Live: All You Need is the Beatles Singalong Presented by Colin Mockett and Adam Parsons (5 May 2021)

They have created some of the most memorable songs of the twentieth century. You know at least some of these: "Love Me Do", "She Loves You", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", "A Hard Day's Night", "Can't Buy Me Love", "Help!", "Ticket to Ride", "Yesterday", "Paperback Writer", "Eleanor Rigby", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "All You Need is Love", "Hello, Goodbye", "Lady Madonna", "Hey Jude", "Revolution", "Come Together", "Something", "Let It Be", and more. In the space of just eight years they released their iconic albums: "Please, Please Me", "With the Beatles", "A Hard Day's Night", "Help!", "Rubber Soul", "Revolver", "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "The Magical Mystery Tour", "The Beatles" aka "The White Album", "Yellow Submarine", "Abbey Road" and "Let It Be", and numerous singles too. Their impact musically and culturally is inestimable. The Beatles consisting of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr almost need no introduction, but it felt good to remind myself nevertheless.

Presenting "All You Need is the Beatles" yesterday 5 May at the Potato Shed in Drysdale was Drop of a Hat Productions, written, researched and narrated by Colin Mockett, with all music sung and played by one man band Adam Parsons. This was also, as I found out, the first singalong event put together by Drop of a Hat (with the lyrics for all of the songs projected as well) and as I took my seat, ready for a live adventure through the catalogue of those four greats who inspired Beatlemania, I was not aware that by the end of it I would be singing along as much as I did. At the same time, I'm trying to make a mental or written note of most of the trivia that came up all throughout Colin's excellent narration. The history was just as exciting as the musical offerings from local act Adam Parsons.

If I hadn't known Adam, who was the same person who had me listen to all of the Beatles albums in chronological order about twelve years ago now, then I would have been stunned by the fact that all of the Beatles songs were being performed using just one instrument. You see, from the moment he walked out onstage, singing "She Loves Me", Adam was playing all of the music on an acoustic guitar using effects through his guitar pedals to achieve the idea that there was more than one guitarist playing. At moments, usually during the instrumental solos, this was a mesmerizing experience. When I put it together with the All Shook Up band from Drop of a Hat's previous show, the Elvis Presley story, it is remarkable what we have on offer here, and actually I begin to wonder what the two groups might actually sound like together. Maybe for that Roy Orbison show, I'm thinking?

The lights dimmed in the atmospheric Potato Shed, Colin's narration beginning with the Beatles early successes with songs like "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand". What struck me more than ever as these songs were being played to the audience, even more so as we all began singing along throughout, was that they are timeless. Hearing Adam perform these songs, you got the sense that they might have been written only yesterday, or ten years ago, or if we want to get out the old flying DeLorean from my Elvis Presley review, something that could be written in the future. That most of the audience seemed to know the songs so well was either strange because they could remember something so quickly from about a month ago, or because the radio had been playing it every single day since it was released last year.

The excitement continued with Adam's rendition of "I Saw Her Standing There", the opening song from that pivotal first Beatles album which as Colin reminded me was recorded in the space of only about ten hours meanwhile Adam was playing it all with one instrument. "Please Please Me" followed with the audience in tow, and other such early standards as "All My Loving" which I couldn't help but sing along with, "Eight Days a Week", and "A Hard Day's Night". Here was one of the moments of truth for me, because "A Hard Day's Night" has this amazing chord right at the very start of the song, and Adam produced something that at least sounded like it, but whatever he did was one of the big highlights for me.

"Can't Buy Me Love" followed, with "Help!" which as Colin explained was actually one of the Beatles making a cry for help in song, but the world couldn't really hear it at the time because they were so consumed by everything that was happening. If I stood on the stage and tried to reproduce one of Adam's guitar solos, I probably would have been singing "Help!" too, but nobody would be singing with me. The Bob Dylan inspired "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away", was one of the moving highlights here, partly because of Colin's narrative in that it was a song that spoke to the Beatles manager Brian Epstein who was gay. It's always been a song that I've liked over the years, but it has this new and powerful meaning to it.

"Norwegian Wood" followed, the audience singing along with much gusto at the climax of the first set, before we heard one of the most beloved songs of all time, "Yesterday". Hearing the story about the making of the song through Colin's narration was great fun, especially when it got to the part about the working lyric of the song being something like "Scrambled eggs".

I made my way into the foyer for half time, before the audience gathered again in their seats for the next part of the Beatles story, beginning with their transitional album "Rubber Soul". Firstly, Adam singing in French on "Michelle" was one of the highlights of the morning, because I had no idea that he could do that. For the record, I didn't try to sing along with that bit at all. Then came another moment of truth, the Beatles show equivalent of the Elvis Presley Story's "Suspicious Minds", the song "Eleanor Rigby". This is not just one of my favourite Beatles songs, but also one of my favourite musical arrangements, from the wizard that was Beatles producer Sir George Martin, who himself was inspired by the score of one of my favourite films, Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho".

Adam not only had to convey the haunting meaning behind these words, which by itself is pretty considerable, but the essence of the music as well. The verses in particular had me in shivers. Like All Shook Up last time, Adam not only managed to tackle it, but create one of the biggest highlights of the morning. I'm honestly trying to remember if I sang during that song or not.

Next, Colin introduced us to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", which just recently had a remix done for the fiftieth anniversary which I highly recommend, with Adam not only playing the opening song but segueing into the next one as well, "A Little Help from my Friends". I don't think we stopped singing for one moment. Following that part of the album, Colin announced Shirley Power to the stage where they both sang their mournful duet with Adam on "She's Leaving Home", Shirley's voice soaring through the theatre, which I then had the privilege to listen to as she was standing somewhere in the aisles beside me singing along with the rest of the songs afterward. While they were singing, I couldn't help but feel by the way that this album would have made an excellent musical. In the day of "Hello, Dolly!" and "Fiddler on the Roof" just before "Hair" and "Jesus Christ Superstar" were first being performed, this feels like one of the lost classic musicals that might have been. Shirley and Colin's performance here really brought that out. In that sense, I was sad, but maybe one day it could happen.

The set continued with the White Album's "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", where I found myself absorbed in the storyline of the song as the lyrics were being projected for the audience, and then "Hey Jude". As Colin reminded us, this was the song Paul wrote for Julian Lennon as John and Cynthia were getting divorced, and as Adam continued playing those last choruses, the audience kept singing right to the very end.

After that came "Blackbird", which was like the "O Sole Mio" and Elvis "It's Now or Never" of the Beatles show, since I had no idea this came from a piece by Bach. Wow! Leading toward the conclusion, versions of "Something", another one of the most beloved Beatles songs, and "Let It Be" would follow. The feeling in "Let It Be" especially was... again, I'll use the word transportive.

Finally, we all came together for "All You Need Is Love", a song that is just as important as it ever was, and perhaps even more important. While you're reading this review, go and have another listen to it and just absorb yourself for a while, whether you're hearing it for the fiftieth time, the ninetieth or the first. There is a reason that it was so successful, because it resonates to so many, and again it's timeless.

With that, the show came to its conclusion, but wait... we needed an encore as well! What followed was again one of the highlights of the show, with Shirley joining Adam onstage for George's stirring classic "While my Guitar Gently Weeps". The solo was the icing on this Yellow Submarine cake, and we were all sent off humming into the foyer. Yes, I heard the lady who was humming the melody of that song in the doorway, a testament again to this music.

In conclusion, what we had all experienced, from Colin's narration, Adam's one man band, Shirley's haunting vocals, and the audience participation all throughout, was a celebration of this music. Again, the word is timeless. It's not just yesterday, but today and tomorrow as well.

Thank you very much,

Ryan.