IT'S ALL COME TOGETHER

With Sam Mendes' upcoming biopics set to release a new wave of Beatlemania, tribute band The Bootleg Beatles are busier than ever. SPENCER VIGNES looks back at the enduring career of the fantastically fake Fab Four

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Ringo, Paul, George and John in 1966

ASISH. The Counterfeit Stones. Björn Again. The Smyths. Fleetwood Bac. The Small Fakers. Name any band of substance from the past 70 years and you can almost guarantee there will be at least one tribute act out there trying to recreate the sound and style of the real thing.

But when it comes to rock and pop copycats, one group in particular is regarded by many as the daddy of them all.

That group is The Bootleg Beatles, now in their fifth decade playing the songs of the Fab Four.

Considering The Beatles' recording career lasted little more than seven years, that's some going.

"I think we probably are the daddies," says Neil Harrison, one of the original members of the band in the guise of John Lennon, prior to becoming their manager and musical arranger - in effect making him a Bootleg mashup of Brian Epstein and George Martin.

"I can't think of any tribute bands back then. I mean there were lots of Elvis Presleys but there weren't bands as such.

"I don't think the tribute concept really came in until the mid-Eighties with bands like Björn Again and The Australian Pink Floyd Show. Suddenly, we weren't on our own any more."

Formed in 1980 from the ashes of a touring production called Beatlemania, The Bootleg Beatles started out at a time when the band's star had waned somewhat, relatively speaking, in the face of new musical genres such as punk and disco.

"We auditioned for Beatlemania and got the parts but it really wasn't that popular," recalls Harrison. "It came over to the UK from America in October 1979 and by March 1980 it had closed down. That was the vehicle though for how the band got together.

"We'd learned the songs, got all the instruments and thought it was a bit silly just to give it all up, which is why we started doing our own thing.