John Lennon's reincarnation.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Al S. Mendoza

LET me tell you more about Eric Hidemasu Mabuchi, the John Lennon of Japan, and his three pals-Hajime Kubo (George Harrison), Hiroyuki Ueki (Paul McCartney) and Yukinobu Kabe (Ringo Starr). All four compose The Silver Beats, who happen to be (isn't it obvious?) The Beatles of Japan.

Let's continue putting aside straight sports for a while and go musical for a change, OK? After all, music, like sports, is also a universal language that we all speak without any phonetic barriers.

So, as promised, here's more Beatle trivia I had gathered in Tokyo last week when Toyota Motor Philippines brought us to the Tokyo Motor Show. If you think the Tokyo Motor Show played second fiddle to The Silver Beats, I won't blame you. Vince Socco has no objections to it, anyway.

There are other Beatle wannabes in Japan like Revolver, Wishing, Gina Z and Gar-Yiz. They all play at The Cavern in the Roppongi district of Tokyo, a replica of The Cavern in Liverpool, England, where The Beatles were discovered by Brikan Epstein and made them into what is now known as the deathless Fab Four of music.

The Japanese are Beatle fanatics so that not far from The Cavern is another Beatle pub called Abbey Road. Toyota executive Danny Isla, the Manila Times motoring editor Vernon B. Sarne and I also had a look-see of Abbey Road last week. But the group playing there was a far cry from The Silver Beats of The Cavern.