I had a related conversation with a friend recently...

I think that when it is a tribute to a band that are no longer together and unlikely to ever be so due to death or deep anger (Beatles, Smiths etc) then they are perhaps a fun thing. Example would be the Bootleg Beatles, now been playing together for, oh, YEARS! And they are brilliant, really good players, full of humour and you get hits from all albums, which is great.

The alternative however are things like Nowaysis or tribute acts for bands that are still extant and still touring. Is there any point seeing a Blandplay, Robbie or Blink 182 tribute when you could conceivably see the real thing?

Personally I don't really see the point except in that you can see the songs played live in a small venue, but otherwise, if the band are still going then why bother seeing a pale imitation?

Wrong. Next.

I recently drove past a pub in St Albans whose outside was plastered with posters advertising coming attractions: Tuesday was U2, Wednesday was Coldplay, Thursday was the Rolling Stones etc. It didn't actually say "Tribute" but I assume that the patrons took it for granted.
What was being advertised was not the act but the repertoire. This is much the same basis upon which people buy tickets for a classical concert. The programme is published beforehand. They don't say "on Thursday the Berlin Phil will knock out a few tunes from their new album, a bunch of hits and a few new numbers that they're still knocking into shape". They wouldn't sell many tickets that way.
What bands have to get into their heads is that their mere name on a poster means "over an hour of tunes you don't know played by people you've never heard of". There's no other entertainment experience you'd pay for on that basis.
All tribute bands are doing is dragging the pendulum a few inches back from the madness that ensued during the 70s when bands began to think that their job was not to entertain their audience so much as express themselves, regardless of whether they had anything worth expressing or not.

We were out in Newcastle last Saturday night and came across a Butthole Surfers tribute act, the place was rammed.
A real cross section in the audience and an unholy racket coming from the stage. It was brilliant. For me, what made it great was the absurdity of BHS tribute act. I wouldn't pay to see Quoasis or Coldplate.
On a different tack, I paid good money to see The Beat a couple of years back, only it was Ranking Roger, his son and some blokes playing the songs of The Beat. I felt cheated. It wasn't them. Did I complain? Yes. Did I get my money back? Did I shite.

I'd contend that a tribute band is fine, as far as it goes. There just seem to be certain bands - and people who follow them - who take this particular brand of entertainment for more than it is: a bit of a laugh.
I've had good evenings watching The Rollin' Stoned (kicked off with Rocks Off - what more could you want?) the Bootleg Beatles, Bjorn Again and the splendid XcstaTiC. What they all had in common was a sense of fun and not acting like primadonnas, but dolled-up civilians knocking off the hits of defunct bands. Which is what they were.
However, I've also seen far too many idiots in pubs strain the life out of classic material by being too earnest. And who on earth wants to see a Gary Numan tribute act? (Who IS out there folks, and that makes me slightly depressed.) I've met fine musicians who make a living as bass players in Nirvana tribute bands who are clearly wasting the most creative years of their lives.
Another flip side is the dearth of pub venues hosting original acts. As a player in an original band, it's getting harder to find decent venues, and who can blame the promoters when the economics make sense - there are more people prepared to go out and see something they know, however shabbily interpreted, than the likes of my lot. The market may be oversaturated, but tribute bands are still the common currency, and we're the novelty. It's hardly progress.
Not that I'm bitter. OK, maybe a bit. One day a REAL rain etc etc..

...a hotbed of tribute bands. Really old style boys, clearly in it for the love and not the money.

One of the best "gigs" I ever been to was to see, completely on the off chance, a fantastic tribute act called AB/CD (guess!). "Angus" was actually older than Angus, but still duckwalked his way through Dirty Deeds rather brilliantly.

In another surreal moment at the same venue, a tribute band Who's Next (playing Quadrophenia in it's entirety...) were actually supported by the REAL Johnny Kidd and the Pirates...they played Shakin' All Over three times!

Don't like cover bands, but the names are sometimes worth a chortle... By Jovi being my personal favourite.

was once asked who his favourite XTC tribute band was and he replied 'Kaiser Chiefs'.

should surely form a Hoople trib band and call it Not the Hoople? ( I'd do it myself but, oh, those tricky chords in 'Marionette' get me every time...)

it was inevitable I suppose. Thanks Andy. Mind you, Ian Hunter is still very much alive and kicking ( saw him recently at the Shepherd's Bush Empire ) and he still does the odd Hoople classic every now and then- very often with Mick Ralphs and Verden Allen joining in!

In the end, most bands become tribute acts to themselves.

one of those increasingly rare Word website 'Grasshopper' moments.

As a bit of live entertainment after a dinner they are usually a better option than a crappy DJ playing all the usual drivel - Hi Ho silver lining anyone? Have seen an Abba tribute and a Blues Brothers tribute and they were both okay. Paying to see a tribute band is not really something that I have been moved to do however. Problem these days is that the pubs that give these tribute bands a stage on which to play dont really want to risk blooding unknown talent with their own unheard songs. I had an acquaintance a few years back who was a very good guitarist and who wrote some half decent songs. His band were instructed only to play recognisable covers. He gave it up and opened his own recording studio which was far more lucrative.

The Jam's Rick Buckler formed a Jam tribute band called The Gift with a reportedly pretty decent Paul Weller impersonator. Last year Bruce Foxton joined them and they toured under then name Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler From The Jam.
So what we have here is two thirds of the original group playing in their own tribute band. A bit sad really, but I suppose there's a crust to be earned.

No, not the Peter Cook expression, the pub in St. Albans DH mentioned - I've seen a few bands there (tribute or otherwise) and indeed have played there - I remember a Free/Bad Co tribute who were really excellent, and a Deep Purple one who were, err, not. I also saw Nearly Dan at the Stables and they were excellent too - net net probably more enjoyable than the real thing which involved shlepping to Wembley, crap sound, expensive etc (see other blogs). I think the point is most bands start out doing other people's material, and generally stay there or sometimes blossom into being a professional band, major sales, big tours etc. All the tribute bands are doing is finding a new route to playing music by specialising - so a rock 'n' roll cpvers band becomes a Buck Cherry tribute band or whatever - and if there is a market for it why not. It doesn't STOP them from writing their own material, and in my experience the venues that book tribute bands often book other acts too - in fact, every Sunday at the Horn is an acoustic cafe dedicated to local songwriters. So I really don't see that it does any harm as long as the quality and conviction is there, and as someone said above, better than some dire DJ.

Another favourite: the all female Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute act:

Red Hot Billie Pipers.

Brilliant.

and I DONT feel fine

they've got their own TV show now!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7170000/newsid_7171300/7171380.s...

please make it stop!

I must admit, when I first heard the term Tribute Band in the mid eighties my reaction was ‘how pathetic is that?'. However, over the years my attitude has changed completely. My first experience was taking my sister to see the Australian Doors as a birthday present sometime in the early nineties. She was 13 or 14 and had just discovered the Sixties. I personally had never been a great fan of the Doors - a couple to good tracks and the singer was a tosser just about summed it up. The concert was a revelation. The singer really got into the Lizard King/Shaman trip and the volume and (I admit) the beer, all combined to make for a great gig. I felt that I'd had a glimpse of what all the fuss was about when reading the glowing tributes of the original Doors live shows. I still think Mr. Morrison was a tosser though.

Since then I've seen a few more tribute bands and I've never failed to be entertained. The Bootleg Beatles at Cropready were good but Bjorn Again were just fantastic. I was an Abba fan in the Seventies (I remember buying Arrival the week it came out) but like many of their fans I'd never seen them live. To hear these songs belted out over a decent PA with enthusiasm and no little panache was an eye opener. It was so good that when I tried listening to the originals the next day they sounded decidedly weedy and it was some time before I could listen to them with the same amount of enjoyment as before.

My advice to anyone running into a tribute band is: Check your cynicism in at the door, grab a beer/lemonade and have some fun.

I think they should exist simply for their names. I think my favourite of all time is Are We Them? I went past Dudley JB's this morning which seems to have a never ending stream of tribute bands playing there. Currently they are advertising Maet Loaf and Jilted Generation. I'm quite intrigued by a Prodigy tribute band actually. Would they have a Maxim?