Few bands have a legacy as great and far-reaching as The Beatles.
Together for just ten years between 1960 and 1970, they gifted the world an immense catalogue of catchy pop and rock hits. This legacy lives on in The Beatles Swing, a special live show featuring 25 of The Beatles' classic songs performed in the style of big band swing.
Considering the Liverpool origins of The Beatles, it only seems fitting that a hometown lad, Craig Martin, is behind this tribute. “When I was a kid growing up as a teenager in the late '80s and '90s, The Beatles were and still are a huge influence, not just on world music but especially Liverpool, their hometown. So as a kid you aspired to be like The Beatles, or as good as The Beatles because they set the standard,” Craig says.
“It was a lovely sound and it changed the world that sort of music, it was new and fresh; as Elvis had done in the '50s, The Beatles did in the '60s and my opening song as a kid in the pubs and clubs was 'Please Please Me', it used to bring the house down. We were one of many bands but that was my track because you aspired to be as good as The Beatles, or at least as raw.”
Craig emigrated with his family to Australia in late 2009 from Liverpool where he had been born, and raised on a steady diet of Merseybeat bands, which sprang up from the region in the early to mid '60s, prompting the British Invasion of the American music charts.
For a working-class kid from the back blocks, it was the infectious pop-rock records of The Beatles who formed the basis of Craig's rough-and-tumble music education. “I liked them because they were simple and very playable pop, rock & roll,” Craig says.
“All my musicians and arrangers in The Beatles Swing show have been through The Conservatorium in Brisbane so they're all very clever, very knowledgeable musicians and I'm a bit of a rough shot from Liverpool. My poor education was listening to The Beatles, that was my music education. I learnt to play guitar, to sing and, with my brother, harmonise listening to The Beatles.”
Accompanying Craig as he croons much-loved favourites such as 'Can't Buy Me Love,' 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da' and 'Twist And Shout', is an eight-piece swing band. “There's nothing I love more than singing with a big band behind you,” Craig says, “you've got that unique sound and power.”
For Craig, the biggest trick was not in the arrangements of the songs but in having to select what amounts to a mere handful out of a back catalogue of some 200 tracks, including 17 #1 hits. “People say 'why did you pick those 25 songs?',” he says.
“They're all popular – I haven't picked non-popular ones – they're all the big hits. I was designing a two-hour show and it's the same for everyone: you start strong, hit them between the eyes so they know who you are, then you drop it down in the middle, it's not rocket science. Then you take it back up at the end and that's it, good night.
“Some of my favourite songs I couldn't do because they were too similar, so I had to miss some out. Then someone would suggest something and I'd see if it would fit. It was a labour of love, but also a massive undertaking deciding on the songs.”
The Beatles Swing performs at The Old Museum 5-6 November.
