MERSEYBEAT mania is all set to erupt at the Parr Hall on Friday next week when Gary Gibson and Lawrence Gilmour, spitting images of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, team up to present The Anthology of the Beatles.

Gary, born in Preston in 1954, tells me he can just recall the euphoria as the Beatles broke through in the autumn of 1962 - indeed he remembers thinking "they're not as good as Cliff."

He was already keenly interested in all things musical and at secondary school in Lostock Hall he formed his own band, at this time leaning more towards heavier rock, a la Jethro Tull.

School and Gary didn't really work out and at 16 he was glad to be touring all across Europe with the same band using different names "for tax purposes."

By the 70s, Gary was already doing a John Lennon impersonation as a party piece - but then came what turned out to be a real stroke of luck.

While out with his girlfriend one night he was attacked by six yobbos who broke his nose.

The nose was never the same again but the voice was even more Lennonesque.

"I could kiss 'em all," says Gary.

Seizing his chance, Gary made his take-off a main plank of his act but within weeks the subject of his tribute had been shot dead.

Gary was suddenly in even greater demand and so he founded a band called Cavern, specialising in the raw "Hamburg" sound of the early 60s.

Gary became an almost establishment figure when he competed in the first televison screening of Stars in Their Eyes; he was later invited back for "best of" and Christmas compilations.

In the latter, he teamed up with Lawrence Gilmour, a Paul McCartney lookalike whom he had met taking part in the Spanish version of the show.

The idea for a joint tribute show was germinating - but the lads have resisted trying to recruit George and Ringo lookalikes.

"It is hard to get a comptetent musician looking authentic enough so we are basically staging something that aims to show what a concert involving John and Paul would be like today," says Gary.

"We do the solo material in the first half, start the second set with the heavier songs and then finally revert back to the early 60s when we want the audience to join in and sing."

"I try to convey how John would react when I ad-lib. He had a cutting but witty style while Paul was the nice guy."

Unlike Steve Preston, the Elvis tribute artist who appeared at the Parr Hall a fortnight ago, Gary can envisage his own hero in late middle age.

"His fans would have grown older with him - just like those of Frank Sinatra."

That should be enough to keep Gary employed for many years to come.

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