Diagnosed With Terminal Cancer, Beatle Impersonator Mark “Farquar” Vaccacio Uses Fame to Save Lives

Contact: Allen Morrison, 516-509-8453

For Immediate Release: February 25, 2011

Diagnosed With Terminal Cancer, Beatle Impersonator Mark “Farquar” Vaccacio Uses Fame to Save Lives

Making the Most of Remaining Time, He Campaigns for Early Detection through Colonoscopy; Still Rocking as George Harrison in “Strawberry Fields” Every Saturday at Times Square Club

One More Bucket List Item: Finishing Album of Original Songs

See the Feb. 17 New York Times feature article about Mark here: “Onstage, Only His Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Leaked: The Original Songs of a Beatle Imitator”.

Click here to stream songs from Farquar’s forthcoming album, “Farquar! and the Purple Gang” — http://www.acidplanet.com/Artist.asp?AID=1030137&T=2129.

He may be suffering from terminal cancer, but singer/guitarist and Beatle impersonator Mark “Farquar” Vaccacio has a few things left on his bucket list.

Vaccacio, who played John Lennon for years in the Broadway cast of “Beatlemania,” is too busy performing and recording to feel sorry for himself.  And now he’s added another role: using his growing fame to advocate for early detection of colon cancer through colonoscopy.

For the last 11 years he has played George Harrison in the Beatles tribute band “Strawberry Fields,” which performs every Saturday at noon at B.B. King’s Blues Club and Grill in Times Square. Now, after an eight-month hiatus for surgery to treat his colon cancer, Vaccacio is once again appearing as George.

Vaccacio, known as “Farquar” to his friends and fans, has become a tireless advocate of colonoscopies for early detection of cancer while it is still treatable.  He has spoken before hospital groups and is scheduled to appear at the 2011 Colon Cancer Challenge Walk/Run, benefiting colon cancer research and awareness, in New York’s Central Park on March 27.

He is also putting the finishing touches on an ambitious solo album of original rock and pop songs, some five years in the making.

Audiences at B.B. King’s see nothing of the considerable effort and medical apparatus necessary to sustain him.  They just see George — first in his mod black suit, later in full Sgt. Pepper’s regalia.  As he told the Times, “When I put my teeth in and my wig on, and the costume, I’m not a cancer patient anymore. It’s like Superman.  You become Superman.  The whole mystique of the Beatles, the beautiful music, starts surging through you.”  See video clips of “Strawberry Fields” here: http://www.strawberryfieldsthetribute.com/.

To schedule an interview with Mark Vaccacio, contact Allen Morrison at 516-509-8453 or at amorrison2@yahoo.com.

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