(L-R) Giles Martin, Ringo Starr, Sir George Martin, Dominic Champagne – director, Sir Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono,
Guest, Olivia Harrison, Guy Laliberte – Cirque du Soleil founder. Photo by KMazur/WireImage via Getty Images.

The Last Great Beatles Summit:

LOVE’s Lasting Legacy

By Jeremy Louwerse and Stacey Gualandi

“There was Paul, and then Ringo, Yoko, and Olivia (Harrison), but then you looked up in the sound booth, and there was George Martin with his sleeves rolled up next to his son Giles!”

Chris Carter, the legendary host of “Breakfast With The Beatles” (on SiriusXM and KLOS in Los Angeles), is waxing nostalgic about June 30, 2006, the historic Grand Opening of Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles’ LOVE show at the Mirage Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Historic for many reasons, but mainly because this would be the last great gathering of the Fab Four family.

“It was like you were at Abbey Road or something!” Carter says.

After many years behind the mic of America’s longest-running Beatles show, Carter was one of the fortunate few to have a front-row seat.

Looking back, it would be a night never-to-be-repeated.

The original idea for LOVE was borne out of the late George Harrison’s imagination. He deeply desired to do more with the band’s legacy and happened to be close personal friends with Cirque founder Guy Laliberte.

When Harrison passed in 2001, his wife Olivia made George’s original vision a reality.

By 2006, the $130 million production, created by Dominic Champagne, would be Cirque’s fifth permanent showpiece in Las Vegas. Anticipation had been building for months. What was the audience going to see, hear, and experience? As with any Beatles-related production, there is always a shroud of secrecy, so rumors continued to swirl until opening night.

“It was a big secret, and you didn’t know what you were going to see,” Carter says. “We did know there was going to be this whole new treasure trove of [music] mixes coming out, but you didn’t know what they were like.”

Of course, the mastermind behind those mixes was the Beatles’ long-time producer George Martin. Often referred to as “The Fifth Beatle,” Martin produced the Beatles from the very beginning, even playing instruments in many of their songs.

On this momentous occasion, it marked the passing of the torch to Martin’s then 36-year-old son Giles. Following in his famed father’s footsteps to “reimagine” Beatles music—at Abbey Road Studios, no less—was an enormous responsibility for the up-and-coming producer.

“When I look back, I think about being in the room and trying to come up with ideas for the show and thinking, ‘Well, this is a fun ride, but I’ll probably get fired at some point,’” Giles jokes.

Together, father and son created the 90-minute show’s soundscape, combining traditional mop tops’ tunes and the visual sensation of Cirque du Soleil with his own “risky” interpretations of the Beatles’ most popular songs. Ultimately, he would have to play his tracks for the living band members.

“My dad hadn’t heard it. He came to Abbey Road, listened to it, and wasn’t sure about some of the riskier things I had done,” Giles reminisces.

“When Paul [McCartney] came in, my dad wouldn’t let me play the riskier stuff [but] Paul said, ‘You know, I think you should go further.’”

Giles then played McCartney the versions he had been working on.

“Paul said, ‘This is what you should be doing. This is what I want to do; let’s make a difference here.’ Ringo [Starr] felt the same way,” Giles says.

In Las Vegas months later—with the music compilations about to be revealed to the world—two generations of Martins walked the Grand Opening red carpet. Giles says that his smile shielded sheer nerves.

“I was very nervous about how it would be received,” Giles admits. “You have to bear in mind that when we did the LOVE show, there were no shows pretty much in the world at that scale that had just playback audio. My biggest fear is that people would go, ‘Wait a second, they just listened to a CD or a recording.’”

Not to mention, it was the biggest reunion of Beatles royalty in attendance since the band’s breakup, including McCartney, Starr, Yoko Ono, Cynthia and Julian Lennon, Olivia Harrison, plus luminary members of their inner circle like Ravi Shankar, Brian Wilson, and Eric Idle.

“It’s the first time really that I’ve seen Paul and Ringo and Yoko and Olivia and Dhani and Sean and the families all together watching the show,” Giles says.

While recording station IDs for his legendary radio show, Carter witnessed it all, even running into Giles and his famous father together on their big night.

“The Martins never seem nervous; they are very cool. They’re like right out of a Bond movie,” Carter says.

But the stage had been officially set for the biggest launch in Giles Martin’s musical career.

“He was creating this new landscape that had never been heard before, and it could have been embarrassing and really bad, but it was super cool and perfect,” Carter adds.

As the VIPs sat in the more than 2,000-seat theater-in-the-round, surrounded by speakers in the seats, on the floors, and everywhere else, the lights went down, and the music took over.

With vocals from “Because” at the start to the voice of John Lennon saying “Goodnight to yous all and God bless yous” at the end of the show, the entire production was a technical triumph.

The crowd stood and applauded as Paul McCartney took to the stage and shouted, “This is for John and George!”

At last, Giles could finally enjoy the fruits of his and his father’s labor.

“[With] the standing ovation, I kind of knew we’d done it, we knew we’d made it, and I knew that we made something really special that would last for a long time,” Giles says.

Not holding back, Ringo Starr said he was delighted with the entire experience after the premiere. “I thought the show was great; I thought the music was incredible, and I think the show is so expressive of that time, really,” Starr said in 2006. “It was emotional because two of us aren’t there, so it really comes home when you’re watching this.”

Also emotional, Yoko Ono said, “The only regret is that John [Lennon] is not here because I’m sure that he would have loved it.”

At the premiere after-party, the audience and cast gathered to celebrate.

“It was like every character in Austin Powers was there; it was truly the greatest ’60s party; the women all looked like Patti Boyd, plus it had the real people that would be at a cool ‘60s party,” Carter remembers.

Since its defining debut, Cirque du Soleil’s LOVE has performed more than 7,600 shows and entertained more than 11 million guests.

The show boasts 83 artists and a 150-person crew and staff totaling 233 people, making the show happen twice a night, five nights a week.

It remains a destination experience for anyone visiting the Las Vegas Strip.

But after the shocking announcement in 2023 that Hard Rock International purchased and will be transforming the Mirage Hotel and Casino into a new Hard Rock Las Vegas property, the question every devoted Cirque and Beatles fan was asking is what’s next for their beloved LOVE?

In a press release then, the new owner said it would extend the 18-year-old show from the previous ownership and made a deal to keep it running “through at least 2024.”

But just before publication, Cirque du Soleil suddenly announced that the show would end on July 7th as part of the iconic hotel-casino’s rebranding renovation plan.

Devastating news for sure, but there’s no doubt June 30, 2006, was an unforgettable night in Beatles history and introduced Giles Martin and his talents to the world.

He would go on to remix several Beatles albums and co-produce (with Paul McCartney) the last Beatles single, “Now And Then,” which dropped last year and reached #1 in Great Britain.

Not bad for the producer who once said that fateful night in 2006, “I’m not really one of them. I just actually move knobs around.”

When asked if he still feels that way, Giles joked, “A dirty knob twiddler?” But quickly put his current position into perspective.

“I suppose I’m part of the family in respect to being trusted with their material, and that’s something I never take for granted,” Giles says.

“I never imagined I’d work on any Beatles music at all. LOVE was a life-changing experience for me,” Giles adds. “I’m still working with the Beatles, and it’s been an unbelievable ride. I’m still not certainly one of them, but I’m really, really happy they still ask me to work on their music.”

LOVE would be his father’s last Beatles album before he passed in 2016, yet Giles says it brought George Martin back into the family and the inner workings of the Beatles.

“You have to remember the backdrop of this: the Beatles didn’t ask him to produce “Free As A Bird,” which was the record they made during 1995’s Anthology, so he was reentering a family that he’d not been part of for a while,” Giles explains. “To be arm-in-arm with them on stage was pretty special.”

Not only is the LOVE show a Cirque success story, but it will always be a part of the Beatles lore.

“You are expanding the legacy of The Beatles to a completely different audience,” Carter emphasizes. “There’s probably 40 percent of the audience who have no Beatles albums at home, and it also brings in the most hardcore fan.”

Giles Martin agrees. “The legacy of the show is also bringing new people and new audience members to the world of the Beatles, and indeed the world of Cirque. That’s what the LOVE show is. It’s been a landmark in my life, but it also created unique experiences for millions of people, and that’s an incredible thing to be part of.”

All we need is LOVE.

Jeremy Louwerse is the co-author of “The Beatles in Los Angeles.” Visit thebeatlesinlosangeles.com