The Fab Four Roots Are in Temple City
By Shel Segal, Beacon Media News
Courtesy Photo
They might have been inspired from the Lads from Liverpool, but the Fab Four can actually trace its roots to the musical hotbed of Temple City.
Founded by 1989 Temple City High School graduate Ardy Sarraf, the group started from modest beginnings before growing.
“We got started about 1996 in L.A. at a Beatle convention called ‘Beatle Fest,’” Sarraf said. “My group from Temple City High School that included Mike McCarthy and Steve Welch, we just there just to play some Beatles’ songs in a battle of the bands. We didn’t dress up like the Beatles. We didn’t talk like them. We just played some songs. And we won.”
Sarraf said the band just kept getting better and better.
“We won four years in a row and that got the attention of some professional Beatle tribute guys,” he said.
From there Sarraf said he got to travel to many different countries and places as a Beatle, like Japan, Korea, Canada and even getting to play for U.S. military installations in Guam.
Photo by Terry Miller – Beacon Media News
As he is Paul McCartney on stage – but a natural right-hander – Sarraf said he had to take the time to re-teach himself how to play left-handed guitar and bass as to be more authentic in the band’s shows.
“I taught myself how to play left-handed guitar,” Sarraf said. “I bought a left-handed Hofner bass and spent six or seven months just trying to get the chords down, the rhythm of that down and how to hold it.”
While Sarraf said he started his musical career at church, it was a historical event that changed his life forever in many ways.
“As a kid I grew up in choir and churches and stuff,” Sarraf said. “But when John Lennon was killed in 1980 I remember my sister had a scrap book with all his pictures. At 9 years old I was asking, ‘Why is everyone crying about this guyA!X Why was he so importantA!X’ So, she got a couple of albums out and I started listening to them and reading the lyrics. I said, ‘Wow! No wonder he was so important.’ Even at an early age I knew this was something cool.”
His favorite Beatles songs Sarrafs said those two are “All You Need is Love” and “Hey Jude.” And his favorite album is “Revolver.”
Sarraf added he even got to meet his idol McCartney a few years back at a book signing in Los Angeles.
“It was pretty surreal,” Sarraf said. “I only got a few seconds, but it was cool.”
In addition, Sarraf said the Fab Four is more than just a band.
“Not only are we a band, we’re not like a bar band,” he said. “We have theatrical elements in our show. We have video and lighting elements in our show. We’re actors, we’re musicians, we’re mimicks, we’re all of the above.”
But it’s the music of the Beatles that keeps everyone coming back, he said.
“The Beatles: You can’t go wrong,” he said. “It’s such a mass appeal. It touches so many different people in so many different ways.”
(Shel Segal can be reached at [email protected]. He can be followed via Twitter @segallanded.)