They Loved Them Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

While they might not have matched the Beatlemania of the 1960s, the Liverpool Legends left their audience wanting for more  Saturday night at the Veterans’ Park bandshell. At least one concertgoer who saw the Beatles as a 13-year-old in NE Ohio was happy she could actually hear the band this time around.

"I saw the Beatles when they came over for their first tour in 1965 at Cleveland Public Auditorium,” said Vicki Pershing. "It was $15 for a bus ride from Elyria to Cleveland and back and the ticket for the concert. But we couldn't actually hear them sing because the girls screamed so loud you could hear nothing.”

The Liverpool Legends are a Beatles tribute band that was hand-picked by Beatle George Harrison’s sister. The Grammy-nominated quartet has been playing as the Fab Four in Branson, Missouri, since 2005. Their two-and-a-half-hour performance Saturday night on Marco Island made believers of everyone in attendance. The Liverpool Legends look like, sound like, and even behave like the rollicking Beatles the world fell in love with in the mid-60s.

It’s probably a good sign that during the 15-minute intermission the crowd was buzzing, asking each other which performer looked the most like the Beatle he was portraying. Rhonda Giuliani of Naples had a clear favorite.

"I think John looks the most like the original,” Giuliani said, "very handsome. Really great mannerisms. I thought George was pretty close. Up close, I didn't think that Paul looked like Paul. I went up to the stage, but I really couldn't see Ringo.”

Giuliani, a lifelong Beatles fan, is going to play a Beatles song at her daughter’s wedding.

"We're Beatles fans from way back,” she said. “We've raised our kids on the Beatles. In fact, my daughter's getting married in October, and her dad is going to dance with her to Do You Want to Know a Secret. He used to sing that to her when she was little. So that's going to be their song."

Giuliani thought the Liverpool Legends were dead ringers for the Beatles.

"I would say pretty darn close,” Giuliani said. "We've seen a few that were really good. And they're, I would say, a  nine and a half out of 10. Like very close. This is a lot of fun."

Saturday’s show was a real trip down memory lane for Pershing.

“My girlfriend’s aunt and uncle owned Kamm’s record store in Elyria,” Pershing said. "We used to help out around the store on Saturdays, and they received the tickets. I had to beg my dad for $15 to pay for them. That was pretty much the price of a week’s worth of groceries in 1965.”

Pershing thought the Liverpool Legends did a great job.

“These guys are really good,” she said. “They sound fantastic. Actually, I'm really impressed. And they even look like them, too.”

Not lost in the excitement of the weekend’s Friday and Saturday night performances is the cause. The concerts were fundraisers for L.E.A.D. (Law Enforcement Against Drugs and Violence), a nonprofit organization supported by dedicated police officers committed to protecting youth and communities from the proliferation of drugs, drug-related crimes, and peer-to-peer/cyberbullying. Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk was on hand for the festivities Saturday.

"The cause is the most important thing,” Rambosk said. "Anything that we can do through L.E.A.D. to keep our kids drug-free and violence-free, that's the most important thing. And all the results, the benefit of last night and tonight is to make sure that we're able to train more law enforcement officers throughout the country so that they can make sure kids have the tools they need to say no and don't take drugs.”

Nick De Mauro of Isles of Capri, a retired police detective, is the executive director for L.E.A.D.

"It's our first event to try to raise money for Collier County,” De Mauro said, "which is the largest L.E.A.D. program in the country. Between Collier County, Naples Police Department and the Marco Island Police Department, we have more trained officers than any county in the country.”

De Mauro said the weekend concerts were a big deal for the city’s beautiful new bandshell.

"This is the biggest band this park has ever had,” De Mauro said. "It's a national, Grammy Award-nominated Beatles act. So, it's kind of a step up from what they've ever had here.”

De Mauro hopes the success of the weekend’s concerts will encourage Marco Island to bring more big acts to the bandshell.

"Hopefully, we're going to build it,” De Mauro said, "bring in some more big acts because there's enough wealthy people in this area to fundraise.”

The Liverpool Legends put on a two-and-a-half \show for an appreciative audience. Their snappy 33-song performance spanned the Beatles’ catalog. They also had three costume changes spanning different eras of the Beatles. And while the crowd was not as raucous as the one Pershing was part of in 1965, the Liverpool Legends engaged the audience throughout the evening. At times, they had the entire crowd on their feet, singing along, dancing, and generally having a great trip down memory lane or better yet, Penny Lane.