A shared love of The Beatles brought together rhythm guitar player Dave Allen, lead guitarist Pete Church and bass guitar player Doug Rice, the three members of the acoustic Beatles tribute group the Beatle Brothers. 

The group will be performing at Gaslight Music Hall Thursday, May 21; Fork & Fire Catalina Grill Saturday, May 23; Tohono Chul Friday, June 19 and Roadies Lanes + Games + Gastropub Friday, July 11. 

Along with doing gigs at public venues, the trio also plays in a number of 55-and-older senior communities. 

The three musicians are from different parts of the country. They met and formed a band together after they all moved to Tucson. 

They don’t dress up like The Beatles, but instead focus on the music, which is what drew all of them to the iconic group in the first place. 

Originally from Southern California, Allen first became interested in The Beatles at age 10 after seeing the band on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in Feb. 1964. 

“I was gobsmacked. I was sold right there,” Allen said. 

Of the three of them, Allen is the only one who had the chance to see The Beatles in concert, in August 1966 at Dodgers Stadium. 

Both Allen and Church have done “Beatles pilgrimages,” where they have visited sites tied to The Beatles. 

Rice, who hails from Washington, has loved The Beatles for over 50 years. He was first exposed to The Beatles in seventh grade. 

“I was walking home with a friend of mine, and he pulled it out this ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ 45 from this backpack… They had a picture on the sleeve, and they looked like aliens. They looked like they were from outer space. He took me to his house and put it on, and that was all it took,” Rice said. 

Church is originally from Chicago and led another Beatles tribute group called Kaleidoscope Eyes while living there. 

His interest in The Beatles started when he came across a “Sgt. Pepper” 8-track tape on his uncle’s table as a kid. 

“I put it in to listen to it with headphones, and I was just blown away. From there on, I got a guitar, and the rest is history,” Church said. 

Church and Allen performed together for about a year as a duo before Rice joined them. 

Allen was the one who initially wanted to put a group together. He put out a Craigslist ad, to which Church responded. 

“I’d been wanting to do a Beatles tribute my whole life. I’d gotten to the point and the age where I couldn’t do the suits and the wigs, but I still wanted to do something,” Allen said. 

Allen and Church met up at a local coffee shop and then started to play together. 

“We went over to my house with our guitars, and we played probably for four hours straight, just Beatles songs,” Allen said.  

Allen said from the start, the group has maintained the same focus on the music.  

“It’s all about the music for us. We don’t want to emulate The Beatles. We just want to emulate the music,” Allen said. 

Allen and Rice played together in a cover band called Good Trouble. When Allen found out Rice was also a Beatles fan about three years ago, he asked him to join his Beatles tribute group. 

Rice said that they are driven by their shared passion for the music. 

“It’s pretty much what you see, three old duffers with nothing better to do… If I’m having a bad day and things aren’t going right, I can always look forward to getting together with Pete and Dave, playing music and feeling a lot better… What binds us more than anything is we all have a love of The Beatles,” Rice said. 

Church said that the three of them had a good rapport from the start. 

“When you’ve got three guys who know The Beatles really well and can sing and harmonize, that’s the ticket,” Church said. 

The three band members get together at least once a week to practice. Church said they work on individual songs until they feel they are ready to be played in front of live audiences. 

“We go to the clubhouse where I live and practice and practice and practice until it’s perfect. We will not play a song until we think it’s perfect. Then once we have it down, it’s solidified in your head, and you can play it anytime you want,” Church said. 

Usually when they play live, Church sings George Harrison songs; Rice, John Lennon songs and Allen, Paul McCartney songs.  

Rice said it has always been important for them to stay true to The Beatles’ original music. 

“We try to get as close to the originals as we can, given the fact that we only have two acoustic guitars and an acoustic bass. We get creative sometimes and try to emulate the stuff we can’t actually play, like the horns. We try to compensate for that, and I think we sound close most of the time,” Rice said. 

Church said harmonies are integral to what they do, just as they were important for The Beatles. 

“We almost overdo it sometimes with the trying to be as good as we can. The harmonies are everything. You get bands doing covers of Beatles songs, but if you don’t have the harmonies, there’s no sense of even trying,” Church said. 

They perform live for audiences of different ages. Church said that Beatles music transcends different generations. 

“You can see people from every age group singing along, getting into it. That’s the best thing to see if you’re in a band,” Church said. 

Rice said they have some hardcore fans that come nearly every show. At a few shows, audience members have dressed up as hippies with beads and headbands. 

There are certain songs that are very popular, such as “Yellow Submarine” and “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” which they play regularly. 

“We were doing ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ at a mobile home park performance once, and they all got up, and they did a big conga line,” Allen said. 

Church said that often, audiences have strong responses to      hearing Beatles music. 

“They’re singing along or moving their heads, and some of them almost have got tears coming down their eyes because it brings back memories,” Church said. 

Rice said that playing music is energizing for him. 

“Making music and listening to music keeps you young because it’s such a good time. We don’t think too much about how old we are when we’re playing music,” Rice said. 

The trio plays a wide range of songs from The Beatles’ repertoire, including songs from such albums as “Rubber Soul,” “Revolver,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” and “The White Album.” 

Sometimes, they will share background information on the songs they are performing. 

Church said often, audiences members are surprised to hear them play certain songs, especially deeper cuts like “Dear Prudence,” “Glass Onion,” “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” “Lovely Rita” and “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” 

They try to mix it up by playing songs from different albums instead of going in chronological order. 

“We’ll go from “I Want to Hold Your Hand’ to ‘Golden Slumbers,’ from ‘Golden Slumbers’ to ‘Sgt. Pepper,’ from ‘Sgt. Pepper’ to ‘Help!’ They never know what to expect,” Church said. 

“It’s always fun to surprise people. We surprise ourselves sometimes,” Rice added.  

The Beatle Brothers Performances
WHEN: 6 p.m. Thursday, May 21
WHERE:  Gaslight Music Hall, 13005 N. Oracle Road, Tucson
COST: $23 general admission 

WHEN: 2 p.m. Saturday, May 23
WHERE: Fire & Fire Catalina Grill, 15318 N. Oracle Road, Oracle Road, Oro Valley COST: Free 

WHEN: 6 p.m. Friday, June 19
WHERE: Tohono Chul, 7366 N. Paseo Del Norte, Tucson
COST: $5 general admission 

WHEN: 6 p.m. Friday, July 11
WHERE: Roadies Lanes + Games + Gastropub, 4811 E. Grant Road, Tucson
COST: Free
INFO: beatlebrothers.com