The Japanese Beatles

Some weeks ago I had the pleasure to attend a unique event in a semiunique place. I'm talking about The Cavern... in Tokyo. Yes, that's right, a Japanese version of the famous club in Liverpool that also has a Japanese cover band. Of course, it goes without saying that all covers are renditions of Beatles songs. The guy with grey hair is supposed to be the late John Lennon, and the one right next to him is the reincarnation of George Harrison. There's a little flaw in this line-up though, namely: being five people instead of four. Apparently there are two Paul McCartneys. One of them is playing bass next to George, whereas the other one is the organ expert.

I must admit the club itself is expensive and the food is not that great, definitely not a good bang for the... yen. But I thought they were very talented and capable of singing any Beatles song that was requested by the audience. I wasn't sure about what I wanted, but I ended up requesting The Long And Winding Road, which was obviously sung by the organ-player McCartney: I also loved his rendition of Lady Madonna, Penny Lane and Blackbird. One anecdote: in the sheet where you had to write which song you wanted them to play, there was a little "comments" section. So I wrote "gracias (thank you in Spanish)" and George Harrison read it when they handed the paper over to him.

I don't listen to The Beatles music very often, because I had my share when I was younger and all songs are so popular and have been played so many times that is no longer enjoyable. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting experience to watch the Eastern counterpart perform live. Here they are, singing Nowhere Man. The sound was better in situ, of course.