Mostly Moptop

Dix Hills Performing Arts Center presents
“Four John: A Rock ’n’ Roll Concerto” in celebration of Lennon’s life and music

The band Mostly Moptop will highlight four phases in Lennon’s career, Oct 1. at 7:30 p.m.,
including Lennon as rock ’n roller, wordplay imagist, despairing romantic, and utopian visionary

September 2, 2011, Dix Hills, New York – The Dix Hills Performing Arts Center and the John Lennon Center for Music and Technology are pleased to celebrate what would have been John Lennon’s 71st birthday month, with a unique program entitled: “Four John: A Rock ’n Roll Concerto” beginning at 7:30 pm, on
October 1. Tickets are $30, $25 and $20.

The show will feature a one-time performance by local Beatles tribute band Mostly Moptop. In addition to their acclaimed note-for-note performances of classic songs from both the Beatles and John Lennon’s solo years, Mostly Moptop will debut a special four-part song cycle homage to Lennon’s life, art and music.

Spoken passages from Lennon’s book and play In His Own Write, will be performed during the piece by Moptop’s Anthony Pomes, along with such classic Beatles tracks as “Please Please Me,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” and “I Am the Walrus.” Lennon’s prolific solo career will be paid tribute to with such songs as “Mind Games,” “Watching the Wheels,” and “Imagine.” Mostly Moptop will be joined by five additional musicians for this new show, including Five Towns College faculty member and virtuoso saxophonist Demetrius Spaneas.

Tim Riley, National Public Radio’s music critic and author of the new book Lennon (Hyperion) will speak briefly about the book and the decade he dedicated to researching and writing it.

In creating the structure of the new show “Four John,” Anthony Pomes drew on his study of the 1972 book Mind Games by Robert Masters and Jean Houston (the book that inspired Lennon to write his song of the same name). “Just as Masters and Houston based their approach to the healed mind on four levels of the psyche – mythic, sensory, psychological, and spiritual – I based our four-part program of Lennon’s music across those same four themes.” Alongside the music, four specific passages from Lennon’s play In His Own Write will be performed by Pomes both in Lennon’s voice and persona. “With this newest of our ‘concept concerts,’ ” Pomes continues, “we want to bring out the themes at play in the music in tandem with those select parts of the Lennon play.”

In preparation for this newest show, Pomes found that the number “four” resonates deeply within the life of John Lennon. “In addition to there being four Beatles, it is important to remember that John also only spent four decades here with us. And what’s the first thing you hear in ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ (the first Beatles song that opens the first Beatles album Please Please Me)? A voice shouting ‘One, two, three, four!.’  Much of the magic of Lennon’s life and music can be found in that number.” Pomes goes on to say about this new show, “The hope is that everyone will be entertained, but will also come away with a deeper sense of what John stood for and how truly visionary he was.”

The John Lennon Center for Music and Technology at Five Towns College includes a video and audio production center and a John Lennon Library containing catalogs of important historical artifacts from the Beatles era and John’s subsequent solo careers.

John’s widow, artist Yoko Ono, serves as Honorary Chairperson of the Center’s Advisory Committee. She was present at the Center’s original dedication. Since then, numerous other artists and musicians have visited the Center to both lecture and to perform. Visitors have also included Beatle producer Sir George Martin, original Apple Records engineers, radio personalities and many other music industry luminaries.

Mostly Moptop has been playing Beatles music and other rock ’n roll covers from the 1960s to '80s since 1995. They have performed with The Beatles' Magical Orchestra conducted by noted American composer David Amram. They have played successful shows in many NY area venues and always are sure to bring a smile to the audiences' faces with their faithful renditions of Beatles favorites as well as some solo work recorded by the Fab Four after the band broke up in 1970. The band is comprised of Anthony Pomes (rhythm and lead guitar, bass, drums, piano, and vocals); John Tabacco (drums, piano, and vocals); Edward Franz (lead and rhythm guitar, bass, and vocals); and Paul Michael Barkan (bass, keyboards, miscellaneous instruments, vocals).

The Dix Hills Performing Arts Center

The Dix Hills Performing Arts Center is located at Five Towns College, 305 North Service Road, Dix Hills, New York, 11746-5857. For more information and ticket sales, please contact the Dix Hills Performing Arts Center box office at (631) 656-2148 or visit online at www.DHPAC.org *Become a fan on Facebook (Dix Hills Performing Arts Center).