’Tribute’ according to The Little Oxford Dictionary means “thing done or said or given as mark of respect or affection etc”. This title has been used by many a band today to pay homage to a band they have either been influenced by or loved down the years. The list is endless.

The Tribute act

A tribute act as its known can be a music group, singer, or a musician who plays the music of a well-known band, which in some cases can either have been disbanded, deceased and who have stopped touring. Tribute acts were mainly created to honor the original bands, but with the passage of time, the tribute bands have grown to have a major fan base. Tribute band names are often taken either from the original band, some change it with a little humor, a pun are derived from a famous track or record album released by the original band.

Individual Tribute Acts

One of the largest tribute acts ever done so far would be Elvis impersonators, who as individuals have mimiced the songs and style of The King of Rock and Roll Elvis Presley. While the world over there are impersonators doing the gig, a few names that come to mind are Nigel Kingsley, a Mumbai lad now settled in Switzerland who looks and sings like Elvis and American Garry J. Foley who also sings and looks like Elvis.

From in Mumbai we have our own Elvis Presley in the form of the ageing Merwyn Rufus and the more youthful and dashing Siddharth Kanan. There are also dozens all over the world trying dance moves of the late King of Pop Michael Jackson. Closer home we have 20 something Douglas Misquitta who dresses and dances in ditto style of the Man in the Mirror.

But individuals have one minus point, they are difficult to make a stamp on the world map. Here in comes in the bigger variety of tribute acts which are ideally groups (tribute band or tribute group) which are tributes to a group living or dead. Here too the list is infinite.

Strictly speaking, the main way in which a tribute band differs from a cover band that simply plays songs by other artists, is that it strives to capture every nuance of the imitated artist's actions and appearance for a perfect imitation, be it the dressing, singing and sometimes even living a life like the original band.

First Tribute act

The first tribute bands to have emerged in the not so distant past is the Beatles tribute bands, such as The Bootleg Beatles, who attempted to look and sound like The Beatles while playing their songs. There have been many Beatles impersonators after the fall of the band, but nothing that can be recalled as close to what the Beatles truly performed. Other bands that came really close were, The Buggs, The Cast of Beatlemania (former members of the Beatlemania musical), 1964 the Tribute, Beatallica (combining Beatles and Metallica songs), The Fab Faux, The fab Four (tribute), Rain: The Beatles Experience, Te Return (Atlanta GA based tribute) and Yellow Matter Custard (with Paul Gilbert and Mike Portnoy)

Types of Tribute Bands

A tribute band rarely includes any members of the original band whose music is being honored, although sometimes a guest appearance do occur. You have perfect examples like former Bruce Springsteen drummer Vini Lopez who often played sets with the Springsteen tribute band The E Street Shuffle. Rockers Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice has many times played a gig with with the Deep Purple tribute band known as Perpendicular on small European tours since 2002, 2004, 2007 and the whole band in December 2008.

Some tribute bands imitate the appearance of the band to the best they can but re-interpret the original works in a particular genre that they feel good at. You have the Dread Zeppelin who plays the songs of Led Zeppelin in a reggae style with a lead singer who looks like Elvis Presley. You also had tribute bands that usually name themselves based on the original band's name, some song and even albums. One of U2s biggest selling album The Joshua Tree is the name of a tribute band that plays U2 material.The Joshua Tree that pays tribute to U2 play studio versions of their songs, full-length studio versions with symphonic backgrounds. To get this real effect the band has a fifth player who does all the necessary changes required to make it sound like U2.

Another top favorite is Eric Clapton. ‘After Midnight’ is one of the first solo hits of Clapton’s and it also doubles up as the name of a tribute act to Eric Clapton. The four member band After Midnight is considered the World's No.1 Eric Clapton tribute act.

Frontman singer – guitarist Mike Hall not only looks the double of Eric Clapton, but what’s more is that he also sings and plays the guitar like him too. The band was formed in 1985 in Newcastle (UK) and became a tribute band of Clapton after they managed to pull off his songs in classic Clapton style which really caught audience's imagination.

Many years later, Mike won a national look alike competition held at Madam Tussauds in London and has even met the guitar God twice. The band has performed in the UK and parts of Europe and more recently even Mumbai. They also have three albums to their credit “The Music of Eric Clapton” that contain 17 authentic cover versions of classic Clapton tracks, "Classic Clapton Unplugged" and “Classic Cream”. Mike recently performed in January in Mumbai, his second time after his debut performance in July 2009.

Not all tribute acts use the impersonation style as a tribute. The Muffin Men who play the music of Frank Zappa in their own style, do not look like, or attempt to look like original members, and often tour with former band members of Zappa. One of the original members, Jimmy Carl V Black is a regular in the band. They have also recorded and toured with Ike Willis and Don Preston.

It's Saturday Night Fever every night with The Australian Bee Gees Show – A Tribute to the Bee Gees. One of the most successful and adored acts in musical history is recreated on the Vegas stage in a 75-minute multi-media concert event. You'll hear hits like, "Staying Alive," "You Should Be Dancing," "How Deep Is Your Love," and "Jive Talkin.'" The band is also expected to visit India soon.

The ABBA frenzy

They had class and they had culture. Would they be cloned? You bet they would be one day. Their groovy music set the standard of pop songs, what it should be and what it was like. And the amazing thing is, till today few have achieved what they have. Founded by Swedish born Bjorn Ulvaeus, ABBA were the ongoing love story of the seventies hipsters. Most may not be aware that ABBA got its name from the first names of the members of the group in an acronym as in Agnetha, Bjorn, Anni-Frid and Benny – ABBA.

There was magic in their music, pop dance that became a rage. After its successful stage version beginning in London way back in 1999, ‘Mamma Mia’ has been staged all around the world in twenty productions in eight different languages raking in over two billion dollars worth of ticket sales, it was inevitable that ‘Mamma Mia’ would one day become a motion picture.

Inspired by the story telling magic of ABBA’s timeless songs which is probably one of the main selling points and its immense success on stage, with even the stage production named after an ABBA song, the movie features unknown singers covering the work of the Swedish quartet in a song and dance. With help from Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus who have given their consent to cover their music, the duo reunited in Stockholm with the original musicians who featured on their songs and brought out a totally new version of the 70s pop group’s work with slight variations on a few tracks. Benny has also played keyboards giving his own bit to the songs that have today become classic work. The covers here are fairly impressive, but lack the magic that was ABBA.

And now almost three decades later - Bjorn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni have just got and idea of what they did years back when at the 1999 Brit awards, pop sensations B*Witched, Steps, Cleopatra, Tina Cousins and Billie, all teamed up to salute the group – "Thank Abba For The Music". Then you have Gabba who performs the songs of ABBA in the style of The Ramones.

This extraordinary revival was egged on by the coincidence of the release of the pop group, Erasure EP "Abba – esque" in 1994, and by the two Australian films in 1993 and 1994 in which Abba songs soundtracked the sunny optimism through the tears of the heroine in "Muriel's Wedding", and of three plucky Aussie queens in the unconventional road movie "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert".

A teenaged foursome from Sweden, calling themselves ABBA Teens, but better known as the A*Teens, once basked in the success of timeless ABBA tunes revamped by them. The band comprising Marie, Sara, Dhani and Amit, cut an album with MCA records, after their debut single ‘Mamma Mia’ (the 1976 ABBA chartbuster) spent eight weeks at the No.1 spot in their homeland. Said Marie in an interview; "We have nothing in common with Abba. We are just singing their songs – the lyrics and the music, because they are classics. The music is so great, you can't help listening." When the A*Teens read in a Swedish newspaper about the original ABBA endorsing the rave reviews lavished upon them, saying that they enjoyed what the juniors were doing, the teenagers must have truly had hit the roof with joy.

Though there may be many groups mushrooming to make fame in the name of ABBA, there are very few with the real resemblance to the original. It was only an Australian group that have come really close to the real thing. Unknown to India, this reincarnation of ABBA, was discovered by Indian fans when at the Pepsi W2K Millenium Concert in 2000, the group performed most of the bands golden hits bringing back the lost glory that was ABBA. Known as “Bjorn Again" the foursome have managed to become the number one tribute act in the world and have initiated the worldwide ABBA revival of the 1990's, a feat acknowledged by ABBA themselves. The founders include Rod Leissle and John Tyrell. Packaged with keyboard and guitar, the duo with exact female lookalikes of Frida and Anni, with supplementary voice culture, gave a mind-blowing performance to all ABBA fans in Mumbai. The movements and dance steps were reminiscent of the days when ABBA danced the same steps. Their act was further complemented by removal of their long robes leaving only a mini – skirt outfit with a waist high slit at the sides. Though all the tracks were sung to minus one tapes the sharp vocals made one feel truly that ABBA had arrived.

We also have ABBA bands from London and Europe who have visited and played in India.

Catching up with various artists crooning ‘Thank you Abba for the music’ one readily senses that the musical legend called ABBA has far from faded into oblivion. Two decades after riding a phenomenal wave of success in the dynamic pop-single genre, ABBA continues to have popular appeal.

The Rock era

We begin with the more common ones like the daddies of metal…..Iron Maiden. Now even though the band is still exisiting and also touring, we have an all female band that pays tribute to Iron Maiden by calling themselves Iron Maidens. On their visit to India in February 2008, when questioned about this female band named after them, the whole band laughed it out while founder member Steve Harris said “They are better looking and add to the drama.” Interestingly the Iron Maidens also play the songs of Ozzy Osburne and go under the name as The Little Dolls. The band has recently recorded and released a CD/DVD set of Iron Maiden songs titled Route 666that comes close to the bands original version of Flight 666. The band is comprised of Linda “Nikki McBURRain” McDonaldon drums, Sara “MiniMurray” Marshand Courtney “Adriana Smith” Coxon guitars, Kirsten “Bruce Chickinson” Rosenbergon vocals, and Wanda "Steph Harris" Ortizon bass.

Others who also did not miss out on their few years of fame playing music by famous band were Dark Star Orchestra that played music by the Grateful Dead. Then you also had rockers KISS who were impersonated by Mini Kiss. Favorites around the world. Led Zeppelin had a big fan following and its no wonder that many bands tried to be like them, play like them and even change the sound that they origjnally composed. Rock music was turned to reggae music by a band called Dread Zeppelin. The fans loved it, the sound was new, immense with even Led Zeppelin going for the new take on their songs. But there was more. Led Zeppelin had a fan following that needs no mention really, but come to think of it, there existed an all female band that called themselves Lez Zeppelin. Lastly it was Michael White and The White who was the last to have a band playing the songs of Led Zeppelin.

Zepparella is another tribute band

Heavy metal masters AC DC went to dizzy heights in their career. Their music sold in millions and many tried to impersonate them and play their music. Just a few were successful. There was AC/DShe an all female band, Don Coleman and Hayseed Dixie (a band that covered AC/DC and other rock covers in a Bluegrass style). You might say nothing else matters than Metallica to bring out that pure adrenaline that exists in the band. And so it was. There was Beatallica (combining Metallica and Beatles songs) and Apocolyptica (initially only played Metallica on cello) that came close to the sound of Metallica. Freddie Mercury is no more, but One Night of Queen remembers songs made famous by Queen and they certainly do justice to the band who came up with hits such as ‘Radio GaGa’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘We are the champions’ and many more.

Bob Dylan the folk singer who has over 33 albums to his credit is a favorite with many msuic lvoers the world over. In India we have a documentary film on Shillong musician Lou Majaw’s devotion to Bob Dylan. 62 year old Majaw is a colorful and wacky character who offers his own take on Dylan. Infact Majaw has even named his young son after the legendary singer – songwriter. Every year on Dylan’s birthday, hundreds gather singing the songs of Dylan alongwith Majaw. Made by a Kolkatta based director Ranjan Palit’s ‘Forever Young’, is a 78 minute documentary film on the Dylan obsessive musician The 52 year old director’s story is set on a St. Mary’s student and Majaw fan. It is her perspective of how she sees Majaw and his band Ace of Spades. It may not fall in the tribute category, but nevertheless it only goes to show the immense fixation that Majaw has got for Dylan, that a short documentary has been made to showcase his music.

Rockers Pink Floyd cannot be far away. After the band disbanded sometime ago, many tried to copy their style, music and stage work. From the UK to America there was many fans who actually started their own Pink Floyd bands Some of the names from the UK include Breathe, Darkside – The Floyd Experience. Floydian Slip and Just Floyd. Pig Floyd and Pink Fraud, The Spirit of Pink Floyd, The UK Pink Floyd Tribute Show, Time to Breathe.

Some other tribute bands paying homage to top bands include

The Dayglo Pirates played music by Jethro Tull

An all male band called Mandonna played music of the 80s pop diva Madonna.

Ther Pet Shop Boys were well covered by a band called West End Girls which also happens to be one of the Pet Shop Boys biggest selling single.

The Ramones have been favorites of many music lovers and many have taken to impersonating them. A few are:

Gabba (performing songs of Abba in the style of The Ramones)

The Osaka Ramones (tribute act of Shonen Knife)

The Ramainz (formerly The Ramains, featured two Ramones members)

Music by the 70s band Shadows too have a band called Nivram.

The Smiths Indeed, played music by the Smiths.

Mickey Finn’s (formerly T. Rex (A Celebration of Marc and Mickey)) T – Rex played the music of T Rex.

Phil Collins Genesis had The Musical Box who covered all their songs.

Photos: Garry J. Foley Live in Mumbai. Courtesy: Facebook

- By Verus Ferreira