Ron McNeil was raised on his older sister’s record albums.
Her collection of The Beatles, The Monkees and Paul Revere and the Raiders ended up with him.
“I borrowed her records and never gave them back. I had to deal with her ‘I love Pauls’ written on the jackets,” said McNeil who started The Fab Four-The Ultimate Tribute close to 30 years ago with Ardy Sarraf.
The Fab Four -The Ultimate Tribute returns to the Columbia County Performing Arts Center on Nov. 23 with a new show called “USA Meets The Beatles,” which celebrates the band’s first visit to the United States with performances from “The Ed Sullivan Show” and the “Meet The Beatles” album. For ticket information, go here.
The show includes one additional song from the era after The Beatles broke up – “Imagine.”
While he had an appreciation for The Beatles and was a fan of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, it wasn’t until John Lennon was gunned down that McNeil turned his sights to Lennon, who McNeil portrays in the tribute band.
“I thought the song was so important to put into The Beatles show. I thought it meant so much to John. It was based on Yoko’s poem. It’s ironic how he was talking about peace and love and people getting together, and he was brutally murdered,” said McNeil who was about 15 when Lennon died.
McNeil and Sarraf met at a Beatles convention.
“I saw Ardy at the sound-alike contest. He was there with his band,” he said. “He sounded just like Paul McCartney and was giving the audience chills.”
The year before McNeil had won the same contest except for his version of Lennon.
That led to the longtime partnership. Over the years, they’ve added other performers to fill roles of George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
McNeil said the four musicians on stage play everything without any backing tracks or additional performers. It’s not a play, but it’s a concert with some dialogue added from different recordings of concerts or appearances.
And there’s a lot of interaction with the audience.
The group appeared in Evans in December 2023 and played The Beatles “Rubber Soul” album. McNeil said they try to come up with something new each year to give audiences a new experience.
The concert will include The Beatles’ classics such as “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Yesterday,” “A Day In The Life,” “Twist And Shout,” “Here Comes The Sun” and “Hey Jude” and includes three costume changes representing every era of The Beatles’ career.
The band has played all over the globe in countries such as Japan, Australia, France, Hong Kong, The United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico and Brazil,
The Fab Four provided motion capture performances for the Cirque du Soleil Beatles LOVE Show’s 10th anniversary revamp in 2017 and for “The Beatles: Rock Band” music game, released in 2009. The group recorded the soundtrack for the CBS-TV movie, “The Linda McCartney Story,” according to a news release.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years and is a Georgia Press Association award winner. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
