This Friday, August 5th is the 50th Anniversary of the release of Revolver, the Beatles’ seventh studio album, released in the UK and US in 1966, and local Long Beach musical collaborative MOVE is ready to celebrate the occasion at the Expo Arts Center.
Starting at 8:30PM, MOVE, with the help of 2015 Buskerfest winners Tall Walls, will pay tribute to the British version of the iconic album, not omitting I’m Only Sleeping, And Your Bird Can Sing and Doctor Robert, according to the event page. Beginning at 6:30PM when First Fridays kicks off, MOVE will also be playing Beatles tunes.
“We’re doing the album that pretty much launched Rock n’ Roll into modernity 50 years ago to the day of its release,” said Greggory Moore, percussionist and vocalist for MOVE and Tall Walls. “I’m hoping a lot of people want to come celebrate with us.”
That’s 11 musicians, including MOVE mainstays Jon Zell and Josiah Miller and Tall Walls’ Daniel Perkins, Roberto Escobar, Alanah Ntzouras and Vanessa Acosta and frequent MOVE guests Matthew Proffitt and Malila Hollow, and newbies Rick Pizana and Nick Young. That’s two guitars, bass drums, percussion, sax, trumpet, trombone, keys and sitar, and an impressive array of voices.
Moore told the Long Beach Post the group will try to evoke the original without imitating it, that while it’s true they’re paying tribute to the album, they’re not a tribute band, with each member excited to create his or her own piece of the puzzle for their enthusiastic audience. After all, each member has their own experience with Revolver to express.
For example, Moore was first introduced to the album when he was 21 years old and on a road trip down the coast with his then-girlfriend Holly. As the couple neared Morro Bay, Holly had Revolver in the cassette player, thus commenced Moore’s first listen to something unlike anything he’d ever heard before.
“That was when I started to think about how music couldn’t be reduced to melodies, rhythms, and chord progressions; the idiosyncratic sound is just as much a part of the listening experience,” said Moore. “Also, Tomorrow Never Knows sounded to me like eternity packaged in the future—and it still does.”
Expect an original arrangement of Eleanor Rigby featuring a “fab horn section,” with all the stops pulled out for Tomorrow Never Knows. Moore warned the entire album is under 40 minutes, so the show will fly by.
“People who come to the show can expect to hear a dazzlingly compact, bizarrely eclectic album and 11 musicians working hard to transmit the obvious joy both at the heart of its creation and that has echoed down this half-century for the dozens of millions of people who have dosed themselves with REVOLVER and taken the trip,” said Moore. “Come trip with us.”
For more information about MOVE, visit the website here. To learn more about the event, to take place during First Fridays Worlds Fair, visit the event page here.
The Expo Art Center is located at 4321 Atlantic Avenue.
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