The Fab Four (tribute)

1997-2005: Formation and early touring years

In the years leading up to 1997, Ron McNeil and his friend Rolo Sandoval had the idea of the Fab Four after noticing Ardavan Sarraf, then a teenager, and his band Glass Onion performing "Coming Up" impersonating as Paul McCartney during a sound alike competition called "The Battle of the Beatles Bands" at The Fest for Beatles Fans (formerly Beatlesfest) in Los Angeles.^[17] “He sounded so much like Paul my hair stood up on the back of my neck,” McNeil said. “I couldn’t believe it.” Sarraf, a natural right-hander, taught himself to play the bass guitar left-handed to emulate McCartney, though he was playing right handed and not impersonating as McCartney at the time McNeil and Sandoval first met him.^{[18][19][20][21][22]}

Both McNeil and Sandoval went up to Sarraf after the performance and told Sarraf about their plan to create a top tier Beatles tribute and asked Sarraf if he was interested in a full time gig.^[23] McNeil said when he asked Sarraf about joining his band, at first he declined. However, after many phone calls conversations, he eventually agreed. According to McNeil in an email interview, the original members of the band (including McNeil, Sarraf, and Sandoval) were in separate bands before forming the Fab Four.^[24] McNeil was originally in a band called Imagine: A Tribute to The Beatles in 1992, Sarraf was a part of a cover group he and his high school friends formed called Glass Onion, and Sandoval was a part of a band called Revolver.^[25][26]

McNeil, Sandoval, and Sarraf then recruited musician David Brighton to portray George Harrison and formed the Fab Four, which McNeil nicknamed "The Ultimate Beatles Tribute Band."^[2] The band's beginnings included Tuesday night performances at a small 50s-60s venue called Music City in Fountain Valley, a weekend residency at Disneyland's Tomorrowland Terrace in Anaheim from 1998 to 2005,^[6] The Hop in Puente Hills, and Scruffy O’Sheas in Marina del Rey, the latter in which they performed with many celebrities, including Micky Dolenz of the Monkees.^[27][28]

In 1998, Brighton left the band to become a David Bowie impersonator.^[29] Michael Amador took his place before leaving to work backstage as technical director and later as their manager in 2008, leaving Liverpool-born Gavin Pring, then 31, to take his place.^[30] In 2011, Sandoval retired from the band, but still works backstage as a sound engineer and tour manager and sometimes fills in as Starr; he was replaced by Sacramento-born Erik Fidel, then 21. Fidel does not have Starr's nose shape but it takes 90 minutes to put on a prosthetic.^[19][31]

2005-2008: Las Vegas residency and rotating cast

Shortly after their residency at Disneyland ended and the band started to get some more traction, McNeil signed a contract with various resorts and casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada for four years. Because of this, he brought in a second cast of musicians to help perform a full stage residency six nights a week in the city strip, with various members alternating between the casts. Performing as Fab Four Mania, the Las Vegas cast performed regularly at locations such as the Las Vegas Hilton,^[32] the Aladdin,^[33] the Sahara^[7][34] and the Riviera.^[35] Notable members of the cast included Detroit-born Joseph Bologna, who formerly performed with Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles on Broadway and 1964 the Tribute, as Starr; Pittsburgh-born Steve Landes, formerly a cast member of Beatlemania, as Lennon; and Westminster-born Frankee Mendonça, McNeil's younger brother, as McCartney. Shortly after 2008, the original cast (McNeil, Sarraf, Amador, and Sandoval) began touring nationwide and occasionally internationally.

2008-2020: PBS special and later touring years

In July 12th, 2013, the PBS special The Fab Four: The Ultimate Tribute (starring McNeil, Sarraf, Pring, and Fidel), filmed at Pechanga Resort Casino on January 6, 2012, received an regional Emmy Award for special events coverage. Travis Fox, founder of the special's producer, MindFox Productions, received the Emmy on behalf of the production.^[36][9][37] McNeil currently owns the statuette in his home in St Louis.^[20]

In 2018, McNeil decided to semi retire from the Fab Four. He said, "After 25 years, I want to be home a little more. But I'm still president of the company, and everybody who started this with me are still my business partners, even though only Ardy's still on stage. So it'll be carrying on, which is great." He endorsed Newcastle-born Adam Hastings (originally from the Bootleg Beatles) as his replacement, though McNeil comes back to perform whenever Hastings is unavailable.^[38] From January 2018 to March 2020, the regular lineup consisted of Sarraf (McCartney), Hastings (Lennon), Pring (Harrison), and Bologna (Starr).

2020-present: Pandemic and recent years

From 2020 to 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fab Four live-streamed numerous concerts at their headquarters in Westminster, with McNeil, Sandoval, and Fidel returning to perform. From late 2020-2022, the lineup consisted of McNeil (Lennon), Sarraf (McCartney), Pring (Harrison), and Sandoval (Starr).

Starting in late 2020, as the lockdown was slowing down, the band started to tour nationwide and occasionally performed out of country, with most of the members rotating and performing whether the core actor is out sick or is on vacation starting in 2021. As of 2026, the regular lineup consisted of McNeil (Lennon), Sarraf (McCartney), Pring (Harrison), and Fidel (Starr).

Original members

From 1998 to 2010, the Fab Four originally had four members all from Southern California. They were:

Current members

Since 2010, the Fab Four has had a rotating cast. The current members in the Fab Four's regular rotation are:

Former members

The Fab Four: The Ultimate Tribute

The Fab Four: The Ultimate Tribute is a PBS musical TV special that was aired on various PBS stations nationwide in June 3rd, 2012 that lasted an hour and one minute long.^[44] The cast featured McNeil as Lennon, Sarraf as McCartney, Pring as Harrison, and Fidel as Starr. The special was filmed at Pechanga Resort & Casino on January 6th, 2012.^[45][46][47] The special received critical acclaim from critics and audiences for capturing it's "note-to-note, uncanny renditions of the Beatles' classics live on stage", receiving a rating of 7.8/10 on IMDb.^[48] The special was a major factor in the Fab Four's global success, eventually receiving an Emmy award in July 12th, 2013 for "Special Events Coverage", with Travis Fox, founder of the special's producer, MindFox Productions, receiving the award on behalf of the production.^[37] The band later displayed their Emmy award on their social media pages.^[49]

Fab Four Mania

Fab Four Mania was a theatrical residency that lasted from 2005 to 2008, performing various shows at several resorts in the Las Vegas strip. As the Fab Four was becoming popular throughout the US West Coast (mainly California), they signed a four-year contract with Las Vegas to perform a full show six nights a week at various theaters, bringing the Fab Four to bring in several musicians to perform several shows a night, with some rotating each gig. The cast performed regularly at locations such as the Las Vegas Hilton,^[32] The Aladdin,^[33] The Sahara^[7][34] and The Riviera.^[35] The band's residency was successful and received positive reviews from critics, and was a major factor for the Fab Four's global success. Members included the Fab Four’s founders who would interchange with other members such as; Steve Craig, Frankee Mendonça, Joe Bologna, Tony Felicetta, and Gavin Pring, the latter became a full time member of the Fab Four. Despite the production ending in 2008, the regular and soon rotating cast of the Fab Four sometimes returns to Vegas to perform.^[50]

Wingsband

Formed by Ardavan Sarraf, Wingsband is a Paul McCartney and Wings tribute act that covers many of McCartney's biggest post-Beatles hits. The band features Ron McNeil (in some performances Gilbert Bonilla) as Denny Laine, Michael Amador as Henry McCullough, and Rolo Sandoval as Joe English, plus a horn section led by Wendell Kelly (The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston) and singer/songwriter Christine Rosander as Linda McCartney. Both Laurence Juber, Wings guitarist from 1978 to 1981, and Denny Seiwell, the original Wings drummer from 1971 to 1973, had performed with Wingsband at The Grove of Anaheim in Anaheim, CA.^[51][52] Juber also performed with Wingsband for an encore in 2014.^[53][54] The band has also performed the song "Let It Be" with Corey Feldman in 2014 at the Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles.^[55] Seiwell also performed with The Fab Four at the Hollywood Bowl in 2001.^[56] The band also performed at the Orange County Fair at the Pacific Amphitheatre in 2015 and at the Hangar in 2016.^[57]

George Harry's Son

George Harrison impersonator and Liverpool native, Gavin Pring, created a tribute act called "George Harry's Son" to celebrate Harrison's solo material, as well as his hits from the Beatle years. Pring has brought this act to the top Beatles music festivals, including the annual Beatleweek in Liverpool^[58] at the Mathew Street Festival and Abbey Road on the River in the United States.

The Monkee Men

In Summer of 2020, McNeil decided to form a Monkees tribute band as he was a fan of the band growing up. Calling it The Monkee Men, the band covers most of The Monkees' original songs and the show is interactive. The Monkee Men originally performed as an opening act for the Fab Four in 2023 before they independently started touring nationwide starting in 2025. The band's original and current touring cast consists of McNeil's younger brother Frankee Mendonça as Davy Jones, Jonathan Fickes as Peter Tork, Doug Couture as Michael Nesmith, and Joshua Jones as Micky Dolenz, with McNeil and Matthew Hickman providing backup support as the "5th and 6th Monkees", respectively.^[59][60] The band has been approved by Dolenz with his "full blessing" according to McNeil in an interview in August 2023.^[61]

50 Summers of Love

In Summer of 2017, The Fab Four were approached by Micky Dolenz of The Monkees and Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & the Raiders to perform a set of professional Off-Broadway performances celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love for a nationwide tour called 50 Summers of Love from 2017 to 2018. Performing as the backup band, the performance first started with The Fab Four in their Sgt. Pepper's era before donning Raiders costumes, with Dolenz and Lindsay appearing to play both Monkees and Raiders hits, respectively. The lineup included McNeil as Lennon, Candelora as McCartney, Couture as Harrison/Nesmith, and Bologna as Starr. The premiere was on July 14th, 2017 in San Diego, California, with Dolenz and Lindsay both reuniting onstage. Among the attendees was basketball legend Bill Walton.^{[62][63][64][65]}

Rutlemania

In 2007, The Fab Four were approached by Eric Idle from the British comedy group Monty Python to perform a set of professional Off-Broadway shows celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Rutles, a Beatles parody group formed in 1975 by Idle and Neil Innes. The show, Rutlemania, featured the band (at the time The Prefab Four) McNeil as Ron Nasty (originally played by Innes), Sarraf as Dirk McQuickly (Idle), Amador as Stig O’Hara (Ricky Fataar) and Sandoval as Barry Wom (John Halsey), and was performed multiple nights in both Los Angeles^[66][67][68] and New York. Idle, Innes, Fataar, and Halsey attended the premiere at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles on Saint Patrick's Day, 2008. The Rutles wrote positivity of it, and stayed for a after-party Q&A, along with posing with pictures of the band.^{[69][70][71][72]}

Yellow Submarine movie remake

In 2010, The Fab Four were cast to do the motion-capture performance footage for director Robert Zemeckis' 3D remake of The Beatles animated film classic, Yellow Submarine. There, during production, they met the cast and crew of the movie. The movie was set to be released sometime in the summer of 2012 in time for the 2012 London Summer Olympics, but Disney canceled the project when Zemeckis' film Mars Needs Moms performed poorly in the box office and critics' reviews of Zemeckis' animations were mostly negative.^{[73][74][75][76][77][78][79]}

A Fab Four Christmas

Release Date - October 16, 2002
Label - Delta Ent. (LaserLight)

Have Yourself a FAB-ulous Little Christmas

Release Date - October 16, 2002
Label - Delta Ent. (LaserLight)

HARK!

Release Date - 2008
Label - Robo Records

• In 2008, all songs from both albums were digitally remastered and released on a single album entitled HARK!,^[105] available on Amazon, iTunes and The Fab Four's official website. The compilation includes the bonus tracks "Sleigh Ride" and "The First Noel", in the style of "Lady Madonna" and "Let It Be", respectively.^[106]

The Ultimate Beatles Tribute in Concert, Vol. 1

Release Date - 2002/2011
Label - Self-released

• Recorded live at the Tomorrowland Terrace at Disneyland in the summer of 2001.^[107][108]

TV Special Soundtrack

Release Date - 2013
Label - Self-released

• The soundtrack to the PBS special The Fab Four: The Ultimate Tribute, recorded live at Pechanga Resort & Casino in January 6th, 2012. Available exclusively on CD at the Fab Four's official website.^[109]