Beatles on song through NZ voices
To mark 50 years since the Fab Four hit our shores, a Kiwi fan has
KIWI musicians have been twisting and shouting to The Beatles since the days of Ray Columbus and The Invaders, whose 1963 version of I Wanna Be Your Man outsold the original in Australia and New Zealand.
A compilation album of Kiwis covering The Beatles – Let Me Take You Down . . . Under – was released on Friday to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Fab Four’s New Zealand tour in June 1964.
The album was collated by New Zealand music historian Grant Gillanders and features artists from the beat era such as The La De Das and Dinah Lee and successive decades of Kiwi musicians paying homage to The Beatles including Suzanne, The Chapta, Jenny Morris, Chris Knox and The Brainchilds.
‘‘I’d actually been working on the album for five years,’’ says Gillanders, who has also released What Did You Do In The Beat Era . . . Daddy to coincide with the occasion. ‘‘I didn’t want to just release it and have it disappear in the ether so I waited until now, which is perfect timing. I started off with well over 100 tracks, which I felt qualified, played them over and over, put them in different running orders until I had the last men standing.’’
The only track that wasn’t available for licensing was Neil and Liam Finn’s version of Two Of Us, which featured on the I Am Sam soundtrack.
Gillanders was 10 when The Beatles visited, already something of a music obsessive, but too young to go to their concerts.
I started off with well over 100 tracks, which I felt qualified, played them over and over, put them in different running orders until I had the last men standing.’
‘‘I had two older girl cousins who lived close by and I fed off their frenzy. They totally adored The Beatles. My older cousin Janet was going to Auckland Grammar at the time and I remember her telling me that they were told at assembly that any girls who got off the school bus outside The Beatles hotel, there would be inspectors there and they would be expelled.
‘‘During those years of my life I had bad tonsilitis and I would deliberately make myself sick by standing outside so I could spend time at home. Every time I got sick my mum would always go up to the shops and buy me a magazine or something, so I would always ask for Beatles stuff.
‘‘When I was 16, I became infatuated with what is still my favourite The Beatles album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club, so much so, that I spent all of my pocket money buying the same turn of the century dress jacket that The Beatles are shown wearing on the cover of the album. That was me trying to be Sgt Pepper.’’