TAYLORSVILLE, Utah, Jan. 24, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — There are quite a few Beatles tribute bands — but did you know that one of them is based right here in Utah?
“Imagine — Remembering the Fab Four” was formed in 1993 and the band has performed more than 1,000 shows across the United States and abroad.
Over the years the lads have shared the stage with such notable acts as The Beach Boys, Jay Leno, Chicago, Three Dog Night, Carrie Underwood, America, Glen Campbell, The Temptations, The Commodores, The Mandrell Sisters, and Badfinger.
The band also played for a national TV audience at the Nokia Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, had 21 performances at the Shanghai Music Festival in China, and was the first act to perform at the 20,000-seat USANA Amphitheatre in West Valley City (which has just been renamed Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre).
The group will present a Beatles 60th Anniversary Tribute at Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center Main Stage Theater at 2525 Taylorsville Blvd. on Feb. 9, at 7:30 p.m.
The show is described as follows: “On Feb. 9, 1964, The Beatles played for the first time in America on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show.’ Sixty years later (to the day), the acclaimed Beatles tribute band Imagine will perform a special concert at the Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center to commemorate this event, and will as well play the famous newly released Beatles song, ‘Now and Then.'”
Brad Armstrong, who plays George Harrison has had a love for the music of The Beatles as long as he can remember, but it wasn’t until he was 16 years old and finally heard “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” on a good stereo that he was truly hooked, his bio says.
“I heard the bass in the song ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ and asked the question, ‘What is that instrument?’ It wasn’t long after that I bought a bass guitar, joined a band, and now it’s all this!” his bio states. His first paid gig was on New Year’s Eve, in a bar, and because he was only 17, he had to get a letter from a council member in order to be there. Since that time, Armstrong has performed with acts including The Drifters, David LaFlamme, Freddy “Boom-Boom” Cannon, The Coasters, and The Crystals.
Armstrong, who is a real estate agent by day and also plays with other Utah groups, including the Susan Bush Band and The Cabana Band, since Imagine’s gigs are mostly in the summertime, chatted with Gephardt Daily ahead of the show, touching on subjects including how he came to join the band, what he particularly loves about Harrison, and what’s on the cards for him in 2024.
We asked Armstrong when he first heard The Beatles’ music and what effect it had on him.
“I remember being 10 years old or so, and my older brother was of course a big Beatles fan, he’d get the albums as they came out and sit around and listen to them, and we’d be transformed to a different world,” he said. He added that the first Beatles album he heard was the American release of “Yesterday and Today,” which was a compilation of songs from albums including “Help!” “Rubber Soul” and “Revolver.”
Armstrong actually learned to play bass before he learned lead guitar, and said that interestingly, all the members of Imagine; Tom Coburn, Richard Fazzi and Mark Robinette, all began their careers playing bass. Armstrong joined the band in 2004.
“Tom started it off with a bunch of local Salt Lake guys, and Tom is now the only original member,” he said. “The original George Harrison was a guy named David John, and he went up to the big leagues, he was really gifted, just a superb George Harrison, so he started playing with all the A-listers, like Beatlemania and RAIN, and Magical Mystery, and as a result of that, his availability was such that Tom just needed somebody to be more full time. And so he heard of me through a local music agent, and not long after that, I got the job.”
Armstrong said that at that time, he mostly played acoustic guitar, so there were a lot of things about the electric guitar he had to learn. He added that he has gained a much bigger appreciation for Harrison since playing him in the band.
“I’ve gained much more of an appreciation for what George did, his role with The Beatles, his contribution to The Beatles, and him as a human being,” he said. “His art of dying philosophy about being completely prepared to leave this earth, his spirituality, it’s really quite remarkable.”
“Art of Dying” is a song by Harrison from his 1970 triple album “All Things Must Pass.” Harrison began writing the song in 1966 while still a member of The Beatles and during a period when he had first become interested in Hindu-aligned spirituality and other aspects of Indian culture. He recorded the song soon after The Beatles broke up, in April 1970.
Armstrong talked about the live performance on Feb. 9, which he said will be a full two-hour show.
“In general what we try to accomplish with Imagine is to bring the joy and sense of liberation that The Beatles brought to the world, when they originally burst upon the scene,” he said. “We try our best to make our show fun, and not just entertaining but fulfilling.
Specifically about this show, it’s the 60th anniversary of when The Beatles first appeared on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show.’ I didn’t personally see it but some members of the band did, so we’re going to open up with those five songs that The Beatles performed, just to pay an homage.”
The Beatles opened their set on “The Ed Sullivan Show” with “All My Loving,” “Till There Was You,” and “She Loves You.” Later in the show, the fab four returned to play “I Saw Her Standing There” and ended their set with their No. 1 hit, “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” CBS received 50,000 requests for 728 tickets to the show, “The New York Times” has reported.
“If you attend the show, be prepared to have a good time,” Armstrong added. “We appreciate the audience participation; if you want to sing along, feel free to do it.”
The band also will perform the new Beatles song “Now and Then,” which was released in November, for the first time. “The other ones, they’re already hardwired into the memory,” he said. “But this one, I actually had to learn how it goes, listen to it enough to get it in my blood.”
Armstrong said that Harrison himself did not like the song initially, and he wasn’t super keen on it either.
“It was one of the three songs they wanted to do on the anthology, and George didn’t, he said, ‘no, it’s crap,'” he said. “But he started work on it, so he’s playing guitar on it, singing on it, and playing the slide guitar. After I started learning it, really digging into it, I gained a much greater appreciation for it.”
Armstrong also talked about the rest of 2024 and what’s on the cards for him this year.
“We’ve got quite a bit of stuff, through the summer,” he said. “And it’s mostly big outdoor civic events, Murray City, Daybreak, there’s a few things out of state, but it’s mostly Wasatch Front.”
The other bands he plays with are also keeping him busy; he has three gigs just this week. Also in 2024, Armstrong has been invited to write a film score. “I had a bit part in a very small local movie, a short I suppose, I guess it’s under 15 minutes, and the director asked me if I’d do the music and I foolishly agreed,” he said.
He told us that one of the high points of being in Imagine was getting to play with the Utah Symphony in 2022.
“When I performed with Imagine with the Utah Symphony, at Taylorsville Dayzz, that was pretty much it for me, I thought it’s not really going to get much better than that,” he said.
For more information about Imagine and for tickets to the February show, click here.
