When the only minor complaint is a lack of air conditioning and the finished performance is as amazingly unexpected as the performance of The Plastic Beatles, there’s definitely something going on that’s right at this summer camp. This summer, Jeff Frohman and camp director Greg Werner of Murphy’s Music took in six students to teach them the ways of The Beatles. Located in Melville, New York, Murphy’s Music is known for its lessons and instruments, but they’ve done nothing like this before. The camp ran for four weeks, Monday through Friday, for four hours each day and ultimately ended with a final performance at the Crazy Donkey, in Farmingdale, New York, August 14th. The performance itself was set up like a live performance of any band with the added quality of a small space, small crowd, and interaction and connection between the audience and the musicians.
The show began with two opening acts, Sammy Derison, a young woman on acoustic guitar and Greg Werner’s bluegrass quintet, The Wolf Hill Boys. Despite a very short delay due to technical difficulties, the opening acts went smoothly and were very entertaining. The Wolf Hill Boys especially had an great air of energy during their performance. Of course, after the opening acts, the members of The Plastic Beatles were very anxious to take their places on stage. The group consisted of Brian on guitar and vocals, Mikey on bass, Sabrina on keyboard, David on violin, Timmy on drums, and Chris on lead guitar. Most of the students experience on their instruments ranged from one to three years, while Timmy, the veteran of the group at seventeen years old, has been playing for ten. Brian, Chris, and Sabrina are fourteen years old and Mikey and David are both eleven years old. Their ages could possibly be why The Plastic Beatles took so many by surprise with their outstanding performance of classics such as “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Back in the U.S.S.R.,” “Come Together,” “Yellow Submarine,” and many others as well as an instrumental version of “Eleanor Rigby.”
By the end of the show, The Plastic Beatles had proven themselves as a fantastic young teen cover band and due to their success during and after the camp, Murphy’s Music is planning on having a similar camp, with a different theme, for next summer. After all the hard work of Jeff, Gregg, and the students of Murphy’s Music, there’s no telling what might be in store next time and what the future holds for these young musicians.