US fab four tribute bring all their loving

Aug 10 2007 by Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post

Philip Key finds out why America’s biggest mop-top copies are in Liverpool for the first time finds out why America’s biggest mop-top copies are in Liverpool for the first time

PEOPLE have taken sand to the Sahara, ice to Alaska and coals to Newcastle. But how about an American Beatles tribute band in Liverpool?

It is not as daft as it sounds. The tribute band in question, Rain, has been the biggest and most successful Beatles band in the USA for over two decades..

They have toured the world, even played an occasional date in London. But they have never been to Liverpool until now.

They have landed a special date at the Liverpool Empire on Saturday, August 25, as part of Beatles Week, a curtain-raiser to a date the following Monday at the same venue with genuine veterans Gerry Marsden and the Pacemakers, Mike Pender’s Searchers, The Undertakers and Karl Terry and the Cruisers.

But Rain is rather more than a curtain raiser, a huge success in their own right with a big multi-media show, Rain: The Beatles Experience.

I caught up with them in Atlantic City where Joey Curatolo – the “Paul” of the group – was as excited as he could be about coming to Liverpool.

While the band has never played in the city, Curatolo has visited in a personal capacity, the last time after recording a tribute to Linda McCartney at London’s Abbey Road studios. “Once I had recorded I had a little holiday and checked out your part of the woods,” he tells me. “As you guys say, I fancy it. It was beautiful.”

While the band has travelled the world for the last 20 years, he says it was unfortunate they have never been to Liverpool before because there were so many other bands. “But when we were asked to do it for Liverpool’s birthday year and they could not get Paul, Ringo and all the other stuff, we thought it was due time for us to arrive.”

For New York-born Curatolo, his Beatles destiny began as a teen playing in a group called Fandango – which was heavily influenced by The Beatles – around New York clubs .

“I was at the first Beatles Festival in New York City, and my friends without my knowing it entered me in a Beatles sound-alike contest as Paul and I took first place,” he recalls.

A little later he went to college but had already decided on a music career. He says: “One day I walked past a recording studio that had a window open and heard some Beatles music.

“I went to investigate and it was a Thursday when they happened to be auditioning people. As I went in, someone said: ‘Are you here for Paul?’ So I said ‘yes’. I did a medley and six weeks later I was in Los Angeles.”

Keyboard player Mark Lewis put together a Beatles band named Reign, with Curatolo involved. “Of course, the newspaper misspelled it at the time so it just stuck as Rain.” Happily, Rain is also the title of a Beatles song.

Rain provided the soundtrack to a television film, Birth of the Beatles, as well as doing the Broad- way Beatlemania show and, when the musical closed, the band went out as an act in its own right. “We started as a showroom band but, over the years, we have become a theatre rock concert act, if you will,” he says.

Like the real Beatles, they also had their own tragedy with their John Lennon, played by the unfortunately named Jim Riddle, who was the band’s Lennon for ten years. Curatolo says: “He passed away prematurely with a brain tumour which was a shock to us all. It was just seven months from when he was first diagnosed.

“He was the spitting image of John and his name gives you a rough idea of his personality. We were lucky to replace him with Steve Landes, who has done a magnificent job.”

Apart from Riddle, the band has remained the same with Joe Bithorn as George, Ralph Castelli as Ringo and Mark Lewis doing the arrangements on keyboards.

Unusually, the band never refer to themselves under the Beatles names. “We would never stoop so low as to call ourselves John, Paul, George, and Ringo,” says Curatolo. “That is not what we are about.” The band even retains the name Rain on stage. They have made some look-alike films, played as part of the show, including the band’s arrival at the airport in America and their first press conference. But it is always as Rain.

The show, says Curatolo, is a multi-media experience and covers the band’s history from their first appearance on America’s Ed Sullivan Show (Curatolo was aged six at the time) through to Shea Stadium, Sergeant Pepper, the Magical Mystery Tour, the flower power period, Abbey Road and Let It Be. “Involves a lot of wigs and facial hair,” Curatolo explains.

They play The Beatles’ music note for note. “Even the mistakes on the recordings we try to emulate as the fans want to hear every nuance.”

He has his own theory why the Beatles music has survived so long. “They were the pied pipers of a generation,” he says. “They were the voice, the soundtrack of our lives and will stand the test of time. In 200 years, people will be studying Lennon and McCartney like they study Mozart and Beethoven today. “In fact, I look on the music as a classical musician looks on classical music.

“We don’t have the greats like Mozart and Beethoven today but we do have people who devote their lives to studying their music so they can perform, it for a younger generation. ”

The night before we talk, they have played in Atlantic City where a 15-year-old was on his feet with his grandmother with the song Hey Jude.”It is a music for all generat- ions,” says Curatolo. “We are still young enough and inspired enough to play.”

RAIN – The Beatles Experience is at the Liverpool Empire on August 25.

philkey@dailypost.co.uk