As is their style, the British Chamber of Commerce is going all out for this year's Britannia Ball to be held tomorrow evening at the Grand Hyatt Taipei. NT$3,900 of real money will put you front and center for a concert by the Fake Beatles.
"What makes our ball stand out is that we really love to have fun," said Lee Ting (丁勵), executive director of the British Chamber of Commerce in Taipei. "In order to do that, we make it a point to introduce a British theme. This year's is "The Swinging Sixties." We've invited the fake Beatles and everyone is encouraged to dress the part in their favorite 60s outfit."
The band surely will be. Not only do they sound like the real Fab Four, they look like them too in their Chesterfield suits, mop-top haircuts and authentic instruments. They even boast a "left-handed Paul" and a "singing Ringo."
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS
"Absolutely superb!" wrote Marie Varnava on the band's online guestbook after seeing them play at the Charlemont Social Club. "Everyone got totally caught up in the nostalgia. ? It was just like being there. In a word, FAB!!"
They'll be performing all the great Beatles numbers from 1962 to 1966, which they regard as the Beatles' "best years."
Your entry fee to this year's ball will include a champagne reception, five-course gourmet dinner, a selection of red and white wines and whiskeys, and prizes for the table voted "best dressed" apropos the 1960s theme.
"Last year's theme was 007 and we had a table of people that came dressed in SCUBA gear with tuxedos underneath," Ting said. "It was so hot that we had to vote quickly so they could take off their suits."
Ting stressed that the ball is not a walk-in event and that a limited number of seats are still available for anyone who calls the Chamber this afternoon. The British Chamber of Commerce can be reached at (02) 2356 0210. The Britannia Ball will be held from 6:30pm to 2am on the third floor ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Taipei, located at 2 Songshou Rd, Taipei (北市 松壽路二號三樓).
A real interview with the fake ringo starr
Taipei Times: How did you come to be the Fake Beatles?
Fake Ringo: We're just Beatles fanatics, really. We've all been in various 60s-styled bands before. Really it was the Beatles that brought us all together.
TT: So as a child growing up in England you heard the Beatles and said to yourself, `I want to be the fake Ringo Starr?'
Fake Ringo: Very much so. One of the first records I ever heard was the Beatles' song She Loves You. That was always my favorite song.
TT: And that made you want to take up drumming?
Fake Ringo: Very much so. My first recollection of drumming was at about the age of eight. I was such a big fan of the Beatles and of drummers over the years.
TT: But were you an especially big fan of Ringo?
Fake Ringo: Yeah, very much so.
TT: You're an authentic "singing Ringo." Do you sing like Ringo?
Fake Ringo: Very much ? Well, actually, Ringo didn't have a particularly good voice, so ? er ? that helps me out to be honest.
TT: Why not perform some of the later hits?
Ringo Starr: Most people regard the Beatles' best years as between 1962 and 1966. ? It was after 1966 that the they retired to the studio before the Sergeant Pepper era. It's really a hard sound to recreate on the stage.
TT: And the drugs are hard to afford on a fake Beatles salary?
Fake Ringo: Very much so.
In the next few months tough decisions will need to be made by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and their pan-blue allies in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). It will reveal just how real their alliance is with actual power at stake. Party founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) faced these tough questions, which we explored in part one of this series, “Ko Wen-je, the KMT’s prickly ally,” (Aug. 16, page 12). Ko was open to cooperation, but on his terms. He openly fretted about being “swallowed up” by the KMT, and was keenly aware of the experience of the People’s First Party
Aug. 25 to Aug. 31 Although Mr. Lin (林) had been married to his Japanese wife for a decade, their union was never legally recognized — and even their daughter was officially deemed illegitimate. During the first half of Japanese rule in Taiwan, only marriages between Japanese men and Taiwanese women were valid, unless the Taiwanese husband formally joined a Japanese household. In 1920, Lin took his frustrations directly to the Ministry of Home Affairs: “Since Japan took possession of Taiwan, we have obeyed the government’s directives and committed ourselves to breaking old Qing-era customs. Yet ... our marriages remain unrecognized,
During the Metal Ages, prior to the arrival of the Dutch and Chinese, a great shift took place in indigenous material culture. Glass and agate beads, introduced after 400BC, completely replaced Taiwanese nephrite (jade) as the ornamental materials of choice, anthropologist Liu Jiun-Yu (劉俊昱) of the University of Washington wrote in a 2023 article. He added of the island’s modern indigenous peoples: “They are the descendants of prehistoric Formosans but have no nephrite-using cultures.” Moderns squint at that dynamic era of trade and cultural change through the mutually supporting lenses of later settler-colonialism and imperial power, which treated the indigenous as
An attempt to promote friendship between Japan and countries in Africa has transformed into a xenophobic row about migration after inaccurate media reports suggested the scheme would lead to a “flood of immigrants.” The controversy erupted after the Japan International Cooperation Agency, or JICA, said this month it had designated four Japanese cities as “Africa hometowns” for partner countries in Africa: Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania. The program, announced at the end of an international conference on African development in Yokohama, will involve personnel exchanges and events to foster closer ties between the four regional Japanese cities — Imabari, Kisarazu, Sanjo and
RSS