She Loves You Yeh Yeh Yeh

On Saturday August 25, 2008 I had one of those sublime moments (few hours, really) where everything came together into a day of fun, fun, fun.

A good friend and fellow musician wanted to celebrate his **th birthday by throwing a bash at a public place, featuring a band made up of himself and friends, and playing all Beatles music. I joined the band by invitation, and after brief planning last Spring, we held 3 Summer rehearsals and amassed 40-odd Beatles tunes.

An invitation was sent. Responses came back. The weather was perfect! Over 100 people came to the Eagles Nest restaurant at the Prince William Marina in Occoquan, VA. The indoor/outdoor restaurant catered the event and served a buffet of great food, and drinks, including beer and wine to all guests for over 6 hours, on my friend's tab. (Good friend, eh?).

The band had 5 members, amazingly:
John (my friend),
George (his brother),
Paul (another friend),
Glenn (Paul's brother), and
Jimmy (me!).

We couldn't come up with anything good to combine Glenn's and my names, so we settled on: John, Paul, George, and "Gringos".

John and George played marvelous guitar and sang.
Glenn played in-the-pocket drums and sang.
Paul played superb bass and sang. Paul had a vintage Beatles Bass guitar on hand (Hofner 1962 4-string)
and I played keyboards and sang a little bit. The Beatles didn't use a lot of keyboard, but when they did the parts were memorable, like in Yello Submarine or Lady Madonna.

The music was, well, Beatles music. We performed it well enough to do it justice, with all harmonies and vocal inflections.

Simply put I had the best time and built a memory that I'll keep forever. Thanks to everyone who participated, and everyone who showed up for the fun.

Now we have to figure out a way to surpass this event. It will be difficult, indeed!