Why Alfie Joey loves tribute acts who dress up as our musical heroes

Perhaps you might even blink twice as you spot Freddie Mercury having a mooch around Tynemouth Market. Even rock stars have to do something to unwind before a big gig.

Some of you might be shouting at paper, ‘Why man there’s nee way Bono would be at the Fish Quay’…well, let me explain.

Today, you can indeed see a galaxy of stars, including the ones I have mentioned, at Percy Park RFC in North Shields, for…drum roll…. Fake Festival.

READ MORE: Alfie Joey returns to Ushaw Gardens

As the blurb to the gig says, ‘Rock to the magic of the superstars, without the supersonic ticket price’.

Just a quick glance through the North East listings alone, tribute acts have never been more popular. The Bootleg Beatles are heading to Sunderland’s Keel Square on Friday, August 28, with support from Not The Rolling Stones.

Wherever in the region you live, it looks like you’ll not have to wait long before a top notch tribute act trundles into town.

‘What about South Shields?’ Definitely South Shields. You can enjoy Talon – The Best Of Eagles or The Fleetwood Mac Legacy, both at The Customs House Theatre this autumn.

‘Any chance of Whitney or Phil Collins coming to Darlo Alfie?’ Got you covered. Coming soon to The Hippodrome, Seriously Collins – The Tribute to Phil Collins & Genesis, and in September, Queen of the Night; A Tribute To Whitney Houston.

And finally, later this month at Middlesbrough Town Hall you can catch Sabbotage (Black Sabbath Tribute) and Jimmy Nail….oh, that is actually the real Jimmy Nail, (well worth a watch by the way!!)

My own personal favourites, and I think this should be a prerequisite to being allowed on the tribute circuit, are the ones with brilliantly clever, puntastic names, Robbing Williams, Fake That, Lindesfaren’t (thanks to Ray Laidlaw for that one) and all the way from Wales, ABBA-gavenney (I made that one up).

The Three Tonnes Pub, Sherrif Hill in Gateshead, is renowned for the best named array of doppelgangers and musical mimics. I love seeing the chalk board outside, advertising Gateshead Pie Festival with Bon Geordie providing entertainment.

The one I read as I cycled past the other day nearly had me falling off my bike. Inappropriate for a family newspaper but still laugh out loud funny. The less serious they take themselves, the more eccentrically British the genre is.

We know they are not the real thing, they know they are not the real thing, and yet for a couple of hours everyone agrees to suspend disbelief and sing along anyway.

ITV’s Stars in Their Eyes turned singing impersonations into primetime family entertainment and working men’s clubs have long welcomed turns who could shape shift into one of their heroes.

What has changed is the scale (and sometimes the price). As I’ve mentioned, some tribute shows now tour major theatres and dominate the programming in many provincial art centres.

Some play outdoor festivals the size of which the original artists might not have even played to. Of course, we go because they may be the nearest some of us ever get to seeing the original acts perform live.

Tribute acts offer nostalgia without the eye-watering ticket prices, familiar songs without the stadium queues and security checks and a chance to relive a favourite era with our pals.

So if you spot Bono admiring a fresh catch at the Fish Quay or Dave Grohl waiting for the Metro, say ‘break a leg’, from me. Tell them I have been paying tribute to…the tributes!

Facts and Footnotes

• Björn Again, was formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1988 and have performed together much longer than Abba did.
• Stars in Their Eyes, was originally hosted by Leslie Crowther and later Matthew Kelly.
• The Bootleg Beatles were formed by London cast members of Beatlemania, following the final show of the West End musical in 1980.