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"Tribute bands came to my attention
in 1990 when my Australian friend Julie was raving about a band
called Bjorn Again and how great they were. Yes, you guessed it
we are both ABBA fans. I was horrified. How could someone
pretend to be ABBA, my favourite group of all time? Then they
arrived in the UK and were doing a gig in Bristol at The
Bierkeller. Dragged along several friends including one who who
was a bit of an ABBA fan himself. It was the 7th July 1991 and
that is burned into my brain to this day. By the end of the
evening I was hooked. We all were. They put on a fabulous show
and despite me struggling to get used to their 'Swedish accents'
I had to agree they did a damn good job.
Since then I've seen a number of
ABBA tribute bands over the years and Bjorn Again are top of
their profession. Don't get me wrong, there are some great ABBA
Tribute Bands out there and I'm a stickler for accuracy but I
have seen some humdingers (and not necessarily ABBA tribute
bands) who need to give up trying being in any band at all! Go
back to the day job please!! A number ABBA Tribute bands know me
because I work in the media and they also know I'm a big ABBA
fan as well. I also organise an ABBA Tribute Weekend. However I
have seen other tributes to other bands and artists as well and
most do a great job. I even go to the Beatles Weekend in
Liverpool held during August and you get a good selection of
Beatles tributes from all over the world and the Matthew Street
Festival (that was sadly cancelled this year) has a stage
that is for other bands and artistes.
At the end of the day, its a
nostalgia trip, remembering the good that went with music we
love to hear being performed on stage in front of us. I didn't
see ABBA when they toured so a band like Bjorn Again is the
closest I will ever get. Its a chance to see the bands we
couldn't see at the time for whatever reason or were just too
expensive to buy tickets for. They provide value for money
and there is a genuine demand for these tribute bands. They
provide us with what we want music wise.
Most of these tribute bands are
genuine musicians and singers who know their trade extremely
well. Its the chancers who think its easy to get up on stage and
perform and then find that it isn't and do a bad job of it. I
know of one act who tried to mime to the ABBA Gold Greatest Hits
once and another who got the song lyrics wrong and went into a
medley of songs at high speed like Pinky and Perky and we can
certainly do without those type of performances no matter how
funny they are!
Tribute bands do get a bad press
from journalists/media most of the time and they belittle what
these people are doing. For most being in a tribute band is
their sole income, their livelihood and we all should have
respect for what they are doing. It may get a bit repetitive at
times for them and members leave bands only to be replaced by
someone just as knowledgeable and into the genre of music that
the band or artiste pay tribute to. Credit where credit is due
respect your tribute band and they will give you a show that you
won't forget and you'll be going back again.
Yes, my name is Kathryn and I love
tribute bands. Confession over!"
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