When is a band a tribute band?

Philly_Q · August 2023

scrumhalf said:

I remember Gene Simmonds saying he wanted Kiss to continue with different musicians in the band, that it was the band and not the people who were important.

Fair point, but would the band's reputation ne tarnished when four, none of whom are Gene or Paul, put out a crap album?

I don't think the idea would be to record any new material, it would just be a live act and an image, a concept... an "experience".
Kiss have only released two albums in the 21st century, as it is.

Offset · August 2023

Dr Feelgood, and have been for decades.

Philly_Q · August 2023

Thinking back to the Southern Rock thing, Blackfoot currently have (not for the first time) no original members.

Unlike most of these bands, who have rolling lineups featuring other old geezers who've done time in the Outlaws, or Molly Hatchet, or the Marshall Tucker Band, recent Blackfoot lineups have mostly been much younger guys who tour with Rickey Medlocke's "seal of approval". They could go on forever.

Philly_Q · August 2023

hollywoodrox said:

About a year ago I was going to pop down and see The Marmalade T a local venue but on looking up some info there were no original members

Not touring under their original name, either.

Marmalade (band) - Wikipedia

hollywoodrox · August 2023

Philly_Q said:

hollywoodrox said:

About a year ago I was going to pop down and see The Marmalade T a local venue but on looking up some info there were no original members

Not touring under their original name, either.

Marmalade (band) - Wikipedia

The Gaylords named after a notorious Chicago street gang !

mrkb · August 2023

hollywoodrox said:

Philly_Q said:

hollywoodrox said:

About a year ago I was going to pop down and see The Marmalade T a local venue but on looking up some info there were no original members

Not touring under their original name, either.

Marmalade (band) - Wikipedia

The Gaylords named after a notorious Chicago street gang !

There was a lad called Gaylord at our primary school in the 70s, as 7 years olds we didn’t make the connection to a notorious street gang…….

Litterick · August 2023

blobb said:

chromatuna said:

I have seen the ‘new’ Soft Machine and Gong several times each. I think it’s fair to say that both retain a goodly amount of the spirit of their ‘ancestors’ and are great bands to see in their own right. The former did evolve out of a lineup that was all Softs personnel from the 70s and in the latter everyone played in a late era Daevid Allen Gong lineup albeit quite briefly in two cases, Apparently Daevid (the absolute key to Gong for me) was keen for things to contine and trusted these guys. I think in these cases they are musicians making a living in an honourable way who would not be able to do so under less well known names, I also think that they are each ‘tribute’s in the original sense to the quite unique music that went before which lives and breathes in a live setting. It’s fine with me, they aren’t trying to fool anyone and it’s not a cash grab in the sense that either was a ‘hit’ band. Personally I miss Daevid too much to really like the ‘new’ Gong but as I say they are excellent in their own way.

p.s. related to this lot see also Hatfield and the Health if you are into that kind of thing

The Canterbury bands pretty much cross pollinated themselves. You can't really have a Canterbury tribute band, it would just take a slightly modified version of the original band name: Soft Machine, Soft Heap, Soft Head, SoftWorks, even National health were Hatfield without RS. The 'classic SM lineup isn't the original SM. Is PM's Gong still Gong?

Daevid was all about creating a family of groups. He was all about promoting a social movement to rally against big business bankers. e.g. Here & Now. So new Gong is just another version of this cross pollination idea.

Maybe you could call Hatfield and the Health a tribute band, but then again National Health did it themselevs on DS al Coda, which was an Alan Gowan tribute band consisting of members of the original band!

Love Canterbury scene. Full of inconsistencies, the biggest possibly being that Dave Stewart is from London. The Cow are from CAMBRIDGE and Camel are absolutley NOT Canterbury. You might disagree. Mmm, a Henry Cow triibute band, there's an idea - you don't see many of those do you? Wonder why......

I am glad to see Soft Machine revived, and Gong continuing, particularly because both have made new music, which sets them apart from most of the bands discussed in this thread.

Speaking of which, Henry Now (Cutler, Frith, Greaves, Hodgkinson, with Annie Barbazza and Lino Capra Vaccina) played the Teatro President in Piacenza in November last year. The set was mostly improvisation. An album of the event is rumoured to be in the works.

freakboy1610 · August 2023

The Hollies are still touring with only the original guitarist and drummer.

scrumhalf · August 2023

freakboy1610 said:

The Hollies are still touring with only the original guitarist and drummer.

Tony Hicks wasn't the original guitarist, that was Vic Steele.

Philly_Q · August 2023

scrumhalf said:

freakboy1610 said:

The Hollies are still touring with only the original guitarist and drummer.

Tony Hicks wasn't the original guitarist, that was Vic Steele.

Yeah, he's only put in sixty years, the bloody Johnny-come-lately.

To be fair I think I'd generally count whoever played on the first album (or first recordings) as "original" members. Quite a lot of bands first got together in a distinctly amateur fashion, as a bunch of schoolmates or whatever, maybe even under a different name, then in a Ship of Theseus/Trigger's Broom kind of way they were a completely different band by the time they actually got signed.

EricTheWeary · August 2023

Philly_Q said:

scrumhalf said:

freakboy1610 said:

The Hollies are still touring with only the original guitarist and drummer.

Tony Hicks wasn't the original guitarist, that was Vic Steele.

Yeah, he's only put in sixty years, the bloody Johnny-come-lately.

To be fair I think I'd generally count whoever played on the first album (or first recordings) as "original" members. Quite a lot of bands first got together in a distinctly amateur fashion, as a bunch of schoolmates or whatever, maybe even under a different name, then in a Ship of Theseus/Trigger's Broom kind of way they were a completely different band by the time they actually got signed.

IIRC Twisted Sister are an example of this, presumably there are five pensioners somewhere in New York who could legitimately hit the stage as the original Twisted Sister and none of them ever appeared on record or wore a tasseled outfit.

Philly_Q · August 2023

@EricTheWeary ;Same with Judas Priest, closer to your part of the world!

sev112 · August 2023

We saw Shawaddywaddy a few weeks back, it was their 50th Anniversary tour. but they still had the original drummer, Romeo who played all night.

extremely good they were too

EricTheWeary · August 2023

Philly_Q said:

@EricTheWeary Same with Judas Priest, closer to your part of the world!

Ahh, didn’t know that.

Judas Priest was formed in 1969 in Birmingham,England, by lead vocalist Al Atkins and bassist Brian "Bruno" Stapenhill, with John Perry on guitars and John "Fezza" Partridge on drums.

Al has a song writing credit on the Priest classic Victim of Changes and recorded it on one of his solo albums.
[ yep, I’ve never heard of him before either]

https://youtu.be/bfhy9fpx37g

EricTheWeary · August 2023

sev112 said:

We saw Shawaddywaddy a few weeks back, it was their 50th Anniversary tour. but they still had the original drummer, Romeo who played all night.

extremely good they were too

Showaddywaddy are (or certainly were anyway) managed by Dave Bartram who was also an original member (he was the chap most of us would remember as the face of the band).

Philly_Q · August 2023

EricTheWeary said:

Philly_Q said:

@EricTheWeary Same with Judas Priest, closer to your part of the world!

Ahh, didn’t know that.

Judas Priest was formed in 1969 in Birmingham,England, by lead vocalist Al Atkins and bassist Brian "Bruno" Stapenhill, with John Perry on guitars and John "Fezza" Partridge on drums.

Al has a song writing credit on the Priest classic Victim of Changes and recorded it on one of his solo albums.
[ yep, I’ve never heard of him before either]

He's still singing, as far as I know. Here's an early lineup with Ian Hill, KK Downing, Chris "Congo" Campbell (I think) and Al Atkins.

Image: https://www.rockradioandmore.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/judas-priest-alan-atkins.jpg

I don't know who the old geezer is in this shot. Did William S. Burroughs ever visit Birmingham?

Image: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Judas-Priest-in-1972.jpeg

PolarityMan · August 2023

What about sepultura?

Philly_Q · August 2023

PolarityMan said:

What about sepultura?

I guess they'd fall into that class of no "original original" members, but Paulo Jr has been on all the albums hasn't he?

EricTheWeary · August 2023

Philly_Q said:

@EricTheWeary ;Same with Judas Priest, closer to your part of the world!

Just reading part of their Wikipedia entry and discovered that my father was their drummer in 1970. That’s very much my part of…okay, probably completely different person with the same name but it was a slightly weird thing to read.

Philly_Q · August 2023

EricTheWeary said:

Philly_Q said:

@EricTheWeary Same with Judas Priest, closer to your part of the world!

Just reading part of their Wikipedia entry and discovered that my father was their drummer in 1970. That’s very much my part of…okay, probably completely different person with the same name but it was a slightly weird thing to read.

John Ellis or Fred Woolley? I'm guessing the former. If the latter it really was your dad.

EricTheWeary · August 2023

Philly_Q said:

EricTheWeary said:

Philly_Q said:

@EricTheWeary Same with Judas Priest, closer to your part of the world!

Just reading part of their Wikipedia entry and discovered that my father was their drummer in 1970. That’s very much my part of…okay, probably completely different person with the same name but it was a slightly weird thing to read.

John Ellis or Fred Woolley? I'm guessing the former. If the latter it really was your dad.

John Ellis. Not exactly the most unusual name but I like to think that for a brief time he combined being a college lecturer, father to four kids and a bit of proto metal drumming.

Yes, can’t be many Fred Woolleys around.

theatreanchor · August 2023

Pantera are not Pantera without the brothers. There. I said it.

Hattigol · August 2023

mrkb said:

hollywoodrox said:

Philly_Q said:

hollywoodrox said:

About a year ago I was going to pop down and see The Marmalade T a local venue but on looking up some info there were no original members

Not touring under their original name, either.

Marmalade (band) - Wikipedia

The Gaylords named after a notorious Chicago street gang !

There was a lad called Gaylord at our primary school in the 70s, as 7 years olds we didn’t make the connection to a notorious street gang…….

Most of the kids in my school in the 70s could be called Gaylord, depending on the whims of others. This was the 70s though...

Philly_Q · August 2023

theatreanchor said:

Pantera are not Pantera without the brothers. There. I said it.

Does anyone think the current touring lineup is Pantera? It's just a tribute... which brings us back to the thread title.

theatreanchor · August 2023

Philly_Q said:

theatreanchor said:

Pantera are not Pantera without the brothers. There. I said it.

Does anyone think the current touring lineup is Pantera? It's just a tribute... which brings us back to the thread title.

Oh yes - I’ve seen the arguments online. There are certainly people content with the current composition.

Philly_Q · August 2023

theatreanchor said:

Philly_Q said:

theatreanchor said:

Pantera are not Pantera without the brothers. There. I said it.

Does anyone think the current touring lineup is Pantera? It's just a tribute... which brings us back to the thread title.

Oh yes - I’ve seen the arguments online. There are certainly people content with the current composition.

You surprise me! I've not seen the arguments, but I have watched a few of the smartphone live clips - they're alright, but not for a moment do I consider them Pantera. Maybe if they were to keep it going, and do some new material... it could happen, every veteran metal musician seems to be in four or five bands at the same time nowadays.

bloodandtears · August 2023

I think if there's is an obvious lineage from from the original line up to the current one then they are still the band.

Then there is a question of legal ownership of the band name too..

Offset · August 2023

Hattigol said:

mrkb said:

hollywoodrox said:

Philly_Q said:

hollywoodrox said:

About a year ago I was going to pop down and see The Marmalade T a local venue but on looking up some info there were no original members

Not touring under their original name, either.

Marmalade (band) - Wikipedia

The Gaylords named after a notorious Chicago street gang !

There was a lad called Gaylord at our primary school in the 70s, as 7 years olds we didn’t make the connection to a notorious street gang…….

Most of the kids in my school in the 70s could be called Gaylord, depending on the whims of others. This was the 70s though...

JerkMoans · August 2023

Philly_Q said:

Are there any actual Foreigner tribute bands? I guess there must be.

Bloody Foreigner.

Coming over here, demanding to know what "love" is.

Pjon · August 2023

I saw Big Country a few years ago, with two members of the original band (Bruce Watson and Tony Butler, I think but may be wrong...) plus Watson's son, and Mike Peters, ex-Alarm, on vocals. This was fairly close to being a BC tribute band, although we had a great night. Of course, with Mike Peters there, if they'd played 68 Guns they could have been The Alarm. Or an Alarm tribute band. I'm confused...

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When is a band a tribute band?

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