A scottish tour of theatre show ‘A Life With The Beatles’ is heading to Dumfries and Galloway this February and is coming to Catstrand in New Galloway and the Theatre Royal in Dumfries.
After wowing audiences at Edinburgh Festival Fringe and King’s Head Theatre, London in 2015 (where one of the audience was Neil Aspinall’s widow Suzi) – Davide Verazzini’s charming play A Life With The Beatles is to be staged at various venues as part of a 15-performance Scotland-wide tour in February and March. Told from the unique perspective of Neil Aspinall, the only one who was always by their side and who knew everyone and everything. Yet where thousands of books have been written by people who never even met The Beatles, Neil’s steadfast loyalty meant he took his secrets to his grave when he died in 2008. A Life With The Beatles recounts the era from him first joining The Beatles in 1961 as their driver to when he eventually stepped down as CEO of their corporate conglomerate, Apple Corps 46 years later. Veteran Glasgow-based actor Ian Sexon is effervescent in this energetic and intimate solo drama as he depicts the progression of the band from initial formation to the period after Epstein’s death, along the way jumping into the characters of John, Paul, George and Ringo, manager Brian Epstein and Producer George Martin.
“The best account of the Beatles rise to international stardom I have ever seen. Highly recommended”. The British Beatles Fan Club
2017 is also the 50th anniversary of the release of the groundbreaking Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, a focal point of the play. Some 10 years before the album was made, an Edinburgh bus driver had so enjoyed listening to a young John Lennon playing harmonica during a journey on his bus, he presented him with a top-of-the-range harmonica that had (fortuitously) been left on his bus the previous day. Legend has it this was the one played on ‘Love Me Do’. This is one of many associations The Beatles had with Scotland. From their first tour as The Silver Beetles which began in Alloa on 20 May 1960 they honed their brilliance through gigs in Inverness, Fraserburgh, Keith, Forres, Nairn and Peterhead. Their first tour as The Beatles in Scotland was in 1963 where they appeared at the Two Red Shoes, Elgin going on to Dingwall, Bridge of Allan and Aberdeen.
The tour of A Life With The Beatles is a collaboration between two Edinburgh theatre companies, Siege Perilous and Orange Girl Productions. It will again be directed by Andy Corelli and performed by Ian Sexon. Davide Verazzani also has a biography about Neil Aspinall to be published in Italy by Edizioni Bietti in April 2017 titled ‘L’ultimo Beatle – Neil Aspinall, dietro le quinte del mito’ (translated as ‘The last Beatle – Neil Aspinall, the myth behind the scenes’)
For details on how to get Tickets for the show, visit www.siegeperilous.co.uk,
