Review: The Bootleg Beatles, Grand Opera House, York.

7:39am Tuesday 13th March 2007

HOW do they do it?

Were the Bootleg Beatles cloned from some DNA, secretly extracted from the Fab Four during a bad trip?

How else can anyone sound and look this much like the real thing - especially the guy playing John, Neil Harrison, who's got the accent, the intonation, the droll wit, and even the Lennon nose, for goodness sake.

It was no surprise then that the Grand Opera House was packed out with enthusiastic fans of all ages - including a nine-week old baby in the front row of the stalls - when the Beatles' master impersonators called into York on Sunday night during their latest tour.

If you missed seeing the real band in the 1960s, this was as close as you are ever going to get to the experience - minus the hysterical screaming girls, of course.

We just clapped and sang along to certain songs, and applauded loudly after each one finished, although we did, after some promptings, get to our feet and stand and even sway through a couple of numbers.

The show ran chronologically through the Beatles years.

This saw the band members going through several costume (and wig) changes.

Their performance was accompanied at times by TV news footage on a big screen of major events from the 1960s, from Harold Wilson's devaluation of the pound to Vietnam, with "John" pointedly thanking Wilson for not getting Britain involved in America's war.

We got to hear most of the band's greatest hits, with the highlight of the two-hour show probably being the great singalong, Hey Jude.