Preview: The Bootleg Beatles, Grand Opera House, York, March 10

12:27pm Friday 7th March 2008

THE Bootleg Beatles' long and winding road stretches to 28 years.

"The Beatles recorded for only seven years so, in recording terms, we've now been recording for four times as long, which is potty, " says Andre Barreau, who takes the role of guitarist George Harrison in the post-Fab Four tribute band.

"When we started we thought it would only be for six months and then we'd do other jobs."

Instead, The Bootleg Beatles have an ever-expanding diary both at home, where their latest tour includes the Grand Opera House in York on Sunday, and abroad, where new experiences await.

"Like when we played at the Budokan in Tokyo, when one Japanese television company asked us to recreate the concert The Beatles did there, which was a fantastic experience for us. They even put us up in the same hotel suite that The Beatles had, " says Andre.

The Bootleg Beatles, or at least the band members, came together in 1979 when the Beatlemania show came to Britain and the contract stipulated that a British group would have to play the Fab Four.

"We got that gig and three of us are still in the line-up, although the show folded in 1980, " says Andre.

"That was when we thought, 'Let's give it six months' and we became The Bootleg Beatles, but the circumstances were completely different back then.

John Lennon was still alive; there was talk of The Beatles reforming, and of course John was about to release the Double Fantasy album."

Andre's introduction to the magical music of The Beatles was seeing Willy Russell's musical John, Paul, George, Ringo?And Bert. "I got that frisson watching Trevor Eve and Barbara Dickson in the mid-Seventies, and I hope the frisson is the same watching us, " he says.

The Bootleg Beatles are always looking to improve their live presentation through the years, be it introducing quick-changing projections or taking a quartet of string and brass players on the road with them, to keep the concerts fresh for band and audience alike.

"For this tour, we have six phases to the show: the very early Mop Tops; Shea Stadium; Sgt Pepper; the Summer of Love/Magical Mystery Tour; the White Album; and we finish with Abbey Road and John in his white suit, " says Andre.

"There's always pressure there because the music is well known and you can't change it like any other artist can - but then if I went to see us and we'd changed the music, I'd be disappointed.

"We really want to get it as it is on the records, not even as it was when they played live, and you have to recreate that studio sound live. We've had the same engineer for a while to get the balance right: someone who knows the balance we want and can adapt to the acoustics of where we're playing."

He uses York venues as an example: "We used to play the Barbican Centre, which had big, hard walls, whereas you have a proper theatre acoustic at the Grand Opera House, " he says.

The next challenge for band and engineer will be South America in the spring. "We're going to Brazil, Argentina and Chile in May for two-anda-half weeks on our first full-scale tour there, taking our orchestra with us, " says Andre. "It's very exciting to see how The Beatles transcend any language."

• The Bootleg Beatles, Grand Opera House, York, Sunday, 7.30pm. Tickets: £21.50 or £19.50 on 0844 847 2322.