Fans will come together Dec. 12-14 at Johnny’s Social Club for the now-annual Beatlemania show.
Playing in the town where they were born, Brent and Susan Lethbridge will be joined onstage by a cavalcade of Johnny’s regular performers to bring songs from the iconic band.
“We're super excited about this show,” Susan said.
“We got some really great new songs that we're doing that we haven't done. This is our fourth Beatles show. We've done it for years now. It’s a pleasure every time.”
Putting on a show like this is always a long and winding road. The Lethbridges won’t be alone onstage, as they’ll be getting by with a little help from their friends. The Johnny’s version of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band will include Mark Kolt, CC Trubiak, John Bettger, Faith Krahn, Erick Bergman and Craig Bancroft. The crew will play some of the Liverpool band’s most famous works, some rarities and b-sides and take a sad song and make it better.
“For this, we kind of dug into some really cool material,” Susan said.
“Some of it's very challenging, either vocally or getting the right sounds. It's certainly not, just thrown together. You do your homework and come prepared.”
Brent said the venue is perfect for a show like this, like it was only waiting for this moment to arrive.
“Johnny's provides the right venue to be able to do that and the right kind of crowd to be able to do something like this,” he said.
Formatting the show was a fun experience for the group. Brent doesn’t want to spoil the party, but said the setlist should please please you.
“Half the show is material we haven't done before and the other half of the show is material we have done before,” Brent said.
“We have a certain catalogue of material. I think there's some songs people expect to hear.”
The group will be playing Beatles favourites, but also dropping in some deeper cuts, like “Hey Bulldog”. Since the Beatles produced 14 main albums, there is a wealth of material to go through – here, there and everywhere.
“Those are pretty deep and on special editions of certain records,” Brent said.
“You may be a great Beatles fan, but you may not be familiar with those.”
A band like the Beatles provides a great opportunity, providing talented musicians a chance to show a new spin on old tunes – they can work it out.
“We can do Beatlemania for a long time,” Susan said.
Tickets are $25 and there’s a place to buy them – the Orange Toad.
