Preview: St Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Show, Edinburgh Playhouse

Published on Friday 26 November 2010 13:44

ONE of music's greatest albums is being be brought back to life on Sunday with a live stage production of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Show at the Edinburgh Playhouse.

The brainchild of Chris O'Neill, star of the 1994 film Backbeat which followed the Beatles' early days in Germany, the show includes musicians from the Fab Four's home town of Liverpool - the Backbeat Beatles - who perform Sgt Pepper in its entirety, complete with colourful regalia.

The show was started 16 years ago when O'Neill noticed that no one else was performing the album, despite its timeless popularity. "It's quite awkward to do live with the sounds - we wanted to challenge ourselves," he says.

Taking on an album that was recorded over 129 days and involved orchestras, a variety of different styles and innovative production techniques, a challenge is something of an understatement. But, O'Neill says, it's all become possible thanks to developments in technology. "We have more technology available to us so (reproducing the sounds] is much more achievable. We've got two keyboard players, one with harp sounds and a piano, and another who has the organ sounds but who also plays the trumpet, trombone and the clarinet."

Hailing from Liverpool, O'Neill says the Beatles' influence - the 'B factor' - has definitely helped to shape his career. "I think most Liverpool musicians would say they turned them on to music and inspired them to do their own thing. I think remaining Beatles Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney would be happy that we're keeping the dream alive. I think they would enjoy the show, the audience members say they think it's great."

St Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Show, Edinburgh Playhouse, Greenside Place, Sunday, 8 pm, 24.50, 0844 847 1660