Big local Beatles news this week — half good, half bad
By Chalres Cassady
happenings
Published Oct. 20, 2004

The bad news first. Abbey Road on the River, a summer celebration in downtown Cleveland of all things Fab Four, will not be back last year. Founder-promotor Gary Jacob said that after four years here, he is relocating the festival to a "new and permanent home" in Louisville, Ky.

There it will still be Abbey Road on the River, but the river will be the Ohio River, not the Cuyahoga.

As North America's largest Beatles-tribute event, Jacob modeled Abbey Road on the River after the enormous Beatles festival held in -- where else? -- Liverpool, England. The 2004 edition included transatlantic vendors, Beatles tributes and cover bands from as far away as Japan and Eastern Europe, and Beatles-related history lectures and films.

Kentucky's first Abbey Road on the River is set to take place over Memorial Day weekend in 2005 -- three weeks after the Kentucky Derby, which, if there were any justice in the world, would now have to come to Cleveland.

"Already, we have over 20 acts booked, including many of your very favorite tribute bands," Jacob stated in a press release. He said that a Nov. 12 press conference featuring Ohio Beatles tribute group 1964 would reveal more details. The Web site for the event remains www.abbeyroadontheriver.com.

This outsourcing (John Kerry ought to be all over George Bush for this one!) makes Cleveland look like the Pete Best of Beatles festivals.

Best, you may remember, was the original Beatles drummer from 1960 to 1962. He was handsome, clean-living and popular with the group's growing fans, and his sudden dismissal (to be replaced, of course, by Ringo Starr) remains one of rock's great mysteries and what-ifs?

Pete Best played percussion with other Mersey-beat bands in the 1960s, like Lee Curtis and the All Stars, then left to become a social worker and family man while the Beatles invaded the U.S.A. and effectively conquered the world.

Now the good news: Decades after the Beatles breakup, when Beatlemania showed no sign of abating, Best was rediscovered with the CD re-issues of Hamburg-days Beatle classics on which he performed for studio microphones. Best wrote two volumes of memoirs and began to perform with his own band.

This Tuesday, once- and future-Beatle Pete Best comes to the Winchester Tavern in Lakewood, performing live with a full band ensemble, and the night is reported to include an autograph session and a Q&A (and, given the Abbey Road on the River announcement, maybe some group therapy). Showtime is 8:30 p.m. and tickets are $20.

For more information on Pete Best, check out www.petebest.com. The Winchester can be found at 1211 Madison Ave., in Lakewood; phone 216-226-5681 or log onto www.thewinchester.net for more information.

With frequent visitors both from the city and the hiking trails of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park just to the south, the CanalWay CoffeeHoues seeks performers for the 2005 season. While acoustic artists make up the bulk of the CoffeeHouse bookings, other types of music will be considered. Send your demos, in CD or cassette-tape form, to Hank Mallery, CanalWay Center, 4524 E. 49th St., Cuyahoga Heights, 44125.

The deadline is Dec. 10, and entrants will also be eligible for bookings at the Metroparks' CanalWay Sunset Concert series, and music events at the new Brookside Reservation. For more information about the bookings, phone 216-206-1000.