Across The Universe The Beatles 66-70 Queen's Hall Edinburgh 2nd November 2025 Review
Across The Universe - The Beatles '66-'70 at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight was a show that delivered exactly what its advertising promised to do – celebrate the music from the studio-only years of the world’s most iconic band.
If you have over the years seen more than a few Beatles tribute bands and are thinking to yourself as you read this review, “Oh no, not another one, they’re all the same”, then this show (which is on tour) will be a pleasant surprise to you, as it was to me when I first saw it, at the Queen’s Hall last year.
The first thing to note is that this “Across The Universe” is not a Beatles tribute band. “Across The Universe” is a show that, with some very interesting musical arrangements, brings these songs to audiences with a stage format that captures live, so much of the studio production sound of these songs. The second thing to note is that there is no one on this stage in “Beatles fancy dress”. This show is all about the music, and the band were obviously as happy performing this tonight as the audience were listening to them.
This show has clearly had a lot of care and attention to detail put into its production values, and bringing a core band of eight people, a four piece string section, four piece brass section, plus tonight when required by the music, a harp player to the stage with these songs specially arranged for this line-up is an impressive task in itself. Add to that the amount of instruments, particularly guitar and pedal that are being used, plus the technical team required to make all this work on stage, then “Across The Universe” is obviously a show with a sizeable budget spend behind it.
Any show like this is always though going to face that one big problem, and that is that there are so many possible songs that can be on the set list, but also, particularly with the music of The Beatles, so many songs that audiences expect to be in the show, that so many other ones simply have to be left out due to time. Overall though they do get that balance right here as there are the obvious audience crowd pleasers plus a few nice surprises of songs that you rarely hear performed live, particularly in this format.
Attempting to even arrange these songs for live performance must have been a difficult task to do as these are not only studio songs, but ones where EMI essentially gave the Beatles what time and resources they required to explore the many new musical directions that they were moving into. Surprisingly, what comes over from this show is just how many of these songs would have been great live show songs had anyone ever had the chance to experience this at the time.
Opening the show with “Magical Mystery Tour” was an obvious place to start, but with “Back in the U.S.S.R.”, “Dear Prudence”, “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” being performed next, it was clear that this show was not just doing the obvious psychedelic songs of the era, but highlighting the sheer diversity of music that came out of this studio production period.
This show was an opportunity for everyone in the audience to hear some Beatles songs that are not performed live too often, and also with arrangements that brought out the best of the studio recordings. Songs like “Golden Slumbers”, “She’s Leaving Home” and “A Day In The Life” need the attention to detail that they were given in this show. One surprise for tonight was hearing “Because” performed live and this was a first for me. This arrangement brought out so many details of the music, and for me, brought it closer to its original inspiration, Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”.
Just as important as the music tonight was the atmosphere of this show – warm and friendly, with everyone on and off stage being there for one reason – to enjoy the music. This show is obviously proving to be a very popular one with audiences and tickets for the “Across The Universe” show at this venue on 07 November 2026 go on sale today.
The core band for tonight included Lead vox left (Paul McCartney vocals) - Paul Crawford, Lead vox right - (Lennon /Harrison) - Graeme Quinn, Bass Guitar - Paul Adams, Guitar left - Anthony Smith, Guitar right - John Hallam, Keys/Percussion right - Fraser Cooper, Keys/ Trombone/Tube /Vocals right - Paul Devlin, and Drums - David Calder.
Opening the show tonight was a solo set from Mike Baillie of “The Lonely Together Band” and as per his performance last year, there was a connection of genuine warmth between him and this audience from the very start of his set.
It was good to hear again Mike’s gentle and laid back style of songwriting with lyrics that you really have to pay attention to, and good again to hear songs like “Congregation” and “Rebecca Lane”. With a song like “Endless Sunset Oblivion”, the title track from the latest album, it is clear that Mike Baillie is continuing to grow as a songwriter too.
Review by Tom King © 2025.
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
If you have over the years seen more than a few Beatles tribute bands and are thinking to yourself as you read this review, “Oh no, not another one, they’re all the same”, then this show (which is on tour) will be a pleasant surprise to you, as it was to me when I first saw it, at the Queen’s Hall last year.
The first thing to note is that this “Across The Universe” is not a Beatles tribute band. “Across The Universe” is a show that, with some very interesting musical arrangements, brings these songs to audiences with a stage format that captures live, so much of the studio production sound of these songs. The second thing to note is that there is no one on this stage in “Beatles fancy dress”. This show is all about the music, and the band were obviously as happy performing this tonight as the audience were listening to them.
This show has clearly had a lot of care and attention to detail put into its production values, and bringing a core band of eight people, a four piece string section, four piece brass section, plus tonight when required by the music, a harp player to the stage with these songs specially arranged for this line-up is an impressive task in itself. Add to that the amount of instruments, particularly guitar and pedal that are being used, plus the technical team required to make all this work on stage, then “Across The Universe” is obviously a show with a sizeable budget spend behind it.
Any show like this is always though going to face that one big problem, and that is that there are so many possible songs that can be on the set list, but also, particularly with the music of The Beatles, so many songs that audiences expect to be in the show, that so many other ones simply have to be left out due to time. Overall though they do get that balance right here as there are the obvious audience crowd pleasers plus a few nice surprises of songs that you rarely hear performed live, particularly in this format.
Attempting to even arrange these songs for live performance must have been a difficult task to do as these are not only studio songs, but ones where EMI essentially gave the Beatles what time and resources they required to explore the many new musical directions that they were moving into. Surprisingly, what comes over from this show is just how many of these songs would have been great live show songs had anyone ever had the chance to experience this at the time.
Opening the show with “Magical Mystery Tour” was an obvious place to start, but with “Back in the U.S.S.R.”, “Dear Prudence”, “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” being performed next, it was clear that this show was not just doing the obvious psychedelic songs of the era, but highlighting the sheer diversity of music that came out of this studio production period.
This show was an opportunity for everyone in the audience to hear some Beatles songs that are not performed live too often, and also with arrangements that brought out the best of the studio recordings. Songs like “Golden Slumbers”, “She’s Leaving Home” and “A Day In The Life” need the attention to detail that they were given in this show. One surprise for tonight was hearing “Because” performed live and this was a first for me. This arrangement brought out so many details of the music, and for me, brought it closer to its original inspiration, Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”.
Just as important as the music tonight was the atmosphere of this show – warm and friendly, with everyone on and off stage being there for one reason – to enjoy the music. This show is obviously proving to be a very popular one with audiences and tickets for the “Across The Universe” show at this venue on 07 November 2026 go on sale today.
The core band for tonight included Lead vox left (Paul McCartney vocals) - Paul Crawford, Lead vox right - (Lennon /Harrison) - Graeme Quinn, Bass Guitar - Paul Adams, Guitar left - Anthony Smith, Guitar right - John Hallam, Keys/Percussion right - Fraser Cooper, Keys/ Trombone/Tube /Vocals right - Paul Devlin, and Drums - David Calder.
Opening the show tonight was a solo set from Mike Baillie of “The Lonely Together Band” and as per his performance last year, there was a connection of genuine warmth between him and this audience from the very start of his set.
It was good to hear again Mike’s gentle and laid back style of songwriting with lyrics that you really have to pay attention to, and good again to hear songs like “Congregation” and “Rebecca Lane”. With a song like “Endless Sunset Oblivion”, the title track from the latest album, it is clear that Mike Baillie is continuing to grow as a songwriter too.
Review by Tom King © 2025.
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com