Symphony, ‘Fab Four’ Will Unite

Meet The Beatles - or, at least, meet a Beatles-like tribute band.

The Spokane Symphony has booked an event in the Spokane Arena on Dec. 7 called the “Classical Mystery Tour: A Tribute to The Beatles.”

This special tour, marking the 20th anniversary of John Lennon’s murder, will feature four Beatles sound-alikes, culled from the cast of the stage show “Beatlemania.” They will be backed by the Spokane Symphony in a number of Beatles songs that lend themselves to orchestration: “Eleanor Rigby,” “Here Comes the Sun” and “The Long and Winding Road,” to name just a few.

This will be a special add-on event to the symphony’s pops series. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Aug. 21; they are now available only to subscribers.

If you want to be a subscriber, call 624-1200 or 326-3136 and request a copy of the fancy new Spokane Symphony 2000-2001 season brochure.

Meet The Buckinghams

Speaking of ‘60s bands that start with a B, The Buckinghams have been booked to headline Pig Out in the Park this summer.

If you listen to oldies stations at all, you can’t help but hear The Buckinghams singing “Kind of a Drag,” “Don’t You Care,” “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” “Susan” and “Hey Baby, They’re Playing Our Song.”

This high-energy Chicago quintet was the classic flash-in-the-pan band — every one of their hits was in the same year, 1967. But they have proven to be an enduring draw on the nostalgia circuit.

Pig Out in the Park, Spokane’s restaurant and music fair, runs Aug. 31 to Sept. 4 at Riverfront Park.

That’s Mel Carter, not Nell

Another name from the Golden Oldies catalog, Mel Carter, will be the headliner at the Spokane American Music Festival at Riverfront Park on the Fourth of July.

Carter is a jazzy soul singer who had three hits in 1965 and 1966: “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me,” “All of a Sudden My Heart Sings” and “Band of Gold.”

He will sing with the Spokane Jazz Orchestra in the free pre-fireworks concert.

Gorge bookings

Gorge concert announcements continue to trickle in, with the latest addition being the Red Hot Chili Peppers with the Foo Fighters and Kool Keith on May 27.

Tickets are available on Tuesday exclusively through the MTV Web site, www.MTV.com, and then on Saturday to the general public through Ticketmaster.

In case you haven’t already heard, Saturday is also the on-sale date for the blink-182 concert on June 16. Bad Religion and Fenix TX will open. Go to the Ticketmaster Web site at www.ticketmaster.com, or call (509) 928-4700 or (206) 628-0888, or go in person to Spokane-area Rite Aid stores.

Ed Murrow winners

KREM-2 cleaned up nicely in the regional Edward R. Murrow Awards (in the small-market division) from the Radio-Television News Directors Association.

They won in the following categories:

* Continuing Coverage - KREM news staff, for the coverage of the Valiree Jackson murder case.

* News Series - Randy Neves and Kristen Henderson, for their series on parking issues in downtown Spokane.

* News Feature - “Five Cents,” by Neves and Dan Jackson, for their story about a young entrepreneur with a successful lemonade/psychological counseling stand.

These winners are now eligible to win the national Edward R. Murrow Award, among the most prestigious in the news biz.

`Phantom’ surprise

Three jeers to Diamond Parking, which took advantage of “Phantom of the Opera”-mania to suddenly start charging ten bucks - yes, an entire sawbuck - for an evening’s worth of parking in its lots across from the Spokane Opera House.

I heard from several readers who blundered into those lots without realizing that rates had mysteriously skyrocketed. The prices are normally about $4 or $5.

Dan Geiger of Diamond Parking said that the firm charged $10 only on a few selected evenings when other events were going on downtown. That’s the way it works - high demand means higher prices.

Still, the two city-owned lots near the Opera House kept their rates firm, at $4 per evening. Good for them.