Beatles Tribute Band Performs Live

If it’s been a hard day’s night and the week has been a long and winding road, then all you need is love. I wanna hold your hand and take you to a benefit concert on Saturday night where you can twist and shout, come together and let it be.

Peppertown, a Beatles tribute band performs at the at 8 p.m. to benefit the Chelmsford Food Pantry and Boy Scout Troop 77. There’s no wigs or gimmick costumes for this band—they focus on the music and honoring the Fab Four.

David Sousa, Food Pantry volunteer, had the idea to bring Peppertown to Chelmsford when he heard the band perform live last year. Sousa knew two of the band members and brought the idea to them about doing a fundraiser event.

“We talked about it and just said let’s do it, and picked a date,” said Sousa.

A team of volunteers from the food pantry, Boy Scout Troop and St. Mary’s Church have been hard at work promoting the concert event over the past few months, selling sponsorships and posting flyers all around town. Sponsors include Pals Remodeling, Crosspoint Family Dental, Sal’s Pizza, The Chowder Factory, Scent of Flowers, Hannaford, Stop ‘N Shop, Jay Wilson—Keller Williams Realty, Dr. Steven Poore III MD, Chris’ Towing, Veryfine Juices, Metro Financial Strategies, University Music and more.

Peppertown has studied the original recordings and scores of the Beatles music to stay as true to their music as possible. They’ve also done their homework on the band members, instruments, and recording methods and absorbed every ounce of knowledge possible to know about the Fab Four.

In order to try and duplicate the Beatles' material, Peppertown uses similar instruments, synthesizers, pianos, organs to replicate the sound as much as possible.  At the show on Saturday night, they will perform three 45 minute sets covering the early, middle and late years of the Beatles music. 60’s music will be played during the breaks and raffles will be going on, with prizes including a mini-laptop, wine basket, Spinners tickets, and gift certificates.

“I can’t say enough about how supportive everyone involved has been,” said Sousa. “This event has been very well received. Nearly 150 tickets have been sold in advance already.”

Band members Ray Elwood on drums, Tim Leavitt on guitar, and Joe Minville on guitar and keyboards  met as teenagers—Minville was a roadie for Leavitt and Elwood’s band in the early 1970s. Paul Kendrew on bass guitar grew up in Sunderland, England, and met Minville after he had moved to the U.S. when they played together in a band in the early 1990s.

After a few jam sessions in Elwood’s basement in 2008, the four Beatles fans were ready to officially form their own tribute band, and Peppertown was born.  They have performed in many different venues in the New England area since then.

Peppertown performs at the Chelmsford Senior Center tomorrow at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20 a person and tables of 10 are available for reserve. Contact Dave Sousa at 978-250-1021 or davesousa@verizon.net or Cathy Jewell at 978-250-0749 or dcwavelength@verizon.net for tickets.

Refreshments will be served and raffle tickets will be sold at the event. Optional donations of one non-perishable food item for the Chelmsford Food Pantry will be accepted. More information about Peppertown can be found at www.peppertownband.com.