May 16, 2024
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Beatles tribute band coming to Joliet’s Rialto Theatre

1964 – The Tribute was founded 40 years ago

By Denise M. Baran-Unland
On Nov. 8, the band called 1964 – The Tribute will recreate a live 1960s performance of The Beatles on the Rialto stage.

On Nov. 8, the band called 1964 – The Tribute will recreate a live 1960s performance of The Beatles on the Rialto stage. (Photo courtesy of Rialto Square Theatre )

Tickets go on sale Friday for a Beatles tribute concert at the Rialto Square Theatre in Joliet.

On Nov. 8, the band 1964 – The Tribute will recreate a live 1960s performance of The Beatles on the Rialto stage. The concert will include “period instruments, clothing, hairstyles and onstage banter with an accuracy that is unmatched,” according to a news release from the Rialto.

“The band 1964 – The Tribute will give the audience the experience of a concert by The Beatles in the early ‘60s and generates the same feeling of happiness that is still generated by the music of The Beatles,” co-founder Mark Benson said in the release.

“We get so much of this positive energy back from our audiences, it reassures us that for now, we are where we are supposed to be.”

—  Mark Benson, co-founder of 1964 – The Tribute

Benson (as John Lennon) and Gary Grimes (the original Paul McCartney performer) founded 1964 – The Tribute 40 years ago (in 1984) and the band has succeeded more than Benson ever dreamed, according to the release.

“We had no idea when we first started this band that it would lead to us performing at so many of the venues The Beatles played, like Carnegie Hall, Red Rocks Amphitheater, The Deauville Hotel, Shea Stadium, and The Cavern in Liverpool, England,” Benson said in the release.

Current band members are Mac Ruffing as Paul McCartney, Tom Work as George Harrison and Bobby Potter as Ringo Starr.

According to the 1964 – The Tribute website, the band “focuses on the quintessential moment in history, when The Beatles actually played before a live audience.” Today, many people who saw The Beatles play in concert are no longer alive, leaving only “a few scant memories and some captured images in pictures and on poor quality film and video,” according to the 1964 website.

“We get so much of this positive energy back from our audiences,” Benson said in the release. “It reassures us that, for now, we are where we are supposed to be.”

For tickets and more information, visit rialtosquare.com.