Pattie Boyd - Appearing at all 3 Fests
George and Pattie first met on the set of A Hard Day’s Night and were married two years later. Pattie has written her memoirs, Wonderful Tonight – George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Me.
Pattie is again setting up a special Photo and Fashion Exhibit, where all her signings will be taking place over the three days.
Donovan
What a thrill it is to present one of the greatest artists of the 1960’s in Las Vegas. The man who penned such standards as Mellow Yellow, Hurdy Gurdy Man, Season of the Witch, Jennifer Juniper, and Atlantis will be speaking all three days and performing on the Monday and Tuesday evenings.
This is the 40th Anniversary of the Beatles and Donovan’s visit to India and he plans on a special celebration for our FEST! This is Donovan’s first public Las Vegas performance, ever!! The only time he ever played in Las Vegas was at a private party opening up the Beatles themed Revolution Lounge at the Mirage last year. This is Pattie's and Donovon's first reunion since being in Rishikesh with The Beatles in 1968 with Paul Saltzman.
Billy J. Kramer
Billy along with his band The Dakotas were also managed by Brian Epstein and had 4 big hits written by Lennon/McCartney – including Bad To Me, Do You Want To Know a Secret, and I’ll Keep You Satisfied.
Billy grew up in Liverpool and befriended the fabs, seeing them in concert many times.
Spencer Davis
Founder of The Spencer Davis Group (featuring vocals by a young Stevie Winwood.), they went on to have numerous hits including the rock standards Gimme Some Lovin’ and I’m a Man.
Spencer was very much a part of the music scene playing with the Stones, The Who and hanging out with The Beatles. He has a new CD out called So Far.
Ken Mansfield
Apple Executive
Author of the White Book
Former U.S. Manager of Apple Records has recently put out his memoirs, called The White Book: The Beatles, The Bands, The Biz- An Insider’s Look at an Era.
Ken’s association with The Beatles goes back to the mid 1960’s and forged close personal and business relationships with them. Ken is also making is first FEST appearances as he shares his wealth of stories with the fans.
Photographer
An accomplished photographer and Ringo’s girlfriend (between Maureen and Barbara), A Dose of Rock ‘n’ Roll is a beautiful new coffee table book with not only Ringo, but photos of George, John, Nilsson, Donovan, Keith Moon, Leon Russell and many others.
The book comes in a slip case and this limited edition of 2,500 copies are all signed by Nancy. She will be happy to personalize it for you over the weekend. This is Nancy’s first VEGAS FEST appearance.
Allan Tannenbaum
Photographer
Author of John & Yoko: A New York Love Story. He had such a good time at the NY METRO FEST in March, that he decided to join us at The Mirage.
He will be setting up a selection of his photos and presenting fascinating Audio Visual shows with his photos and recollections.
Jude Southerland Kessler
was a Guest Author at the NY METRO FEST in March and had such a great time, that she is coming to join us in Las Vegas.
Her stunning historical novel, Shoulda Been There is an 800 page look at the life of John Winston Lennon, from 1940 through 1961. 15 years of research went into this labor of love.
Mark Hudson
Ringo's Producer 1997-2007
Ringo’s former producer and co-writer returns to share his great Beatles stories and kick out the jams with Liverpool and our other musical guests.
Congratulations to Mark on the wonderful work he did with Ringo on his new Liverpool 8 Album.
Mark will head up an always fascinating Musician’s Forum with the other guests that you won’t want to miss!
Ian Wright
Last year in Las Vegas, Ian first shared his images from over 40 years ago with the world.
This year, he returns with a new book – On the Brink of Fame and will be setting up a Photo Exhibit in addition to talking about his experiences in the swinging 60s as a young photographer.
Tony Palmer
is an acclaimed British filmmaker and writer who knew and worked extensively with The Beatles - having been friends with John Lennon since 1963. He shot the footage for The Beatles' Lady Madonna promotional film and provided the liner notes for their Yellow Submarine album. John personally instigated (and suggested the titles for) two of his many film projects.
His 1968 film All My Loving starred The Beatles, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Pink Floyd. It was recently released on DVD for the first time.
In 1977, he filmed the acclaimed British TV series All You Need Is Love - a 17-hour history of popular music that included the first-ever full-length film portrait of the Beatles - made with very active participation from John and Paul. The series was never screened nationally in the US and has never been available on home video. It will be released on DVD in May but he will have the first copies for sale anywhere in the world specially available at The Fest.
Love-Cirque Du Soleil Cast Members
When booking your Love:Cirque du Soleil Tickets, we recommend you book the 7:00pm Shows so they will not conflict with any of our concerts. (There are two shows per night 7 & 10pm Thursday thru Monday). The Love tickets are not yet available, but their Box Office will be holding Sections for FEST attendees in all the price categories. We will post the link and date of availability in the coming weeks,
Last year we presented numerous members of the Cast and Production of The Beatles LOVE at our convention, who talked about their experiences with the show. We hope to have more attend this year. Details to follow.
Liverpool: Incredible Live Concerts
The World’s Finest Beatles Sound-Alike Band, is an integral part of our ‘FEST family’ and has been our exclusive house band for nearly every FEST. Their dedication to the spirit of The Beatles music is unmatched, playing a vast majority of Beatles and solo songs, plus playing with dozens of great musical guests over the years.
They are working on a couple of special surprise sets for an Anniversary!!
DREW HILL, CHRIS CAMILLERI, JOHN MERJAVE and GLEN BURTNIK will be backing SPECIAL GUESTS Donovan, Billy J.Kramer, Spencer Davis & Mark Hudson and other surprises for some great live entertainment.
PETER SANDER
An Oscar nominated director, designed and co-directed the Beatles animated caricatures used in the Saturday morning Cartoon Series.
He was very key in bringing these 4 animated characters to life on the screen. He will be signing at DenniLu's booth and will be having talks each day in the Discussion Room.
The author of The Beatles in India informs us that his exhibit this year has been expanded to include 11 new images. He will also concentrate his talks on a much asked about topic. “Why Did The Beatles Go To India?” and share some meditation methods as well. In 1968, Paul went to the same Ashram as The Beatles in India, and the rest is history.
Bruce Spizer
After 6 amazing and authoritative books over the past 9 years, BRUCE SPIZER has turned out his final book in the Beatles U.S. Recordings series. It is called The Beatles Swan Song.
However, 2007 saw Bruce expand into a Publisher with the release of Perry Cox’s Beatles Price Guide for American Records. He will be doing two very entertaining Slide Shows this year.
Martin Lewis
Guest MC - Humorist
Humorist-writer-producer and leading Beatles scholar. His Fab-related work started 40 years ago (as a teenager!) when he compiled the discography for their authorizedl biography by Hunter Davies. He started his career as a protege of Beatles publicist Derek Taylor in the early 1970s.
His multiple Beatles-related credits include producing and marketing the DVD editions of “A Hard Day's Night" and “The Beatles On Ed Sullivan”. He was consultant for "The Beatles Anthology", "Live At The BBC", Paul McCartney's "Music & Animation", George Martin's "In My Life", Michael Lindsay-Hogg's "Two Of Us" and Julie Taymor's "Across The Universe". He instigated the Rutles reunion and produced their "Archaeology" album. He has worked as producer-writer-host and/or marketing strategist on various film/TV/DVD/record/radio/stage projects with Paul, Ringo, Yoko, George Martin and Julian Lennon.
He instigated and produced the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Beatles first visit to the US (The Fab 40!) and this year's first-ever "Across The Universe Day!" He has been Master of Ceremonies at all our NY and Western USA (L.A./Vegas) conventions since 1992 and a Special Guest at our Chicago Fests since 1995. This will be his 43rd convention with us. See: www.MartinLewis.com
Dennis Mitchell
DJ Dennis Mitchell is sharing the MC chores once again.
Dennis hosts his popular weekly Breakfast With The Beatles in 46 markets including KUNV 91.5FM in Las Vegas.
It is great to have him back.
Joe Johnson
Beatle Brunch Radio Show
• Trivia Contests • DJ Personality
Beatle Brunch Host JOE JOHNSON is now on 120 stations nationwide (including KRAJ 100.9 Bakersfield, CA Sunday 12:00am).
Joe heads up the Annual Live Trivia Game Shows, Name That Tune and Panel Discussions. There will be separate contests for the younger experts as well.
See The Beatle Brunch website at www.brunchradio.com.
And sign up for the brand new Beatle Brunch CLUB (BBC) website at www.beatlebrunchclub.com.
The Beatle Brunch Cruise will be Labor Day Weekend this year.
Tony Perkins
Former Good Morning America Weatherman and lifelong Beatles Fan. Tony will be joining us this year on stage.
Among his many Beatle accomplishments are his numerous interviews with Ringo on Good Morning America.