Beatles Concert Musician Wins Unsung Hero Award

Peter Penhallow, volunteer music director of the annual Beatles Night concerts, has won the Silver Award.

Aimed at “unsung heroes” who help San Anselmo without seeking recognition, the award will be presented on Tuesday, March 8 at 7 p.m. at the town council meeting.

The Quality of Life Commission voted unanimously at a recent meeting to pay tribute to Penhollowfor leading the Liddypudlians, a pickup band, in recreating Fab Four tunes at Creek Park for a decade.

“The event is always a little unreal,” he says, “three or four hours when audience and band can take a load off, forget our troubles. It’s a gift of joy for all of us, me included.”

This summer’s 10th Beatles Night will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, July 9. Penhallow’s still working out the details.

However, for each benefit concert, he says, “I try to outdo myself from the previous year, to make it superior,” all the while remaining true to the original recordings.

Last year, he expanded with songs from solo albums by each of the Beatles — plus Joe Cocker’s re-arrangement of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s “With a Little Help from My Friends." Although he was a bit worried some “purists” would object, “the audience loved it,” he says. “There was a great camaraderie between them and the band.”

At the first Beatles Night in 2002, Penhallow, veteran keyboard player and guitarist who’ll turn 57 in May, got the idea of using horns and strings rather than just reproducing sounds on a synthesizer. He gathered about 25 unpaid musical pros for the show, which was attended by between 250 and 300 residents.

In 2010, he had 40 people on stage, “most of whom I’ve known from previous musical incarnations.” And for the past few years, Beatles Night has drawn well over 1,000 listeners to Creek Park.

The first year, Penhallow remembers, he “put in 400 hours.” But now, he says, he’s honed it “to about 100— including rehearsals. But it’s still a labor of love.” 

Obviously, his labors pay off. After-expense proceeds amounting “to about $40,000” have been added to town coffers so far, he reports.

Penhallow, who’s lived in San Anselmo the past 21 years, is a native of Ross, where his mother was music director at the Barn (“I learned music sitting on her lap”). He began playing piano at age 3, and then, at 9, “the Beatles became my childhood educators.”

Now, Beatles Night is his favorite gig. “There’s no comparison. In a sense, I’ve been spoiled because the concerts are so much fun.”

Why?

“A plumber or a carpenter have their tools and their craft — this is mine, and I’m surrounded by an incredible array of talented musicians.”

That actually is not an uncommon situation for Penhallow. Professionally, he’s produced between 60 and 70 shows for kids, and worked with the Belrose Theater in San Rafael and Marin Theater Company in Mill Valley. He’s also written four guitar-instruction books and been an IT guy.

Penhallow, an unpretentious person who’s likely to sprinkle more than one “gee, golly” into a conversation, will become the 17th winner of the Silver Award.
Previous recipients include the husband-and-wife team of Teri and Alex Rockas, Eli Welber and Steve Lee, Grace Komo, Ben Burtt, Royce Truex and Jo Gross, Michael Schwab, Deborah Cichocki, Kay Peacock, Frank Ortiz, Tom Boss, the husband-wife team of Patricia and Chuck Swensen, Bill Abright, Cynnie Barrows, Marilyn Girodo, Sophia Spencer and Dollie Frauens.

Silver and the more environmentally oriented Green Awards are handed out in alternate months. Nominations for either can be e-mailed to voodee@sbcglobal.net or townclerk@ci.san-anselmo.ca.us  — or mailed or hand-delivered to the Quality of Life Commission c/o theTown of San Anselmo, 525 San Anselmo Ave.