Cool and unusual
CYNTHIA MCMULLEN
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST
Thursday, November 20, 2003
But this 'Rooftop Session' featured all-local talent It was Richmond, not London. Penny Lane Pub, not Apple. Franklin Street, not Savile Row. A balcony, not a rooftop.
The English Channel, not The Beatles, performed. It was Nov. 17, 2003, not Jan. 30, 1969.
But there the differences end. Anyone who witnessed the not-so-impromptu noontime concert at Fifth and Franklin streets Monday - whether they got the Fab Four connection or not - realized something unexpected and pretty darned special was happening.
How fun was it to stand on the corner on a gorgeous fall day as songs from the British Invasion bounced off the walls of downtown? Songs such as "Downtown" (natch!), "Carrie-Anne," "Hello Goodbye" and "I Saw Her Standing There."
Penny Lane Pub's debut at its new location might have corresponded with The English Channel's performance. It didn't, as it happens; the pub was not quite set for prime time. But that didn't keep a respectable crowd from gathering beneath its balcony as strains of The Beatles' "Penny Lane" - of course! - filled the air.
The E.C.'s star turn also coincided with this week's release of "Let It Be . . . Naked," a stripped-down version of The Beatles' classic album. (Not to mention a new DVD, "Lennon Legend," with previously unreleased footage of the late, great John Lennon; and a "Concert for George" CD-DVD, the 2002 celebration of Harrison's life and music.)
The English Channel's own eponymously titled first album will be released this weekend; you can hear the band yourself - see Julie Quarles' boots in person! - at the Boulevard Deli from about 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. tomorrow and Saturday. (Want more info? See thenglishchannel.com.)
Serendipitously, Jeff McKee points out, we're also looking at the 40th anniversary of the British Invasion. And President Kennedy was assassinated four decades ago Saturday.
McKee, half of the popular but now-defunct "Jeff & Jeff" show on WRXL (102.1 FM), manages The English Channel and champions the group's musical genre of choice.
"Just last week," he says, "a prominent Hungarian historian and cultural philosopher [Andras Simonyi, Hungary's ambassador to the United States] opined that it was rock'n' roll more than anything that toppled Communism. It wouldn't have happened without the British Invasion.
"By the early'60s, American rock'n' roll was all but dead. Elvis was in the Army. Chuck Berry was in jail. Buddy Holly was dead.
"The Beatles and their contemporaries saw what we here in America could not see: that our popular culture was not as disposable as we might have thought. They saw the beauty of our popular art and rescued it, and perhaps the world . . . or at least that's the way I see it."
So do I. And, I suspect, so did a lot of Monday's lucky listeners.
Brilliant job, E.C. Encore!
By the way, Penny Lane fans: The pub's long-awaited opening is scheduled for tomorrow.
