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Variety review of A Walk Down Abbey Road



Tuesday June 19 2:17 AM ET
Rockers pay homage to Fab Four
A Walk Down Abbey Road (Sun Theatre, Anaheim; 1,250 seats; $72)

By Rich Nieciecki

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - With the Beatles seemingly bigger than ever, former
Abbey Road Studios engineer Alan Parsons had no trouble luring participants
to offer up live Fab Four covers (many never road-tested by the quartet
themselves) for a 28-city roadshow.

And yet, while bearing a retro-rock package resembling Ringo's ever-recycled
All-Starr Band, this talent-laden outfit's homage came off as slightly more
heartfelt.

The band, including bassist John Entwistle of the Who, Ambrosia's David
Pack, songbird Ann Wilson of Heart and multihyphenate Todd Rundgren, only
occasionally found inspired moments that rose above the sheer novelty of
witnessing mid-level pop and rock artists perform the Liverpudlian canon and
each other's hits. The assembled were performing tunes that require
tonality, craft and other Lennon-McCartney and Harrison values.

Sheet music on stands was prevalent -- it was only the second night of the
tour -- keeping gaffes to a minimum. First of two sets featured an opener of
``Magical Mystery Tour,'' with the remainder of the hour dedicated to the
participants taking turns on their own material. Wilson was in fine voice on
``Crazy on You,'' and a rousing ``The Real Me'' was led by support
singer-lead guitarist Godfrey Townsend.

Second hour was wall-to-wall Merseybeat, with the only asterisk attached to
McCartney's solo hit ``Maybe I'm Amazed,'' which Wilson also nailed.
Spectrum ranged from troubadours of folk (Rundgren and Parsons on ``You've
Got to Hide Your Love Away'' and ``Blackbird,'' respectively) to full-band
rave-ups (Rundgren with Rickenbacker guitar and vocals on ``Revolution,''
the Wilson-fronted ``Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My
Monkey'' and ``I'm Down''). Perf was capped with the apropos ``Golden
Slumbers''/''Carry That Weight''/``The End'' song cycle from ``Abbey Road.''

Smoke, lights and superfluous, often too literal side-projected vid images
lent little to the proceedings, but Beatles music never portended rock opera
or Broadway productions, anyway.

A Walk Down Abbey Road plays the Westbury Music Fair in New York on July 19.

A Paul Zukoski and Toby Ludwig presentation. Band: Alan Parsons, Todd
Rundgren, Ann Wilson, John Entwistle, David Pack, Godfrey Townsend, Steve
Luongo, John Beck, Ben Margulies. Opened and reviewed June 16, 2001; closed
June 17.

Reuters/Variety REUTERS

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