Beatles tribute band from B.C. to perform at Liverpool festival

Meet The Beatles! 

Well, sort of.

Fab Fourever is a Beatles tribute band from the Lower Mainland that will be playing in Liverpool next week as part of the International Beatleweek Festival.

The group consists of Jody Tennant as Paul McCartney, Kevin Davey as John Lennon, Charles Boname as George Harrison and Paul Kaszonyi as Ringo Starr. At International Beatleweek, they'll be the lone Canadian band among 60-plus artists.

As Tennant and Boname told On The Coast's Gloria Macarenko, there's a lot that goes into making a great Beatles tribute act. But for Fab Fourever, it's a labour of love, not a Hard Day's Night.

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What's involved in putting on a Fab Fourever performance?

Boname: There's already been a huge investment in guitar and gear and costumes. We also run a multimedia performance for the shows behind us for the theatre shows that we put on. So we're very much all in. It's as authentic as we can possibly be. We work on the personas, the accents…

Tennant: ...And the mannerisms. The way you move, the way you perform on stage is all part of the act.

Paul McCartney was left-handed, Jody. Are you?

Tennant: No, but on stage I am left-handed, both acoustically and with the bass guitar.

How do you choose an era? Because The Beatles' sound changed so much over the years.

Boname: We tackle the whole 60s decade. For Liverpool we're only doing up until Sergeant Pepper, and that's partially because of the limitations of taking that much gear over there. but we'll be taking, I think, seven or eight guitars with us.

So tell us about the Beatleweek festival. How did you even get on the radar?

Tennant: We've wanted to go there, we've wanted to stretch our wings a little bit. We contacted them last year, and then we were performing last year in Cloverdale at the Clovis Cinema and they were closing it down, and the city wanted us to be the last band on stage for them. And then we got the news just before we got on the stage that a representative from The Cavern was scouting us! So, little bit of nerves. Obviously he enjoyed the show, because we received a telegram in February or March that they want us to come play.

So how would you describe how you're feeling right now in the countdown to the big trip?

Boname: I would say pretty psyched. We know we're good, but I think there's a bit of nervousness for us all as well.

Tennant: I'm excited to learn from other artists out there. It's going to be neat to see what everyone else is doing. I think there's definitely some trepidation going across, but I think once we get there and plant our feet on the cobblestone streets it's going to be an amazing experience.

This interview has been condensed and edited. To hear the full interview, click on: B.C. Beatles tribute act to Get Back to Liverpool for festival