IT WAS 10 YEARS AGO TODAY ..

From the time The Beatles released their first single 'Love Me Do' in October 1962 until the band called it a day with their last studio album recorded in 1969, a mere seven years had passed during which the four mop-tops had turned contemporary music and society on its head. The effects of that revolution were worldwide and reverberate to this day.

It's a testament to the exuberance of the music they produced during that comparatively short time-span that it still lives on as a staple part of the diet of pop music radio and through an apparently never-ending series of television documentaries and repackaged CD compilations, but also in the plethora of stage tribute bands of the calibre of our very own the Classic Beatles.

Indeed it is a tribute to the Classic Beatles that this year they are celebrating ten years together, three more years than their heroes lasted with the classic Lennon (whose part in the Classic Beatles is taken by Scott Maher), McCartney (Fran King), Harrison (Rob McKinney) and Starr (Paul 'Binzer' Brennan) line-up.

But given that most Beatles songs are known inside out by even the most casual fan, it's a further testament to the Classic Beatles that they continue to garner new fans and new accolades. It's one thing to cobble together cover versions of a few tunes, but it's a totally different ballgame to base an entire stage on one band's back catalogue. The Classic Beatles do it, though, and with a style and panache that can leave even the most demanding Beatlemaniac with little to quibble about and much to exult over.

Not unlike their heroes, the Classic Beatles began life as The Quarrymen in 1991 and built up a sizeable reputation until they decided on a name change and a timely relaunch with a brand new show back in the winter of 1999.

A demanding rehearsal schedule leaves them justifiably proud of their note-perfect interpretations of the work of Messrs Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr. When acclaimed Beatles producer George Martin brought his own Beatles tribute show (A Night To Remember) to the National Concert Hall for three sell-out nights, he invited members of the Classic Beatles to perform alongside his own 70-piece orchestra and many elite members of the Irish music scene, including Brian Kennedy, Jimmy McCarthy and Lesley Dowdall. Martin himself singled out the Classic Beatles for lavish praise. It doesn't get much better than that.

Apart from those milestones and gigs in the top venues all over Ireland, the Classic Beatles have also graced six international Beatles conventions and two at home in Ireland. From an international perspective they are reckoned by true Fab Four afficionados to be among the top three Beatles tribute bands currently working anywhere in the world.

Not that it's all been fun and games and plain sailing. As band member Rob McKinney (George Harrison) recalls, life with the Classic Beatles has its non-musical moments:

"In our young and naive days, we were booked into a pub, that shall remain nameless, but it wasn't quite the busiest venue in the world. On arriving we reluctantly started to load the gear up two flights of stairs. About half way through we decided to do a bit of research and after quietly looking around we reckoned that rather than play to four punters and make no money, we would prefer to not play to four punters and make no money! So very surreptitiously we started to load the gear back down the stairs again. When we got it all down we just hopped in to the back of the van and told our driver to split. He did a 15-point turn outside the place and we finally pulled off as the manager was coming out the door!".

There was also the time the band had a van driver who had done a couple of stints in Mountjoy for GBH. Understandably, the lads wanted to dispense with his services, but no-one was willing to tell him. "Eventually, recalls Rob, "we hit on a cunning if cowardly plan. We just kept buying more gear in bigger flight cases until it wouldn't fit in his van! He quit and the job was done." John Lennon would have approved!

But what does a Classic Beatles show consist of?

For a start it's not just a run-through of the obvious hits. They have a repertoire of over sixty Beatle gems, from the earliest hits like 'She Loves You' and 'Can't Be Me Love' to Lennon-McCartney album tracks which were hits for other artists, such as 'Do You Want To Know A Secret', a hit for Billy J Kramer and The Dakotas, and 'Got To Get You Into My Life' a chart success for Cliff Bennett and The Rebel Rousers.

A show can include songs that The Beatles themselves took from their own heroes, as in the case of Chuck Berry's frantic 'Roll Over Beethoven' and the cutesy standard 'Till There Was You'. But to their credit, the Classic Beatles have also taken on the complexities of such ground-breaking recordings as 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' and are not averse from featuring less well-known album tracks of the vintage of 'Rocky Racoon' and 'Dig A Pony'.

But apart from the pristine recreations of the songs and the sound of the Fab Four the Classic Beatles show also brings you the fab groovy gear as worn by the original band, from cuban-heeled boots to polo-necks and the full psychedelic Sgt Pepper garb in all its glorious colour. It's not uncommon for many fans to admit that for a while there they actually saw The Beatles up there on stage.

Part of the fun of having such bands as the Classic Beatles is the heated arguments they often stimulate. The killjoy purists will maintain that such bands are as risible as the showbands of earlier times who were mere musical jukeboxes. But the fun-lovin' criminals among us see the best of the genre as a legitimate and essential means of keeping great music alive and allowing younger fans to experience a little of the sense of excitement created by acts long departed.

Sure, we're lucky in that all the gems by The Beatles are still available on record, but circumstance and tragedy has ruled out the possibility of them ever playing live again.

But live music has always brought a different experience from that supplied by recordings anyway. It's often the perfect excuse for a night out of the house, a joke or two with the mates, a chance to check out the available musical and sexual talent and maybe even to exercise the vocal chords as the familiar chorus of your favourite anthem swells the heart, lifts the roof and brings on a tear or two of nostalgia.

And that's where the Classic Beatles come in, allowing a new generation to share the joys of Beatledom experienced by an earlier generation and allowing long-term Beatles fans to wallow a little in thoughts of what used to be.

May the road before them be long and winding!

Scott Maher names his 10 favourite

Beatles songs

'Tomorrow Never Knows'

'For No One'

'Good Day Sunshine'

'Getting Better'

'I'll Cry Instead'

'Baby You're A Rich Man'

'All You Need Is Love'

'Rain'

'Something'

'Across The Universe'

Classic Moments

Rob McKinney of the Classics Beatles recalls his 10 most memorable moments over the last 10 years:

1. First TV performance on Secrets with Gerry Ryan (March '91).

"I think this really made us get serious about doing the Beatle thing as a lot of people didn't believe that it was us singing, so we figured we had something."

2. Stuffing Madigan's in Rathmines on a regular basis ('91-'94). "We really cut our teeth in Mad's holding a residency there every Saturday for three years."

3. First trip to Liverpool. (April '91 or '92 - can't remember!).

"Our then manager John Casey organised for us to play in the Cavern reconstruction on Albert Dock with 50 regulars from Madigan's. It was a great buzz seeing all the places we had heard and talked so much about."

4. First international Beatles convention.

"After the success of playing in the Albert Dock Cavern, we were asked to play at the Mersey Beatle convention the following August. We were amazed at how many Beatles fanatics there are out there. We went on to play a further five conventions, playing with members of Wings (Denny Lane, Laurence Juber & Steve Holly) and meeting people like, Cynthia Lennon and Astrid Kirchherr, and I met my wife at the '93 convention! The last time we were there, there were 153 bands from around the world all playing Beatles tunes."

5. The Anna Livia Rooftop gig.

"To commemorate the 25th (that would make it '95 I think) anniversary of the Beatles Apple rooftop gig, we performed on the roof of Anna Livia FM in Grafton St. on a very cold February afternoon."

6. Playing with Mick Mills of REM & Backbeat Band fame.

"About a year after the Backbeat movie was released, we were gigging in The Buttery Brasserie off Grafton St. and he happened to be in the place. He ended up getting up with us towards the end of the gig and jammed on a few old rock 'n' roll numbers. We were surprised that after doing the soundtrack for the Backbeat movie he was so bad! Nice enough bloke though, we had a good chat with him afterwards."

7. Playing at the Irish Football team's homecoming in the Phoenix Park to 60,000 (or so) people ('94).

"That was a bit strange, so many people and so far away. We preferred the buzz of playing in somewhere like the Rathmines Inn with people sitting on the stage."

8. The first gig in the wigs and costumes.

"The hottest night of the summer in a venue in Galway. I think we lost about eight stone between us!"

9. Scott and Fran singing with Sir George Martin at his 'A Night To Remember' shows in Dublin.

"Getting to meet him was great in itself, but it was amazing to be sharing a stage with the person who had become known to many as the fifth Beatle."

10. hotpress doing a piece on our 10th

anniversary! What can I say?

•The Classic Beatles play The Olympia, Dublin on 10th February