And then imagine that you’re Paul Davie, living an amazing dream of playing in a British Invasion tribute band with a heavy emphasis on The Beatles. Davie doesn’t imagine this scenario, however. He lives and breathes it as the bassist for The Fab Five - A Beatles Tribute Band, set to mark their sixth anniversary with two shows this week.

“I really want to celebrate that anything is possible,” says Davie, who by day sells advertising space for Eagle Newspapers. “That two years ago after achieving all that the band achieved, and when they all quit or resigned on me, I had nothing. But two years later I had so much more than the first four years.” That includes playing Liverpool, England’s legendary Cavern Club—where the Beatles perfected their shtick—during International Beatle Week in 2004, plus performing with Terry Sylvester of The Hollies and Joey Molland of Badfinger, meeting Donovan and backing up—or would that be fronting?—the Beatles’ first drummer, whom Davie says is the world’s greatest trivia answer, Pete Best, at Hooligan’s late last year.

“It dawned on me recently that I can now call a couple of my heroes, friends; friends first, heroes second. This morning I ran into an old friend, and the first thing he said was, ‘Hey, you and Pete Best, wow. You’re living the dream and that’s what life is all about.’ Life is hard enough. Why not make some dreams come true? You know that six degrees of separation thing? I am now one degree from a Beatle. If anyone would have said this was possible when I had no band two years ago, I would have told them no.”

Joining Davie on stage in the Fab Five are vocalist and instrumentalist Joe Donelan, lead guitarist Pat Hodson, new drummer Tim Breezee (Gary Pittman was forced to retire from hitting the skins when he suffered a shoulder injury), and vocalist and guitarist Charlie Kraebel, also a retired minister. (Full disclosure: Kraebel recently performed at my wedding ceremony; see accompanying new byline.) Although they rely heavily on the Beatles for tunes, the Fab Five is really a British Invasion tribute band and as such also play songs from the Who, the Dave Clark Five and the Yardbirds.

In addition to keeping the yeah, yeah, yeahs coming, the Fab Five relaunched a new and improved Web site on Feb. 1, www.thefab-five.com; they also have a site at www.myspace.com/thefabfiveliverpool. “The site we had the last five years was hard to navigate,” Davie admits, “so with a new lineup we need a new look. So out with the Hard Day’s Night, black-and-white look, and in with the recent Love CD. We incorporated some of the feel from the resurgence of Beatles music to the Web site, added a guest book, a blog area, some video and made it more interactive so there will be compelling reasons for people to check in and add it to their favorites.”

The Fab Five’s sixth anniversary celebration weekend kicks off Thursday, Feb. 8, with an 8 p.m. show at Shifty’s, 1401 Burnet Ave.; admission is free. The band also plays Saturday, Feb. 10, 9 p.m., at Fat Freddy’s, 2810 Lemoyne Ave., Mattydale; tickets cost $5. For more information, call 382-7285.

—Molly English-Bowers