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© St. Petersburg Times, published May 30, 2002
Salute to Sgt. Pepper
Thirty-five years after the release of the Beatles' groundbreaking Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, community radio station WMNF-FM 88.5 is staging a benefit on the album's anniversary with the goal of doing some groundbreaking, too.
The Beatles for Building Bucks concert at Skipper's Smokehouse, which begins at noon Saturday and runs until midnight, features 30 Florida bands and artists. The Beatles marathon concert will raise money for the station's campaign to build a $1.2-million production and broadcast facility. The concert also marks the release of a CD: With a Little Help From Our Friends (The Sgt. Pepper Remake).
Many tribute albums are long on execution but short on innovation, but the WMNF effort is just the opposite. The 14 artists who re-create Sgt. Pepper have, for the most part, come up with imaginative interpretations. Some of the highlights: a rockabilly-Western swing version of When I'm 64 by Jennifer and the Venturas, a countrified With a Little Help From My Friends by Ronny Elliot & the Nationals, Barely Pink's take on Good Morning, which sounds as if the Who wandered into Abbey Road Studios by mistake, and a feminist, kazoo-driven Lovely Rita by Halcyon.
(In the best Beatles tradition, there also is a hidden cut.)
The Beatles for Building Bucks benefit concert for WMNF is noon to midnight Saturday at Skipper's Smokehouse, 910 Skipper Road, Tampa. Call WMNF at (813) 238-8001 or Skipper's at (813) 977-6474 for more information. Tickets are $10 in advance, $13 at the door.
-- PETER A. COUTURE, Times staff writer