A shoe-in for the new Paul: Miles Frizzell, right, takes up his seat as The Bootleg Beatles’ Paul McCartney, making his tour debut in 5: The Concert. Picture: Copyright, The Bootleg Beatles
THE Bootleg Beatles’ latest tour, 5: In Concert, introduces the tribute band’s “new Paul McCartney” in a show built around the Fab Four’s five top-selling albums.
Playing 14 pre-Christmas British dates, including York Barbican on December 15, as part of a huge 2025-2026 European tour, Miles Frizzell, from Nashville, Tennessee, will make his Bootleg debut on this run, performing songs from 1965’s Rubber Soul, 1966’s Revolver, 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1968’s The Beatles (aka “The White Album”) and 1969’s Abbey Road.
“It’s all here…the iconic mop tops and the Chelsea boots, the Vox amps and the Chesterfield suits,” promises The Bootleg Beatles’ multi-media show. “Each tiny vocal inflection and each witty Beatle quip, all meticulously studied on this Magical Mystery trip. It’s not the Beatles but you simply won’t believe it.”
How come a 21-year-old American from the country capital of Nashville, Tennessee, was drawn to playing Liverpudlian Paul McCartney in The Bootleg Beatles? “The Beatles’ music has always been in my family,” says Miles. “My dad was a huge fan, my mum was a fan, and when I was 12/13, I ‘rediscovered’ a couple of songs I first hear when I was five or six, and I became really obsessed with them.
“The songs they wrote; how they they wrote them; how they dressed…it all became a huge part of my life. Even learning to play the guitar upside down. Some believed it might never happen, but here I am, playing Paul.
“There are some drawbacks to playing guitar this way. Like, usually, in any guitar shop, there are no guitars that I can play. But there are definitely some pros too.
“First of all, I’m going on tour making my British debut in the greatest Beatles’ tribute show in the world, so that can’t be bad!”
This tour is only the second time that Miles has travelled to Britain. “The first was for my audition, meeting the rest of the band for the first time when I auditioned by Putney Bridge in London,” he says.
“There were about 130 people people overall that auditioned, and there were four or five others auditioning on that day, so it was quite competitive. I met only one other, Joe Kane. We had a good chat, talked about The Beatles; how much we both loved them.”
Miles was picked for Paul and returned to UK to rehearse with his new Fab Four compadres from November 18. They first time they would play together would be at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, in The Beatles’ home city, on December 7. What a baptism of fire!
“I’m an American, but you just listen to The Beatles so much, so you can just pick up the accent. Anybody could do it. It just takes time!” he says.
“It’s been a long road, and especially now I’m finding little things with the accent. The music came first for me. I learned how to play like Paul, sing like Paul, singing like a Brit, a Scouser, but The Beatles were also impersonating the American style, so I’m learning as an American how to be a British person, a Scouser and yet American too. We’ve had fun ‘Scousing around’ and I’m enjoying that challenge of ‘Can you tell that I’m an American?’!”
It had to be Paul for Miles. “Not only is he a songwriting genius, but also he has this cheeky charm about him, though John [Lennon] was the witty one,” he says. “Paul always feels like the main one, and I don’ think The Beatles could have continued after [manager] Brian Epstein died without Paul leading them. He wasn’t everything in The Beatles but he was the glue.”
The new tour show, 5: In Concert, will take The Beatles’ story from appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show in their iconic suits and white shirts, through green lapels, red satin shirts – the Budokan look, one of Miles’s favourites – and onwards to Sgt. Pepper and the White Album.
“I get to wear a flashy pink suit for that one. It’s an exciting wardrobe change,” he says. “For Abbey Road, you can’t go wrong with what they wore on that iconic album cover, with George in his famous jean look.” And Paul in bare feet, of course!.“We’ve been thinking about that; we’ve kicked around the idea of me being barefooted, in sandals or in Beatle boots.”
To find out what the decision was, you will have to attend Monday’s concert. Miles, meanwhile, is decisive on his favourite of the five albums featuring in the show. “It’s a hard question to answer. It’s always different, actually listening to the album rather than dissecting them,” he says.
“Listening to them, Abbey Road might be my favourite, but getting ready for the tour, I feel I really fancy ‘The White Album’ now. Great orchestration, great songs, and, man, weren’t they in their prime! It feels so Beatley, this band playing great songs and rocking out.”
So too, still, is Paul McCartney. “I got to see Paul in Nashville, in the front row, and at Atlanta, Georgia. I didn’t meet him but he did wink at me!” says Miles. “Seeing him, it felt spiritual.”
It was only at this point that your interviewer enquired if Miles had past experience of playing Paul. “I’ve been doing it professionally for four years, since I was 17,” he reveals. “I perform in the USA in The Fab Four show, the Emmy-winning American tribute, and I also work with a show called 1964 – The Tribute, Forever Abbey Road and Classical Mystery Tour. I play Paul in all those.”
Ah, right, that’s why it’s a thumbs-up to Miles being picked as “the new Paul” in The Bootleg Beatles.
The Bootleg Beatles, 5: In Concert, York Barbican, December 15, 7.30pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
