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• Read more about Pete Best and his life during and after the Beatles

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Pete Best

Imagine the Beatles, recording their audition tape for Decca records. Flash forward 47 years to Awful Arthur’s, at Roanoke’s Towers Shopping Center.

The Beatles’ drummer from 1961, Pete Best, was sitting behind a drum kit at Awful’s, slapping out the beat of “Three Cool Cats,” pretty much the same as he had on that long-ago demo. His hair was longer, and gray. Now 66, his face is etched in lines.

But it was easy to transpose the laid-back attitude he might have had back then, as he slapped out a steady rhythm behind a solid-sounding band, a cool, relaxed look on his face.

That demo tape didn’t get the Beatles a record deal. And by the time the band was an international smash on Capital Records, Best didn’t have the gig anymore.

But here he was on Wednesday night, showing a crowd of about 130 what it felt like, how it sounded, as he and his band gave a musical tour of the Beatles vibe, before wild success made them the Fab Four.

The audience — a spectrum that included grizzled hippies, post-preppies, tattooed cool kids, parents with their adult children — bobbed their heads, swayed their bodies and sang along to songs that have become universal. But they weren’t Beatles songs.

Instead, The Pete Best Band offered a review of the young Beatles, still figuring themselves out as they covered songs by Ray Charles, the Marvelettes, Chuck Berry, the Isley Brothers and other American sensations of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Best himself had told the audience what to expect from the beginning of the 90-minute show.

“Tonight I’m going to take you back to the days when I used to play with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison” in Hamburg and Liverpool, he said.

Throughout the set, the band showed that Best knows how to pick his mates. Bassist Paul Parry had Paul McCartney-like vocal range, and rhythm guitarist Tony Flynn worked well in John Lennon’s range. Lead guitarist Phil Melia had all the rock ’n’ roll chops, and Best’s brother, Roag, was a capable second drummer.

Best himself slapped the skins nicely, never flashy, but always solid. He and Roag Best sounded seamless together.

Jay Peery, 48, of Roanoke, grew up listening to his older sister’s Beatles records. Peery, a drummer, came to the show with two of his sons.

“You wonder what he could’ve been if he’d stayed with them,” Peery said of Best and his long-ago bandmates. “To me, he’s a piece of history … I think this is just as big as seeing any of the other Beatles.”

Roanoke-based band The Pop Rivets opened the show, playing mostly originals, including the country/metal/funk cut-up “Burt Reynolds Jeans,” and “Yankee Beer,” along with a credible cover of Robert Randolph and the Family Band’s “I Need More Love.” You’ve got to love a hot bar band that doesn’t get fazed by a gig like this.

Later, band members Jason Hill and Brian Holt stood in the long, post-show line waiting to meet Best. But drummer Ted Grigorieff had the best memento — Best had used his drum set.