The Analogues on Let It Be: Abbey Road

The Analogues continue their run of playing the complete post-Revolver Beatles repertoire with their forthcoming Let It Be: Abbey Road show at the London Palladium on October 3, 2022. Jason Barnard speaks to Felix Maginn, Bart van Poppel and Diederik Nomden from the Dutch 5-piece about how they recreate the magic of the Fab Four and their future plans.

The Analogues

The Analogues. Photograph: Ferdy Damman

You’ve previously played The White Album at the London Palladium. How does playing that double album live compare to recreating Abbey Road and Let It Be back-to-back?

Felix: The White Album went all over the place with their songwriting as they worked a lot on their own, so a lot of different styles and feels to master. With Abbey Road although there are different kinds of tunes, it still has an overall feel to it that works very well. So once you’re in you kinda get it. Half of Let it Be has a more live feel to it as you associate it with the rooftop gig, so that sorted itself out a lot easier and with the other songs it was sometimes quite difficult to determine what was actually going on. A song like Across the Universe with a choir and strings was quite a challenge as we don’t have a choir on hand.

What instrumentation have you used this time around and how does that vary to the White Album shows?

Felix: The usual suspects on the guitar front except for George’s famous rosewood telecaster. A Moog synthesizer on Because, I want You, Here comes the sun and Maxwell’s Silver hammer. Which also includes the famous Anvil moment and there is a Baldwin Electric Harpsichord on Because.

 

What are the trickiest tracks to play from Abbey Road and Let It Be and why?

Felix: The trickiest parts were definitely the famous medley from Sun King to Bathroom Window. There is so much going on all the time, the couple of tracks that have been cut up and stuck together with all the guitar parts, backing vocals and percussion., it was quite a job to piece it all together and get it sounding like it does on the album.

How did The Analogues form and what material did you first play?

Bart: It has always been Fred’s dream to play the later Beatles material ‘live’ with a band. So one day he asked me to find a way to realise this and form a band and that’s what I did. We started with Magical Mystery Tour, because it contains a couple of hits and lots of special sounds and orchestrations. A great challenge to start with this project we thought.

The White Album, Live in Liverpool documentary features many people in the Beatles circle who have been very supportive of you like Pattie Boyd, Mark Lewisohn and Geoff Emerick. Did that give encouragement to the group that your sound is authentic? What led them to be involved?

Bart: I can tell you that it feels great when you get compliments from people such as Geoff Emerick and Mark Lewisohn. I don’t know about Pattie Boyd, because we haven’t talked to her, but as far as I know Geoff and Mark admired our archeological work and that we play these studio albums ‘live’ in the most authentic way.

 

What’s your perspective on both Abbey Road and Let It Be now you’ve played them live?

Felix: I really enjoy playing Abbey Road, it’s such a great vibe and even after 50 years it still stands strong. As with Let it Be, even though they shelved it you can still hear they had fun making it and still strong for a Beatles album.

Have you seen Get Back and if so, what did you think of it? Has that helped prepare the group this time around?

Felix: Yes we saw it and it was inspiring to watch, my enthusiasm for Paul has grown enormously after seeing him in full flow and watching some of those tunes develop. I see Yoko in a better light and I also see just a couple of guys who play in a band but together they create a magical sound. As for preparation, we were already done before it came out with how we wanted to do it. And it confirmed certain sounds and guitars used on certain tracks. But as with everything, it’s always a learning curve.

Diederik – can you tell me about your album Parallel Universe by NOMDEN. How long did you work on this and how does it compare to your previous albums? Was it a conscious decision to base it’s sound around the late 60s/early 70s style?

Diederik: I worked on the album for a period of about 8 months, but not on a full-time basis. I tend to record intuitively, meaning I don’t search for the ‘perfect’ sound, or the perfect take. When I feel it, it’s the take. I think Parallel Universe could be regarded as a sibling to my previous album Wingman Returns. which was conceived and recorded in a similar way. I needed to make these albums under my conditions with no interference of anyone else, in terms of making decisions. So I played all the ‘normal’ instruments myself (except for classical instruments of course).

The sound is not so much a conscious decision, as it is the logical result of the records of the era I was affected and infected by. So, for my next record, it will be more of a conscious decision to move away from that typical sound, in order to keep it exciting for me and my audience. Of course, the melodies and harmonies will always be there, but it would be good to step out of my comfort zone. I’m playing with the idea now of using only a lead vocal and back that up with orchestral arrangements. But that is to be decided.

Do you have plans to take the 66-70 Blue Album show to the UK?

Felix: The Blue 66-70, that’s my first Beatle album so I would love to…here’s hoping we can do it!

How have you managed in the pandemic period? Has that given you a chance to develop new ideas for Analogues shows?

Felix: Funny you should ask about the pandemic, seeing as we are all songwriters in our own right, we recorded an album of our own and it will be coming out under the name The Analogues Sideshow. We used all our vintage Beatle gear so it sounds great!

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