Alan Merrill

It was fitting that the original artist and songwriter of the Arrows 1975 version of "I Love Rock N Roll" be asked to play this tribute to John Lennon. Lennon certainly loved originality and rock n roll. Alan Merrill and his trio Amy Madden and Mark Brotter also played his UK and European Arrows seventies hits "Touch Too Much" and "My Last Night With You" with their Eddie Cochrane and R&B leanings they would have been very to Lennon's taste. Also Merrill's chart hits from Japan (this night in English) "Automatic Pilot" and "Sands Of Time" as recorded by his Tokyo based band Vodka Collins. As far as covering some of Lennon's favorite songs Alan Merrill performed "Slow Down" and "Anna" which were on John Lennon's home juke box. Opening act David Peel and the Lower East side performed many covers of Lennon songs, including a Lennon impersonator named Tim who was excellent.

I went to this show thinking it would be bands singing Beatles and Lennon songs. Nope. Instead, the bands did their own songs, and each did one Beatles song. The last two acts performed about three Beatles songs each, but also some of their original songs. I thought the show was going to be strictly Lennon and Beatles. I won't come back to this venue for any kind of celebration or tribute.