A GROUP of New York musicians is planning to do what the Beatles never did - perform the songs the Fab Four might have recorded as their final album had they stayed together just a little longer.
The Beatles tribute band The Fab Faux - made up of some of the New York's leading professional musicians - will perform the songs they think would have been on the album on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The performance at New York's Webster Hall consists of material from the original Fab Four's early solo careers.
All of the tracks will be performed with distinctive Beatles-type arrangements, rather than the spartan feel of John Lennon's early recordings and Paul McCartney's first solo effort.
"It's totally on a lark because it didn't happen. It wouldn't have happened," keyboardist and guitarist Jack Petruzzelli said.
The Fab Faux's set will include the Lennon songs Jealous Guy, Instant Karma, Mother, Remember and Gimme Some Truth. From McCartney comes Maybe I'm Amazed, Every Night, Another Day, Hot As Sun/Glasses and Oo You.
They will also perform George Harrison's tunes All Things Must Pass and his solo hits My Sweet Lord and What is Life.
They will also records Ringo Starr's song It Don't Come Easy.
Many of the songs were tried out by The Beatles while they were together. But the Fab Faux chose December 1970 as the cut-off date for when a song had to be started to give them the best material to work with.
The Beatles officially split in April 1970, when McCartney announced he was leaving the band.
The Fab Faux was dreamed up a decade ago by musician Will Lee, who has played with all four Beatles and whose regular gig is playing bass in the house band on CBS's Late Show With David Letterman.
Within a year, four other musicians joined the project.
They included Rich Pagano, who has toured with Rosanne Cash and Patti Smith, and whose love of The Beatles dates back to playing in a Beatles tribute band as a teenager.
Petruzzelli, who has played with Joan Osborne and Rufus Wainwright, was also added to the line-up. So too was Jimmy Vivino, Lee's neighbour and the guitarist for NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien band.
Guitarist Frank Agnello, who had toured with Marshall Crenshaw and Phoebe Snow, rounded the Fab Faux out as the fifth member.
"We're not a wigs-and-noses Beatles band. The band's obsession with detail sets them apart from mere pretenders," he said.
"We look at it totally, totally from the music side, the way a chamber orchestra does Mozart or Beethoven."
Lee said that advances in music technology make their job easier.
"We know the tricks.
We know how to get the sound," he said.
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