We’re in the thick of the pre-Christmas December period, and in Sheffield that means it’s time for our annual trip to be cleansed of last-minute shopping worries by the wholly life-affirming Sheffield Beatles Project.
We all have our markers of the festive season – things that get us in the mood for Christmas – and for me this time of year has long been soundtracked by The Beatles. So, a Saturday night at The Octagon to see the Sheffield Beatles Project recreate Abbey Road is a tantalising prospect. It could not get more wholesome.
Before the band launch into the “shoot me’s” of Come Together, kicking off Abbey Road and the second half of the show, there’s some housekeeping – and some pre-interval highlights – to cover.
For the uninitiated, the Sheffield Beatles Project is a 30-plus-piece band made up of a selection of Sheffield’s finest musicians who have, for just under a decade, reinvented the idea of a Beatles cover band. Unlike their contemporaries, there are no mop-top wigs or Scouse accents, and they don’t just play the hits. Once a year, they pick an album and play it in its entirety. The whole shebang.
Last year, for example, they played The White Album in full (yes, everything). Obviously, a mammoth undertaking like that leaves little space for anything else, but as tonight’s focus is The Beatles’ final recorded album – the 47 minutes and 23 seconds of 1969’s Abbey Road – there’s room in the first half to play around with some hits, some very deep cuts, and even some very non-Beatles cuts.
The record-breaking crowd (these shows mark the most tickets they’ve ever sold for one of these Christmas specials, which usually comprise a Saturday night show and a Sunday matinee) are eased in with Hey Bulldog, giving each of the band’s four singers a verse apiece.
The band often sees a few changes, and over the years many of Sheffield’s notable musicians have been involved. Tonight, however, marks the most altered line-up yet, with two newcomers on vocal duty alongside a reshuffle of the backline and orchestral sections. Familiar faces Teah Lewis and Jack Weston return this year, but Laura James and Ad Follet have stepped back (although Ad clearly can’t stay away – I spot him at the front of the audience). In their stead are Sarah Carroll and Louis Romégoux, who more than capably fill the void and bring their own unique takes to familiar tracks.
Among the recognisable moments are wonderfully faithful recreations of Get Back, Across the Universe, The Long and Winding Road and Don’t Let Me Down. Less familiar tracks, like Old Brown Shoe (the B-side to The Ballad of John and Yoko) and George Harrison’s I Me Mine from Let It Be, are afforded the same level of care and reverence.
This section is punctuated by a tribute to the female singers of the ’60s, trailed with a short VT and led by the wonderfully talented Teah Lewis, who admits it was hard to find many female singers from the era who had particularly nice things to say about The Beatles.
Teah opens up the stage to some of Sheffield’s finest female voices, including Rhiannon Scutt, who for me steals the entire evening with a beautiful cover of Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now. Rhiannon’s stillness, poise and Annie Lennox-esque vocal float effortlessly over a stunning arrangement – a moment that will stay with me for a long time.
Then it’s another George Harrison jam, this time of the solo variety with the full band, before we head into the interval.
Following the break, it’s Abbey Road time. If you know the track listing, there are fewer surprises here. Despite this, the bloke behind me is ever so helpfully shouting out the name of each song after its opening notes, as if we’re engaged in a game of “guess the tune from the intro”. He does, however, also point out the merits and talent of bassist Philippe Clegg, so he’s not completely without decorum.
The highlight for me is my favourite track on the album, I Want You (She’s So Heavy) – an eight-minute monster that masterfully captures the feeling of desire using just fifteen words and, incidentally, gives Philippe his moment in the sun on bass.
Abbey Road’s side two – “The Long One” medley – what SBP founder Ben Eckersley calls the “zenith” of Beatles accomplishment, inevitably closes out the show. The performance and weaving together of eight song fragments and two full songs into a continuous piece is executed impeccably, and the level of detail and musicianship achieved in these reproductions, and indeed the entire night, borders on obsession.
The band return for an encore including Hello, Goodbye and Let It Be, before finishing with Jet – from the band The Beatles could have been. We’ll let them off, as it is Christmas.
We leave feeling suitably festive and already looking forward to the special tenth-anniversary show next year.
