Paying tribute to the Eagles, Taylor Swift, Radiohead - and ELO

Tribute acts are supplying the answer. Groups as diverse as The Smiths, The Eagles, Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys, Pink Floyd, Pearl Jam, Coldplay, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles are having their songs replicated nightly on stages across the country. One act, Elvana, has Elvis Presley fronting Nirvana. The Led Zeppelin tribute band, Whole Lotta Led, which came together in 1996 and has the blessing of Jimmy Page, has over 1,500 shows to its name and claims to have performed ‘Stairway To Heaven’ more often than any other band – including the original Zeppelin.

And, as you might expect, there are more than a few Taylor Swift tribute acts around.

There are even festivals devoted to tribute acts, among them Festwich, which takes place over the weekend of August 31-September 1 at Heaton Park, in Prestwich, Manchester. The 30-plus acts will honour such bands as AC/DC, Def Leppard, Rage Against the Machine, Alice in Chains, Joy Division, Dire Straits, Madness and the Foo Fighters.

Upcoming gigs in Glasgow, meanwhile, include tributes to Madonna and Whitney Houston, the Eagles, Eminem, Queen, Fleetwood Mac, Abba, Simple Minds and Deacon Blue, and Rod Stewart.

The Bootleg Beatles, veterans of more than 4,500 shows in 43 years, return to the city on September 7, this time at the Barrowland Ballroom, while the UK Pink Floyd Experience plays Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on August 24. The Australian Pink Floyd, meanwhile, arrive with their dazzling tribute to the Floyd at the OVO Hydro on November 22, complete with their state-of-the-art lighting, laser and video displays.

There is little doubt that such acts are fulfilling a demand. It helps immeasurably, too, that they do a pretty convincing job of playing classic songs written by classic rock and pop acts, more than a few of which have disbanded.

Typical of the newer generation of tribute acts is Just Radiohead, which formed three years ago during lockdown. “We probably got audiences of about 50 people when we first started and now we’re regularly getting over 250,” their guitarist, Shaun, told The Independent a few months ago. “For a lot of the venues we’re playing there’s been an increase in tribute bands and a decrease in original. My view is that the tribute scene is actually keeping a lot of these grassroots venues open.

“If Radiohead were still touring today", Shaun added, "they’d likely do two big stadiums in the UK, charge hundreds of pounds a ticket and probably tour the latest album. Whereas we’re doing two-and-a-half hour shows in grassroot venues for £15 and covering all the songs the average fan wants to hear”.

Glasgow tribute to AC/DC and the Youngs is long overdue

On a rainy night earlier this week the ELO Experience played the King’s Theatre in Glasgow. Fronted by Andy Louis, a lifelong fan of Jeff Lynne’s Electric Light Orchestra, the band has been playing gigs for 18 years, touring regularly, and they do a first-rate job of replicating the greatest hits of the original band, from All Over the World and Evil Woman to Livin’ Thing, Turn to Stone, Showdown, Telephone Line, 10538 Overture, Can’t Get It Out of My Head and Roll Over Beethoven.

Louis, in sunglasses and a Jeff Lynne wig, looks and sounds like the ELO frontman, and the eight highly talented musicians include, for that distinctive ELO sound, two cellists and a violinist. The gig also features a light show and large screen projections.

Certainly, the concert served as a reminder, if one were needed, of the considerable talents of ELO, who had their first British chart hit in the summer of 1972, with 10538 Overture, and whose singles have cumulatively spent 203 weeks in the Top 40. No fewer than 21 albums by ELO or Jeff Lynne’s ELO have featured in the top 40. The most recent studio album, 2019’s From Out of Nowhere, got to number one in the UK.

"It's the incredible music from a true genius," Andy Louis said of Lynne and ELO in an interview with the Lancashire Telegraph in 2016. "The arrangements and vocal harmonies are just delightful and the melodies are so catchy. It's no wonder that the audiences just want to sing and dance along to them.”

Asked about the origins of the ELO Experience, he said: "Simply, ELO was missing from the live scene, so we thought we'd try to recreate the sight and sound of ELO and we did it 'cos Jeff wasn't around.

"When we started we were the only ELO tribute band around and we feel that we've had a reasonably good impact. We take the music really seriously, but we don't take ourselves too seriously, hence the wig I wear. We like to put a bit of humour into it”.

The humour was evident at the Glasgow show, not least when Louis, faced with a few minutes’ dead air as a technical issue was fixed, opted to sing an Elvis Presley number.

At that time, the paper reported, ELO tribute acts were thin on the ground. ”It could be that the music is difficult to do correctly and they're all quite testing vocally," Louis pondered. ”You have to really put the work in”. (Currently, the ELO songbook is being honoured not just by the ELO Experience but also by The ELO Encounter and ELO Again, amongst others. ELO Again return to Edinburgh’s Usher Hall next February).

The Glasgow show encored with a riveting version of Mr Blue Sky, which has often been described as ELO's signature song.

If the guestbook section on the ELO Experience's website is any yardstick, the Glasgow gig went down very well indeed. “Was in the Kings tonight with my mate, seen you guys 4 or 5 times now and it's one of the year’s highlights”, writes one fan from Paisley. “You guys are outstanding and made an auld 67 year old very happy. Keep on rocking”. Writes another: “Took us right back to our youth. Hurry back!!”

That’s one of the things about lots of tribute acts: they can recreate songs we first came across as teenagers, many years ago. Certainly, it was a pleasure to hear such songs as 10538 Overture and Roll Over Beethoven done with such precision, some 50 years after they were hits for Jeff Lynne and co.

Lynne's ELO are about to start a 31-date tour of the US.  Until they next visit the UK, tribute bands are the closest we'll come to hearing their songs done on a concert stage.

The Independent article included an observation by one Colin Freitag, an ardent fan of tribute acts, who tried and failed to get into a Glastonbury tent perfomance by Elvana, the Presley-meets-Nirvana act.

“I couldn’t get in because it was so rammed,” he said. “You sort of lower your expectations thinking they’re just a tribute, but you can get some quite amazing musicians out there who have spent a long time practising the work of their idols and it’s actually really, really good.”

* https://www.elotribute.com/

*  Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds is at the OVO Hydro on April 2, 2025.