Sir Richard Starkey, known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, usually for one song on each album, including "Yellow Submarine" and "With a Little Help from My Friends". He also wrote and sang the Beatles songs "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden", and is credited as a co-writer of four others.
A tribute act, tribute band or tribute group is a music group, singer, or musician who specifically plays the music of a well-known music act. Tribute acts include individual performers who mimic the songs and style of an artist, such as Elvis impersonators covering the works of Elvis Presley or groups like The Iron Maidens, an all-female band that pays tribute to Iron Maiden.
Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom throughout 1963, propelled by the singles "Please Please Me", "From Me to You" and "She Loves You". By October, the press adopted the term "Beatlemania" to describe the scenes of adulation that attended the band's concert performances. From the start of 1964, their world tours were characterised by the same levels of hysteria and high-pitched screaming by female fans, both at concerts and during the group's travels. Commentators likened the intensity of this adulation to a religious fervour and to a female masturbation fantasy. Among the displays of deity-like worship, fans would approach the band in the belief that they possessed supernatural healing powers.
The Bootleg Beatles are a Beatles tribute band. They have performed over 4,000 times since their establishment in March 1980.
Beatlemania was a Broadway musical revue focused on the music of the Beatles as it related to the events and changing attitudes of the tumultuous 1960s. A "rockumentary," advertised as "Not the Beatles, but an incredible simulation," it ran from May 1977 to October 1979 for a total of 1,006 performances.
"Act Naturally" is a song written by Johnny Russell, with a writing credit given to Voni Morrison and publishing rights transferred to Buck Owens. It was originally recorded by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, whose version reached number one on the Billboard Country Singles chart in 1963, his first chart-topper. In 2002, Shelly Fabian of About.com ranked the song number 169 on her list of the Top 500 Country Music Songs.
Birth of the Beatles is a 1979 biographical film, produced by Dick Clark Productions and directed by Richard Marquand. The film was released into cinemas worldwide, except in the United States, where it was shown as a TV film on ABC. The film focuses on the early history of the Beatles. It was released nine years after the announced break-up of the Beatles themselves, and is the only Beatles biopic to be made while John Lennon was still alive. Pete Best, the Beatles' original drummer, served as a technical advisor for the production.
The Cast of Beatlemania is a U.S. Beatles' tribute band formed in 1980. The Cast is one of longest running Beatles' tribute band in the world. The group features founder Lenie Colacino, a former cast member of the 1977 Broadway hit musical Beatlemania. The group has performed in all contiguous U.S. states, and over twenty foreign countries, including Canada, England, Mexico, Central and South America, Brazil and Japan.
The Beatles staged their second concert tour of the United States in the late summer of 1965. At the peak of American Beatlemania, they played a mixture of outdoor stadiums and indoor arenas, with historic concerts at Shea Stadium in New York and the Hollywood Bowl. Typically of the era, the tour was a "package" presentation, with several artists on the bill. The Beatles played for just 30 minutes at each show, following sets by support acts such as Brenda Holloway and the King Curtis Band, Cannibal & the Headhunters, and Sounds Incorporated.
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. With a line-up comprising John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, they are commonly regarded as the most influential band of all time. Between 1964 and 1970, they appeared in five major motion pictures, beginning with A Hard Day's Night (1964) and ending with Let It Be (1970). From late 1965 to 1969, the group also appeared in several promotional films for their singles, which have been credited with anticipating music videos and the rise of MTV in the 1980s.
The Beatles Anthology is a documentary television series on the career of the Beatles. It was broadcast on UK television in eight parts on ITV between 26 November and 31 December 1995, while in the United States it was seen as three feature-length episodes on ABC between 19 and 23 November 1995. It was released in greatly expanded form as an eight-volume VHS set and an eight-disc Laserdisc set on 5 September 1996. The series was re-released on DVD in 2003, with an 81-minute special-features disc.
Les Fradkin is an American MIDI guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He is best known for being a member of the original cast of the hit Broadway show Beatlemania. In addition to playing MIDI guitar, he plays 12 string guitar, the Starr Labs Ztar, guitar synthesizer, SynthAxe, Hammond organ, Mellotron, piano, bass guitar, and Moog synthesizer.
Tony Kishman is an American vocalist, bassist, pianist & guitarist, most noted for his work with Wishbone Ash and the musical Beatlemania.
The Beatles were originally a quartet, but only two of the members remain. John Lennon was murdered in December 1980, and George Harrison succumbed to lung cancer in 2001. There have been numerous tributes to both of them.
Michael Bellusci is a drummer/musician best known for his work with the post 1984 touring company of the Broadway Musical "Beatlemania" and the bands "Strawberry Fields", "Get With It" and "Shock".
Let It Be is a West End and Broadway concert revue based on the career of English rock band, The Beatles, from 1962 to their breakup in 1970.
The Fest for Beatles Fans is a twice-annual, three-day festival that honors the lasting legacy of the Beatles. The festival takes place in the New York metropolitan area, ordinarily in March or April, and in Chicago, Illinois, each August. Running Friday through Sunday, the Fest features special guests, live concerts, exhibits, art contests, a Beatles marketplace, a sound-alike contest, a Battle of the Beatles Bands, and more.
The Beatles' 1965 tour of the United Kingdom was a concert tour that took place between 3 and 12 December 1965, comprising 18 shows at nine venues across England, Scotland and Wales. It coincided with the release of the Beatles' studio album Rubber Soul and their double A-side single "Day Tripper" / "We Can Work It Out", and was the final UK tour undertaken by the band. Weary of Beatlemania, the group conceded to do the tour but refused to also perform a season of Christmas concerts as they had done over the 1963–64 and 1964–65 holiday seasons.
The Beatles made several appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, including three in February 1964 that were among their first appearances in front of an American audience. Their first appearance, on February 9, was seen by a then-record 73 million viewers and came to be regarded as a cultural watershed that launched American Beatlemania—as well as the wider British Invasion of American pop music—and inspired many young viewers to become rock musicians. The band also made another appearance during their 1965 U.S. tour.
