience what it was like to attend a Beatles concert in the early Sixties,” Benson, who portrays John Lennon, said on the group’s website at 1964web.com, “and generates the same feeling of happiness that is still generated by the music of The Beatles.
“We get so much of this positive energy back from our audiences, it reassures us that for now, we are where we are supposed to be.”
And that means 1964 The Tribute is all over the globe in concert, including an upcoming date at 7 p.m. Jan. 25 at the 2,000-seat Brown County Music Center in Nashville. Performances with the ensemble that has been touring with various members for some 40 years generally include music from 1962 to 1966, according to publicity material.
A promotional video seems to superbly showcase the tight harmonies of their 1964 hit tune “Twist and Shout.”
The idea for the facsimile of the Fab Four: to help people feel the early electricity of the British Invasion that triggered mob scenes and sent screaming teen girls into fits of starry-eyed ecstasy. Granted, for all the gushing praise the band earns for their musical mix, they understandably cannot quite recreate The Beatles’ youth.
Look at a recent comment from one repeat concertgoer on a travel and entertainment site for proof.
“This time we were in the fourth row,” wrote one attendee. “Too close, as you can see how old these lads are after 32 years in the business. Being further back keeps the mystique alive.”
Band members see their role as perhaps more important today than when they first began, given the fact that many of those early shows were captured only on grainy film or in substandard photos.
“We had no idea when we first started this band,” Benson said, “that it would lead to us performing at so many of the venues The Beatles played, like Carnegie Hall, Red Rocks Amphitheater, The Deauville Hotel, Shea Stadium, and The Cavern in Liverpool, England.”
Mac Ruffing portrays Paul McCartney. Ruffing played in several Southern California original, Top 40 and Beatles cover groups, including “Help!,” “Imagine,” “The Yanks” and “ATP”, all while working full time as a land surveyor.
The website reports that Ruffing spent the better part of a year training himself to play the bass guitar left handed, like Paul McCartney. In 1993, he joined the Beatles tribute “Beatlemania Live!”, touring the world. This led to his “passing the audition” in 2009 and joining the touring cast of the Beatles show ‘”Rain” on Broadway and in theaters and performing arts centers all over the world.
Concert regalia sometimes includes copies of the band’s apparel for their Shea Stadium concert in 1965 in New York City. That serves as just a singular example of their sense of imitation that extends to their accents and more. That came out a number of years ago in an interview in The Tulsa World with writer Karen Shade.
“It’s definitely a music gig, but there’s an acting element to it,” said Tom Work, a band member for years off and on until 2022. “None of us is really an actor per se. I probably come closest because I’ve done some plays, just in community theater.
“But there’s some acting. You need to adopt the body language, the speaking voice. Those two things, I guess, for this kind of a role are two aspects that resemble acting. Everything else is more musicianship and vocal impersonation — singing, I mean.”
Plus, courtesy of Indianapolis Colts owner and rock music collector Jim Irsay, band members have gotten a taste of real Beatles’ history by actually playing some of the Beatles’ instruments, such as John Lennon’s 1964 red Rickenbacker and George Harrison’s Harptone acoustic 12-string guitar.
Ruffing was stunned by the experience.
“To see and play such iconic, history making instruments,” he said, “was an unexpected, once-in-a-lifetime treat.”
About the concert
Who: 1964 — The Tribute, a Beatles tribute band.
When: 7 p.m. Jan. 25.
Where: Brown County Music Center, 200 Maple Leaf Drive in Nashville.
Information and tickets: browncountymusiccenter.com.
