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It’s Saturday morning. Last night was Rockola‘s long-awaited performance of the entire Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, plus a set of other great Beatles songs. The show was fabulous. The 1,915-seat theater was pretty darn full, and the audience went absolutely NUTS for the show. I think 4 or 5 songs got standing ovations, and there was cheering and riotous applause for every song. Chloe and I sat in a box at the side, so it was easy for her to run backstage when necessary and also easy for Henry to run out from backstage and sit with us when he wasn’t performing or getting ready to perform.

The day leading up to the show was fairly stressful. I won’t go into details, but let’s say that that particular theater is not a happy place. Henry and I arrived about 2:30, and he was able to join in the rehearsal for most of his songs, and had a fine time listening to the band and playing with Celia. There were some orchestra kids that he enjoyed talking to, as well, especially the young fellow, about Henry’s age, who played the bells on Penny Lane and When I’m 64. I did small chores for the band and sat around and watched the kids, etc.

The show started a bit late, but I think that was a good thing because there were still people buying last-minute tickets and finding their seats right up until it started.

When the lights finally dimmed, the crowd went nuts. The band came on and the crowd went nuts again. They started with Revolution and it was a great choice to start with — super high energy, good hard rock. It really got the show off to a roaring start. Um.. highlights of the first set… Henry and Ceila danced during Ob-La-Di, which was the cutest thing ever. Henry played keyboard chords in Penny Lane. What else did they play… Strawberry Fields, Savoy Truffle (great big beefy horn parts played with gusto by the orchestra kids), Lady Madonna, a couple of earlier songs which rocked hard, etc. etc. I’ll probably think of more later.

Then there was a break, and then they came back on to do the Sgt. Pepper album. Henry and Celia held up “Applause” “Laugh” and “Cheer” signs during the first song to get the audience to provide those sound effects at the proper times. Henry NAILED the timing; I was very proud :) Everything went great. The audience just loved the harpist in She’s Leaving Home, and Celia’s big bass harmonica in Mister Kite. Henry’s Horse costume looked great when he came on to Dance the Waltz — he and Celia danced all around during that instrumental break, and there were a couple of other little girls with circusy outfits and streamers — it was a wonderful effect! The whole album went great, even the very difficult Within You Without You. For an encore they did The End, and Henry got to run on and play chords on his guitar and sing “LOVE YOU! LOVE YOU!” right into the mic. He was the happiest little boy in the whole world. He says doing the show was 99.99% fun, and the only un-fun part was being too hot in his Horse costume :) He even helped tear down the stage after the show before we left. He was very pleased to be able to help.

Thank you, Rockola! Rock on!