RACHEL JOHNSON
A TRIBUTE TO TRIBUTE BANDS
Ever since Pink Floyd willingly went on stage to jam with a Pink Floyd tribute band, cover acts have enjoyed something of a comeback.
Lead singer David Gilmour, bassist Guy Pratt et al jammed along to Comfortably Numb in Fulham Town Hall with Australian Pink Floyd at David’s 50th in 1996 – a festivity for which the tribute band had been booked as, one assumes, an ironic joke.
But it’s not obvious who the joke is on any more.
Australian Pink Floyd have played Glasto, a festival cast in theory to showcase the absolute cream of musical creativity. And the Oasis tribute band – consisting mainly of a bloke in fringed tonsure and parka ‘playing’ Liam – has done sets at the Isle of Wight. Now even you will recall Noasis. It was formed in 2006, and has played more than 1,100 live shows, including one in a pub in Yorkshire that became global news this winter. A blizzard trapped folk who’d turned up to a Noasis gig in the highest pub in the British Isles for three nights, leading to endless ‘Snoasis’ and ‘Wonderwall of snow’ headlines.
So here’s the question, pop-pickers. Should these cover cowboys and tribute session musicians, playing record retreads, be taken more seriously as artists in their own right?
Is this late-onset recognition unmerited – or overdue?
Tribute bands are often younger than the original artists, and play the greatest hits of the pop stars in their pomp – which is what folk want to hear. They cost less dosh, too, especially now our greatest rockers are knocking on a bit and charge for tickets to their live shows as if there’s no tomorrow.
These bands are cheaper to book and far less expensive to see – an Adele ticket will set you back hundreds next year. They’re a lower risk for the promoter, and everyone in the audience knows they won’t get any dreaded new material. Win, win, win!
Arguments against? They are OK for corporate parties or a billionaire’s birthday. But they should not take up space at true music festivals, ‘real music’ fans and critics complain.
Well, who better to judge than the original rockers themselves?
Noasis’s Twitter page describes the group as ‘the nation’s favourite Oasis tribute band’. So I asked the real Noel Gallagher whether he had ever booked Noasis, as David Gilmour had booked Australian Pink Floyd.
‘Not sure I could stomach a night with a guy who pretends to be Liam Gallagher,’ our Noel said.
Given the age of our golden oldies, I conclude, tribute bands are performing a much-needed service.
‘Tribute bands are an absolutely legitimate genre,’ says Guy Pratt, bassist of Pink Floyd. ‘They keep older music alive in the same way orchestras playing Mozart or Beethoven do.’
Case closed!