1964 the Tribute is a Beatles' tribute band that was formed in 1984. The group plans to continue performing. Asked about their future, Tom Work, who portrays George Harrison, said, "The answer to that is the answer Gary gave his dad. His dad asked him, 'How long are you going to do this?' And Gary Grimes said, 'Until they stop coming.' We are not anywhere close to the age the Beatles were. I'm sure many people will comment, 'They're starting to look a little old to be doing this,' but people are still coming. Just being a musician keeps you young at heart."
Updating the original Beatles
1964 the Tribute strive for authenticity in their portrayal of the Beatles, but not everything they do is the same. Two areas that differ are sound quality and set length. Mark Benson, who portrays John Lennon in the band, says in the original Beatles live performances in the 1960s, the fans were lucky to hear the music. "You have to credit the Beatles with revolutionizing the sound-reinforcement industry," says Benson. "Back then they had these little speakers that you couldn't hear anything out of. The way concerts were amplified had to be changed." Benson says fans who saw the original shows notice the difference. "People will come up to us and say, 'I saw the Beatles in '64 and the only difference is I can hear you,'" Benson says. Another difference is the set length. The Beatles did two 30-minute sets in their early shows and never did encores, while 1964 the Tribute performs two 45-minute sets. "We tried the half-hour show initially, but it didn't go over well," says Benson.
Members
The members of the group decided which member would portray which Beatle based on the instrument he played. "I was a guitarist, so the natural thing was the John or the George character," says Tom Work, who portrays George Harrison. "The way I got into it was, the fellow playing John Lennon joined a band that was a local Beatles tribute act. This was around 1981. After about a year, he got his buddy to join and play Paul, and I was friends with him. About a year later, he got me to join and play George." Over the years, the lineup has included:
Mark Benson as John Lennon
Gary Grimes, Todd Rainey, Ricky Vacca, Graham Alexander, Mac Ruffing as Paul McCartney
Tom Work, Robert Miller, Tom Teeley, Jimmy Pou as George Harrison
Greg George, Terry Manfredi, Bobby Potter as Ringo Starr
The current lineup is Mark Benson, Tom Work, Mac Ruffing and Bobby Potter. Gary Grimes died after a long battle with brain cancer in December 2010 at age 60. His death was hard on members and fans. A memorial service was broadcast online. Mark Benson performed "In My Life" at the service. in Ponca City, Oklahoma, on June 6, 2008. Pictured is Gary Grimes, Terry Manfredi, Tom Work and Mark Benson.
Mission
The band's mission is to accurately re-create the 1964 Beatles invasion of America. Members play a set of all early Beatles music, with some middle Beatles thrown in. Sometimes the group's costumes reflect the Beatles' early period, and sometimes members wear replicas of the Shea Stadium concert apparel from 1965. The "concept is performing a show that gives you an idea of what it was like to see the Beatles when they were touring," says Benson. "It's definitely a music gig, but there's an acting element to it," says Work. "None of us is really an actor per se. I probably come closest because I've done some plays, just in community theater. But there's some acting. You need to adopt the body language, the speaking voice. Those two things, I guess, for this kind of a role are two aspects that resemble acting. Everything else is more musicianship and vocal impersonation — singing, I mean." The group separates its life onstage from offstage. "We didn't want to be them, just wanted to portray them," says Work. "No one really considered wearing those boots around all the time or the tight pants or having hair that looked like that. We were musicians before, professional, full-time musicians. We didn't start doing Beatles until we were 30."
