Fact #153462

Intrigued by the overheard comment, "There's a very weird band playing in there," I wandered into The Cheese And Grain to find myself confronted by a large, ramshackle orchestra, maybe 25 or thirty people in all, playing I Am The Walrus by The Beatles. A very commendable version too. They went on to play such sixties classics as For What It's Worth, Light My Fire, Never My Love, Nights In White Satin and Strawberry Fields Forever, delivering excellent versions of them all. Led and conducted by a gent called Jesse D. Vernon, the band seems to be a fairly ad hoc ensemble with a core of regular players enhanced by local musicians who join on the day of an event. When I saw them they had a variety of lead vocalists, chosen to suit each individual song, plus guitars, saxes, flutes, keyboards, violins, drums and a choir. I may have missed out some other participants but you get the general idea. Several of the songs, notably Strawberry Fields and Walrus, were never performed in their day, so someone (Jesse, I assume) must have transcribed the musical arrangements, working out how to replicate the weird sounds on the original records. It was a most enjoyable evening, all the better for being totally unheralded and unexpected. I was outside the venue enjoying a food fair, and came across the band entirely by happenstance.
Johnny Black