For Nick Bold, portraying George Harrison is only natural
By Carolyn Lamberson - The Spokesman - Review
For Nick Bold, who plays George Harrison, in "George! The Concert," the decision to portray Harrison was an easy one to make.
“Luckily, it feels very natural, and I’m not just saying this,” he said by phone last month from his home in England. “I’ve always felt an affinity with George. He was the first person I looked too when I took up the guitar. My older sister was a huge Beatles fan so we had all the albums, so I just learned all his parts early on. … He was my first guitar hero.”
Bold would parlay that love of guitar into a career in music. He played lead guitar in a 1970s and ’80s band called Virginia Woolf, which featured Jason Bonham on drums for a time and recorded with Roger Taylor of Queen and toured with Jimmy Page and The Firm. He now has a blues-rock band, Nick Bold and the Raging Sea, that tours England.
It helps, too, that he bears more than a passing resemblance to “the quiet Beatle.”
“And people always said, ‘Do you know who you look like? You look like George Harrison.’ ”
In interviews, Bold is fond of referring to Harrison as a “guardian angel.”
“It sounds corny,” Bold admitted. “He gets me lots of work, I know that much. And I love George, I love his music, I love the Beatles, and it really is a natural fit.”
In an odd way, Bold is paying tribute to two guitar heroes on this current tour. One of his favorite moments of the night is performing Harrison’s classic track, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” from 1968’s “The White Album.” And while Harrison wrote the song, he’s not the one who recorded the famous guitar solo.
“Eric Clapton actually played that fantastic guitar solo, so I try to reproduce it note for note the best I can, and that is big shoes to fill,” Bold said. “It’s an incredible guitar solo. Masterful.”
Still stepping into Harrison’s shoes might give some musicians pause. For Bold, the challenge is to live up to the Harrison name.
“I hope I do his music and his singing and his guitar playing justice,” he said. “I do believe he is watching over me. He’s been such a huge part of my life”
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