When is a band a tribute band?

EricTheWeary

Philly_Q said:

scrumhalf said:

freakboy1610 said:

The Hollies are still touring with only the original guitarist and drummer. 

Tony Hicks wasn't the original guitarist, that was Vic Steele. 

Yeah, he's only put in sixty years, the bloody Johnny-come-lately.

To be fair I think I'd generally count whoever played on the first album (or first recordings) as "original" members.  Quite a lot of bands first got together in a distinctly amateur fashion, as a bunch of schoolmates or whatever, maybe even under a different name, then in a Ship of Theseus/Trigger's Broom kind of way they were a completely different band by the time they actually got signed.

IIRC Twisted Sister are an example of this, presumably there are five pensioners somewhere in New York who could legitimately hit the stage as the original Twisted Sister and none of them ever appeared on record or wore a tasseled outfit. 

Philly_Q

@EricTheWeary ;Same with Judas Priest, closer to your part of the world!

sev112

We saw Shawaddywaddy a few weeks back, it was their 50th Anniversary tour. but they still had the original drummer, Romeo who played all night.

extremely good they were too

EricTheWeary

Philly_Q said:

@EricTheWeary Same with Judas Priest, closer to your part of the world!

Ahh, didn’t know that. 

Judas Priest was formed in 1969 in Birmingham,England, by lead vocalist Al Atkins and bassist Brian "Bruno" Stapenhill, with John Perry on guitars and John "Fezza" Partridge on drums.

Al has a song writing credit on the Priest classic Victim of Changes and recorded it on one of his solo albums. 
[ yep, I’ve never heard of him before either] 

https://youtu.be/bfhy9fpx37g

EricTheWeary

sev112 said:

We saw Shawaddywaddy a few weeks back, it was their 50th Anniversary tour. but they still had the original drummer, Romeo who played all night.

extremely good they were too

Showaddywaddy are (or certainly were anyway) managed by Dave Bartram who was also an original member (he was the chap most of us would remember as the face of the band). 

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

Philly_Q said:

@EricTheWeary Same with Judas Priest, closer to your part of the world!

Ahh, didn’t know that. 

Judas Priest was formed in 1969 in Birmingham,England, by lead vocalist Al Atkins and bassist Brian "Bruno" Stapenhill, with John Perry on guitars and John "Fezza" Partridge on drums.

Al has a song writing credit on the Priest classic Victim of Changes and recorded it on one of his solo albums. 
[ yep, I’ve never heard of him before either] 

He's still singing, as far as I know.  Here's an early lineup with Ian Hill, KK Downing, Chris "Congo" Campbell (I think) and Al Atkins.


I don't know who the old geezer is in this shot.  Did William S. Burroughs ever visit Birmingham?

PolarityMan

What about sepultura? 

Philly_Q

PolarityMan said:

What about sepultura? 

I guess they'd fall into that class of no "original original" members, but Paulo Jr has been on all the albums hasn't he?

EricTheWeary

Philly_Q said:

@EricTheWeary ;Same with Judas Priest, closer to your part of the world!

Just reading part of their Wikipedia entry and discovered that my father was their drummer in 1970. That’s very much my part of…okay, probably completely different person with the same name but it was a slightly weird thing to read. 

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

Philly_Q said:

@EricTheWeary Same with Judas Priest, closer to your part of the world!

Just reading part of their Wikipedia entry and discovered that my father was their drummer in 1970. That’s very much my part of…okay, probably completely different person with the same name but it was a slightly weird thing to read. 

John Ellis or Fred Woolley?  I'm guessing the former.  If the latter it really was your dad.

EricTheWeary

Philly_Q said:

EricTheWeary said:

Philly_Q said:

@EricTheWeary Same with Judas Priest, closer to your part of the world!

Just reading part of their Wikipedia entry and discovered that my father was their drummer in 1970. That’s very much my part of…okay, probably completely different person with the same name but it was a slightly weird thing to read. 

John Ellis or Fred Woolley?  I'm guessing the former.  If the latter it really was your dad.

John Ellis. Not exactly the most unusual name but I like to think that for a brief time he combined being a college lecturer, father to four kids and a bit of proto metal drumming. 

Yes, can’t be many Fred Woolleys around. 

theatreanchor

Pantera are not Pantera without the brothers. There. I said it. 

Hattigol

mrkb said:

hollywoodrox said:

Philly_Q said:

hollywoodrox said:

About a year ago I was going to pop down and see  The Marmalade T a local venue but on looking up some info there were no original members 

Not touring under their original name, either.

Marmalade (band) - Wikipedia

The Gaylords named after a notorious Chicago street gang !   

There was a lad called Gaylord at our primary school in the 70s, as 7 years olds we didn’t make the connection to a notorious street gang…….

Most of the kids in my school in the 70s could be called Gaylord, depending on the whims of others. This was the 70s though...

Philly_Q

theatreanchor said:

Pantera are not Pantera without the brothers. There. I said it. 

Does anyone think the current touring lineup is Pantera?  It's just a tribute... which brings us back to the thread title.

theatreanchor

Philly_Q said:

theatreanchor said:

Pantera are not Pantera without the brothers. There. I said it. 

Does anyone think the current touring lineup is Pantera?  It's just a tribute... which brings us back to the thread title.

Oh yes - I’ve seen the arguments online. There are certainly people content with the current composition. 

Philly_Q

theatreanchor said:

Philly_Q said:

theatreanchor said:

Pantera are not Pantera without the brothers. There. I said it. 

Does anyone think the current touring lineup is Pantera?  It's just a tribute... which brings us back to the thread title.

Oh yes - I’ve seen the arguments online. There are certainly people content with the current composition. 

You surprise me!  I've not seen the arguments, but I have watched a few of the smartphone live clips - they're alright, but not for a moment do I consider them Pantera.  Maybe if they were to keep it going, and do some new material... it could happen, every veteran metal musician seems to be in four or five bands at the same time nowadays.

bloodandtears

I think if there's is an obvious lineage from from the original line up to the current one then they are still the band.

Then there is a question of legal ownership of the band name too..

Offset

Hattigol said:

mrkb said:

hollywoodrox said:

Philly_Q said:

hollywoodrox said:

About a year ago I was going to pop down and see  The Marmalade T a local venue but on looking up some info there were no original members 

Not touring under their original name, either.

Marmalade (band) - Wikipedia

The Gaylords named after a notorious Chicago street gang !   

There was a lad called Gaylord at our primary school in the 70s, as 7 years olds we didn’t make the connection to a notorious street gang…….

Most of the kids in my school in the 70s could be called Gaylord, depending on the whims of others. This was the 70s though...

JerkMoans

Philly_Q said:

Are there any actual Foreigner tribute bands?  I guess there must be.

Bloody Foreigner.

Coming over here, demanding to know what "love" is.

Pjon

I saw Big Country a few years ago, with two members of the original band (Bruce Watson and Tony Butler, I think but may be wrong...) plus Watson's son, and Mike Peters, ex-Alarm, on vocals. This was fairly close to being a BC tribute band, although we had a great night. Of course, with Mike Peters there, if they'd played 68 Guns they could have been The Alarm. Or an Alarm tribute band. I'm confused...