Help ! A Tribute To The Beatles
Ernie Mendillo used to be a member of an all originals band called The Brandos.
These days he’s a member of Help! A Beatles Tribute
His Beatles Tribute act has really caught garnered a lot of attention overseas.
You see Ernie who started out in life in North Bergen, New Jersey now calls Slovenia home.
Ernie and his group have performed in 19 countries and regularly perform 100 shows a year.
We spoke with Ernie about his portrayal of Paul in the group, his meeting with Paul McCartney and the rise of a Beatles tribute act in of all places Slovenia!
As interviews go this is a fascinating interview.
Q – Ernie, how did you get this idea to move to Slovenia?
A – Well, I was in an original band for Oh My God since 1985. Of course I grew up in the Nw York area playing since I was in high school. Started doing originals. Next thing you know I’ve got a band going. We’ve got a record deal. We’re touring and we ended up in Europe touring. This was ’93 and I met a woman and fell in love. She comes to Jersey and we get married and have 2 kids. Then around the end of ’98 we decided to move to Europe. She was Sloven. I met her in Austria but we ended up in Slovenia. Trying to be a musician especially if you’re doing originals , trying to make a living with two kids in New Jersey in the New York area is not easy. And so she wanted to go home and I said ‘Let’s give it a go’. At that point my band, we were putting out records in Europe. We had been signed to a German label at that point. We had been dropped by our American label years before, but kept our career going in Europe. I said well, this could work and if I’ve got to home to record, obviously I’ve got my family, my immediate family in Jersey, I can always come home to do that. So, I said let’s give it a go. We go over to Europe. After about a year and a half we got divorced. There I was with two young children and I said well, where am I going? I stayed on and I ended up staying in Slovenia really for my kids at that point and then just kind of found my way. I continued to be a musician, played in and out of bands in Slovenia. Stuck with my American band but we got this opportunity to do this Beatle thing and it was really a one-off. I was in some cover band ‘cause in my American band, the original band I wasn’t the writer. I wasn’t at the helm. I was the bass player and backing singer and of course in Slovenia I would be making some money and playing in a band and they were like ‘ Well, you’re the singer. You’re the American. You can sing these songs better than we can. You’re the lead singer’. I’m like O.K. But, we were playing and a guy from the British Embassy saw us contacts me and says, ‘ Can you guys do a Beatles show?’ I go, ‘Why?’ He said’ We’re partnering up with the Lion’s Club for a charity and they were thinking of getting someone from England’. I’m like if they were thinking along those lines this could be a well-paying job. (laughs). I said, ‘ Well. Maybe. Sure.’. I got another American guy that was living in Slovenia, also married to a Sloven woman and he said , ‘Alright. I’ll join up with your band. Let’s put something together’. And that was supposed to be the end of it. Then it turned into this. We did a couple of other shows. We did a warm-up show. The reaction was so great we just thought well, let’s pursue this. Let’s see where this goes. Here I am 13 years later still doing it. (laughs). It’s crazy.
Q – Who’s the other American in the band?
A – He dropped out after about 3 years. He was a guy , you wouldn’t know the name, a guy named Robert McKenzie, who was a transplant from the Mid-west, grew up in the Detroit area and had ended up in New York. We met each other in Slovenia. We had a mutual friend. Somebody said, ‘Oh, you’re from America? I know an American. You’re a musician. I know a guy who’s a musician. He’s married to a Sloven woman as well. ‘ O.K. We hooked up and became friends. We used to do a little duo playing bars and pubs and things like that. So, I got friendly with him but he lasted for about the first two and a half years in the band. He’s no longer with the band, but I stuck it out. I’m the last man standing in our band.
Q – What surprises me is that you’re still in Slovenia. It must be a culture shock to go from New Jersey To Slovenia?
A – Certainly. There’s more to my story about my wife because we’re going to be talking about my ex-wife. (laughs) . My ex-wife when I first met her I came over and Slovenia was a brand new country. They’d broken away from Yugoslovia. The war ensued. They were lucky. It wasn’t like if you remember the headlines what was going on in Bosnia and Serbia. Slovenia – the war lasted two weeks and they were independent and got off pretty easy. So, I come to Slovenia and they’re a new nation and I’d come over every year to come back and see her family. So, I kind of knew what I was getting into. But, you know how it is, you come for two weeks and it’s a lot different from moving. And that was a big culture shock along with going through a divorce, custody and the kids. It was not pleasant. So, it was a rough time. On the other hand, I did enjoy it here. It’s a very small country. Ironically it’s about the size of New Jersey in square miles yet a population of 2 million people. So, it was a really nice, low-key lifestyle. People are very friendly. They spoke English. They weren’t afraid to use it. They weren’t arrogant at all. I was treated very well. Being an American I think it was probably an oddity for most people. They were really very friendly and warm. So, I didn’t have a problem on that end beside what I went through personally which was not easy. But, yeah different worlds for sure. Musically? Night and day to get into things here and understand their mentality as opposed to being an American. It was certainly a culture shock.
Q – What’s different about this band of yours is you don’t assume a British accent onstage and act like you’re Paul McCartney. It’s almost like being treated to a history lesson for the audience about what songs The Beatles recorded. That is different.
A – That happened kind of naturally. I found it very silly trying to cop a Liverpool accent and I felt very silly trying to say ‘We’re them.’ No we’re not. You’re not fooling anybody. Let’s start with the fact that we take a few liberties with our band. I sing in a much lower register than our guy that’s supposed to be Lennon. So, a lot of times we swap vocals. He’s taking the McCartney parts and I’m taking the Lennon parts. The other thing is and this frustrating, I’m a left –handed person but when I started play I advised to just pick up a guitar and go play right-handed. It’s easier. You’ll find a bass easier. It doesn’t matter. As a 15 year old kid I took that advice. Believe me if I had a time machine I’d go back and beat that guy to a pulp because I am left-handed. I play right-handed. And people call me up on it sometimes. It’s very frustrating. I do everything with my left hand and I play bass right-handed. I even tried during the Pandemic to swap it. I said. Well, I got some time. We’re not playing. I’ll re-string one of my basses and try to go the other way. Oh, My God ! It was harder than I thought. But, I thought it is what it is. We don’t really nail it visually. I thought look, it’s about the music. If we can get the parts down properly, correct, what people know on those records. The other thing is the energy, the excitement. Let’s put that into it. We don’t want to be theatre. We don’t want people sitting there going ‘Oh, they’re going to to go everything chronologically. Let’s make it a concert and get people to really engage and have a really good time. I thought this is really silly if I try to tell people I’m Paul McCartney and cop every line The Beatles said when they introduced songs. You could study all that right? You could go back and look at all their performances and I’m not going there. It’s silly. We even tried to keep the costume changes down to a minimum. We didn’t want to pursue what other bands did. Let’s get people to enjoy a good concert.
Q – I noticed that when your Lennon sings “ I Should Have Known Better”, he isn’t playing the harmonica parts in that song. Your George is.
A – That’s right.
Q – Has anyone ever brought that up to you?
A – No. I’ve had people come up every now and then and mention the left-handed thing. You get the die-hard Beatle fans. Let’s take it one step further. When we play “ Love Me Do” George is playing the harmonica. He’s playing the chromatic harmonica in that one. Again, every now and then you get the die hards who come up and go “ You shouldn’t be singing that. Or you’re right-handed. He’s playing the harmonica. Your John should play the harmonica. But, I gotta tell you I would think 95% of the people out there don’t know or turn a blind eye and they just get carried away with the excitement of the show and the music. There a lot of people we play to especially at festivals, city festivals they have here and you don’t get a lot of the die hard people. You just get the people that either know the songs, love the songs or people who will say, ‘God, I thought I knew a few Beatles songs but I was sitting there going Oh, that’s them? Oh, I know that one. Oh, I know that one. They just get carried away with the show and the energy and the feeling of hearing a band play Beatles music ‘live’.
Q – Fans of every tribute group seem to notice every little detail.
A – They do, but they are in the minority believe it or not, They really are.
Q – Which is probably a good thing.
A – It is because it’s kept us going ‘cause really you’d look at us on paper and go, ‘How is this suppose to work? You guys don’t do it right.’. When I was about 16, 17, I went to see Beatlemania in New York City with my family. I was a Beatles fan since I was born. First record I heard on the radio growing up in the New York area was a Beatles record. You had WABC and WNBC and all these great AM radio stations. My Dad was a teacher. He was teaching 7th and 8th grade math. He was 32 years old. He came home with a Beatles record. My brother and I were out of our minds for The Beatles. And there I was in my teens. I go to ‘Beatlemania’ . I saw that show on the night of the New York blackout and got to go back and see them again because we hung onto our ticket stubs. The bass player was a spot on McCartney. He looked like him. Sounded like him. Played right-handed. Nobody cared. It was like a fantasy to be sitting there. I think it was the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City. To watch a Beatle band and they didn’t really all look like ‘em but you were getting this imaginary concert and I think that’s what we do. We give them this fantasy by dressing up, putting the wigs on, getting all the instruments right and I would hope we get the songs right technically and the excitement. That’s the Big one. The Beatles were an exciting Rock’n’Roll band. We put on an exciting performance when we play. Everybody gets swept away and it works.
Q – I once got into a heated discussion with the late Promoter Barry Fey about who was the Best bass player. I said Paul McCartney. He didn’t give me a chance to explain why. If he had I would have brought up not only his bass playing but his singing and songwriting as well. He blew up on me. He said it was John Entwistle. Since you play McCartney, how do you see him as a bass player?
A – I’m in your camp about this one. I’ll even go as far as tom say you can exclude the writing and singing which is just First Class. Untouchable. But take that out of the equation. Let’s just look at Paul McCartney as a bass player. One of the most innovative, melodic and imitated bass players in the history of modern music. So, as much as I loved Entwistle and I’m a Who fan, Entwistle was probably the Jimi Hendrix of the bass. He took the instrument in a direction nobody ever thought of. Technically he was ridiculous. Amazing. But what McCartney did is no different but in a different way. In one aspect it’s apples and oranges. But, you look at McCartney’s influence and what he did and how he thought of what the role of the bass can do in a song, what it can provide and where you can go. I don’t know who to credit here. Either Carole Kaye who was part of the L.A. Wrecking Crew session players or Brian Wilson who thought of the parts. This is on a level of Mozart. It’s like composing at that level which was new to Rock’n’Roll and McCartney was absorbing things like that certainly with The Beach Boys , certainly listening to Motown and James Jamerson and what he was doing, to put a bass line that grooved that wasn’t just sticking to something very basic. McCartney put that all together in the songs. I think McCartney was a monster. He’s one of the greats. Who’s better? Well, you get to that level of all those people I just mentioned and we can have an argument from now ‘til the end of the earth. But, those guys were all huge. You’ve got to acknowledge that about Paul McCartney’s bass playing. Even when he was feuding with Lennon on the 70’s Lennon said’ What I hear on those records now is all based on what Paul was doing in The Beatles’. Even Lennon acknowledged that as much as he probably was at war with Paul. It’s a fact . You can’t discredit McCartney. He’s a brilliant bass player.
Q – It’s interesting you bring up the Mozart analogy. When I interviewed L. Russell Brown who wrote “ Tie A Yellow Ribbon (‘Round The Old Oak Tree)” he told me he was walking down 58th Street in New York City and who should he run into but Paul and Linda McCartney.
A – Oh, My God !
Q – He introduced himself and told Paul he wrote “ Tie A Yellow Ribbon”. He then said to Paul “ You’re the Mozart of our time”. Paul shook his hand , took ten steps forward and turned around and said “ I don’t know about the Mozart of our time thing”.
A – If I look at what we get in terms of an audience and they’re predominantly older people that grew up with The Beatles; but you got a lot of young people coming to these shows in Europe, I truly believe like the great Classical composers, this music will be around in 200 years when we’re long gone. They’ll still be hearing Beatles music.
Q – Because it is Classic!
A – It is. We just played a show two nights ago on the coast of Croatia. It’s become a hot spot. There are a lot of Americans there as well as people from all over the world and certainly all over Europe. I was talking with the organizers. This music not only crosses every border, it has international appeal. It’s every generation. There are kids. There are their parents. There are their grandparents. They all know The Beatles. They’ve heard it. It’s kind of under your skin. It’s out there. You may not say you’re a Beatles fan but you know the songs. I think in a hundred, two hundred years it’s still gonna be around. That’s how amazing they were.
Q – You just never get tired of listening to Beatles songs.
A – I never get tired of playing it! Every night it’s a new experience. Every audience is different. Every concert is different. I never tire of it and this year we’re going to do about a 100 shows. That’s about our average, 90 to 100 shows a year. It never gets boring. It’s incredible.
Q – You’re performing in theatres, correct? You’re not playing bars anymore are you?
A – Everything. Oh, My God! We’ve done bars. Of course we’ve done ‘em. We’ve moved a bit passed that. We’ve done big venues. We’ve done big indoor venues where people are standing. There’s a balcony and they will hold 600 people. Some of the venues are like that. Others are theatres that have seating. Then you’ve got your festivals and there are some big ones especially in the Netherlands, Holland. Tribute festivals. I’d say in Europe the Netherlands are probably the biggest market. But, they happen in Germany as well. Then you’ve got these city run events that are outdoor show in the middle of a city. You’re playing on a stage and they’re sponsoring it. A lot of places like that it’s free admission. But a Beatles tribute or to be fair an ABBA tribute , a Queen tribute you’re gonna pull a lot of people because everyone knows their music. It’s stood the test of time. It crosses generations especially with ‘Mama Mia’ and the Queen film ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. These films have carried on the legacy of those bands. So, we do a little bit of everything.
Q – Who’s booking this group of yours? Do you have an agent or manager?
A – We’ve done it ourselves and we started really grassroots. At this point one of the guys that came in about a year after we got up and running , he and I have known each other since we’ve moved here and when he joined the band it was an equal partnership with all four guys. And we started working our way up the ladder like every band whether you’re a tribute band or a cover band or an original band . People come and go and at this point the two of us are running it. We’ve been in there since almost Day One. We don’t have a manager. We’ve got promoters in a lot of territories. We can’t be doing the bookings everywhere. Locally in Slovenia I’ve been here long enough and we handle all the bookings here and a couple of other countries if we get things like I don’t know, we’ve played shows in Sweden and Norway and whatever. There are territories where we don’t have a promoter but we’ve taken gigs that come our way. Austria. Croatia. We’ll handle the bookings ourselves. But, as far as running the band and managing it we do it. At this point our guitarist who’s Lennon, our drummer and sound-man are on a steady payroll. And so it’s really run like any other business in that regard. We do all the accounting and bookings and all the coordinating it. You’ve got to coordinate runs of shows because we’re out constantly. It’s not like if I can compare it to being in an original band as I was. You’d go on a tour for a month or so and you’d have a string of shows and a couple of days off. But, this is like going out every weekend or going out for a run of a week and come home. Then go back out for two, three days and come home. Block out your vacations, a weekend off of course. But, yeah we’ve got to coordinate all that and we do it ourselves.
Q – Is it tough crossing the borders of these countries you perform in? Are you trucking the equipment?
A – Not at all. It’s fairly easy because most of these countries are in the EU ( European Union). So the borders are gone. It’s like going from New Jersey to New York. There’s nothing to worry about. So, that’s easy. Occasionally we’ve got to fly. We’re going to Sweden in October ( 2025) for a Beatle Festival there. Then we give them our rider that specifies what we need. We fly up with our guitars and a couple of our basic personal things but they’ll rent everything out. I’d say the vast majority of the time we’re driving around. We’ve got a big van that’s got all the equipment in the back and a nice comfortable seating area for eight people and off we go and comer home and back on the road again. That’s our schedule week after week after week.
Q – Why did you decide on the name Help! A Tribute To The Beatles?
A – I think when we started we didn’t have any big plans of doing this. We really thought that first offer was going to be a one-off and then we said let’s try to get some other shows. We weren’t even in total costume. We put on some ties and vests and we had some instruments that sort of looked like they were from that era. We just thought Help! That’s a pretty good name in terms of recognition internationally. It’s like Stop. Everybody knows a Stop sign. Everybody knows the word Help and that was really it. O.K. Sounds good. Boom! Help. They’ll kind of know it’s a Beatles thing. We put the tag on help on it Help! A Beatles Tribute. And then it stuck. Oh, I guess we’re stuck with it. That’s it. There was really not a lot more thought that went into it other than that. There are other bands called Help! Around the world. I think there’s one in Mexico or Argentina. So, it wasn’t so clever, (laughs), I’ll tell you that. It stuck and I think we’re the only Help! In Europe. We own it now. It’s us. It’s ours.
Q – Have you ever seen Paul McCartney in concert?
A – Yes, I have. I’ve seen him three times.
Q – I don’t suppose you’ve ever met him have you?
A – If you go to my personal Facebook page you’ll see a picture of me with Paul McCartney. That’s real. That’s not AI. It’s not a wax figure from Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum. That’s really Paul. And I met him for all of two minutes. There is a Slovene musician I know, a singer and he had some connection. It’s a long story but somehow he said ‘ Hey, I got backstage passes. You want to accompany me?’ I said ‘Oh, My God. He doesn’t have a driver’s license’, He’s a strange character and I said “ Sure. Let’s go.’ And off we go to Munich and that’s a 4-5 hour drive. Not too bad. We end up backstage and the next thing you know we’re waiting in front of this backdrop and they said ‘ O.K. You’re going to meet him and take a photo with him’. I don’t even know how I stood up through it. Here he comes. He’s walking towards us. He shook our hands and said, ‘ O.K. You guys are from Slovenia?’ And the other guy who had the connections actually through believe it or not from the President of Slovenia said ‘Yes. We hope you’ll come to Slovenia one day.’ Well, you never know. Are you ready? Let’s go. Boom Take a photo. O.K. Enjoy the show. ‘ He was in his stage clothing and off he went and hit the stage. I was just standing there dumbstruck like did that just happen? Oh, My God! You could’ve knocked me over with a feather!
Q – I guess you didn’t have the chance to say “ I play you in a tribute band did you”?
A – No. In the area we were waiting in Klaus Voorman was there and I was Oh, My God! I’d like to talk to him. He engaged in a conversation with our drummer Abe. We were all waiting and Paul’s guitarist Brian came over and just said ‘Hello. Who are you guys?’ There weren’t that many people backstage. It was really quiet and low key. He came over to the guy I was with and said’ He plays in a Beatle tribute ‘and I was like ‘ No. No. Just shut up.’ I was just so embarrassed.
Q – I don’t think you had anything to be embarrassed about.
A – I guess not. I just felt so silly I’m talking to this guy who’s been with McCartney now for 20 years. He said ‘Oh, that’s great’. I said, ‘I know I don’t look it.’ But Brian was a very nice guy. That was my Paul moment which was unforgettable for sure.
Q- That’s a great story.
A- I’ll take that one to the grave. (laughs)
©Gary James
Official Website: www.helpabeatlestribute.com
