ACTOR Alex Robertson has spent the past six weeks living the Beatles dream.

After several television appearances, he landed the part of Stuart Sutcliffe in the critically-acclaimed musical Backbeat at Glasgow's Citizen Theatre.

The play is set in the early 1960s – the Hamburg years – when John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe served their music apprenticeship in the seedy all-night clubs along the famous Reeperbahn.

Alex says the six-week run was "really well received" with the group's live musical performances met with standing ovations every night.

And the 27-year-old is confident that if a venue in London's theatreland can be secured, there is no reason why the show couldn't go on to rival some of the capital's long-running hit musical productions.

"We played a medley at the end with a mixture of old Beatles songs and the crowds just went mental, we really created a party in there," Alex told The Cornishman. "People really loved it, young and old.

"It was the birth of rock 'n' roll and must have been a really amazing time to live through – to recreate some of that memory was really encouraging." Despite his resemblance to Sutcliffe – natural blond Alex dyed his hair for the full effect – he admits he knew very little about the band and had never picked up a bass guitar.

"Apart from Sergeant Pepper and a few of their tunes I didn't know much about the band.

"I had played guitar before and it was really amazing to get into the music – they showed me the notes and I just pretended to stare straight ahead the way Stu did with the shades on, while all the time I was checking the fretboard."

Tragically, Sutcliffe died of a brain haemorrhage in 1962, aged just 22, a year before Beatlemania swept the world and cemented the group's place in pop history.

The new Backbeat play by Iain Softley is the first stage adaptation of the successful 1994 movie of the same name, which he also directed.

It starred US actor Stephen Dorff as Sutcliffe and told how he fell in love with German artist Astrid Kirchherr, who is thought to have created The Beatles' famous 'mop-top' haircuts and sleek rock 'n' roll leather look.

Alex has deliberately avoided watching Backbeat on DVD and tried to find his own way to play the Scottish-born cool musician and painter.

He researched the life of his character by reading Stuart Sutcliffe And His Lonely Hearts Club, a memoir written by the late musician's sister, Pauline.

Aside from his theatre credits, the RADA-trained actor, who grew up in Mawnan Smith but moved to St Ives aged nine when his parents bought a guest house, has appeared in television shows including Fanny Hill, Wide Sargasso Sea and The Quatermass Experiment.He is now back in his St Ives bolt hole waiting for the next phone call, but having worked for his brother's landscape gardening business in between jobs, he is well-accustomed to the ups and downs of an actor's life.But if Backbeat's successful run in Glasgow can be transferred to the London stage there are further plans to tour the UK.That raises the possibility of a "dream come true" appearance in Liverpool and perhaps even a homecoming as far west as Truro."It is all down to theatres and the timing now but we are hoping to play London some time in June," he added.The Quatermass Experiment.

He is now back in his St Ives bolt hole waiting for the next phone call, but having worked for his brother's landscape gardening business in between jobs, he is well-accustomed to the ups and downs of an actor's life.

But if Backbeat's successful run in Glasgow can be transferred to the London stage there are further plans to tour the UK.

That raises the possibility of a "dream come true" appearance in Liverpool and perhaps even a homecoming as far west as Truro.

"It is all down to theatres and the timing now but we are hoping to play London some time in June," he added.