Come together for Stockwood's Beatles tribute show

Performing “A Genuine Tribute to The Beatles” at Navy Pier this weekend, Stockwood’s roots can be traced to a talent show at Dean Street Elementary School in Woodstock.

Collin Berg, the 19-year-old who portrays John Lennon in the band, said he got together with friends eight years ago to perform some of the music their parents listened to at home.

Stockwood since has performed throughout the Midwest and heavily in the Chicago area. The band won First Place in the Battle of the Beatle Bands at Chicago’s Fest for Beatle Fans in 2006 and 2007.

“We’re just hoping to do this as long as we can and as long as it’s going good,” said Berg, who graduated from Woodstock High School in 2010 and now studies music at Columbia College in Chicago.

Along with Berg, the band consists of his 15-year-old brother, Evan Berg, a Woodstock High School student who portrays Ringo Starr; 17-year-old John Morefield, a junior at Woodstock High School who portrays Paul McCartney; and 18-year-old Nick Solideo, who graduated from Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire and portrays George Harrison. Evan was only 6 1/2 when he first took on Ringo.

The band’s show at 5 p.m. Sept. 3 at Navy Pier is exactly 49 years to the day that the Beatles began their famous BBC sessions.

“At the beginning, we tried playing some other stuff, too, but the Beatles seemed to fit best,” Collin Berg said. “We were all taking lessons at the time. Pretty often, our teachers would have us learn Beatles songs.”

Collin had a lot more to say about the band and the Beatles.

How much research and work have you put into becoming the Beatles? Do you perform all of the band’s music?

We don’t have to do as much now, because we did so much when we were younger. We’d watch all the videos then and take up the accents and the mannerisms of each Beatle ...We do pretty much all of the early stuff. We do some songs off “Rubber Soul,” a couple off “Revolver,” and a few off “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

We do the ‘Abbey Road’ stuff. We have a whole set of just that, from “Let it Be” and “Abbey Road.”

What is it about the Beatles? What do you think turned them into legends?

At first, they attracted so many young people and they were just kind of a whole new generation of music. They helped develop so many new things.

John Lennon has been credited for inventing distortion or feedback that a lot of people use on their guitars. They’re just very influential to everybody, and they went through so many different phases of their music.

The early period was very pop and teenage-friendly, and they started moving into heavier stuff, “Sgt. Pepper” and “Rubber Soul.” They started to get more experimental.

Some people like the early stuff best. Some people like the later stuff the best. If you ask somebody their favorite Beatles’ album, it’s always something different. I think it’s just the variety of what they did that was very appealing, or is now.

What’s it like to get up on stage and become a Beatle?

You feel like you think they might have felt. When you’re playing, there are people screaming and cheering. Interacting with the audience is great. It’s always nice to see people in the audience singing the lyrics to the songs.

Do you listen to other music?

I like a lot of stuff. I like the Black Keys, Jet, The Redwalls. We all like Led Zeppelin. Pretty much most of the classical rock stuff we all love. John (Morefield) likes classical music a lot. So do I. He’s classically trained in piano as well. We all like Jazz. We have a lot of music we like.

Why have you succeeded and how can other aspiring artists?

If you have a passion for music, I would say don’t give up and keep trying. If you can try and go to school for it, do it. That’s what I’m doing.

For me, personally, I want to be happy doing what I love, and music is what makes me very happy. It’s a passion of mine. It’s one of those following dreams things.

Stockwood 'A Genuine Tribute to The Beatles'
WHEN: 5 p.m. Sept. 3
WHERE: The Landshark Beer Garden on Chicago's Navy Pier
BAND INFORMATION: www.stockwoodrocks.com; www.youtube.com/user/stockwoodrocks.
SHOW INFORMATION: www.chicagosbestbeergarden.com.