Tribute Bands; A Good or A Bad Thing?

I was at the Royal Scottish National Orchestra' gig recently playing Beethoven and Mozart. It struck me that they were a tribute band to a genre of music. Now I know that Beethoven did not have a chance to record his music to pass down to future generations, but no matter how often you listen to a record, nothing beats hearing the music played live. That is, in my opinion, the true worth of tribute bands.

On the down side, it is a shame that fans who turn up to see tribute bands do not seem to support original bands. I was at a Regenesis gig in Glasgow, and it was sold out (as usual) at a venue that holds 500. It was an excellent gig and I got talking to some young guys about how I had seen Genesis in 1973. They were very impressed with this. On the wall was a poster advertising The Flower Kings gig in a few weeks at the same venue. I told these young lads how good TFK were and that they should go. I never saw them there and there were probably only 200 fans at the gig. Little wonder that they have not been back! Regenesis sold out the next year again.

I saw them every year for about 5 years the last show being 2005. Theri guitarist was called Andy I think - his first gig with the band being in Glasgow. Their web site says stay tuned. Last year I saw G2 (excellent) and I was talking to Piers LaDavison (keyboards and former ReGenesis) and he told me that Regenesis are not finished and that they would be back.


Edited by TartanTantrum - March 06 2008 at 10:46

enigma wrote: I've seen the Aussie Floyd 3 times (superb), I've also seen Pink Fraud (ok, but on a much smaller scale) and Stairway to Zeppelin (good fun, but again small scale). I enjoy these tributes because it gives you the chance to hear the songs of your favourite bands played in a live context for a fairly cheap price (ok, the Aussies are £25, but it is worth it). Most of the genuine artists are either not touring or  disbanded or dead, so a tribute keeps the spirit alive. My question is...... These tribute acts are making money by playing another bands songs, do they have to pay any form of performance royalties? The Aussies regularly pack out 4,000 seater venues and although much of the money is fed back into the shows production (new lights each year ), they must be making a decent living. Add in the money from DVD and live CD sales...... do the real Floyd get a cut?

fandango wrote:   it would be interesting to do a survey of tribute band musicians, to see how many, if given the choice would in fact prefer to put on a show, playing their own music, if they were convinced they could get the same number of people in through the doors... I suspect many of them would jump at the chance...

I hate the idea of 'tribute bands' and the few I've seen have made me cringe. I couldn't see the point of them until I went to see The Purple Project at Riffs Bar. My god that was something else. These guys totally rocked and the audience loved them. What did this band have that others to my mind didn't? They just oozed love for the music, a bunch of really talented musicians and a singer who could actually sing rather than putting on a voice to try and match the original singers, that was the Purple Project's secret. Their enthusiasm spread and before you knew it you were hooked and it was great reliving those DP moments! I'm not sure I will be venturing out to see many other tribute bands but I'd definitely recommend the Purple Project to any DP fans out there. Their web page is www.classicpurple.com.

Tribute bands can fill the gap where the original acts will never play for several reasons. I'm quite sure that an honest and fair tribute band gigging in, say, Brazil's Centre-West will raise money only for the trip and a  post-gig snack.

 Tribute bands are basically a rip off, and show a lack of imagination. I'm all for a band playing covers as part of their set, although for the most part, they brutalized the original song.
 Give me the original, or when I see a band, I like them to mix in some original stuff with the covers.

When I was working in Japan a few years back, I had the pleasure to attend some shows by Japanese bands doing progressive rock tributes:

Amsterdam (Red era King Crimson tribute band) - This is an awesome Japanese trio doing the impossibles. The guitarist was a combination of Robert Fripp's guitar and John Wetton's vocals.  The setlist was also a dream come true. They played Starless, One More Red Nightmare, Fallen Angel, Red and other songs from that period.

UnKnown (Japanese UK cover band) - This is a funny band. They kept on asking the audience to shout   U-K. The singer was a far cry from John Wetton but the female violinist was quite good.

Gerard - This is not a cover band but they like to play cover songs like Tarkus, 21st Century Schizoid Man,  Red, etc.  They were quite good.

It's all good:  Bands that nail the originals, bands that improvise a lot, bands that do their own arrangements, bands with different instrumentation,  bands that suck.... it doesn't matter.  If they enjoy doing it it's good.  If someone enjoys listening to them, it's gravy.