John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr weren’t on stage, but an Albert Lea Band performed The Beatles’ music at the Lighthouse Event Center Friday.

“Their music is like really special. It’s the spirit of the music that brought this all together,” said drummer Merle Krause to the crowd of about 20 people.

The Rooftop Band first came together in December of 2008 with a plan to honor The Beatles on Jan. 30, 2009, which was the 40-year anniversary of The Beatles’ last live performance in 1969 on the roof of the Apple Building in London.

Krause said the idea formed when he was rummaging through his CD collection and a recording of The Beatles’ rooftop concert fell on the floor.

One reason to perform songs from The Beatles is because some people are too young to have seen The Beatles play live or on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” said Darrel Amundson, vocals and bass.

“Unless you were there, it’s really hard to describe,” Amundson said.

Amundson said he was in sixth grade when The Beatles played “The Ed Sullivan Show,” and remembers it being the talk of the playground the next day.

One young fan had the band sign his T-shirt with “The Beatles” across the front, and he got a picture with the band after the show.

Amundson said he’s played with Kraus and Jamie Kyllo, bass, for many years.

“It’s kind of fun,” Amundson said. “Jamie and I went to school together. Merle used to be my paper boy when we lived on Clark Street.”

Jeff Hansen and Krause’s son, Brandon, both played guitar and sang lead vocals on some songs and backup vocals on other songs. Peter Jacobs played keyboard, accordion and flute. Jeff Hastings played guitar on a few songs, one being “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

“I asked everybody involved to pick a song or two, and everybody picked a different song. It was really cool,” Krause said.

The Rooftop Band played many songs from the A side and B side of singles. Between songs, Amundson told stories of The Beatles’ history that he picked up through different books.

Early in the set, the group played early songs like “My Bonnie” and “Can’t Buy Me Love,” and Amundson talked about how the group was formed in Liverpool and played at a venue owned by original drummer Pete Best’s mother.

During the second half of the show, the band played the songs The Beatles performed on the rooftop, like “Get Back” and “Come Together.” Amundson talked about the history of The Beatles as they neared their breakup.

Amundson spoke of how Paul wanted the rooftop concert to bring the band closer together after Ringo and George had both left the band, but then rejoined.

“Because we’ve lost two of them now, George and John, we’ll never get to see them play live again,” Merle said. “When I asked my son to do this, I told him, ‘let’s do your own versions.’ When he came back and said he and Jeff were working out the harmonies the way they were, we decided to get it as close as we could to the way they played it.”

The stage was designed to look like the roof of the Apple Building The Beatles played their final show together on. The band built it from photographs from the show. The front of the stage was lined with shingles, and there were model buildings behind the drums. One building had a smoking chimney.

The band has been preparing these tunes since January, and they played three shows in February.

“When you do The Beatles music, everybody thinks it’s simple, superficial stuff, but when you get into all the parts, even though the basic structure of a song might be pretty simple, but the details are pretty complex, and you’ve really got to work to make sure they fit together. Otherwise you’ve got problems,” Kyllo said.

The Lighthouse Event Center is a converted church at 638 Marshall St., and while there are stadium seats as the front few rooms, pews still line the rest of the concert hall. Krause and his wife Celeste own the building, and he said it’s important to have a venue in town for musical performers and for small plays.

The band will play again this summer at the Freeborn and Mower County fairs, Big Island Barbecue and on July 3 in Austin.