Did you know Wiltshire boasts the UK’s only female Beatles tribute? Couldn’t let this be, so had a chat with manager Roger, so far failed to hold the ladies’ hands though!
Royal Wootton Bassett musician, Roger Mepstead promotes tribute acts. In the past we’ve mentioned Olya & The Bond Girls, and we love Sophia Bovell as Sugar Motown, also on the books are the Abbaholics, Dire Straits tribute The Sultans of Swing and a Carpenters one too. But I’m here to mention to The Beatelles, an all-female Beatles tribute act, because it certainly defines Roger’s ethos of creating tributes with a difference and here’s a quirky group of ladies having a whole lot of fun.
“They love every minute of it,” Roger confirmed, “strange thing is that they sing them all in the original key of each song.”
“Surely that’s not “strange;” that’s a good thing?!” I responded.
Roger chuckled, “I meant the Beatles sang rather high!”
The Facebook page for Beatelles boasts they’re the only female Beatles tribute in the UK; story checks out with some Google action, despite others elsewhere. “there’s one in Belgium and one in New York,” Roger clarified, though they hardly look old enough to have witness Beatlemania first hand. I wonder if the Beatelles did, but I’m too much of a gent to ask a lady’s age!
Jane, Carolyn, Trudie, Linda and Sara cover the Beatles catalogue over the era’s changes with sass, comical charm, but talented precision too. “Between two sets,” Roger explained, “we’ve split the songs between performance songs, first half, and studio songs second half. If you remember, they stopped performing because they couldn’t hear themselves play; screaming girls, etc.” Blinking cheek I reckon, sorry but I don’t remember, but my mum would; she was one of the screaming girls!
As our debate for the worth of the tribute act continues, I reckon adding twists (and shouts…sorry!) like this are idiosyncratic, and fun; I love, love them do! You can catch the girls at the Phoenix Bar in Wotton Bassett on the 30th November.
Adverts and That
