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The Beatles Music

February 7, 2012 by · Comments Off on The Beatles Music 

The Beatles Music, When jamming out to The Beatles with friends while in high school 17 years ago in Atlanta, Michael Fulop had an epiphany. “I said, ‘Let’s form a Beatles cover band,’ ” Fulop said while calling from Atlanta. “This will be amazing. I can’t believe that no one had ever thought of this before. I’m a genius.”

Fulop soon discovered that Beatles tributes were ubiquitous.

“I had never heard of ‘Beatlemania’ or any of those Beatles acts or shows,” Fulop said. “Not long after I thought I came up with something new, I discovered that there were 800 Beatles cover bands in 1995. I guess I wasn’t a genius after all.”

Fulop was hardly an original when it came to his Beatles cover concept. However, his love of The Beatles never abated.

“I loved it then, and I love it just as much now,” Fulop said. “It didn’t matter that there were so many Beatles cover bands. There was room for one more.”

The Return, performing Thursday (Feb. 9) at the Prudential Center between periods and after the New Jersey Devils-St. Louis Blues game, has been delivering Beatles tunes for 17 years.

“It’s a passion,” Fulop said. “It started simply. We just played parties. We combed our hair out into mop tops and had fun with it. But it became a career that I love.”

Fulop, who portrays George Harrison and his mates — Shane Landers as Paul, Richard Stelling as John and Adam Thurston as Ringo — deliver two types of sets, while sporting Beatles-era duds. The Return offers the early days through 1966 and the latter years after the group stopped playing live.

“When we perform in New Jersey, we’re going to do the early years through ’66, when they stopped doing concerts,” Fulop said. “What’s fun about doing the early stuff is that people get so excited and they start dancing. It’s a lot of fun and I think that will work well when we come up there to perform.”

Fulop can’t imagine ever tiring of The Beatles.

“You think I would get sick of it,” Fulop said. “I’ve played ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ way more than they ever did. Add it up. We’ve played it 100 times a year times 15-plus years, but I never get sick of it. In fact, what do I play when I’m home from the road? Beatles discs. I fall asleep to Beatles music at night.

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