Live Review: George Martin The Fifth Beatle - A Celebration

This year has been a rubbish one for musical losses: Lemmy, Bowie, Prince and the man affectionately known as the fifth Beatle, George Martin. With the passing of these musical giants come the obligatory tribute nights, which have ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, but tonight's assembly of talent lands squarely in the former. MCed by Melbourne's spangle-suited cowboy, James Young, we, the audience, reap the fruits of many months of exhaustive work by a dynamite assembly of brilliant local musicians.

Helmed by the disgustingly talented Davey Lane and supported by his hand-picked team of similarly excellent musician friends as well as a stellar rotation of singers, on paper the show is already a success. Surprisingly, yet wisely, the two-hour-long setlist is a chronologically correct trip through Martin's work with The Beatles.

As the band arrive onstage, it is apparent that there are bullets being sweated and the group of players looks more nervous than ever before. Beginning with 1963's Please Please Me, the mostly grey-haired crowd proves tough to win over. The ice begins to thaw when the splendid Linda Bull takes the stage for It Won't Be Long and, by the time Wendy Stapleton slays Eight Days A Week, the mood in the room shifts in favour of the band. Stapleton laughs as she tells the crowd, "I used to lock my cousins in the bungalow and make them sing this with me."

We Can Work It Out is still a sparkly piece of pop perfection with new life breathed into it by Kat Spazzy and Ash Naylor's turn on In My Life (I Love You More) dampens its fair share of eyes. Having played the dutiful bandleader for the majority of the set, Lane's turn on lead vocals for Tomorrow Never Knows is a show stopper and quite possibly the best rendition of the song not performed by an actual Beatle.

Part two of the set sees a one-two punch of Strawberry Fields Forever, as thoughtfully sang by Ross McLennan, and an effervescent Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band belted out by Bull. The degree of difficulty that comes with attempting to perform so many of these not only intricate but also much-loved songs must be appreciated as they are not only musically complicated but also lyrically acrobatic.

Seeming to appreciate the hard yards the band has put in over the last few months, the audience livens up as the second half of the set unfolds. Having nailed A Day In The Life, Lane announces, "Now we're about to attempt something as equally fraught with danger," while Naylor reassures, "But now we're six goals up!" Spazzy tackles the awesomely nonsensical I Am The Walrus and emerges virtually unscathed on the other side. In a pool of tricky songs, Spazzy jumps into the deep end.

Link Meanie (aka Link McLennan) brings the house down with a raucous Helter Skelter that has many in attendance still talking about it post-show. The darling of the night is Bull and her soulful vocals on Oh! Darling sees many of the couples in the crowd break off for a slow dance. Having been in rock'n'roll mode for most of the evening, it is a treat to see Bull let loose and really give her all.

As the show reaches its climax, Dirty York frontman Shaun Brown knocks Come Together straight out of the park with his distinctive vocal delivery. When Lane announces that this is the last song, there is an audible sigh from the crowd and their displeasure is rewarded with a smashing Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End featuring the entire band and all of the guest vocalists.

Though billed as a one-off, one can only hope that this isn't so.