The difference is belle, doing a cover in your own voice and making that style your own and recording it and selling it is fine by me, but i just don,t see the point in buying an exact cover when you can get the original for the same price, they,re is nothing wrong with covers, and we all do them or we would,nt be having this discussion.
One of the best examples of a cover was fine young cannibals, suspicious minds, totally different from the king and it worked brilliantly!!!
If people want to buy them, then buy them.
Buying Elvis originals keeps graceland going!!!
Buying wannabe and never will be does,nt.......!!!
Hey Blonaybear, Here's a better link to find the Guardian story on tribute bands... music.guardian.co.uk/rock when you try to copy the full link it leaves part of it off and you can't get the page (it's probably the ,, in the link you posted). Cheers, Dave
Yes, it's quite weird Tubbs. Sort of who'd a thunk it? Here's a paragraph discussing the Aussie Pink Floyd Show from the article; "Afterwards, they mob the merchandise stall, which sells T-shirts and a double CD of the band performing the albums Wish You Were Here and Animals in their entirety. As I watch money change hands for the latter, I feel genuinely baffled. These people are Pink Floyd fans, which presumably means they already have copies of the original Wish You Were Here and Animals at home. And if that's the case, why on earth would you ever choose to listen to a perfect note-for-note facsimile of those albums by a bunch of anonymous Australian musicians, rather than the albums themselves? It makes no sense. Then I remember I'm in the alternative universe of tribute bands. Normal rules do not apply." It's certainly a good article, found by Blonaybear btw, I just re-posted a workable link to it. All I can say is, Good Luck to 'em, whatever floats your boat!
I don't know if I'd buy merchandise but if you can't see the real thing in concert then a good tribute band is an option don't you think.
We also buy live albums to hear original artists do live versions of the studio recordings we know so well. Is this O.K. because it's the original artist doing a cover of their own song?
I'm also not convinced that singing your own voice is a great idea when playing covers. If recording your own version (tubbs eg: Fine Young Cannibals, Suspicious Minds) then yes - make it your own but singing covers for a living in clubs & pubs then I think replicating the original artist, best as you can, is important.
Hmmm not sure if i understand your point : i think if your going to watch a tribute show as in a concert scenario thats fine,but if your going out to a dance then you would want ( i presume) a more varied mix of material
As for singing in your own voice (this is were i got lost sorry) in 41 years i`ve never thought of any other voice to use,i know that we tend to perhaps americanise our accents a little but it`s still our own voice,i`m not trying to create any ill feelings but in our show we cover from the late 50`s thru to present day material thats a lot of voice changing in 1 night so best i think to use the talent that the Big Musician in the sky gave you Maybe i`m wrong but thats how i see it
Sorry to confuse you Weegeo. Yes we do only have one God given voice however I presume that when you are doing your variety of covers that you don't sing an Elvis song with a broad Irish accent or a David Essex song with an American accent. This was the point I was trying to make. Certain singers have certain traits and styles etc. When covering these artists I (personally) try to emulate these characteristics so as to sound somewhat like the original version.
As for seeing a tribute band....my point was based on the fact that you can't go and see ABBA live anymore but you can see an ABBA tribute. I also saw Pink Floyd live here in Melbourne nearly 20 years ago but they won't be back so my best alternative is to see a good Pink Floyd tribute band.
Confusion cleared thanx,your right when doing a presley song i don`t do it in my Irish accent but i don`t do anywhere near an Elvis voice i use my own and add my own feelings to the song but i know where your coming from,we had a lead vocalist that i played with for over 23 years and if he was doing an Elvis song he would use his Elvis voice likewise if it was say hmmm a Jonny Cash song and the crowd like it no doubt but when he did a big ballad and used his own voice he would pull the place down he was an amazing ballad singer
As for the tribute bands over here in N.Ireland we have an absolute mountain of bands that all want to cash in on the real thing now i`m not running them down infact some of them are very good the 1 that springs to mind is a band called `Flash Harry` they happen to be a Queen tribute band and are totally brilliant i would say the closest i`ve seen to Queen both vocally and musically This just goes to prove that there is a place in this crazy business for everybody
Yes we do only have one God given voice however I presume that when you are doing your variety of covers that you don't sing an Elvis song with a broad Irish accent or a David Essex song with an American accent. This was the point I was trying to make. Certain singers have certain traits and styles etc. When covering these artists I (personally) try to emulate these characteristics so as to sound somewhat like the original version.