All Together Now! With The LadyBeatles: Sgt Pepper Comes Together ~ Adelaide Fringe 2019 Review

[MUSIC/ROCK ~ SA] The Wheatsheaf Hotel – Tin Shed, Fri 1 Mar. The Sgt Pepper costumes remain on the wall as decorations tonight. What we get instead is the early Beatles’ uniform of white shirts, black ties, waistcoats and trousers. So it is a bit of a surprise when the first set opens with a ripping version of Come Together, with Tara Carragher as John on lead vocals. Together with Kylie Porter (Paul), Sally Hansen (George) and Yahna Pal (Ringo), this band of women known collectively as The LadyBeatles proceed to present a two hour authentic-sounding tribute to the songs of The Beatles. The voices cannot be the same, but these ladies pay attention to the original arrangements of the songs, and are able to recapture much of their original magic. Tara handles most of the vocals tonight, with Kylie (Paul) taking some and adding backing vocals to the rest. There is only one lead vocal from Sally (George) – Taxman – but she is kept very busy looking after some intricate lead guitar work. An additional musician, Pearl Tizzie, adds some Billy Preston keyboards on some songs tonight, and some nice accordion in We Can Work It Out. The first set finishes with a selection from the White Album, Birthday, Revolution, Back In The USSR, and a blistering version of Helter Skelter from Tara. For me, the highlight of the evening! While the second set again begins with some later songs – Get Back, Don’t Let Me Down and I’ve Got A Feeling, by the time people are up dancing, despite the heat, we are into a bracket of early songs – She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Long Tall Sally, Money, and Twist & Shout. Sadly the requested Rocky Racoon is not forthcoming. After perhaps an overly generous 26 songs there is still room and demand for an encore – a lovely acoustic version of You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, with Tara on vocals and Yahna providing the flute line. These LadyBeatles are a lot of fun, and had both young and older members of a sell out crowd appreciating the songs all over again. 4 stars Adrian Miller All Together Now! With The LadyBeatles continues at The Wheatsheaf Hotel – Tin Shed, at various times, until Sun 3 Mar. Book at FringeTIX on 1300 621 255 or adelaidefringe.com.au. Click HERE to purchase your tickets. #ADLfringe