Bristol Rocks Sgt Peppers Only Darts Club Band Preview

"Sgt Pepper's Only Dart Board Band Make Sure We All Enjoy Their Show".

The Prom, Bristol. Saturday 8th September 2007
Band Profile		By Kathryn Courtney-O'Neill
The opening song to Saturday night's show was "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and the second line in the chorus is 'We hope you will enjoy the show'. With the venue packed I hoped the answer would be yes, after all if we didn't would they have a riot on their hands? And if there was would Sgt Pepper playing the keyboards that night be able to manoeuvre his troops out safely without anyone being harmed after all this was "Sgt Pepper's Only Dart Board Band" who had been sent along to The Prom to entertain us all.
	The band name alone is great tongue in cheek humour but the muscianship is highly professional, you couldn't fault it even if George Hare Singh-Song had a slight mishap with his guitar about fifteen minutes or so into the show. It turned out to be a faulty guitar lead and John Legend with his Liverpudlian accent kept the troops entertained with corny jokes and anecdotal stories whilst this minor hiccup was being sorted. It only goes to prove that these guys never panic and know how to entertain and get the audience eating out of their hands. I've seen bands fall apart with lesser incidents.
Being called 'Sgt Pepper's Only Dart Board Band' and wearing similar costumes to the album sleeve, eight of the songs performed in the first half of the show came from "Sgt Pepper" and that was fitting tribute to a great album. We also learn that 'extra' band member Sgt Pepper is also a traffic warden in his spare time and had booked and clamped all the cars in the street that night! This led into the song "Lovely Rita". There was plenty of banter between Paul, Ringo, George and John, oh not forgetting Sgt Pepper too and dry sense of humour was the order of the evening.
	There was a great performance of "Drive My Car" and "Penny Lane" was always one of my favourites. Again one of the many highlights of the night and included the Liverpudlian pronunciation by Paul McCoatoff of 'customer' in the song, that's how authentic they can be with the music and lyrics. The audience were singing along without any encouragement from the band and it all seemed rather natural and fun!
The second half of the performance opened with "I Am The Walrus" and the audience joined in with the 'Woo' parts of the song whilst Sgt Pepper played some rocking piano for "Lady Madonna". One song threw me at the time because it was referred to as "Finale". It was only a minute or so into it I realised what they were doing. They were playing a series of songs that was sometimes referred as a medley from the "Abbey Road" album. As I attend the Beatles weekend in Liverpool on a regular basis I have only heard this played live once during the 'Album Performances' at the event a few years ago. It is a collection of album tracks loosely brought together featuring songs from "You Never Give Me Your Money" through to the track entitled "The End". "Mean Mr Mustard" has a great beat to it and "Golden Slumbers" adds a lovely touch to the whole proceedings, by the time they reached "Carry That Weight" the audience were back to full volume singing along. Many connoisseurs were obviously in the audience that night and welcomed it's addition to the set. Of course there was massive cheers and applause for Ringo Stallin's drum solo during this performance and it is well known the Beatles didn't go for these in a big way, the medley was the exception to the rule. "Hey Jude" meant another sing along before launching into the rock 'n' roll section of the show with songs such as "Get Back", "Hard Days Night", "Back In The USSR" and "Twist And Shout". It didn't end there and the crowd wanted to continue to dance the night away so an encore of "Can't Buy Me Love" and "She Loves You" went down a storm. "If you loved us we are Sgt Pepper's Only Dart Board Band and if you hated us we we're the Bootleg Beatles!" shouts John as they all left the stage. Of course we all loved them. It was great fun. Alan and Lizzie whom I met the previous night at The Prom came back to see "Sgt Pepper's Only Dart Board Band" just for the band name alone. They summed up the evening with just one word "Fantastic!" and they'll be back in December to see you guys again. Another two to add to your fan base and even more to follow I'm sure!