What is it with the current plethora of tribute bands? They come round here pretending they're something they're not and half the time they don't even look like the bands or artists they're supposedly paying tribute to. One which really took the biscuit was an Abba tribute in which both female singers were blonde! What's that all about? Two Freda's maybe? Even when they get the hair colouring of the girls correct, Benny and Bjorn often look more like Chas & Dave than our Swedish songsmiths.
It's not just Abba tributes either as the Beatles get more than their fair share of tribute bands. All they need is mopish hair and matching collarless suits and they're on the right track. However if the musician playing the part of Paul McCartney doesn't play a left handed violin bass then I’d rather see the group sweeping the stage than performing on it. Now I know you're all thinking that the sound is more important than the look, but you're wrong. Any tribute band worth their salt should both look and sound like the band or artist they're supposed to be.
Another thing about tribute bands with really gets up my nose is some of the names they choose. They're not big and they're not clever and for the large part, their punning skills leave a lot to be desired. For example, the Bon Jovi tribute band, By Jovi show both humour and northern charm in their choice of name, whereas Carport Convention will simply confuse people. The B'eagles is a worthy name for an Eagles tribute band but NoWaySis is a dreadful name for an Oasis tribute, which gets me onto yet another pet hate; tributes to bands or artists who've only just started their musical career. For example, we have tributes acts to Lady Ga Ga within weeks of her first hit as we also have for the Kaiser Chiefs, Shakira and Adele.
Come on people... surely an artist should have a career spanning a decade or two before they become worthy of tribute? And how do the original artists feel knowing that no sooner their pop career has started there's a host of sound-a-like bands for hire touring the pubs and clubs of the UK performing somebody else’s show? Do they pay royalties to the original artist? Probably not. Do they perform as well as the original artist? Definitely not. Are the ticket prices cheaper than the original artist? Possibly. With all these bands for hire pretending to be somebody else shows a severe lack of imagination amongst many British musicians, and not only that... if they were tribute painters only producing paintings in the style of Van Gogh or Constable, they'd be called fraudsters, not bands or artists!
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