John katers for Beatle’s fans!

John Kater says he loves the awesome drive travelling between Hobart and Launceston and of visiting Tassie in the winter when the snow peaks of the mountain look divine.

John was here last year as part of The Beatle Boys in their production with performer Marty Rhone titled ‘Cliff Joins the Beatles!’, a concept show that asked what if Cliff Richard joined The Beatles after leaving his band The Shadows. John has also visited both Launceston and Burnie again this year with a completely new Beatles show and now it’s Hobart’s turn to see some of that magic.

This show ‘The Beatle’s Number No.1’s’ is a little different to the one that toured last year as this time it’s minus Cliff Richard and rather than a rigid story of a particular band turning point, this time its a more natural performance with audience interaction and engagement. The boys that make up The Beatle Boys are fans themselves and feel it’s a mutual sharing of celebration of an incredible band that communicated their music so well.

John’s adoration of The Beatles goes back to when he was 4 years old and upon being asked what he wanted for his birthday present he answered The Beatles! At that time he received a Beatles album. He credits his early admiration for The Beatles on a guitar playing cousin and his older sisters who would let him listen to their vinyl recordings of the band.

That connection to The Beatles is still strong today and when he and the 3 other members of the band take to the stage, somehow all the years of osmosis of Beatles knowledge and performance get channelled into an amazing recreation of character and music.

It is if the boys were made to play the roles, taking on similar character traits, Rod Auld who plays George Harrison has a similiar persona to the quiet beatle he plays, only speaking when necessary. He has even named his child Harrison!

Johns encapulation of the character of Paul is complete with him having honed over time a replication of the the tone of Paul’s 5 or 6 different voices including what John calls ‘the beard voice’ so called because when singing in that particular tone it seems as if he is singing through a beard!

Most amazing is the fact that John has been playing Paul as a Beatle for 15 years, longer than the 8 years that Paul was officially a Beatle. He and the boys have played in many venues that the real Beatles have inhabited and are much in demand nationally and internationally.

Bernard Fanning gave John the high praise of being the possessor of ‘a monumental voice’ and John modestly tells me he ‘plods along’ as an original songwriter and performer but is also deriving great pleasure in playing Paul as one of The Beatle Boys.

You can see John as Paul McCartney when The Beatle Boys return to Hobart in The Beatle’s Number No.1’s at the Theatre Royal on 31st May 2013.
Paula Xiberras