Backing a tribute artist

[mep]

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='964265' date='Sep 22 2010, 11:24 AM']Playing originals in a pub to the staff, four punters and a dog but with your credibility intact is much better. [/quote]

We you at our gig last Saturday?

[Mykesbass]

[quote name='WalMan' post='964515' date='Sep 22 2010, 02:32 PM']But which version of JPJ's lines would you play? There's the rub.[/quote]

WalMan beat me to it - all these great bands put on different shows every night - part of what made them so thrilling to see live (otherwise stay at home and put the album on, nice comfy sofa, no-one in front of you swaying drunkenly and spilling his pint, no ticket costs, no worrying about missing the last bus home). Also, using your Led Zep/Joe Cocker analogy, I'm sure most people in the audience wouldn't notice if you hadn't nailed JPJ's exact lines. Sure the singer and the guitarist would have there work cut out, maybe a handful of air drummers would know all the exact drum patterns, but, just like the BBC "I'm In A Rock & Roll Band", no-one cares about us so enjoy yourself!

[arthurhenry]

[quote name='Mykesbass' post='965020' date='Sep 22 2010, 09:42 PM']WalMan beat me to it - all these great bands put on different shows every night - part of what made them so thrilling to see live (otherwise stay at home and put the album on, nice comfy sofa, no-one in front of you swaying drunkenly and spilling his pint, no ticket costs, no worrying about missing the last bus home). Also, using your Led Zep/Joe Cocker analogy, I'm sure most people in the audience wouldn't notice if you hadn't nailed JPJ's exact lines. Sure the singer and the guitarist would have there work cut out, maybe a handful of air drummers would know all the exact drum patterns, but, just like the BBC "I'm In A Rock & Roll Band", no-one cares about us so enjoy yourself![/quote]

Good point. When I've seen tributes I notice every little detail (musically) that's not correct and it bugs me, but that's because I'm a musician. 99% of punters probably don't care, I just sort of wish they would!

[dave_bass5]

Anyone notice the adds at the bottom of this page are for tribute bands. Ain't the web wonderful.

EDIT: and now they have gone. Oh well.

Edited September 22, 2010 by dave_bass5

[Cat Burrito]

I think playing in a tribute band would take a lot of discipline & could stretch you as a player. I'm not a massive fan personally but they certainly don't offend me. They have a place & have been done both very well and very badly. I might yet try it myself one day.

[Marvin]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='964503' date='Sep 22 2010, 02:20 PM']I'm never sure what to make of the "A gig's a gig" credo. I've played plenty of gigs where I would've rather been somewhere else; gigs that we thought might be sh*t when we agreed to play them and didn't disappoint.

I suppose if you're only doing it for the money then it's a different story. To me a gig's a live music event not a job.[/quote]

Last gig I went to see I wished I'd been somewhere else, it was awful. The headline act was good but the support was beyond words to describe how bad. The singer was like a drunk at a karaoke night, it was like X Factor for middle aged portly 'time has passed me by' almost wannabes.
So perhaps a gig is not gig, thing.

[dave_bass5]

The way i see being in a gigging band is this
A good gig is like a good day at work. A bad gig is like a bad day at work.
In life you take the rough with the smooth.
Get over the bad one and look forward to the next, hopefully good one.

Edited September 22, 2010 by dave_bass5

[Toddy]

In my experiance its been a great thing

www.blondieuk.com

After ten years of local pubs and clubs, and being in an exellent and respected outfit ,joined a well known tribute (used to be Heart of Glass),,
Check the gig list!,, we run an 80,s tribute alongside..

Ive had a ball,, worked with loads of my eighties heros,, been well looked after,, played some huge gigs,,supported, Billy Ocean, Go West, Toyah, Tpau,The Medics, Bucks Fizz - ouch, even had a pint with Alvin Stardust the other night (ok,, maybe didnt need to mention that,,, hes great tho) met some awesome players, had my eyes well opened, developed as a player and considering ditching my day job,,,really enjoying the 80,s weekends at Butlins,,,playing in front of full houses every weekend,,and just got booked for the Boardwalk,(always wanted that gig),,,,previously the band has done some very nice bookings,,, Robbies birthday party! and even gigged with James Brown..

Could go on etc,,,but for me,,, HAVING A BALL !!, ,,,,, do it dude!!

[JTUK]

I'd have to be asked as I don't have too much truck with the majority of tribute bands.
but, anyway..
No, I wouldn't go all out to learn his lines. I'd get close enough and that would be it.
Led Zep were pretty loose live so who would know...?

If it wasn't what the band leader wanted, get someone else....

My general problem with tribute bands would start from this premise..but you can apply it to other bands just as easily from my POV. If you are playing, then be yourself and try and add something to the song. I don't want the part to be ripped note for note, I want the guy playing it make it work with whatever he brings to the party. Its live music, IMV, not a recording. make it move with whatever you have got

[ironside1966]

Why don’t you call yourself a 4/5 string operative specializing in the lower frequencies.

I have never got this artistic integrity thing I will be what you want including myself, so longs as you are paying. I am the opposite, I have a little pride in having the skill to give people what they want with the minimum of fuss unless you want a virtuoso or bebop solos.

[chris_b]

A tribute band is only a band and if you sit there analysing every last note you've missed the point of the gig.

Edited September 23, 2010 by chris_b

[Bilbo]

I hate tribute bands - not the people in them (I get the people need to make a living) but the fact thay they exist and what they are doing to music overall. I look at the listings for my local venues and they are full of tribute bands. It makes it so much harder for ordinary bands to get a gig. Theatres that should be presenting new and creative music are chock full of Pink Floyd tribute acts. The vital rock music I grew up with has been bastardised into some form of naff 'pretence'. Whenever I see a tribute band, I think of all of those 'James Gaway plays the Beatles' lps that used to do the rounds when I was a kid.

Tribute bands are an extension of what made punk necessary in the 1970s. The drive for mainstream (financial) success leads to mediocrity, to all bands soounding the same in the same way that all orchestras sound the same (yes, I know they don't exactly sound the same but the repertoire is very narrow). 100 years from now, rock music will be a tired and uninspiring and played in dusty lofts to 'afficianados' who split hairs over every detail.

Playing in one or behind a tribute act is the same thing.

[Rich]

If I needed a gig, and a tribute band came along, and it was music I enjoyed playing, and they were good, I'd join in a heartbeat (as long as I didn't have to go wearing a wig or spending thousands on 'authentic' gear). Toyed with joining an Eagles trib a while back, until I heard them...

If I needed a gig, and an originals band came along, and it was music I enjoyed playing, and they were good, I'd join in a heartbeat.

If I needed a gig, and a covers band came along... oh, you know the rest.

A gig's a gig. As long as I'm playing and having a good time, what the feck.

[bumnote]

[quote name='BurritoBass' post='965053' date='Sep 22 2010, 10:09 PM']I think playing in a tribute band would take a lot of discipline & could stretch you as a player.[/quote]

Yes I agree, although I have never played in a tribute band, I have in the past played in a country band [and I dont care for much country music] and what also what you might consider a dance band, waltzes, foxtrots etc. In both cases it stretched me as a player, and I learnt lots.

I try, not always succesfully, to have an open mind about the music i play. Any hired muscian -Jamerson and Bob Babitt will play material written by other people. Why draw a halt at a tribute band, is it the dressing up that bothers you.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

[quote name='bumnote' post='965256' date='Sep 23 2010, 08:37 AM']is it the dressing up that bothers you.[/quote]
Surely that's the best bit?

[chris_b]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='965198' date='Sep 23 2010, 06:16 AM']....I hate tribute bands - not the people in them (I get the people need to make a living) but the fact thay they exist and what they are doing to music overall. I look at the listings for my local venues and they are full of tribute bands. It makes it so much harder for ordinary bands to get a gig. Theatres that should be presenting new and creative music are chock full of Pink Floyd tribute acts....[/quote]
Apparently the 100 Club in Oxford St W1;

".... could close within a few months because of soaring overheads unless it can find a buyer. Its rates bill has hit £4,000 a month and landlord Lazari Investments now charges rent, with VAT, of £166,000 a year."

All commercial venues are under pressure from landlords and publicly funded venues are having their grants removed by the Government. Gigs have to put on acts that will bring in the punters and make enough to cover the bills or they fold!

Tribute bands are not doing anything to other forms of music. If people don't want to go and see "band xxx" it's not the fault of "band yyy"!!

[Bilbo]

A club in Oxford street is going to be massively expensive in terms of rents etc. The venue is competing with high street retailers for a prime site in the primest location in the capital city. They had no chance and its to their credit that they held out for so long!! Its hardly the same pressures at the Dog and Duck in Ipswich.

When I started playing jazz gigs, there was a venue in Cardiff that put jazz on six nights a week and twice on a Sunday. It stayed there for years before the brewery wanted them out. It wasn't that they were making a loss, it was that the profits weren't as high as they could be if the premises were used for something else (i.e. a theme pub). The gig moved to another venue and is still putting on jazz at least five nights a week - 20 years later. I had a mate who had a jazz residency in Newport which he had held (last count) for 14 years - it may still be going for all I know. There is a jazz quartet playing Centre Parcs in Thetford that has been there every Sunday 21 years. Its not about pulling crowds, its about pulling bigger crowds. It is not about [b]making [/b]a profit it is about [b]maximising[/b] a profit. My grievance is not about the thing itself (you can play in as many tribute bands as you like), it is about what is lost as a consequence of assuming that the market is as narrow as you think.

[dave_bass5]

The Venue seems to be doing ok and i believe its mostly tribute bands playing there.
They seem to bill the gigs as if they were the originals, big posters etc.

[bassbluestew]

I played with Middle of the Road for a number of years ( Chipy Chirpy Cheep Cheep anyone...no ? ), only quit 3 years back.
Anyways I got loads of pelters from mates for this but, I met loads ogreat folks on the Oldies scene in Europe ( Slade, Marmalade, Tremeloes, Hermans Hermits, both Rubettes, Village People, Bacarra, Kenny and LOADS more besides, and Alvin is a top bloke, his stories about his Mums showbiz digs in the 50s and 60s would make a brill book ) and if we played to less than 2,000 folk it was a real exception. We regularly played to 20,000 !!!
I made a good living from this, played some stonking gis and met loads of really nice folk doing this gig that I would have missed out on otherwise. I am sooooo glad I didn't let my integrity get in the way.

If a jobs worth doing, do it to the best of your ability, and remember, where there's dough, there's a show !!

S

[Bilbo]

[quote name='bassbluestew' post='965475' date='Sep 23 2010, 12:13 PM']I played with Middle of the Road for a number of years[/quote]

That's not a tribute band, tho'. Its the original, surely! Nowt wrong with an act capitalising on its own history. All of those bands have every right to do what they are still doing. Its the people who are pretending to be them that I have a problem with (even when I am doing it).

[chris_b]

[quote name='bassbluestew' post='965475' date='Sep 23 2010, 12:13 PM']....I played with Middle of the Road for a number of years ( Chipy Chirpy Cheep Cheep anyone...no ? ), only quit 3 years back....[/quote]
Do they need a bass player?

[KevB]

Pete Academy better keep an eye on the crowd at the next Nearly Dan gig, lest some beardy jazzer leaps on stage yelling 'You bastard you stole my venue'...

[Bilbo]

No need. He can make a quick getaway in his Porsche.....

[deaver]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='965983' date='Sep 23 2010, 07:21 PM']No need. He can make a quick getaway in his Porsche.....[/quote]

Unless some chav has pinched it...

[Truckstop]

I would gladly be given the chance to play bass for a tribute act and get paid some cash every week for a few years. I just love playing in front of people.

Truckstop