The Savage Young Beatles
In which I look back on a busy few weeks of working with a new Beatles tribute band, and get nostalgic over some comics art.
It was a few newsletters ago that I mentioned I’d landed a gig as the Consultant Historian for a new Beatles tribute band project.
This isn’t your typical Beatles tribute band of mop-top pretenders. Focused on the music of the Hamburg and Cavern days of 1961-1963, these are your proto-punk, leather-clad, rock-n-rollers, The Savage Young Beatles.
A lot’s been happening in the month since as things gear up for the band’s debut gigs in Liverpool during Eurovision week, starting at the historic Jacaranda Club on May 8th, to be followed by their initial US tour starting at the Abbey Road on the River Festival over Memorial Day weekend (May 25th to May 29th) and a sequence of gigs here in Austin, TX the following week.
The team has been getting the social media presence built and launched and the band now has an official website, as well as Instagram, FaceBook accounts, and a presence on YouTube.
One of the highlights has been the release just a few days ago of the first official video. Filmed at the aforementioned Jacaranda, The Savage Young Beatles perform the classic “Some Other Guy,” a staple of early Beatles performances at the clubs around Liverpool.
The Savage Young Beatles US tour dates.
Abbey Road on the River festival - May 25 - 29
Austin TX
The High Ball, S. Lamar, Blvd - Tuesday, May 30th at 7:00pm - FREE
Sour Duck Market - E. MLK Blvd - Wednesday, May 31st at 6:00pm - FREE
Carousel Lounge - E. 52nd St - Wednesday, May 31st at 8:00pm - FREE
The Little Darlin' - Circle S Rd - Thursday, June 1st at 7:00pm - FREE
The Pershing - E 5th St - Friday, June 2nd at 8:00pm
We are also working on something Before They Were Beatles book related to coincide with the June 2nd gig at The Pershing. More details on that are to come as things firm up.
As part of the build-up to The Savage Young Beatles gigs I’ve also put together a special episode of the Before They Were Beatles podcast -. In which we take a look at what it takes to start a new Beatles tribute band with interviews with the folks behind The Savage Young Beatles and the organizers of the Abbey Road on the Road Festival. - Look for it to arrive on your favorite podcast platforms on Monday.
And talking of Before They Were Beatles, just a reminder that if you’d like to keep up with the progress of the work on the 20th Anniversary edition of the Before They Were Beatles book you can sign up for a subscription to the dedicated Substack monthly newsletter HERE. -
Thanks to the folks who have already subscribed. The next installment is due to be published next week.
Other Stuff
Thanks to the new subscribers to the CSTF newsletter who have joined since last week. I really appreciate your interest and support. If you would like to join them you can subscribe below.
I’ve already made an initial foray into Substack’s new NOTES function. Not sure exactly how I’ll be using it yet, but my first thoughts are that I’ll be posting more books and movie reviews, quotes, and the occasional bit of personal stuff not covered in the main newsletter.
Pages and Screens
Books Read in 2023 - “The Trigan Empire Volume 1” by Mike Butterworth and Don Lawrence.
When I was a wee lad my parents said they would pay for me to get two comics a week (one fun one, and one adventure one) as long as I also got an educational one of their choosing. The one they chose was “Look & Learn.” - What they didn’t realize was L&L was the home of the greatest historical science-fiction epic ever told in British comics - The Trigan Empire.
I have an earlier hardback volume that includes selected chapters, but in 2020 Rebellion Comics set out to reprint the entire saga over multiple volumes - a treatment it fully deserves.
Trigan Empire uses the framework of the Roman Empire, mixed in with tropes from other Earth empires such as the Greeks, Aztecs, Arabian, Egyptian, and other contemporary cultures then adds in supersonic aircraft, hovercraft, spaceships, strange alien fauna, and flora, to tell a generation tale of the intrigues of a star-spanning empire born on a distant world. - All sumptuously told through the astounding painted artwork of Don Lawrence, a master illustrator, and storyteller.
When I first read these in the mid-sixties I understood what comics could be. Now I’m in my own personal sixties I still regard this as a masterpiece of the medium that puts most modern comics art to shame.
Weekly Web Round-Up
Batman On The Cover This week we passed the 3,00 followers mark for the Bat-covers Blog. Amazing. If you are one of the three thousand. Thank you. If you enjoy what we do and haven’t clicked the “Follow” link on Tumblr, then we’d appreciate it if you did.
The journey through Batman’s comics publishing history continues this week as we round out the Bat books from around the world released in December 1967 with contributions from Lebanon, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, and the UK
This UK annual has a lot of memories attached to it, as this was published around the time, spurred on by the Adam West TV show, that I started to actively search out Batman stories to read. I still have a copy of this one on my shelves, a reminder of an important milestone in my geek education.
As always, thanks for joining me for this week’s rambles through the Forest. And don’t forget to sign up for a FREE subscription so you don’t miss future updates.
See you next time
Alan J. Porter