Mostly Moptop has been playing Beatles music as well as other covers from the '60s through to the early '80s since 1995. They have performed with the Beatles' Magical Orchestra conducted by noted American composer David Amram. They have played successful shows in many NY area venues and always are sure to bring a smile to the audiences' faces with there faithful renditions of Beatles favorites as well as some solo work recorded by the Fab Four. Mostly Moptop is:
Anthony Pomes - Rhythm and lead guitar, bass, piano, vocals
John Tabacco - Drums, piano, bass, vocals
Eddie Franz - Rhythm and lead guitar, bass, vocals
Paul Michael Barkan - Bass, keyboards, misc., vocals
Anthony Pomes has been a Beatles fan since he was three and an official musician since he was eight. Principally a guitarist, Pomes studied in his formative years with Five Towns College guitar professor Peter Rogine. A singer-songwriter, actor, avid "Lennologist" and family man, Anthony has performed with the late poet Allen Ginsberg and has worked with Micky Dolenz of Monkees' fame. His writing has been published by Newsday and he serves as an Advisory Board Member of the John Lennon Center for Music & Technology. For more info on Pomes and his music, feel free to visit www.cdbaby.com (just type in his name).
John Tabacco (a long time Beatles fanatic since he was 7) is a singer- songwriter, producer, recording / mastering engineer, and graphic artist with twenty-seven original CDs to his name. His skills as an instrumental composer and producer have been recognized both by Keyboard Magazine and The New York Times. He has performed in the U.S. and abroad with groups such as The Ed Palermo Big Band and the Lennon / Tabacco / Zappa Project. For more info on Tabacco and his music, feel free to visit www.cdbaby.com or www.myspace.com/jtabacco or www.betarecords.com.john.tabacco.
Edward Franz - After seeing and hearing the opening sequence in the Beatles' film A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, Edward Franz knew that his musical fate would forever be entwined with the Fab Four. "Mostly" a self-taught musician, Franz substituted the entire Beatles catalog on vinyl in place of a so-called "formal" musical training. Having previously scored some airplay on WABC-Radio with the song "Death to Disco" by his band Psychotic Frogs, it was only a matter of time before lead guitarist Franz would find his equally Beatles-besotted soulmates when Mostly Moptop was first formed ion 1995.
Paul Michael Barkan, music technology professor at Five Towns College and founding member of Mostly Moptop, is the creator of the acclaimed Beatles' Magical Orchestra Young Peoples' Concerts hosted by noted American composer/conductor David Amram. An active songwriter, teacher, and performer in the Long Island area for more than twenty years, Barkan is also the one member of the band most likely to engage you in a discussion of "chains of pan-diatonic clusters," "major tonic sevenths and ninths," and "Aeolian cadences."
Don Larsen (the band's "fifth" Moptop) is recently retired from the Hicksville Public Schools after thirty-two years of teaching wind and percussion instruments. He is an active freelance percussionist in the NY Metropolitan area, including orchestral, concert band, theatre, jazz and pop work. He has performed with Petula Clark, Freda Payne, Wynton Marsalis, Doc Severinsen, Eddie Fisher, Marian McPartland and Jerry Vale. His first rock concert was The Doors at Hunter College in November 1967.
