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Beatles Rock Band is one entertainment option for the Beat Expo

Beat Expo 2009
Holiday Inn, 700 E. Main St., Stamford. Sat., Nov. 28 at 8 p.m. & Sun., Nov. 29, noon to 8 p.m., 1-888-385-1085

Something in the way The Beatles did what they did made seemingly ordinary people go completely insane. Decades later, it continues to do so. The '60s name for it was Beatlemania, but the images that word conjures are of thousands of prepubescent girls trampling each other at Shea Stadium, emitting shrill shrieks that drowned out the very music they were there to hear. Modern Beatlemania needs a new name. Beatlesitosis or BOD (Beatles Obsessive Disorder) — something more clinical and adult-sounding for the 21st century.

Whatever the diagnosis should be called, Charles Rosenay has it. Rosenay has been hosting Beatles conventions on and off since 1978. He leads an annual tour of fans through Liverpool and London called, you guessed it, the Magical History Tour.

"Growing up I wished I could be a Beatle but I didn't have the talent," says Rosenay, "so the next best thing I could do was to host Beatles conventions."

There hasn't been such a convention since 1997, but Rosenay feels it's time to bring it back so his kids can witness one firsthand. Plus, there's more buzz in Beatleland now than there has been since the Anthology series came out in the '90s. Digital re-masters of the band's entire catalog were released earlier this year. The Beatles Rock Band game is attracting a new generation of fans. Paul McCartney toured the U.S. this summer and released a CD/DVD last week of the July shows at Citi Field. And Ringo ... well, we all love Ringo.

At first glance, the list of special guests for the Expo looks a little strange. There's Peter Tork from the Monkees — cool, but what does he have to do with The Beatles? There's Guy Hawkes from the Cars, who played keys on Paul's 1989 "comeback" record Flowers in the Dirt. A bit of a stretch, but let's run with it. And then there's Eddie Munster himself, Butch Patrick. What?

The thing is, we're talking about a band that's been broken up for 39 years. Most of the stories from The Beatles' inner circle have been told. And what is one to do once they've read all the books and downloaded all the bootlegs?

Scrutinizing the guest list, one begins to see the connections that make it an interesting panel from which to draw previously unheard information, which is what a Beatles addict craves.

The Beatles and the Monkees always had mutual respect, and Tork played banjo on George Harrison's Wonderwall album. "We did an hour long interview with Peter Tork in '81," says Rosenay, "and half of it ended up being about John Lennon. It was very heartfelt and emotional. We always thought we should have him back to talk directly to the Beatles crowd."

Guest Clay Cole might have some interesting stories, too. In the '60s, he was the Dick Clark of New York City, the host of a popular regional music and variety program. There were two must-play shows for British visiting the States: Ed Sullivan and Clay Cole. (He once hosted both The Beatles and the Stones in the same episode.)

Dennis Ferrante was an engineer for many of Lennon's solo records, including Imagine and Mind Games, and Sid Bernstein is the promoter who brought The Beatles to Carnegie Hall and Shea Stadium. Beatleholics will surely find something in all this, the band's outermost social periphery.

Rosenay says the event isn't just for the chronically afflicted. "It's the casual fan who will really benefit from the experience of seeing different [Beatles cover] bands on stage, of getting to shake hands, get autographs and take pictures with all these celebrities, peruse the marketplace, and really be in an atmosphere of a nonstop love fest."

Other activities include a Beatles Rock Band set up, a memorabilia marketplace, a rare video room, a karaoke recording studio. You can also audition for an upcoming Disney-produced, Robert Zemeckis-directed motion capture movie rumored to be a Yellow Submarine remake — spoken-voice Beatles imitations are what they're looking for.