“The Beatles” at Flat Rock Playhouse, Feb. 20-23

Press release

Flat Rock Playhouse is proud to announce the next ‘Music on the Rock’ series concert: The Beatles running February 20th to 23rd. The show will feature Music on the Rock regular Ryan Guerra.

One of Music on the Rock’s most popular concerts returns. With new songs and amazing performers, this will be an unforgettable celebration of the Fab Four’s music. With only four performances, expect this extraordinary tribute to the most iconic band of all time to sell out quickly. Head to Playhouse Downtown to experience some of the greatest songs ever written, live.

The Beatles’ first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show was on February 9, 1964 which is 50 years ago this month.

The Beatles were an English rock band that formed in Liverpool, in 1960. With John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, they became widely regarded as the greatest and most influential act of the rock era. Rooted in skiffle and 1950s rock and roll, the Beatles later experimented with several genres, ranging from pop ballads to psychedelic and hard rock, often incorporating classical elements in innovative ways. In the early 1960s, their enormous popularity first emerged as “Beatlemania”, but as their songwriting grew in sophistication they came to be perceived as an embodiment of the ideals shared by the era’s sociocultural revolutions.

Starting in 1960, the Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act and producer George Martin enhanced their musical potential. They gained popularity in the United Kingdom after their first hit, “Love Me Do”, in late 1962. They acquired the nickname the “Fab Four” as Beatlemania grew in Britain over the following year, and by early 1964 they had become international stars, leading the “British Invasion” of the United States pop market. From 1965 on, the Beatles produced what many critics consider their finest material, including the innovative and widely influential albums Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966), Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Beatles (White Album) (1968), and Abbey Road (1969). After their break-up in 1970, they each enjoyed successful musical careers. Lennon was shot and killed in December 1980, and Harrison died of lung cancer in November 2001. McCartney and Starr, the remaining members, remain musically active.

According to the RIAA, the Beatles are the best-selling band in the United States, with 177 million certified units. They have had more number-one albums on the British charts and sold more singles in the UK than any other act. In 2008, the group topped Billboard magazine’s list of the all time most successful “Hot 100” artists; as of 2014, they hold the record for most number-one hits on the Hot 100 chart with 20. They have received ten Grammy Awards, an Academy Award for Best Original Score and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. Collectively included in Time magazine’s compilation of the 20th century’s 100 most influential people, they are the best-selling band in history, with estimate sales of over 600 million records worldwide. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Beatles as the greatest artist of all time.

TICKETS AND SCHEDULE
Rug & Home presents Music on the Rock: The Beatles at Playhouse Downtown February 20 – 23. Performances will be Thursday through Sunday at 8:00 pm each evening.  All tickets are $24 and can be purchased by calling the Playhouse box office at 828-693-0731, toll-free at 866-732 8008 or online at www.flatrockplayhouse.org. Playhouse Downtown is located at 125 S. Main Street in Hendersonville NC.