Translated material
Friends among strangers
Why are tribute bands needed?
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, said one English writer back in the mid-19th century. As if it were said about today's pop music.In the West, imitation is a separate creative profession. A band performing the songs of some famous band earns, of course, less than their idols, but more than the average club band. Last year, the British magazine Q counted a good dozen strong and professional double bands, which are gaining momentum every year and earning more and more money. Moreover, regardless of whose material such a group performs: from rock dinosaurs Pink Floyd and Rush to classics of the 80s, U2 and new youth favorites Arctic Monkeys. Many of them become famous in their own right and play throughout their lives. Sometimes they act as an opening act for those they copy. Sometimes musicians from tribute bands become members of "tribute" bands. And at one time, a simply fabulous story happened: the legendary metal band Judas Priest, after the departure of vocalist Rob Helford, invited a certain young man named Tim Reaper Owens to sing. Before that, he sang in Winter's Bane, which performed songs by Judas Priest themselves. Such a fairy tale, they even made a film based on it. But that's not what I'm talking about.
There are almost no tribute groups in Russia, although all the prerequisites for their emergence have long existed.
In the 1990s, the stars aligned. Inexpensive rehearsal facilities have appeared. What a market for musical instruments and equipment. Not like in England and the USA, of course, but not like in the Soviet Union either. Where there were not only no decent electric guitars (the joke about the “soviet electric guitar” is still alive), but even simpler musical paraphernalia. (So, jazzman Igor Butman recalls that in Soviet times he asked foreigners to send him saxophone reeds. Were saxophones really banned in the late 1970s?..) And you can play everything, there is where (all these “Poor People”, “Vermeli” ", "Crises of the Genre", "Four Rooms" and "Hungry Ducks"), there is something for everyone. A loyal, diverse audience: poor students, wealthy expats and golden youth.
It seems that then the process began. In the 1990s, we went to see the St. Petersburg band Wine, who performed songs by The Smiths. I later looked for some of the songs I heard from Wine on the records of The Smiths and Morrisey, but in vain: these songs were originals by the St. Petersburg group. There were several other bands that played a little bit of everything British: Radiohead, Oasis - in general, complete Anglomania. A certain Bulgarian girl named Yuliana sang “to zero” by Alanis Morissette. This whole culture of re-singers clustered around student clubs, expat establishments and other things. Which is normal, all rock and roll came out of cafes and pubs. For the time being, there was nowhere to go to in the USSR. In Soviet times, we had nowhere to play rock music (except in basements and apartment buildings). At one time, amateur groups played at dances, but then they started playing records at dances, and the dances turned into discos. The guru of metalheads, critic Vsevolod Baronin, sees this as simply a knife in the back of rock and roll: “Rock music did not develop normally in our country, because the Komsomol members at one time forbade “live” groups to play at dances. It was only necessary to play music from records, because this way the repertoire is easier to control.”
In general, at some point we had a boom in club groups. Imitators also emerged, the “originals” of which were rock classics, grunge, and Britpop. But it never took shape into any clear movement, especially business. Nowadays they imitate Western rock heroes, but in a strange way, all at once. For example, the group Greentown plays songs by Deep Purple, Rainbow and Uriah Heep, according to an insider, at “all sorts of expensive corporate events.” The same group accompanied the real members of Rainbow: Joe Lynn Turner and Graham Bonnet when they performed in Moscow. The group "Dirigible" plays, it's easy to guess, Led Zeppelin and, oddly enough, Deep Purple. The Bohemians perform Queen's masterpieces, and part of the lineup and the vocalist participated in the musical We Will Rock You. Several bands cover The Beatles; It would be strange if there were no such people at all. Among them are Beetween and Dans Ramblers. By the way, in Soviet times there was a group called “Blitz”, which played exclusively Beatles’ material. Now this is a legend of deep antiquity, but they say that the Blitts were excellent musicians and even composed their own brilliant material, which, out of modesty, was never recorded.
Groups for youth audiences do not copy anyone in particular, but a whole movement, and some marginal one at that. Thus, the Perm White Trainers Community copy the “mods”, in the spirit of The Who The Jam. The Boo is a “garage”, and in such a quality that the gang, if you listen inattentively, will pass for a real American group of that era: either the Seeds or the MC5.
Despite all the Russians’ seemingly adoration of Russian rock, we don’t imitate ours at all. With the exception of a certain group “Victor”, which played either Tsoi or Tsoi. In the late 1980s, the Ado group was considered a kind of modern analogue of the Aquarium group, although they performed only original material and were similar to the group of the legendary BG insofar as.
Someone snidely said that all Russian rock is one big tribute. You can be ironic as much as you like, but just as in nature there is nothing superfluous, “you can’t do without absurd monsters” (I’m not talking about Kiss and Lordi), so there is nothing superfluous in culture. Tribute groups are an indicator of the development of show business in general and rock schools in particular.
All this is important here's why. It’s good to play someone else’s music and then create something original of your own - this, in general, is the path of any rock musician. Therefore, we won’t ask why tribute bands are needed if real ones travel. Firstly, not everyone drives real ones. Any “emo” or alternative that is widely used among young people... will not come soon. Secondly, a concert of a real band is a concert of a real band, to which you still need to buy an expensive ticket and go, and for everything to go well. Thirdly, tribute bands themselves may not be particularly necessary (you still can’t play better than the original), but the culture of performing someone else’s music is developing its own. The environment, the public, parties, ratings, criticism, fans, anti-fans, all this fuss that accompanies rock and roll creativity - this is fundamental for rock music.