SOMETHING ABOUT GEORGE – THE GEORGE HARRISON STORY

SUNDAY 19 JUNE 2022 | EPSTEIN THEATRE, LIVERPOOL

Something About George: The George Harrison Story is a brand new show, created in Liverpool which pays tribute to the man dubbed the “quiet Beatle” and was met with acclaim when it premiered at Liverpool Theatre Festival last September.

West End performer and musician Daniel Taylor brings the brand new full scale show to Liverpool as part of a UK tour which is already wowing audiences. Featuring beautiful songs like My Sweet Lord, Something, and Handle With Care, Something About George showcases Harrison’s incredible solo material and music from rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest supergroup, The Traveling Wilburys. And any show celebrating one of The Fab Four just has to include a few classics from The Beatles. From heartbreak to hedonism and songwriting to success, Something About George celebrates a life that was anything but quiet.

Review by David Clare

Something About George returned to Liverpool this weekend, and for everyone who missed last year’s performance at St. Luke’s ‘Bombed Out” Church, we get another chance to catch this amazing show on its second night of a two date performance at The Epstein Theatre here on Hanover Street. 

Indeed, we are very lucky to be seeing this show at all, as last week, vocalist, narrator and guitarist Daniel Taylor had an accident whilst out running, injuring his shoulder meaning that his left arm is out of use, resulting in him not being able to play the acoustic guitar, fortunately for us, Johnny Darnell came in last minute to play Daniel’s acoustic guitar parts. 

‘Something About George‘ is the story of George Harrison’s life, it’s mostly about George’s life post Beatle’s split, right up to George’s passing. The show is narrated by Daniel Taylor (long time actor from the Blood Brothers musical) and he takes us on a meandering journey telling us some very interesting facts, about George’s relationships with his two wives, Patti and Olivia, his former bandmates in The Beatles and The Travelling Wilburys and with his lifelong friends, Eric Clapton and Ravi Shankar. 

The onstage band tonight is completed by Jon Fellows on electric and lead guitar, Jordan Alexander on keyboards and Callum McMillan on drums, along with Taylor and Darnell they play an amazing set for us here.

(Something About George: The George Harrison Story)

The song ‘I’d Have You Any Time‘ shows off Daniel’s vocal abilities right from the off, and I can tell that we’re in good hands here. ‘Wah- Wah‘ is maybe my favourite GH song, so I’m pleased to hear it tonight and Jordan amazingly, covers so many instrumental parts from the original song by using just his keyboard, great work. Later we get ‘My Sweet Lord‘ and Daniel tells us about George’s legal battle involving the writing of the song, being accused of plagiarism and about how afterwards George was scared to listen to any radio at all in case he accidentally copied some other songs melody. What a canon of work that ‘All Things Must Pass‘ album is, and it’s a real treat to be hearing these songs played live on stage.

We move through ‘Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)‘ and then ‘Bangla Desh‘, we’re told how Ravi Shankar initially asked George if he could suggest a few musical friends to help with a small fundraising concert and then how in typical George style we got the 2 huge “Bangladesh” concerts. ‘Something‘, a song written about Patti is one of the big highlights tonight and some credit has to go to whoever put all the visuals together for the video backdrop, as these images and videos really do add to the story.

Soon we’re leaving the 60’s and 70’s and were into GH’s 80s work. ‘Got My Mind Set On You’ sounds fresh and there is a lady at the front who is up dancing again at the front of the stage, the crowd are really enjoying these tunes. Daniel talks to us a bit about how George formed The Travelling Wilburys and we get ‘Handle With Care‘ and ‘End Of The Line’, Jordan and Jon join in with the vocals here and it’s clear to see that this is a good, well practiced band, I hope that they can maybe do some more shows together in the future, maybe a McCartney or Lennon story ??

Jon Fellows plays some amazing guitar on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps‘ and Daniel’s voice fills the theatre, this is one hell of a tune, maybe George’s best.

Eventually, we come to the end of George’s story and sadly George’s life, Daniel telling us how Olivia described George’s final days and hours, it’s an emotional, but also beautiful end to the show as the band finishes with ‘Here Comes The Sun‘.

I’ve been really, truly entertained tonight, thanks to Daniel and his band for their amazing performance and thanks to everyone at The Epstein for putting the show on tonight.  If this show is on again sometime in the future and you missed it this time around, get some tickets and go and see George’s songs played live, it really is something!

Dave Clare, June 2022.

Something About George: The George Harrison Story

Is a Production from Something About Productions Ltd