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Hans View Drop Down
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Points: 40 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Tribute Bands
    Posted: August 26 2006 at 16:38
hmm I'm not sure if this is the right forum to post this but anyway....
I've been seeing a lot of hype about this "Tribute Band" trend nowadays. For those of you not familiar with the term, a tribute band is a musical group that imitates and plays exclusively the music of a well-known band, usually one which has disbanded or ceased touring.
Of course, these groups give us the chance to live the experience of being at an actual Genesis or Yes concert, for example.
But ¿gaining recognition (or even money?!) for copying great bands and their music?
Don't get me wrong, I really don't have anything against tribute bands, but I just feel that if these guys are as talented as to play the giants of prog, they could also create their own music and sound. After all, new prog bands with a fresh and unique sound is what we really need today.
¿opinions?¿comments?
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Easy Livin View Drop Down
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Points: 15585 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 26 2006 at 17:24
It's a fair point Hans.
 
I question what the audience are applauding at gigs by tribute bands. Is it the original material, how well the tribute band imitated the original, the quality of the performance (was it note perfect etc.) ?
 
I can understand the attraction in seeing a recreation of something you can't otherwise see anymore, such as say a Frank Zappa gig, but I still feel such gigs are hollow. 
 
The implication of joining a tribute band is that you are firstly an actor, and secondly a musician, and definitely not a songwriter.
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Points: 40 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 27 2006 at 19:55
thanks for your reply easy livin, apparently this post wasn't of interest to anyone so feel free to delete it if you want.
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Points: 16449 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 27 2006 at 21:02
As you Easy said, its an interesting question. My view is that its probably a good place to start as prog is not easy stuff to play and might be a good way for musicians to "cut their teeth" before moving on to writing and performing their own songs.
 
However its great to see some tribute bands as they could be performing songs from bands that split well before your birth (Genesis for instance). The Musical Box is probably the best example of a tribute band as they performe acurate performances of Gabriel era Genesis complete with replica costumes. However I think they took it to far by (apparantly) using the exact same tour setlists, and even the Gabriels jokes and anecdotes between songs. I think thats tacking it too far myself. Its funny, though, that the tribute band has now split up berfore I can see them, wonder if we'll get a tribute to The Musical Box in ten years.Wink 
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Points: 5109 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 27 2006 at 21:39
    I don't see much value in tribute bands. If it is done tongue in cheek, it can be fun. I saw an ABBA tribute called Bjorn Again, and it was hilarious. A straight mock up is definitely hollow, and can even be a little sad.
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Points: 2099 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 27 2006 at 23:59
I would Love  to see a Dead Can Dance tribute band.  Does anyone know any?
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Points: 69 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 28 2006 at 00:13
a couple of years ago i saw a pink floyd tribute band called The Pink Floyd experience, they were pretty good they did the whole darkside of the moon album in the first half of their show with lights and all then they did the whole of the wall and even built a 8meter high wall across the stage i thought they did a good job at it considering the chances of seeing pink floyd today is extremely low!Cry

Edited by 2112 - August 28 2006 at 00:13

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Points: 4252 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 28 2006 at 13:41
I've seen a few tribute bands locally, quite frankly i was amazed how good some of them really are, one was called "Who's Who", they were great and played "Tommy" in its entirety, the drummer looked and acted exactly like Keith Moon,  and another "Dirty DC" I could have sworn i saw the real Angus!!! and the playing was faultless. When these bands are good they're brilliant, but when they're bad they're appalling!
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Points: 311 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 04 2007 at 10:34
I believe it all has to do with nostalgia. Either people were too young to see the great ones or, like me, you have seen them a loooooong time ago and are thrilled to live the experience again.
 
If ever "The Machine" (Floyd), "The Musical Box" (Genesis), "Fragile" (Yes) or "Physical Graffiti" (Led Zep) or "Gary Mullen - A Night With Queen" (Queen) are playing a gig close to your place, go and see them. You won't be disappointed.
 
From this list I have not seen the genuine Floyd nor Queen (I missed their 73 gig in a small venue (500) in Brussels. Not having seen Floyd is the biggest regret I have in my musical life. and it will remain so for ever...Cry
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Points: 37575 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 04 2007 at 12:19
There is a train of thought that suggests that tribute bands are no different to concert orchestras, playing other performers' music purely for the enjoyment of the audience. The 80 or so musicians London Philharmonic are exceptionally talented, but they aren't Mozart.
 
However....
 
A famous 'tribute' band that springs to mind is Funky Junction from the early 70s.
album%20cover
In 1973 this album was sold in Woolworths for about 50p and mixes some so-so Deep Purple covers (Hush, Black Night, Strange Kind of Woman, Fireball, Speed King)with an odd-ball selection of "Trad" tunes and original material (Danny Boy, House of The Rising Sun). Not a great album by any stretch, but an interesting curio of 70s hard rock, because the musicians are credited as:
 
Benny White - vocals
Phil Lynott - bass
Eric Bell - guitar
Brian Downey - drums
Dave Lennox - keyboards
 
The band recorded and released this (probably to pay the rent) a few months prior to Whiskey In The Jar hitting the charts.
 
What?
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Points: 15585 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 04 2007 at 14:48
Ironic that they now have their own tribute bands!
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Points: 2632 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 05 2007 at 12:43

Sleeper:

You're comment about TMB "going too far" would be accurate if it were...accurate.
 
TMB is the only Genesis tribute band with the imprimatur of both Gabriel and Genesis.  Indeed, Gabriel and Genesis helped them re-create The Lamb show, including providing them with the original 1,100 slides from the original show, as well as all the original costumes.  TMB is (or at least was) managed by Genesis' management, and Hackett and Collins have both performed with them.
 
The only other tribute band I know with this type of direct artist support is Elton Jack, an Australian Elton John tribute band.  There again, he has Elton's imprimatur, is managed by EJ's management, and Elton has appeared at his shows.
 
These situations are quite different from most, if not all, other tribute bands.  Even so, I think the merit of a tribute band is in the faithfulness of their recreation and the love they bring to the music.  Even if they are making money on a band's name, one can tell fairly quickly whether they are simply mercenaries or whether they bring a true love of the artists' music to their performances.
 
I performed with two different tribute bands over my years.  First, with a very serious Genesis/Yes tribute band in the late 70s/early 80s.  Talk about a group of guys who had a love for what they did!  Sure, we made pretty good money for the time.  But we would have performed for free if our expenses had been covered!  Then I fronted an EJ cover band for almost two years.  And again, it was our love for EJ's music that drove us (as anyone who saw us can attest to).  Indeed, we made very little money at all!
 
Finally, I think that if rock bands had a serious problem with tribute bands, they could easily put the kibosh on them, since, at very least, tribute bands violate the mechanical copyrights of these bands, and at worst they may be giving the band a bad name.  Yet we do not see this hapening; in fact, I have never heard of a single case of a tribute band being sued by the original band.
 
Peace.
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Points: 14693 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 07 2007 at 07:42
Originally posted by Easy Livin Easy Livin wrote:

I question what the audience are applauding at gigs by tribute bands.... Is it the quality of the performance (was it note perfect etc.)? 


This is defnitely a case with Genesis tribute bands; you can see it happening - the audience getting carried away on a wave of nostaliga & having a great time, then the band play 'Firth Of Fifth'... suddently the guitarist has every eye on him as he comes up to that solo...

...no pressure then

Luckily, the two I've seen (ReGenesis and The Musical Box) have great guitarists, easily capable of delivering both note-perfect and emotional renditions of Hackett's original.

Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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