Bands pack Ky. Abbey Road
by Pamela Fisher
Cincinnati Enquirer

Nearly four decades after the Lads from Liverpool broke up, where can you still hear the 13-album Beatles canon live, in one weekend?

At Abbey Road on the River, where an expected 20,000 fans are expected to turn out to hear 64 Beatles tribute bands Memorial Day Weekend (May 24-28) on 10 stages at the Belvedere Festival Park in Louisville.

Where in the world do you find 64 Beatles bands? In every corner of the globe, it seems.

"Our first year, we committed to book 20 bands, and it was hard," says festival founder and producer Gary Jacob, of Cleveland.

"This year, we've got 64 bands coming from all over the world: Japan, U.K., Greece, Czech Republic."

In fact, he has turned away 100 bands this sixth year of the festival.

It is now the second largest Beatles festival in the world - the largest is the Liverpool festival each August, now in its 24th year.

Jacob is especially enthusiastic about recreating "Love" soundtrack to the Cirque du Soleil show live onstage.

"We're recreating this one long song that was meant to be a studio piece, by Sir George Martin," he said.

"We've recharted the entire album so all of strings and horns are charted. Other than Sir George (Martin), we're the only other people with charts in the world."

And it takes 31 people onstage to pull it off. "Onstage, we've been able to reproduce the complete studio sound with computers and synthesizers, four bands, three keyboards, seven strings and horns," he says.

Jacob is delighted that a new generation of fans is discovering the Fab Four, noting that many 17- to 25-year-olds are coming, making the event multigenerational.

"I watched them on Ed Sullivan and have been in love with their music since I first heard it at 14 years old," he reminisces. "We really do believe that because they made the world a better place.

"We can experience the Beatles gift to us of peace, love and nonviolence - it's much more than bands just playing their songs, something much more going on."

And this year the festival marks the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love with tributes to the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, the Mama & the Papas, the Who, the Kinks, and more on Memorial Day.

IF YOU GO

What: Abbey Road on the River

When: 4-11 p.m. Thursday, noon to 2 a.m. Friday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday

Where: Belvedere Festival Park, Fifth and Main streeets, and the Galt House Hotel & Suites. Fourth and and Main streets, Louisville.

Tickets: $15 advance, $20 day of show, $5 children 6 to 18, free under age 5. $199.95 a person buys five-day admission to main lawn concerts and Galt Hotel concerts, Thursday preview, Monday's Summer of Love Concert, sneak preview of "Sgt. Pepper" Tribute and "Love" recreation album, plus ticket to the Ali Center and VIP tent access.

Information: 216-378-1980; www.abbeyroadontheriver.com

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