Wingsband & The Fab Four

I woke up this morning with the melody of "Mrs. Vandebilt" by Wings' ringing inside my head and when that happens you don't have much choice, you have to listen that song. So I did, and then made some searches on YouTube if anyone has covered it. There was not much and (I don't know how) I soon found myself watching bass covers of another Wings song "Silly Love Songs". Wondered if there is a video of Wings performed it live and what I accidentally found was astonishing.

Video info section said Wingsband at The Grove, April 13, 2008. I was kind of confused because Wings broke up in 1981, former members tried to re-group but Paul McCartney refused. Just a few seconds later I realized the lefty guy who plays a Rickenbacker 4001 bass and sings was not Paul McCartney! He was a musician called Ardy Sarraf and what these guys has done was a perfect Wings tribute band. Ardy is not looking exactly like Paul but he has his 70's outfit, is a lefty, plays his bass and sings. You can't expect more. They even have a Linda! She backs vocals and plays the keyboard. I've also seen "Band on the Run" and "Jet", the performances were truly amazing.

Then I found out same guys also have a tribute band called "The Fab Four". I was excited as hell and quickly started to watch their videos. I came across some tribute bands before on YouTube, I also seen some Beatles tribute bands but they were nothing more than "OK". Most of them even tried to form a Beatles tribute band without a lefty Paul. Wingsband was very good, but The Fab Four was even better. These guys have a perfect attention-to-detail which doesn't only make them the best Beatles tribute band but also one of the best tribute bands ever. They have all the right instruments, the Höfner, the Gretsch, Epiphones, Rickenbackers, Gibsons, the Ludwig drums and Vox amplifiers. It's also same with Wingsband, they use the exact instruments Wings used in the 70's.

It's not only the attention-to-detail, these guys are proper musicians. They perform with out a single mistake. Rolo Sandoval (Ringo) doesn't miss a single beat. Both Ardy Sarraf (Paul) and Ron McNeil (John) can play keyboards, Michael Amador (George) throws perfect guitar solos. And it's not just that, just like the Beatles, all four guys sing. Each of them sing songs belonged to the Beatle they represent. I've spent all my morning listening to these guys with an empty stomach and a smile on my face. For me the most important thing is, they perform late Beatles songs. The Beatles stopped performing live in 1966 and most of their classics were released after they focus on their studio sessions. Paul McCartney performs some songs in his concerts but there isn't any live performances of these songs by the Beatles. They do not record, they only perform live in front of special audiences and they seem to be enjoying themselves. I think they know they can't compete with the giants, and the world really doesn't seem to be needing new Beatles.

I don't know how it feels to be in a Beatles concert, but neither does the rest of the world. The Beatles isn't around for 39 years now and their last succesfull concert was 43 years ago. These guys are trying to fill a huge gap, and I think they're doing it properly.