Beginning Tuesday, Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles begins a special engagement on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theater through Jan. 9. It's a big step for a band that started out doing complete Beatles shows to give the band a gig on its nights off.
Manager and founding member Mark Lewis, who plays keyboards with the band now, says Rain certainly didn't start out as a Beatles tribute. "Rain was a Beatles band from the Southern California Los Angeles/Orange County area, but the Beatles thing was something we did for fun," he told us in a recent phone interview. "Rain used to do all kinds of music, our own music plus a lot of Beatles because we were big Beatles fans."
He said the group then decided to add a full Beatles set to their shows. "Eventually, it was that we’d do an early Beatles set, then we’ll do some of their later Beatles. And a nightclub owner and agent decided, ‘Well, why don’t we promote it as ‘Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles’ and give them one of the emptier nights of the week, like a Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday night and make it a Beatles night. And we went and did that in Southern California at a nightclub called the Mine Shaft in Calabasas. He promoted it for a couple of weeks and we didn’t know what to expect. We invited some friends and it figured it would be just us and our friends playing Beatles music. To our surprise, the place was packed to the gills."
Word began to get around about Rain and it led to their being hired to do the music for the TV movie "Birth of the Beatles," which aired in 1979. "We started to get a reputation around L.A. And then it turns out Dick Clark was looking for a band to do the sound track to 'Birth of the Beatles.' He had the actors, an all-English cast. And he couldn’t get the rights to use actual Beatles masters. He didn’t want to use the Beatles masters because it was supposed to take place in the Cavern and in Germany and in different nightclubs where they played live and in the studio.
"And he needed a band who sounded like the Beatles. And he came out and saw us. He gave us an assignment, three or four songs to do. It was “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Please Please Me,” “From Me to You,” something like that. And he said, 'Go in on your own as an audition and recreate these songs for me. And we did. He thought it was great."
Lewis says the movie, directed by Richard Marquand, who later did "Return of the Jedi," provided a nice avenue of recognition for Rain even before it aired. "Because Apple was not behind or supportive of (the movie), (Dick Clark) got into a bit of a legal clash with Apple. And part of their settlement was there had to be a disclaimer in every ad that said because the music sounded so good and so authentic to tell people that they didn’t want the people to be fooled that the Beatles were involved. So they had to put a disclaimer that the music is not performed by the Beatles. It’s performed by a band called Rain. So every ad, whether it be vocally stated over a trailer on ABC or in the newspaper, the name Rain was in it. So we got this huge amount of publicity out of it and out of that, all of a sudden, people were starting to call me that weren’t returning my phone calls prior to that."
Why hasn't the movie been released on DVD? Lewis thinks the legal settlement regarding the movie may have something to do with it. "A lot of people have emailed me and asked ‘Where can I get it?,’" he says. "You can find copies on eBay and stuff, but they’re all pirated and very poor quality. And maybe somewhere down the line, they’ll release it. I haven't been notified of any plan at this point to release it on DVD."
How does Rain put together a show to pay tribute to the Beatles? "We pretty much dissect the music. You take a song like 'Eleanor Rigby, which featured a string quartet. We’ve taken a string quartet into a recording studio and had them play all of the part all the way through. And then we isolate the parts and we sample them onto a keyboard. And we play them. And the sound, the exact vibrato, the way the vibrato is played on the violin, we had the guy play it. We go to exact details to try to get every single part and make it sound authentic. Now vocally is a different story. We just listen over and over and practice over and over and try to figure out exactly what they’re doing and who’s doing what."
Anyone who follows the concert industry knows that Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles has been listed regular in the top 20 concert acts in the nation alongside such names as Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. What is Rain doing so right?
"I think there’s a couple of different reasons. One is we’re doing a lot of shows. We’ve also grown our show to make it a really accessible, entertaining. We’ve tested it in so many forms and done this for so long. Plus," says Lewis, "it’s been a really tough environment to sell a hard ticket. Sting could go out there with the Police and pack places. The Eagles could still do it. Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga. There aren’t a lot of these acts (that could)."
But, he says, "the Beatles’ music is so great and so accessible and people love it. The Beatles, remember, are a band that sat down consciously and decided that they were not going to tour any more and they were going to become a studio band. They were going to do music the way they wanted to do music. And they weren’t going to worry about recreating it live or going out on the road any more. And that left a huge void. Everybody bought their records, but nobody could go see them live, even when they were still together. So what they did was opened this window of opportunity for somebody who loves the Beatles to figure out a way to put together a band to fill that void. And I think that’s what Rain has done the best job of doing and is recognized. And that’s what accounts for our success."
Those who see the show on Broadway will see a slightly different version from upcoming road versions, such as in San Jose, New Orleans and Wilmington, Del. "Because it’s sitting so long – we’re doing a minimum three-month run (in New York) -- we’re able to bring in more bells and whistles because we don’t have to pack them into a truck and move them to the next town. We’ve kind of upped some of the production values of the show. The song list and the presentation is basically the same. Basically, you’re getting the Broadway show in San Jose, but not some of the props and bells and whistles that comes with the show that sits in one place."
And even though he doesn't play one of the Beatles himself, what does it feel like to be the Beatles in a tribute band? "I’m doing the same exact gig that I would be doing if I were hired as a fifth guy with the actual Beatles. I wouldn’t be doing my gig any differently if the Beatles decided to tour in 1975 and said let’s have a guy do keyboards with us that we could do all the music. What happens is you really become emotionally involved in the show. You feel the vibe from the audience that they’re having a really wonderful experience.
"We’re huge fans first of the Beatles," he says. "So if you’re going to go up there and pretend to be a Beatle, you want to do it right. And when you’re playing the music right and you’re singing the parts right, and you’ve got a really well-produced show, and you have an audience that’s going nuts, what’s better than that?"
For more information on Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles, go to www.raintribute.com.
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Comments
Elvis coat show anyone?
When you have seen the real deal, tribute bands won't do.
Rain is very successful, but one wonders if they weren't pretending to be the Beatles if they could sustain musical careers on their own merits.
I had the pleasure of seeing Rain in College Station Texas, and was very favorably impressed. I'm a first generation Beatles devotee. Granted, it is not the Beatles; you know it, and you can hear from the vocal timbre that the voice on "Girl" or "Penny Lane" or "Something" isn't that voice you've heard a thousand times over 45 years. But the musical chops are nothing to be dismissed. These Guys could have a healthy career as studio pros. The whole show was staged very well, even as a one-off night, and we left thinking "That's why the music of the Beatles still moves me all those years later."
I haven't had the pleasure to witness Rain-tribute, but have seen 1964 the Tribute over half a dozen times, and have been very impressed. Liverpool Legends also, I have seen a couple of times. they are pretty good but have room for improvement. they had an opening video segment last time that went on for over 20 minutes. waaayyyy to long..... five minutes would have been plenty.
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