HE has dedicated his life to mastering the works of The Beatles, and now Rain star Steve Landes hopes to bring John Lennon to life for a Glasgow audience.

For the musician will be performing with one of the longest running tribute acts of The Beatles, when his band Rain bring their tour to Glasgow's Clyde Auditorium on October 1.

The tribute act, who were established in 1975, will be showcasing the best of The Beatles back catalogue and celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of arguably one of the greatest albums ever made, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

"The show really is like feeling The Beatles are performing their whole career in front of your eyes," Steve explained.

He continued: "I portray the part of John Lennon and our show is about the whole career of The Beatles from beginning to end.

"We play all the music, all the big hits, and all the songs that everyone will know - and we play it all live.

"My job is to sing all of John's vocal parts, and play rhythm or lead guitar, keyboards and bass guitar. Basically, everything John would play I have had to train myself how to play."

Perfecting the performance of a legend such as John Lennon is no easy task even for the most talented of musicians.

But for Steve he has managed to capture the essence of the singer by being a fan first and then immersing himself in all things related to The Beatles.

Steve, who hails from Philadelphia, explained: "My mum and dad were Beatles fans and so by the time I came along, after the Beatles had come and gone, they were still fans of music and at a very early age I heard the music."

He continued: "They were playing some of the records and I just fell in love with it.

"Some of my earliest memories is hearing the Beatles from those records. I also have older sisters who were little kids during the Beatles time.

"I had all the records, t-shirts and all the different memorabilia that they collected during that time. I kind of went up the attic, and took it for myself and found out about the Beatles. From there I grew up wanting to be a Beatle."

And it seems Steve achieved that childhood dream by pursuing music from a young age. He explained how he taught himself how to play music by taking lessons from local musicians as a child and today that has allowed him to be part of one of the world's biggest tribute acts.

He said: "Being part of the band is quite beyond my childhood imagination. It really has become surreal. It is like kids who run around as a superhero could somehow become a superhero as a grown up. It never seems to possible to me and yet here I am. I am very fortunate."

Now he wants to showcase the best of one of the world's greatest bands to people who perhaps missed out on the chance to see them the first time round.

He said: "The show is audience interactive and immersive. We have broadcast cameras that are usually focused on us but sometimes the cameras turn around and we focus on the audience because we are Beatles fans, and they are Beatles fans.

"It really is a two hour celebration of The Beatles, and it's fun to watch the audience get up and dance to these songs or sing along. It is also fun to watch families, grandparents, parents and little kids enjoy the music. The show just really takes the positive message of peace and love."

The show comes to Glasgow for the first time and Dr Who fan Steve is excited by a unique tourist trail that the city has to offer which sort of pays tribute to the famous Time Lord.

He said: "I have been to England and Wales many times but I have never gotten up to Scotland. I am so looking forward to it.

"I heard you have a lot of police boxes there so I am excited to get there."

With decades of experience behind them, Rain can't wait for the Glasgow audience to see their show, and Steve believes it will go down a storm because The Beatles continue to be as popular as ever,

He said: "The Beatles' lyrics and message was positive. It is about bringing people together. It started with simple love, boy meets girl, romance music. But before long it became more of an all encompassing greater love.

"Songs like All You Need is Love and Give Peace a Chance, and lyrics like 'take a sad song and make it better,' are messages that we all can understand, and feel for and need especially at this point in our world."

Catch Rain at Glasgow's Clyde Auditorium on October 1. For tickets visit here