Sheriff names suspect in bridge fire

United Way cuts funds for Hyte programs

State funding cuts will force ISU to re-evaluate resources

B-Sides
Liverpool Legends proof of Beatles' lasting impact

B-Sides
Liverpool Legends proof of Beatles' lasting impact

Mark Bennett

Minutes after hanging up the phone with Louise Harrison on Tuesday morning, I walked into a coffee shop and heard The Beatles' "Two of Us" jangling over a stereo in the background.

Back when I was on the Indiana State University basketball beat and I would mention such a confluence of unintended events in a postgame press conference, Sycamore Coach Royce Waltman enjoyed spotting my efforts to make sense of the obvious by saying, "That, Mark, is called irony."

But that moment Tuesday may have been more than ironic. Yes, Louise is the big sister of late Beatles lead guitarist George Harrison. And we did spend much of our half-hour talking about the music and lasting influence of that quartet she fondly calls "my kid brother's band." As she put it, the world still has "a deep connection to them." And then moments later, I swung that coffee shop door open only to hear Lennon and McCartney singing, "You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead."

In most situations, you'd have to call that irony. But with The Beatles, it's just validation that they remain inescapable.

Millions of fans share memories stretching four decades long. That bond will bring Louise to the Wabash Valley for a three-day stay next week. She'll speak about a variety of topics in a gathering at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 12 in the Zwermann Performing Arts Center on the Lincoln Trail College campus at Robinson, Ill. Two nights later, Louise will be in the audience in the Robinson Bowling Center, watching the band she now manages - the Liverpool Legends, a Beatles tribute act - play an 8 o'clock show on Saturday, May 14.

At age 73, she happily wears the title of "Mum to the Family of Beatle People." And she's been their American ambassador ever since she moved from Liverpool to Benton, Ill., shortly before John, Paul, George and Ringo invaded the United States in 1964. (Actually, George visited her there in 1963, before the rest of the band hit U.S. soil, and her old house where he once slept is now a historic landmark and a bed-and-breakfast.) It was Louise who wrote letters to their manager, Brian Epstein, trying to explain to him that getting on "The Ed Sullivan Show" was a big deal. Once Beatlemania exploded, she did Beatles updates on radio stations around the country in advance of their tour stops. And she answered a flood of fan mail for George, just as her parents did back in England.

The Beatles disbanded in 1970. Lennon was shot to death in 1980. And George died of cancer at age 58 in 2001. But the passing of time hasn't erased the fascination. For example, Louisville, Ky., will host a Beatles festival "Abbey Road on the River" on May 27-29.

Louise made a spur-of-the-moment appearance in Sullivan, Ill., on Feb. 25 - George's birthday - and nearly 60 young kids showed up. "That was very gratifying," she says.

Their unforgettable music and especially their message of peace, love and kindness plays well in all generations everywhere, Louise thinks.

"That's the thing that's surprising, even the young people at the schools - those that were lucky enough to have Beatle people for parents - are very attuned and keen to that," she says.

In a way, the success of her Liverpool Legends is evidence.

She spotted two of the group's members while they were performing with another Beatles tribute band in the historic Pickwick Theatre at Park Ridge, Ill., a few months after her brother died. And a song by Marty Scott (the George character) moved her to tears. Eventually, Scott and rhythm guitarist Kevin Mantegna (John) formed Liverpool Legends with Davey Justice (Paul) on lefty bass and Joe Bologna (Ringo) on drums, and with Louise as their manager.

"I'd already become the big sister to the George in this band, Marty, after my brother died, because he has a lot of his characteristics - very kind and compassionate," she says. "And we have a great time."

She even took Marty to meet the real McCartney. And, apparently, Sir Paul learned something from their conversation.

"Paul was saying, 'We've written so much music, it isn't easy to remember all the words,'" Louise recalls. "And our George said, 'When we forget, we just lip-read the people in the front row.' And Paul said, 'That's a good idea.'"

As for their playing and their look, Louise says the Liverpool Legends - one of nearly 500 Beatles tribute acts worldwide - "are so very, very good." In fact, samples of their performances on the band's Web site www.liverpoollegends.com had engineers joking the playing was so similar "it sounds as though we've taken snippets off the original Beatles," Louise says.

Regenerating those tunes, lyrics and inspirations is worthwhile, she says, adding, "They had more of an impact than lads just playing guitar."

Louise still gets letters from people around the globe who say they learned to speak English by listening to Beatles records. Such tales offset bizarre memories of fans mobbing her own son and daughter, and dropping in at the family's house in Benton at the height of Beatlemania.

These guys made "happy music," as she calls it, but also became spokesmen for peace and understanding.

"That still has an appeal now," Louise says. "That's the basic human kindness we all have when we're born, but it's sort of beaten out of us as we grow older. And what The Beatles were saying was, 'Let's bottle some of this.'"

George embraced that concept in a religious way, and his big sister embraced a similar, spiritualism of self-realization, too.

"It says the life force that is within you is a drop of God and that we're all connected," Louise explains. "And if more people understood that, we wouldn't be bashing each other over the head and blowing each other up. We'd be treating people with kindness."

Mark Bennett can be reached by telephone at 1-800-783-8742, Option 6, Ext. 377, by e-mail at mark.bennett@... or by fax at (812) 231-4321.

Story created May 05, 2005 - 09:02:11 CDT.