Best paying tribute gigs

thecolourbox

roberty said:

west said:

sorry no money in steely dan tributes ... ask me how i know  

Lukather cut his teeth on Steely Dan covers. I'd like to study it

I'm not surprised, they tripped me up as well

west

roberty said:

west said:

sorry no money in steely dan tributes ... ask me how i know  

Lukather cut his teeth on Steely Dan covers. I'd like to study it

thats the rewarding part , its all down hill after that .....

fastonebaz

I was in a Pink tribute for a couple of years. Not professional by any stretch just pubs mainly. Pay was slightly better than classic rock band gig but not by much. It was easier to get bookings though as its so easily defined.  

Bod

roberty said:

DrCornelius said:

roberty said:

DrCornelius said:

Danny1969 said:
If you can do 600 tickets at £18 a pop then you are on decent money even after paying for the venue, tech, PRS and agent fees. 

Surely that would only apply if you were in a John Mayer or a Carlos Santana tribute band ?

I was in a Smiths tribute when I was very young and we make a packet. We learnt 53 of their songs in all. It taught me an awful lot about songwriting and chord relationships

Some lovely guitar parts to play in there I’m sure.

I rehearsed once with a local Oasis tribute band who needed a Bonehead . I couldn’t go through with it after the rehearsal as it would have driven me mad just playing those parts. It’s lovely playing with a band and all but that just wasn’t exciting - now a blur tribute band , that would be a stretch and lots of fun 

Coxon's guitar parts are more bonkers than I remember when I listen back now, but also very expressive and appropriate

His autobiography is a good listen (and probably read as well)

Does he narrate the audiobook?  I mean, I adore Graham, but that's quite a challenge if so.

roberty

Bod said:

roberty said:

DrCornelius said:

roberty said:

DrCornelius said:

Danny1969 said:
If you can do 600 tickets at £18 a pop then you are on decent money even after paying for the venue, tech, PRS and agent fees. 

Surely that would only apply if you were in a John Mayer or a Carlos Santana tribute band ?

I was in a Smiths tribute when I was very young and we make a packet. We learnt 53 of their songs in all. It taught me an awful lot about songwriting and chord relationships

Some lovely guitar parts to play in there I’m sure.

I rehearsed once with a local Oasis tribute band who needed a Bonehead . I couldn’t go through with it after the rehearsal as it would have driven me mad just playing those parts. It’s lovely playing with a band and all but that just wasn’t exciting - now a blur tribute band , that would be a stretch and lots of fun 

Coxon's guitar parts are more bonkers than I remember when I listen back now, but also very expressive and appropriate

His autobiography is a good listen (and probably read as well)

Does he narrate the audiobook?  I mean, I adore Graham, but that's quite a challenge if so.

Lol yeah, he is quite dispassionate. It is relaxing though

Kebabkid

west said:

sorry no money in steely dan tributes ... ask me how i know  

Not from what I see and know (I have some mates in some) - there are 3 that I know of that are doing ok, especially two of them. Yep, they are large bands and there's many to pay but if you get into the decent venues e..g. central London Pizza Express gigs, Jazz Cafe and theatres, they do well

A friend's Kiss tribute band was going for over 25 years and played in both the UK and Europe and even got to play a 10,000 seater in Japan with The Bootleg Beatles and a Queen tribute.

lustycourtier

Theres a reason theres so many of certain bands but sometimes its just fun to start one and see where it goes. We had a Tom Petty on a few years ago and couldnt buy a gig. Now theres quite a few doing well. We set up a Shed 7 one last year which seems to be going well, more festivals though than clubs for decent money (north of a grand) 

thecolourbox

I've thought for a while whether tributes for bands like Libertines, Strokes et al from 20 years ago would do well but I'm not sure there's enough people of that age who would actually attend the kinds of venues where they'd need to play. A vested interest as my voice range is quite similar to Pete Doherty's was haha but still. Doesn't look to me like the tribute band world has really progressed past the 90s yet

lustycourtier

thecolourbox said:

I've thought for a while whether tributes for bands like Libertines, Strokes et al from 20 years ago would do well but I'm not sure there's enough people of that age who would actually attend the kinds of venues where they'd need to play. A vested interest as my voice range is quite similar to Pete Doherty's was haha but still. Doesn't look to me like the tribute band world has really progressed past the 90s yet

Theres a demand on the summer tribute festivals.  A good libertines one would walk straight onto most.  We are currently putting together a strokes one. Same line up as Shed 7 one.

 What youll notice is most tributes are usually tributes to a number of bands. (Oasish, are also the phonics etc) so when gigging you can have  multi band line ups but just one band and costume changes 

west

Kebabkid said:

west said:

sorry no money in steely dan tributes ... ask me how i know  

Not from what I see and know (I have some mates in some) - there are 3 that I know of that are doing ok, especially two of them. Yep, they are large bands and there's many to pay but if you get into the decent venues e..g. central London Pizza Express gigs, Jazz Cafe and theatres, they do well

What are their names , where do they live , how much do they get ££ ?? How often do they gig .... ? show me the money !  lol

it was 15 years ago for me when i did it  "the danny steel orchestra "  friendly rivals where nearly dan ( gary / rob rolf etc ) still going  ... i could regale you with tales of £20 / £25 a gig we did a couple arts centres maybe £35 squid for a 11 piece band ....  and folks asking why you didnt play "all around my hat " 

Kebabkid

west said:

Kebabkid said:

west said:

sorry no money in steely dan tributes ... ask me how i know  

Not from what I see and know (I have some mates in some) - there are 3 that I know of that are doing ok, especially two of them. Yep, they are large bands and there's many to pay but if you get into the decent venues e..g. central London Pizza Express gigs, Jazz Cafe and theatres, they do well

What are their names , where do they live , how much do they get ££ ?? How often do they gig .... ? show me the money !  lol

it was 15 years ago for me when i did it  "the danny steel orchestra "  friendly rivals where nearly dan ( gary / rob rolf etc ) still going  ... i could regale you with tales of £20 / £25 a gig we did a couple arts centres maybe £35 squid for a 11 piece band ....  and folks asking why you didnt play "all around my hat " 

Stanley Dee, Simply Dan and Nearly Dan   Mainly London and around the M25 but some are further afield. Simpy Dan are particularly busy but most gig a couple of times a month.

maltingsaudio

These guys make a Bob or two
https://www.entertainers.co.uk/show/fastlove

Stuckfast

What I don't understand is tributes to bands who only ever had one or two hits. I saw a poster advertising a Journey tribute a while ago. How many people could name more than a couple of Journey songs? What do they play for the other 80 minutes of the set?

Danny1969

Stuckfast said:

What I don't understand is tributes to bands who only ever had one or two hits. I saw a poster advertising a Journey tribute a while ago. How many people could name more than a couple of Journey songs? What do they play for the other 80 minutes of the set?

Generally if you are into an artist enough to go and watch a tribute band of that artist you probably know all the songs on all the albums. Generally a good tribute show kind of follows a career path of the artist, although there is still license to keep some biggest numbers to the end. We open with material of the first album, then the 2nd and build more modern as gig progresses which is a common trick. This is supplemented with images and film on a projector and costume changes ... which is again, very common practice on the pro tribute circuit. 

I could name a lot of Journey songs, in fact I've gigged about 8 or so Journey songs in bands over the years so very popular band for rock fans of my generation and older. Plus Journey has had huge boosts with Don't stop believing being used in the last episode of the Sopranos and other big shows. 

Stranger things using Running up the hill literally increased our ticket sales dramatically ..... we had young people coming who had discovered Kate Bush form that one song ....   

hollywoodrox

Jalapeno said:

DrCornelius said:

Danny1969 said:
If you can do 600 tickets at £18 a pop then you are on decent money even after paying for the venue, tech, PRS and agent fees. 

Surely that would only apply if you were in a John Mayer or a Carlos Santana tribute band ?

The Illegal Eagles sell out all over the place, and they're excellent

I saw them late 90s absolutely brilliant 

maltingsaudio

Danny1969 said:

Stuckfast said:

What I don't understand is tributes to bands who only ever had one or two hits. I saw a poster advertising a Journey tribute a while ago. How many people could name more than a couple of Journey songs? What do they play for the other 80 minutes of the set?

Generally if you are into an artist enough to go and watch a tribute band of that artist you probably know all the songs on all the albums. Generally a good tribute show kind of follows a career path of the artist, although there is still license to keep some biggest numbers to the end. We open with material of the first album, then the 2nd and build more modern as gig progresses which is a common trick. This is supplemented with images and film on a projector and costume changes ... which is again, very common practice on the pro tribute circuit. 

I could name a lot of Journey songs, in fact I've gigged about 8 or so Journey songs in bands over the years so very popular band for rock fans of my generation and older. Plus Journey has had huge boosts with Don't stop believing being used in the last episode of the Sopranos and other big shows. 

Stranger things using Running up the hill literally increased our ticket sales dramatically ..... we had young people coming who had discovered Kate Bush form that one song ....   

This is how I found out I wasn’t as big a Led Zep fan as I thought I was. Went to see let Zep theatre show, I was bored rigid for the first hour until they let rip with the hits!

John_P

Stuckfast said:

What I don't understand is tributes to bands who only ever had one or two hits. I saw a poster advertising a Journey tribute a while ago. How many people could name more than a couple of Journey songs? What do they play for the other 80 minutes of the set?

There’s a band play in the village soon that do a set of journey and a set of foreigner. They’ve been going a while and use the tribute gig income to fund their originals band. 

I always thought it was a clever idea to do both bands that have a similar sound.   

I play in acdc tribute - not aiming for the big paying gigs but locally the regular cover band scene is really struggling with fewer and fewer venues and audiences so it’s been a good way to play to packed rooms and opened the door to a few small/ medium festivals.   

Talking to some promoter friends, they say niche tributes can be the better sellers - eg a linkin park tribute were one of the best sellers at a local venue last year.  

khaotic

maltingsaudio said:

Danny1969 said:

Stuckfast said:

What I don't understand is tributes to bands who only ever had one or two hits. I saw a poster advertising a Journey tribute a while ago. How many people could name more than a couple of Journey songs? What do they play for the other 80 minutes of the set?

Generally if you are into an artist enough to go and watch a tribute band of that artist you probably know all the songs on all the albums. Generally a good tribute show kind of follows a career path of the artist, although there is still license to keep some biggest numbers to the end. We open with material of the first album, then the 2nd and build more modern as gig progresses which is a common trick. This is supplemented with images and film on a projector and costume changes ... which is again, very common practice on the pro tribute circuit. 

I could name a lot of Journey songs, in fact I've gigged about 8 or so Journey songs in bands over the years so very popular band for rock fans of my generation and older. Plus Journey has had huge boosts with Don't stop believing being used in the last episode of the Sopranos and other big shows. 

Stranger things using Running up the hill literally increased our ticket sales dramatically ..... we had young people coming who had discovered Kate Bush form that one song ....   

This is how I found out I wasn’t as big a Led Zep fan as I thought I was. Went to see let Zep theatre show, I was bored rigid for the first hour until they let rip with the hits!

The problem with any kind of deep-cut tribute act is that the hardcore fans will know all the material but the more casual fans who are somewhat familiar with the band won't, and there's generally a reason why the lesser known tracks aren't big hits with the public.  If the band are going for as large an audience as possible (ie not just fanatics about Band X), that's going to leave the set with a lot of bits where the audience are looking at each other and saying "wtf is this?" - eg me, at a Simon & Garfunkel Experience gig (the missus is a fan, I'm not)

p90fool

maltingsaudio said:

Danny1969 said:

Stuckfast said:

What I don't understand is tributes to bands who only ever had one or two hits. I saw a poster advertising a Journey tribute a while ago. How many people could name more than a couple of Journey songs? What do they play for the other 80 minutes of the set?

Generally if you are into an artist enough to go and watch a tribute band of that artist you probably know all the songs on all the albums. Generally a good tribute show kind of follows a career path of the artist, although there is still license to keep some biggest numbers to the end. We open with material of the first album, then the 2nd and build more modern as gig progresses which is a common trick. This is supplemented with images and film on a projector and costume changes ... which is again, very common practice on the pro tribute circuit. 

I could name a lot of Journey songs, in fact I've gigged about 8 or so Journey songs in bands over the years so very popular band for rock fans of my generation and older. Plus Journey has had huge boosts with Don't stop believing being used in the last episode of the Sopranos and other big shows. 

Stranger things using Running up the hill literally increased our ticket sales dramatically ..... we had young people coming who had discovered Kate Bush form that one song ....   

This is how I found out I wasn’t as big a Led Zep fan as I thought I was. Went to see let Zep theatre show, I was bored rigid for the first hour until they let rip with the hits!

This is how I found out what a huge Sabbath fan I'd been in the 70s, when I went to see Ian the Goat Sings Black Fucking Sabbath and I knew all the words. 

They remain to this day the only tribute band I've ever seen and would ever bother with. 

flying_pie

I know a guy who organises Bowie tribute tours.

He got Earl Slick to play guitar for a Station to Station tour with Iggy Pop's rhythm section and Bernard Fowler on vocals.  Needless to say it was an amazing show and the venue I went to was packed as I believe the others were.

And then he followed up by touring Alladin Sane with Mike Garson on piano....

So yeah. Find a dead artist with a strong fan base and get people who played on the albums and are still great musicians and you should do okay