THE NAKED CITY: TRIBUTE BAND SEEKS ONE ARMED DRUMMER!

Back in the late 80s and throughout the 90s we witnessed the insidious phenomenon of so -called tribute bands sweeping the local pub and club scene – indeed the word at large. As the popularity of the big name rock acts faded or they simply died or broke up, a plague of imitators appropriated their intellectual property and cashed in on their original success. In some bizarre cases tribute bands actually outdrew the band whose act they had shamelessly plundered.

By the mid 90s tribute bands had become a bit of a dirty word, spurned by serious musicians and shunned by many of the weekly music mags who steadfastly refused  them any coverage – not even a listing in the gig guide section (although they were more than happy to run their paid advertisements). However the copycats refused to lie down and today they are as popular as ever expanding their territory to cover, weddings, parties and just about anything. Competition amongst the numerous musical parrots is rife with bands like AC/DC, Cold Chisel, U2, The Beatles and Abba all having multiple imitators out on the road.

One thing sadly missing in the current wave of tribute bands is parody. Most set out to be as close a carbon copy of the band they mimic as possible, meticulously copying the recorded  sound and casting the lineup to physically resemble original band members. We’re not sure whether it’s a hoax or not but an American Def Leppard tribute band once advertised for a one armed drummer to play the role of Rick Allen, Leppard’s celebrated mono armed stickman. No doubt there was a flood of applicants with many of the two armed variety happily offering to undergo amputation just to get the gig!

When it comes to real parody it’s the thousands of Elvis impersonators who have really set the bar – the majority ignoring the King’s earlier years to opt for the Las Vegas, jump suit, six cheeseburgers a day look. Whilst often bordering on the grotesque, the multitude of Elvis impersonators do much to keep his memory alive, whilst not denying his ever expanding wasteline.

We would love to see some of our local tribute bands pay homage to the foibles and the often unfortunate decline of those they chose to duplicate. Now that Amy Winehouse is no longer with us there is certainly room for the Australian Amy Winehouse Live In Serbia Tribute Band. The show would recreate Amy’s last ever gig in Belgrade with the Winehouse lookalike required to down a bottle of Jack Daniels before hitting the stage and punters equipped with a list of Serbian expletives to yell their disdain.

Yeah – that might seem like a cheap shot but what about the ultimate tribute band fiasco – The Milli Vanilli Meet Alvin & The Chipmunks Show in which Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus lookalikes mime their entire back catalogue with the tape initially played at twice the speed. As the show reaches its climax the tape runs faster and faster, the audience are whipped into a frenzy of mass hysteria and as smoke bomb explodes, Fab and Morvan break into a combined ABBA/AC/DC medley, dressed as portly Elvis impersonators and with…yes you guessed it, a one armed drummer keeping that crazy tribute beat alive!