Pure McCartney at the Cavern Club
Pure McCartney is a musical tribute group to Sir Paul McCartney. The group formed in 2017 to mark McCartney's 75th birthday, and is fronted by the Cavern's very own Tony Coburn, who, together with his brother, Jimmy, founded the Cavern Club Beatles, the Cavern's resident Beatles tribute band, in 2012.
I went with two friends to see the show, and was fortunate enough to get a seat front and centre. It couldn't be any better. The show started promptly, with the opening act coming out within about ten minutes of 'doors' opening (in reality, it is just a very thick black curtain).
The opening act was 15-year-old Logan Paul Murphy. He had the early Beatle suit and boots down to the last stitch, and sounded so much like John Lennon that it was difficult to believe that he was not part of a Beatles tribute band himself. Having been playing the guitar for just three years, I was very impressed - he was incredible. Logan's favourite Beatle is Sir Paul, which makes sense considering he was opening the Pure McCartney gig. The inclusion of several Lennon-McCartney songs in his set were well received by the crowd, particularly that of 'Mother Nature's Son' (the White Album, 1968). It was evident that he has a love for the sounds of the 60s, though his version of George Harrison's 'My Sweet Lord' (All Things Must Pass, 1970) was fantastic, too.
Logan handled himself well; after just one song, his guitar's A-string snapped, and he had to do an accappella rendition of Hey Jude, which was not on the setlist. At one point during Hey Jude, he sang "I don't know what to do with my hands" (he had been fiddling with the hem of his Beatle suit jacket) - I found this little admittal so human, and a very good way of defusing the nerves which had arisen from the unforeseen circumstance. After that, Logan Murphy continued, and the crowd lapped him up. Through his Hey Jude, Logan established a close rapport with the audience because they sang along beside him, and I think that he will go far as a musician because of his obvious charm and character, as well as his good relationship with the audience which he managed to establish within the first two songs.
Working at the Cavern Club, I have the privelege of getting to see the Cavern Club Beatles (CCB) and thereby its Paul McCartney, Tony Coburn, fairly often. Everytime, I am blown away by Tony's incredible vocals. Legendary Beatles sound engineer Geoff Emerick said at a casting audition in 2011 that Tony Coburn was the closest sound to McCartney he had heard.
At first, I was too excited to comprehend just how good of a performance I was in for. The band started with 'Figure of Eight' (Flowers In The Dirt, 1989), which is one of my all-time favourite McCartney songs because of how musically adventurous and difficult to capture it is - and the vocals are immense... but Tony and the band cracked it, and then quickly went into 'Jet' (Band On The Run, 1973), and 'Coming Up' (McCartney II, 1980). 'Coming Up' was where the audience really began to be infected by the music, because who doesn't love the McCartney II album, with its very symph-y sound?
The set consisted of a lot of McCartney's more ballad-y songs, including 'Call Me Back Again' (Wings, Venus & Mars, 1975). Some of the songs on the set weren't my absolute favourite, but a lot of them were; Band On The Run (Band On The Run, 1973), 'Figure of Eight' (Flowers In The Dirt, 1989) and 'Beautiful Night' (Flaming Pie, 1997) being the most notable.
A note must be made here that whilst 'Twenty Flight Rock' (1956) is not a McCartney song, it was the song which Paul McCartney played for John Lennon and which got him into The Beatles. Thereby, without it, it is possible that there may never have been a Fab Four, and so it is perhaps the most important song played tonight.
The band consisted of Paul Jones (guitar - also in the CCB as George Harrison), Brendan O'Rourke (guitar & bass), Lisa Tomlinson (backing vocals & odd instruments, eg. tambourine), Charlie Skeggs (drums - also a resident musician at the Cavern Club), Barney Taylor (keyboards), Paul Thomas (woodwind), and Tony Coburn (vocals, piano, bass, guitar). There was obviously a good relationship between the band, and this reflected in the music which they played and how it rubbed off on the audience... and when a mistake was made, it was laughed about by all and there were no judgements made. The whole event was amazing, with really great vibes, and the excitement and enjoyment in the room throughout the show was incredible. I hope I get to see another Pure McCartney night soon.