Beatles Fest - Day 1 - All You Need Is Love

We are enjoying the Fest for Beatles Fans here in Las Vegas. This is the second year the convention has come to Las Vegas. It's a treasure for the fans of the Fab Four. Our friends Kaye, Larry & Joe joined us for the first part of the day. We had lunch at the buffet where we consumed a boat load of shrimp and crab and a little champagne. We checked out the Revolution lounge and listened to some of the afternnon discussions.

Highlights today included seeing our friend Dennis Mitchell, something we don't do nearly enough. Dennis participated in the opening. First up was Paul Saltzman, a photographer who met and photographed the Beatles during their journey to India. He had a great series of slides showing the process creating the transparencies and mounting some of his photos at the Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

Martin Lewis interviewed Pattie Boyd, George Harrison's first wife, about how she first met George. She talked about turning George Harrison down because she had a boyfriend. Convinced by her girl friends that wasn't a wise choice, she reconsidered. More to come in the interview tomorrow.

Joe and I met her later at her book signing. I'm pretty sure I saw her write her phone number in Joe's book.

Next up, Donovan. He talked about how he first met the Beatles in Bob Dylan's hotel room in London. He shared memories of his spiritual bond with George Harrison and about he and Paul sharing songwriting ideas. Donovan played "Jennifer Juniper "(written for Jenny Boyd, Pattie's sister) and snippets of some of his other hits. He will perform with a full band tomorrow and Tuesday. Can't wait for that!

At the evening concert , the band "Liverpool" played many of the early Beatles hits and closed their first set with a rousing "Day in the Life". They are a great band.

Billy J. Kramer (Kaye's new boyfriend) then came out and played a short set of his hits including " Do You Want To Know a Secret" and "Bad To Me" both written by Lennon and McCartney.

Next up was the fabulous Spencer Davis , who had flown in from Australia for this show. He played "Gimme Some Lovin" and the band played a great jam on "I'm A Man".

A surprise appearance by Neil Innes followed. Neil played guitar and sang songs from The Rutles including "Hold My Hand". What a treat!

It was then time for Mark Hudson to come out and lead the all star jam on classic Beatles songs. He was a little less crazed than last year. He also played a great version of his hit with The Hudson Brothers "So You Are A Star" which he wrote for his brother's wife at the time, Goldie Hawn.

Filling in on drums tonight was the great Steve Holly, a former member of "Wings", who received a last minute call. He did a great job. The evening ended with a rousing sing along on "Hey Jude". Tomorrow night will be even more fun. More to follow.