UPDATE - Monday February 5 2024
Hi all. You may have heard the news that The Beatels will shortly be hanging up our Beatle boots.
Thank you to everyone who came to our January show at Wenty Leagues – that was a fantastic night, & it was so good to see so many familiar faces. We do of course have a show booked at Picton Bowls this Saturday night, which will also be a blast. As I mentioned in my last post, there was another show in the process of being confirmed, which has now been confirmed & that will be at Kingsgrove RSL on Sat March 16. Richard “Paul” Bevins can’t join us for that date, so our good mate Lance Smith will be playing the part of “Paul” for us that night. We have a wedding the following week, which was booked about a year ago, and that was going to be our final show.
However we have had a surprising number of people asking if we can do one more Sydney show with our regular lineup, so we have booked one final date which we will be doing on Sat March 30 at Malabar RSL. The good news is, that one will be a free show, and we do expect it will be a very special night. That will be the very last show for The Beatels. For those who want to join us for a last hurrah, we do hope you can make it to Picton, Kingsgrove or Malabar! We’ll post some details about those shows shortly!
Friday January 19 2024
Hi all. Bruce – John – from The Beatels here. As someone quite wise once said, all things must pass. And for our group, we are sad to announce that The Beatels have reached the end of a very, very, enjoyable journey.
It is 29 years since we formed this group, and 10 since the passing of one of our founding members, Steven Shipley. And for me personally, it is 34 years since I first thought I would join a Beatles tribute group for what was intended to be a few weeks and a bit of a laugh. 34 years ago, I could not have imagined the friends I would make playing Beatles music, initially with a band called The Beatnix for 5 years, and then for the next 29 years, with my various brothers-in-arms in our own band which we cheekily called The Beatels.
It has been amazingly fun, and with every one of my brilliant band mates, we have had some of the most unexpectedly incredible experiences. Playing the music of The Beatles has taken us around the world and into venues where we have literally played the most incredible catalogue of music to millions of people. We have met people I never could have expected to meet in my wildest dreams, and I have had the pleasure of making music with some of the most talented people I could ever hope to have the good fortune to play with. I have also had the pleasure of working with some of the most knowledgeable production people in the music business in venues around the world. They have taught me everything I know, & hopefully I have been able to pass on a few words of wisdom of my own back to them.
I started playing in a Beatles tribute in 1990 when I was a 24 year old kid, & 34 years have passed since that time. We still can put on a good show, and so that is precisely the right time for our band to say our farewell. We will be doing one last show in Sydney on Sat Jan 20 at the wonderful Wentworthville Leagues Club, & another out of town at Picton Bowls on Sat Feb 10 & a private show we booked some time ago (& maybe one other that is in the process of being confirmed), but we will not be taking any further bookings.
We would like to take the opportunity to thank all the people who have worked with us over the years – musicians and crew, and all the people who have been a part of our journey. We would particularly like to thank our agent & friend Rob Smith at Southbeat who has literally stood by us for decades, and before him, Paul & Nevin from New Millennium who also looked after us for a good many years. We must also thank our good friend Alvin Oon for many wonderful years of shows in Singapore at the turn of the century. Finally, I have to thank my wonderful current band mates, Neil Rankin, Marcus Phelan & Richard Bevins, for the excellent shows of our final years of Beatels shows.
This is not the end of the road for us musically. All of us will continue to be heavily involved in musical pursuits – we may even pop up doing Beatlesy things now & then, and we will do our best to let you all know what we are doing from here-on in. I am doing a degree in something they call “Simulation & Immersive Technologies”, so you never know where that will lead in the entertainment world. Some of us already have plans to release some original music & to collaborate with other bands, so watch this space. But for now, our time as the Beatles tribute group formerly known as The Beatels is coming to an end. To those who have joined us over the years on the crazy ride, thank you! It has been a blast.
Hi all. You may have heard the news that The Beatels will shortly be hanging up our Beatle boots.
Thank you to everyone who came to our January show at Wenty Leagues – that was a fantastic night, & it was so good to see so many familiar faces. We do of course have a show booked at Picton Bowls this Saturday night, which will also be a blast. As I mentioned in my last post, there was another show in the process of being confirmed, which has now been confirmed & that will be at Kingsgrove RSL on Sat March 16. Richard “Paul” Bevins can’t join us for that date, so our good mate Lance Smith will be playing the part of “Paul” for us that night. We have a wedding the following week, which was booked about a year ago, and that was going to be our final show.
However we have had a surprising number of people asking if we can do one more Sydney show with our regular lineup, so we have booked one final date which we will be doing on Sat March 30 at Malabar RSL. The good news is, that one will be a free show, and we do expect it will be a very special night. That will be the very last show for The Beatels. For those who want to join us for a last hurrah, we do hope you can make it to Picton, Kingsgrove or Malabar! We’ll post some details about those shows shortly!
Friday January 19 2024
Hi all. Bruce – John – from The Beatels here. As someone quite wise once said, all things must pass. And for our group, we are sad to announce that The Beatels have reached the end of a very, very, enjoyable journey.
It is 29 years since we formed this group, and 10 since the passing of one of our founding members, Steven Shipley. And for me personally, it is 34 years since I first thought I would join a Beatles tribute group for what was intended to be a few weeks and a bit of a laugh. 34 years ago, I could not have imagined the friends I would make playing Beatles music, initially with a band called The Beatnix for 5 years, and then for the next 29 years, with my various brothers-in-arms in our own band which we cheekily called The Beatels.
It has been amazingly fun, and with every one of my brilliant band mates, we have had some of the most unexpectedly incredible experiences. Playing the music of The Beatles has taken us around the world and into venues where we have literally played the most incredible catalogue of music to millions of people. We have met people I never could have expected to meet in my wildest dreams, and I have had the pleasure of making music with some of the most talented people I could ever hope to have the good fortune to play with. I have also had the pleasure of working with some of the most knowledgeable production people in the music business in venues around the world. They have taught me everything I know, & hopefully I have been able to pass on a few words of wisdom of my own back to them.
I started playing in a Beatles tribute in 1990 when I was a 24 year old kid, & 34 years have passed since that time. We still can put on a good show, and so that is precisely the right time for our band to say our farewell. We will be doing one last show in Sydney on Sat Jan 20 at the wonderful Wentworthville Leagues Club, & another out of town at Picton Bowls on Sat Feb 10 & a private show we booked some time ago (& maybe one other that is in the process of being confirmed), but we will not be taking any further bookings.
We would like to take the opportunity to thank all the people who have worked with us over the years – musicians and crew, and all the people who have been a part of our journey. We would particularly like to thank our agent & friend Rob Smith at Southbeat who has literally stood by us for decades, and before him, Paul & Nevin from New Millennium who also looked after us for a good many years. We must also thank our good friend Alvin Oon for many wonderful years of shows in Singapore at the turn of the century. Finally, I have to thank my wonderful current band mates, Neil Rankin, Marcus Phelan & Richard Bevins, for the excellent shows of our final years of Beatels shows.
This is not the end of the road for us musically. All of us will continue to be heavily involved in musical pursuits – we may even pop up doing Beatlesy things now & then, and we will do our best to let you all know what we are doing from here-on in. I am doing a degree in something they call “Simulation & Immersive Technologies”, so you never know where that will lead in the entertainment world. Some of us already have plans to release some original music & to collaborate with other bands, so watch this space. But for now, our time as the Beatles tribute group formerly known as The Beatels is coming to an end. To those who have joined us over the years on the crazy ride, thank you! It has been a blast.