When Marty Rhone returns to Tasmania in June he will definitely be rugged up to protect against the middle of winter. Marty makes this return after a successful tour last year with his Cliff and Dusty tribute show. This time Marty will again be playing Cliff Richard. Those that saw the show last year will know that Marty’s voice is uncanningly like Cliff’s and Marty has got Cliff’s dance moves down pat too!
Marty of course, is well known as an entertainer having a career spanning over 43 years. And what a career it has been, from touring with the Rolling Stones, to performing in stage production of The King and I with Yul Brynner and Virginia McKenna. An interesting piece of trivia is that the man himself, Cliff Richard, who Marty has perfected playing, was in one of those audiences of The King and I. Marty is also the only solo performer to perform at the Cleveland Hall of Fame in the US.
The concept Marty has envisaged this year is unlike anything that has been done before and it coincides with the anniversary of 50 years of The Beatles. Marty will be indulging in a fantasy scenario as he poses the question what if Cliff Richard joined The Beatles and they made one final tour of Australia. For a time such a possibility was ripe for such a merging to occur, when John and Paul had a falling out and it looked like the Beatles would be one band member down.
Ironically at the time Cliff had left the shadows and was recording at the Abbey Road studio so it is quite feasible they could have entertained the possibility of recruiting Cliff to fill in for the absent Beatle.
The association between Cliff and The Beatles was one of mutual admiration. Indeed Brian Epstein, The Beatles manager, took the boys to a Shadows concert in Wembley telling John he should model himself on Hank and the fact that the meticulous dress sense of early days when the boys wore suits and thin pointy shoes. A song by George and John called ‘Cry for a Shadow’ was a tribute to Cliff and the Shadows. Cliff also socialised with The Beatles at parties of the time and there is documentation that John Lennon once said that there was no good music before Cliff and The Shadows so the connections between the two was strong. It doesn’t take a giant leap then to consider that if the opportunity arose Cliff might possibly be recruited as a Beatle.
That being the premise of the show, but what of the show itself?
Marty says it is divided into two parts, the first half an acting of events that lead up to Cliff’s recruitment including some revealing dialogue. The second half will be the actual concert that never was, Cliff Richard and the Beatles. Certainly a publicity dream come true.
Marty predicts that in 12 months the actors playing the ‘Beatle Boys’ as he calls them will be regarded as the worlds best Beatle tribute band. Such is The Beatles admiration of one of the members that he has called his own son Harrison after George Harrison.
After this tour Marty is going to take a break from the musical performances side which he has been working on for the last 5 years and concentrate on acting with some short films and independent films under his belt or to be released on DVD.
You can see ‘Cliff joins the Beatles: celebrating 50 years of the Beatles’ at The Country Club Show Room, Launceston on Friday 22 June and at Wrest Point Entertainment Centre, Hobart on Saturday 23 June.
http://cliffjoinsthebeatles.com/news/hits-come-together-in-a-musical-fantasy/
Paula Xiberras
