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Beatles band tops of the mop tops
By Dan Craft
dcraft@pantagraph.com
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Bloomington-Normal has seen no dearth of mop-topped Beatles tribute bands during the first decade of the 21st century. Over the past eight years, the Twin Cities has been invaded multiple times by, among others:

• Chicago's American English (performing a free show at 7 p.m. Friday on Peoria's Lakeview Museum lawn)

• Liverpool Legends, managed by George Harrison's Bement-dwelling sister, Louise, and featuring several American English defectors (in fact, they debuted their act at downtown Bloomington's Daddios several years ago)

• British Export, also out of Chicago

• And a nationally touring edition of the tribute show, "Getback!"

They love us, yeah, yeah, yeah -- but is there anything new one of these bands can offer us after so much faux-twisting and shouting? Shouldn't they just let us be?

Ron McNeil, who spends a big chunk of his life as John Lennon these days, doesn't think so. Especially if the band happens to be The Fab Four, the impersonators many learned observers have bequeathed the title of "best Beatle cover band in the world."

Kicking off the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts' fall season at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, the Los Angeles-spawned quartet has become such a phenomenon that they've actually got a second unit of The Fab Four that performs full time in Las Vegas.

But we're getting the original carbons: McNeil's John, along with Ardy Sarraf's Paul, Rolo Sandoval's Ringo and Gavin Leslie's George.

The act is such a "really big shew," The Fab Four are a fantastic five: they tour with an Ed Sullivan impersonator,

granting him emcee honors (he's Jerry Hoban, best known for impersonating the legendary TV variety show host in "Pulp Fiction").

McNeil, too young to have experienced the authentic Beatlemania of the mid-'60s, came into the fold via another brand of Beatlemania: the late-'70s Broadway musical revue of the same name.

"My father took me to see the show," he recalls. McNeil became obsessed with the quartet a generation removed from his own, and was particularly taken with Lennon, whom he learned to mimic down to the last guitar lick.

"This was back before there was a tribute band community of any kind," he notes.

Around 1997, McNeil had become a part of that burgeoning scene in Los Angeles, where he and Sandoval crossed paths with their future Paul McCartney at a Beatles convention.

"This chubby little kid who didn't look like Paul got up on stage. But when he opened his mouth, what came out was so much like Paul that the hair literally stood up on the back of my neck. It was amazing ... I couldn't believe it."

McNeil and Sandoval cornered Sarraf and asked him if wanted to be like Paul on a professional basis. "He said no, he didn't. He didn't want to dress up like Paul and become a part of that whole scene."

After a couple years of persuasion, Sarraf and his amazing sound-alike voice were won over. But "he decided if we were going to be a tribute to the greatest band there ever was, he couldn't be a right-handed version of the world's most famous left-handed bass player."

So Sarraf "worked really hard" at transforming himself from one hand to the other.

After finding their fourth wheel in Gavin Leslie's George Harrison, The Fab Four nailed the sound of the Beatles during their career phases (from the "Ed Sullivan" invasion through the "Abbey Road" exit).

But something was lacking.

"We started playing local clubs around the (L.A.) area, and they were a little cruel to us, saying things like 'my next-door neighbor looks more like George and Ringo than you guys!'"

So they went to a big Hollywood makeup specialist, who visually transformed the quartet via everything from specially tailored wigs (the easy part) to a prosthetic nose (the hard part) for Sandoval's Ringo.

Their upward trajectory was abetted by landing a regular gig in Vegas, which sent the group's reputation soaring. It also earned them celebrity kudos from the likes of The Monkees' Micky Dolenz ("they not only have the Beatles down pat, these four guys are some of the most talented musicians I've ever heard") and KISS's Paul Stanley ("Our jaws dropped, and it's pretty difficult to have our jaws drop.").

Adds McNeil, "It's easy to find one guy who can play Elvis well, but it's quite another to find four guys who can play four Beatles well."



At a glance



What: The Fab Four

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, 110 E. Mulberry St., Bloomington

Tickets: $24.30 to $34.50

Box office number: (866) 686-9541

Related event: Pre-show discussion, "The Beatles and the Spirit of the 1960s," 6:45 p.m., BCPA Ballroom (free)

Take a look
Among Beatles tribute bands, L.A.'s The Fab Four are considered at the head of the class. Pictured, from left, are Ardy Sarraf (Paul), Gavin Leslie (George), Rolo Sandoval (Ringo) and Ron McNeil (John).
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