By Luke Voogt
For Fabulous Beatle Boys’ John Kater, playing in a tribute act is all about those born too late to experience the originals.
“There are people who want to reminisce and there are people that want to live the moments they missed because they were too young,” he said.
Kater said he couldn’t wait to perform in Geelong to give locals the closest thing to the “four lads from Liverpool”.
The Beatle’s fascinated Kater as a child but he never got to see their musical genius live.
“I was born in ’71 so I missed out but my sisters are considerably older – I used to listen to their vinyls all the time.”
Kater, who plays Paul McCartney, described his band mates as an all-star group drawn from various tribute acts. They formed to get “out of the stale format”, he said.
“Each of us separately was performing in Beatles shows for ages. I’d like to think that as far as tribute bands go we strive for excellence.”
Part of “freshening” the format was imagining what might have been.
“Because they stopped touring in 1966 we wear clothes they might have worn if they kept touring,” Kater said.
The band has played Beatles’ number ones across the country with the Australian Symphony Orchestra. Recently they performed for a sell-out audience of 2000 people at Hamer Hall.
“It was just phenomenal – everyone was standing up and getting into it,” Kater said.
Despite The Beatles’ status as one of the greatest bands of all time, Kater said they were “still underrated”.
“They are the pioneers of so many things in the pop recording world,” he said.
“There are so many layers to them – that’s what I find fascinating.”
The Sydney-based Fabulous Beatle Boys features Chris Frazer as John Lennon, Rod Auld as George Harrison and Nando Pettinato as Ringo Starr.
Kater said they were pumped ahead of their upcoming performance at Geelong Performing Arts Centre on Saturday 15 October.
“You’ve got amazing architecture and food joints, and the crowds are quite good.”
For more information visit gpac.org.au.
