Ardavan Sarraf Ron McNeil Adam Hastings Gavin Pring Jonathan Fickes Neil Candelora Robbie Berg Erik Fidel Joseph Bologna Richard Lewis
Past members
David Brighton Graham Alexander Gilbert Bonilla Chris Colon Joshua Jones Miles Frizzell Doug Couture Tyson Kelly Rolo Sandoval Brendan Peleo Lazar Michael Amador Luis Renteria Frankee Mendonça Frank Canino Jim Owen Joe Gallo Steve Landes John Auker Steve Craig Tony Felicetta Brad Brunsdon
The show is a faithfully detailed chronological history of the Beatles from their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show to their breakup in 1970. The show has brief on-stage banter and interactions with the audience directly, but otherwise very little dialogue, mainly reenacting songs that the Beatles performed live along with songs from the members' solo works after the breakup. The band never uses pre-recorded tracks or a backstage fifth member, relying on the members to use keyboards to produce background instruments in songs like "Strawberry Fields Forever".[3][4][5]
Since then, the Fab Four became globally famous and received critical acclaim from critics, audiences, and fans for its faithful recreation of the Beatles' live performances, including performing multiple residencies in Disneyland[6] and Las Vegas,[7] performing at various Beatles-themed and musical festivals, performing for numerous celebrities including those who are in the Beatles' innercircle,[8] and winning an Emmy award for their 2012 PBSTV special.[9] The band has since toured across the U.S. and Canada, and occasionally performed outside North America.
The band is considered by several news outlets and critics to be one of the best Beatles tribute bands of all time.[10][11][12][13] According to McNeil, he mentioned that "It's no big secret that our rivals are a group called Rain", being the band's main competitor Rain: A Tribute to The Beatles.[14]
According to the Los Angeles Times, the band was nicknamed "The Best Beatles Show in The World."[15] According to Sarraf, Paul McCartney's touring band has copies of the Fab Four's CDs on their tour bus.[16]
History
1997-2005: Formation and early touring years
In pre-1997, Ron McNeil and his friends Michael Amador and Rolo Sandoval formed the Fab Four after noticing then 25 year old Ardavan Sarraf perform "Coming Up" impersonating as Paul McCartney during a sound alike competition at The Fest for Beatles Fans (formerly Beatlesfest) in Los Angeles. “He sounded so much like Paul my hair stood up on the back of my neck,” McNeil said. “I couldn’t believe it.” Sarraf, a natural right-hander, taught himself to play the bass guitar left-handed to emulate McCartney, though he was playing right handed and not impersonating as McCartney at the time McNeil first met him.[17][18][19][20][21]
McNeil said when he asked Sarraf about joining his band, at first he declined. However, after many phone calls conversations, he said yes. According to McNeil in an email interview, the original members of the band (including McNeil and Sarraf) were in separate bands before forming the Fab Four.[22] McNeil was originally in a band called Imagine: A Tribute to The Beatles in 1992.[23]
McNeil, Sandoval, and Sarraf then recruited musician David Brighton to portray George Harrison and formed the Fab Four, which McNeil nicknamed "The Ultimate Beatles Tribute Band."[2] The band's beginnings included Tuesday night performances at a small 50s-60s venue called Music City in Fountain Valley, a weekend residency at Disneyland's Tomorrowland Terrace in Anaheim from 1998 to 2005,[6] The Hop in Puente Hills, and Scruffy O’Sheas in Marina del Rey.[24]
In 1998, Brighton left the band to become a David Bowie impersonator.[25] Amador took his place before leaving to work backstage as technical director and later as their manager in 2008, leaving Liverpool-born Gavin Pring, then 31, to take his place.[26] In 2011, Sandoval retired from the band, but still works backstage as a sound engineer and tour manager and sometimes fills in as Starr; he was replaced by Sacramento-born Erik Fidel, then 21. Fidel does not have a big nose but takes 90 minutes to put on a prosthetic.[18]
2005-2008: Las Vegas residency and rotating cast
From 2005 to 2008, the Fab Four brought in a second cast of musicians to help perform a full stage residency six nights a week in Las Vegas, with various members alternating between the casts. Performing as Fab Four Mania, the Las Vegas cast performed regularly at locations such as the Las Vegas Hilton,[27]the Aladdin,[28]the Sahara[7][29] and the Riviera.[30] Notable members of the cast included Joseph Bologna, who formerly performed with Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles on Broadway and 1964 the Tribute, as Starr; Steve Landes, formerly a cast member of Beatlemania, as Lennon; and Frankee Mendonça, McNeil's younger brother, as McCartney. Shortly after 2008, the original cast (McNeil, Sarraf, Amador, and Sandoval) began touring nationwide and occasionally internationally.
2008-2020: PBS special and later touring years
In July 12th, 2013, the PBS special The Fab Four: The Ultimate Tribute (starring McNeil, Sarraf, Pring, and Fidel), filmed at Pechanga Resort Casino on January 6, 2012, received an regionalEmmy Award for special events coverage. Travis Fox, founder of the special's producer, MindFox Productions, received the Emmy on behalf of the production.[31][9][32] McNeil currently owns the statuette in his home in St Louis.[19]
In 2018, McNeil said, "After 25 years, I want to be home a little more. But I'm still president of the company, and everybody who started this with me are still my business partners, even though only Ardy's still on stage. So it'll be carrying on, which is great." He approved of Newcastle-born Adam Hastings (originally from the Bootleg Beatles) as his replacement, though McNeil comes back to perform whenever Hastings is unavailable.[33] From January 2018 to March 2020, the regular lineup consisted of Sarraf (McCartney), Hastings (Lennon), Pring (Harrison), and Bologna (Starr).
2020-present: Pandemic and recent years
From 2020 to 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fab Four live-streamed numerous concerts at their headquarters in Westminster, with McNeil, Sandoval, and Fidel coming back. From late 2020-2022, the lineup consisted of McNeil (Lennon), Sarraf (McCartney), Pring (Harrison), and Sandoval (Starr).
Starting in late 2020, as the lockdown was slowing down, the band started to tour nationwide and occasionally performed out of country, with most of the members rotating and performing whether the core actor is out sick or is on vacation starting in 2021. As of 2025, the regular lineup consisted of McNeil (Lennon), Sarraf (McCartney), Pring (Harrison), and Fidel (Starr).
George Trullinger and Jeff DeHart portray Ed Sullivan as the MC of Fab Four shows, in reference to the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. The first actor to portray Sullivan was Jerome Patrick Hoban, who was best known for playing a Ed Sullivan impersonator in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction. Hoban died in May 2015; the Fab Four dedicated the song "In My Life" to him from 2015 until 2022. In September 2023, the Fab Four's first manager, Mike Dixon, died.[34] "In My Life" was dedicated to him in subsequent concerts during the group's 2023 Rubber Soul tour.[35]
Side projects
The Fab Four: The Ultimate Tribute
The Fab Four: The Ultimate Tribute is a PBSmusicalTV special that was aired on various PBS stations nationwide in June 3rd, 2012 that lasted an hour and one minute long.[36] The cast featured McNeil as Lennon, Sarraf as McCartney, Pring as Harrison, and Fidel as Starr. The special was filmed at Pechanga Resort & Casino on January 6th, 2012.[37][38][39] The special received critical acclaim from critics and audiences for capturing it's "note-to-note, uncanny renditions of the Beatles' classics live on stage", receiving a rating of 7.8/10 on IMDb.[40] The special was a major factor in the Fab Four's global success, eventually receiving an Emmy award in July 12th, 2013 for "Special Events Coverage", with Travis Fox, founder of the special's producer, MindFox Productions, receiving the award on behalf of the production.[32] The band later displayed their Emmy award on their social media pages.
Fab Four Mania
Fab Four Mania was a theatrical residency that lasted from 2005 to 2008, performing various shows at several resorts in the Las Vegas strip. As the Fab Four was becoming popular throughout the US West Coast (mainly California), they signed a four-year contract with Las Vegas to perform a full show six nights a week at various theaters, bringing the Fab Four to bring in several musicians to perform several shows a night, with some rotating each gig. The cast performed regularly at locations such as the Las Vegas Hilton,[27]The Aladdin,[28]The Sahara[7][29] and The Riviera.[30] The band's residency was successful and received positive reviews from critics, and was a major factor for the Fab Four's global success. Despite the production ending in 2008, the regular and soon rotating cast of the Fab Four sometimes returns to Vegas to perform.[41]
George Harrison impersonator and Liverpool native, Gavin Pring, created a tribute act called "George Harry's Son" to celebrate Harrison's solo material, as well as his hits from the Beatle years. Pring has brought this act to the top Beatles music festivals, including the annual Beatleweek in Liverpool[48] at the Mathew Street Festival and Abbey Road on the River in the United States.
The Monkee Men
In Summer of 2020, McNeil decided to form a Monkees tribute band as he was a fan of the band growing up. Calling it The Monkee Men, the band covers most of The Monkees' original songs and the show is interactive. The Monkee Men originally performed as an opening act for the Fab Four in 2023 before they independently started touring nationwide starting in 2025. The band's original and current touring cast consists of Frankee Mendonça as Davy Jones, Jonathan Fickes as Peter Tork, Doug Couture as Michael Nesmith, and Joshua Jones as Micky Dolenz, with McNeil and Matthew Hickman providing backup support as the "5th and 6th Monkees", respectively.[49][50] The band has been approved by Dolenz with his "full blessing" according to McNeil in an interview in August 2023.[51]
50 Summers of Love
In Summer of 2017, The Fab Four were approached by Micky Dolenz of The Monkees and Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & the Raiders to perform a set of professional Off-Broadway performances celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love for a nationwide tour called 50 Summers of Love from 2017 to 2018. Performing as the backup band, the performance first started with The Fab Four in their Sgt. Pepper's era before donning Raiders costumes, with Dolenz and Lindsay appearing to play both Monkees and Raiders hits, respectively. The lineup included McNeil as Lennon, Candelora as McCartney, Couture as Harrison/Nesmith, and Bologna as Starr. The premiere was on July 14th, 2017 in San Diego, California, with Dolenz and Lindsay both reuniting onstage. Among the attendees was basketball legend Bill Walton.[52][53][54][55]
Rutlemania
In 2007, The Fab Four were approached by Eric Idle from the British comedy group Monty Python to perform a set of professional Off-Broadway shows celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Rutles, a Beatles parody group formed in 1975 by Idle and Neil Innes. The show, Rutlemania, featured the band (at the time The Prefab Four) McNeil as Ron Nasty (originally played by Innes), Sarraf as Dirk McQuickly (Idle), Amador as Stig O’Hara (Ricky Fataar) and Sandoval as Barry Wom (John Halsey), and was performed multiple nights in both Los Angeles[56][57][58] and New York. Idle, Innes, Fataar, and Halsey attended the premiere at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles on Saint Patrick's Day, 2008. The Rutles wrote positivity of it, and stayed for a after-party Q&A, along with posing with pictures of the band.[59][60][61][62]
Performed as the featured event at a charity gala for Leukemia research for over 20 years in Fort Worth, Texas called the "Beatleukemia Ball". In 2005, they rose over $144,000 for Leukemia research and patient aid.[72][73]
Featured (McNeil, Sarraf, Pring, and Fidel) in their own PBS special called The Fab Four: The Ultimate Tribute, filmed at Pechanga Resort & Casino in January 2012.[80]
Performed at an unveiling of Madame Tussaud's Beatles wax figures, when the figures were brought to Las Vegas from London for a short exhibit in 2012.[82]
Performed (Kelly, Candelora, Couture, and Bologna) at the Dodgers Stadium in August 26th, 2016 at a pre game show before a game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs in honour of the Beatles' 50th anniversary of performing at the stadium in 1966.[83][84] They have also performed for Dodgers sportscaster Vin Scully.[85]
Performed for Cynthia Lennon, Lennon's first wife, who said that the show "immediately brought back great memories."[8]
Performed (McNeil, Mendonça, Couture, Bologna, and Fickes) with Micky Dolenz in 2022. Four out of the five (McNeil, Mendonça, Couture, and Fickes) later became members of The Monkee Men.[88]
Interviewed (McNeil, Sarraf, Pring, Sandoval, Mendonça, and Bonilla) on the weekly radio show Breakfast with the Beatles, hosted by Chris Carter in July 2013.[90] They also performed on the rooftop of Carter's 50th birthday party at his house in 2009.[91]
In 2008, all songs from both albums were digitally remastered and released on a single album entitled HARK!,[92] available on Amazon, iTunes and The Fab Four's official website. The compilation includes the bonus tracks "Sleigh Ride" and "The First Noel", in the style of "Lady Madonna" and "Let It Be", respectively.[93]
The soundtrack to the PBS special The Fab Four: The Ultimate Tribute, recorded live at Pechanga Resort & Casino in January 6th, 2012. Available exclusively on CD at the Fab Four's official website.[96]
Personnel
Ron McNeil – Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Harmonica
Ardavan Sarraf – Vocals, Bass, Keyboards, Guitar
Gavin Pring – Vocals, Lead Guitar, Keyboards, Sitar
12The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Pacific Southwest Chapter (2014-02-01). "2013 Emmy Award Winners"(PDF). nataspw.org. Retrieved 2014-11-15.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
