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Culture Station 16 Mumbai, February 27, 2011 Beatallica is a Beatles and Metallica mash up band with songs like Hey dude, All you need is blood and I want to choke your band They look, sound and act like your favourite INDIAN INK rockstars, only they're not. But if you can’t see the KALPISH RATNA Cloning original rock acts in the flesh, tribute bands are the Writing on next best option, says Elizabeth Soumya the wall… se it or lose it is an evolutionary Breathe — The Floyd Sound, a UK-based Pink Floyd maxim. A smug corollary, called tribute band performed in Bangalore yesterday UDollo’s Law, jeers ‘and it ain’t ever rockstars Getty Images coming back’. This has always worried hat would you say if the quar- tic Monkeys) performing this year. Mar- me. It is punitive, like religion, and tet from Liverpool, with their Australian Singer tin Dimery of Sgt. Pepper's Only Dart sounds like bad science. My suspicion mop-top hairstyles and all in- Craig Pesco is Board Band, who is also the author of Be- was vindicated last month by a tree frog. tact, were still in circulation? Freddie Mercury ing John Lennon, tries figuring out why About 200 million years ago, frogs decid- The boys, in fact, just per- down to his they’re swelling in number: “Western pop- ed to jettison the teeth in their lower jaws. Wformed their set, including A Day in the Life, ular music has changed little over the last But a splinter group of tree frogs grew fingertips. He I Am the Walrus, and the big medley from claims to have kept 50 years. The music of Elvis Presley, The them right back again 20 million years Abbey Road — which had never been sung the spirit of Queen Beatles, Pink Floyd and The Stones, for ex- ago. Today, Gastrotheca guentheri has un- live before — in an English pub the other day. alive with his ample, resonates with young people today questionable bite. We have John Weins of Wait a minute; these aren’t the Beatles or performances just as it did with their parents. For those Stony Brook, New York to thank for dis- their ghostly apparitions. This is a Beatles who missed the ‘golden age’ of ’50s or ’60s covering this spot of re-evolution. look–alike, sound-alike, act-alike tribute pop music, and for those who nostalgical- When millions crowded Tahrir clique — Sgt. Pepper's Only Dart Board ly look back to that era, tribute bands are Square, the Western press wondered if Band. That’s no John Lennon, that’s John often their only chance to get an idea of Egypt was ready for democracy. Would Legend (Martin Dimery) with Paul Mc- what this music sounded like live”. they be able to tolerate it, after years of Coatoff (John Freeman); George Hare Singh- Breathe — The Floyd Sound, is the sec- dictatorship? Haven’t they evolved into Song (Colin Holley); Ringo Stalin (Marc Ben- ond tribute band to perform in Bangalore gormless flakes devoid of will and action? dell) and Sgt. Pepper himself thrown in too this year following Led Zepplica, a Led Zep- Like Guenther’s tree frog, Egypt has re- (Rob Waller). The Dart Board Band is just pelin tribute band that dropped by last evolved. That’s a terrible word. It exists one of numerous Beatles tribute acts, shar- month, while Guns 2 Roses will tour India only because we haven’t invented one, not ing the heritage with Beatlejuice, Beatle- next month. Sanjit Ganguly of Campus In- yet, for ‘evolution revised.’ Evolution was mania, 1964 the Tribute, The Bootleg Beat- fotainment is a resolute believer in tribute derived from the Latin for unrolling. Dar- les, The Fab Four, The Fab Faux and RAIN, bands. “As an organiser, you can’t afford win never used the term for his celebrat- to name a few clones that come closest to the the original international bands which ed theory; rather his friend and champi- original pin-ups. might cost a thousand times more. At the on Charles Lyell first used it in this con- In fact, the tribute band phenomenon can same time, not everyone wants to hear up- nection. Devolution, the reversal or re- be traced to the advent of the Beatlemania coming, original music,” he says. gression to a more primitive state, makes portmanteau. The Buggs were perhaps the As for the sentiments of the purists, he for great science fiction, but is seldom first music maniacs who wanted to be real- true in biology. This tree frog’s decision istic copies of the authentic four. They SOUNDS LIKE demands a new word. It also demands that formed in the mid-1960s, and had a some- we start thinking outside the box. what original Liverpool sound, only differ- Tribute band names try to Stones) Since 25 January, the Arabic word ence being that it came from Nebraska, USA. retain some essence of the Beninem (Eminem) tahrir has become synonymous with lib- By the late ’90s tribute acts had become a original bands with name erty. American papers call it Liberation Oasisn't (Oasis) serious trend — more than a few songs re- puns and references to Square with faint irony as though liber- hashed here and there. “It was an entire sub- songs. Red Hot Chili Beans (RHCP) ty were a stay-at-home location, rooted culture that essentially existed in a parallel The Muffin Men (Frank Who's Who (Who) firmly in the Verrazano Narrows. To the universe,” says Darren Hacker, who set out Zappa) rest of the No (Yes ) with co-director Jeff Economy to capture Dread Zeppelin (Led world, tahrir this other universe of rock imitators in their MetalLiquor (Metallica) has spelled Björn Again Zeppelin) documentary An Incredible Simulation Simon and Garth's Uncle hope. Tahrir is a tribute (2000). ing to play as tribute acts, instead of per- will settle for the next best thing I guess,” aRe wE them (REM) has a second show to the Initially,Economy confesses he was both forming their own material. But what did reckons vocalist Robby Walsh, from the Rolling Clones (Rolling (Simon & Garfunkel ) connotation — Swedish “disgusted and fascinated” by the fact that make an impression on the duo was the im- Deep Purple tribute band Purpendicular. it also means pop group so many local (Chicago) bands were choos- peccable attention to detail, the time, ener- The result was that some of the most suc- writing, and the ABBA gy and expense that went into the dedicat- cessful tribute bands in the world were says, “Only 10 per cent of the audience is liberation that ed duplication of music. The band Prezence formed in Australia: the Australian Pink very discerning. We respect them, but we ensues from a could play literally every song in the Led Floyd, Beatnix, Zeppelin Live and Björn are not really catering to them. Others just piece of writ- Zeppelin catalogue. The Kiss tribute Strut- Again (an Abba tribute band). want to have a good experience.” he says. ing. It is this meaning that worked for me ter performs over 200 shows a year,complete Today tribute bands are rampant in the But the tribute audience aren’t really a as I read the words of those millions gath- with makeup and costumes to the blood- US, Australia and the UK; so much so that bunch of clueless dunces who don’t ap- ered in Cairo, people like you and me who spitting, fire-breathing pyrotechnics. it’s a crowded market. “In fact there’s so preciate music. On the contrary,“they are had never before raised their voices in The drive for authenticity by bands that much competition that we have to try to very exacting. After a gig they’ll walk up protest, never publicly voiced their con- focus on covers of a particular music band stay at the top of the game,” says Dave Gee, to you and say that note in such and such victions. can vary in its manifestation. While some drummer of Breathe — The Floyd Sound, a song was off. Or they’ll ask us which ver- The net is a great example of tahrir. bands focus on re-creating only the sound; a Floyd tribute band that performed in Ban- sion we were listening to. Some will even Never in the history of human thought others push the envelope to mimic every nu- galore yesterday. say the guitar you’re using isn’t the same has information been so universally ac- ance of their idols including the superficial. Celebrating this trend is Glastonbudget as Floyd,” says Chris Barnes, Breathe’s vo- cessible. Writing is freedom. The moment “Several band members have actually gone — an annual music festival held in Leices- calist. it is censored or banned, democracy is to the extreme lengths of having facial re- tershire which will have bands such as Kaz- There are even examples of tribute gone. Hosni Mubarak, like all dictators, construction surgery,”says Hacker. abian (Kasabian), Oasish (Oasis), Blings of bands being acknowledged by the origi- broke the pens of dissident writers. And Australia, in particular, has been a cra- Leon (Kings of Leon), Greendate (Green nal heroes. Former Oasis lead singer Noel Egyptians saw it for the fearful, cowering dle of tribute bands. With big bands leaving Day), Guns 2 Roses (Guns and Roses), Four Gallagher had called No Way Sis the "sec- gesture it was. the continent out of their itineraries, local Fighters (Foo Fighters), The Fillers (The ond best band in the world", and presented We haven’t had our pens broken, but bands had to recreate their music.