PROJECT 3 – tribute band

CONTEXT

For this unit we had to perform a professional show for a tribute band, we also had to provide technical support for the other band whilst they were performing. The band that I was put in was the Queen tribute band. This meant that I had to do an in depth study of how Queen perform live. This included how each member dresses, plays, and communicates on stage. For me, I had to focus on Roger Taylor, his musical prowess, and appearance.

RESEARCH

Queen formed in 1971 in England, recorded and released their first album in 1973, broke up in 1991 after Freddie Mercury’s death but reformed in 2004. And still tour now with Adam Lambert on vocals and Neil Fairclough on bass guitar. Queen are notorious for putting on incredible live shows and being well technically proficient musicians. Queen were one of the biggest bands of there time and continue to be legendary to this day. One of the reasons they were so big was because of Freddie Mercury. Freddie was one of the greatest singers and frontmen in history, he has a wide vocal range, exceptional intonation and a natural ear for phrasing. He was also able to deeply express himself through his music and deliver a passionate performance every time in the studio and on stage. On stage he had a one of a kind persona and knew how to get the audience eating directly out of the palm of his hand. An example of this is this the video below of Queen performing at live aid 1985, which is often regarded as Queens greatest performance and one of the greatest performances in history.

Queen were influenced by the bands that were playing in london when they were young such as Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, and many more. this wide spread of different sounds and genres led to their eclectic and recognizable sound. They have influenced almost every pop and rock act in existence since their formation. Notable ones being Foo Fighters, Royal Blood, Radiohead, Guns and roses, and many more.

Another reason that they are so big is that they were all very good musicians. It was down to this and their chemistry as a band that they managed to write such amazing and chart topping songs. Each member was very knowledgeable in music theory and therefore able to write such interesting parts for their songs. This contributes to why Queen has one of the best repertoires in music history and also one of the most well known. The majority of the general public will have heard bohemian rapsody and many other Queen songs such as ‘we will rock you’or ‘we are the champions’. Almost everybody has heard of Queen and countless people still listen to them today.

PRACTICAL

Rehearsals for the Queen tribute band started on Thursday 4th January and continued every Thursday until the actual concert on 8th February. Progress with rehearsals started relatively as we had trouble getting a set list sorted and also learning the songs. I have been a fan of Queen my whole life and already knew the drum parts of the songs that we chose. Because of this, when it came to practicing the songs, all I had to do was give them a quick listen beforehand to refresh myself on them. One song that took especially long to do and the band struggled with as a whole was ‘We Are The Champions’ this was because we had the least amount of time to practice it as we chose to add it to our set a week before the gig. However, we practiced it repeatedly together and individually in our spare time. Because of this, it turned out to be one of our strongest songs we played on the night of the gig. Another song that we had some trouble with was ‘don’t stop me now’ This is because our vocalists Leah and Kelsey struggled to sing it in the original key because it was too low for them, so, instead of playing the song in the original key of F,  we transposed the song to play it in G. Naturally, this didn’t affect me as i’m the drummer, however, the rest of the band struggled with getting used to the change and adjusting their parts.

Our setlist went in this order:

Crazy little thing called love

I want to break free

Another one bites the dust

Dont stop me now

We are the champions.

We chose these songs for our setlist because they are all very well known songs, not just by fans of Queen, but just by a general audience, and they are all some of our favourite songs by Queen, personally, my favourite is I want to break free so it was the song that I wanted most in the set. Also, they are very good songs to play live, with the quick upbeat feel of ‘Crazy litte thing called love’, the driving rhythms of ‘Another one bites the dust’ and ‘Don’t stop me now’, and the sing along anthem that is ‘I want to break free’, and the ultimate show stopper of ‘We are the champions’. It was the perfect short setlist for a Queen tribute.

Getting ready for the gig meant getting the stage ready on the day. We all set up ou own individual instruments and amplifiers so that we were all comfortable with the setup. I set up  the drum kit myself but ran into some problems. Firstly, the stool was broken and was stuck on the lowest setting, which would’ve made it almost impossible for me to play given my height. because of this, I had to go retrieve another one from the live room so I could comfortably play the show. Also, on the house kit in the Henry Mitchell hall, there was a thin 14″ crash which simply wouldn’t have sounded right for the style that i was playing. Roger Taylor is quite a loud explosive drummer who uses large cymbals, and since I was mimicking Roger, I needed a large explosive sound. For this reason, I had to swap out the 14″ crash for a heavier 17″ crash from the live room. This was more effective as it fit in better with the other 16″ crash on the kit and it was a louder more energetic addition to the kit. The drum kit was set up with a 7 mic configuration. This means one mic each on the snare, kick, hi – tom, low tom, hi – hats, and overheads left and right. This ensured that we got a well balanced, rounded sound from the whole of the drum kit.

For the technical side of the concert, we had to be our own sound engineers. This meant that we had to set up our own microphones, and sound check ourselves. We did the sound engineering for the other tribute band whilst they were performing and they did the same for us. We had to soundcheck the other tribute band which meant we had to get each individual monitor mix sounding good and to the performers preference. We also had to make sure that the front of house mix was adequate by making sure that there wasn’t one instrument that was overpowering the others, the overall mix wasn’t too loud or quiet, and that the gain for the channels used was set correctly to prevent the microphones from clipping. All this was done before the gig, but during the gig we still had to be behind the desk so that we could adjust something if anything went wrong, or the performers wanted to tweak their monitor mixes, in which case they would signal to us what they wanted different in their mix and we would change it.

EVALUATION

Overall, I think that the project was relatively successful in the sense that we managed to play as a band and delivered a performance to an audience. If I were to evaluate my own performance, I would say that I pulled my weight and knew my rehearsed parts well. However, I think that i could’ve done more research on Roger Taylor’s playing style and stage presence. For example, it is a known trademark of Roger Taylor that he slightly opens the hi hat with the snare to accentuate the backbeat. This gives more depth and feel to his playing and makes it a bit more dynamic too. If I had included this in my plying it would have lead to a more believable and fulfilling performance. When performing live, I think that I did my job relatively well. I played with enough groove and feel to pull of a Roger Taylor tribute, but most importantly, I did my job as a drummer and kept everyone in time and kept a solid rhythm going.

As a group, I think that we performed well on stage and pulled of a relatively satisfying performance. However, I think that it could’ve been a lot more successful if we were better rehearsed. The rhythm guitarist and bassist in our band didn’t learn their parts for the last two songs, Don’t stop me now and We are the champions. Because of this, we had no rhythm guitar and our tutor had to step in on bass for those songs. This could’ve been avoided if those two members learned their parts and if we practiced more as a band. As a band we could’ve used more practice time in general, we could play the songs together but they could have been better, and given more practices we could’ve finely polished them.

Out of this whole process I have learned that to be a successful tribute band, you have to do a lot of research into the artist you are performing as. Without this, you wont be able to give a convincing performance. This is something that I could’ve improved on to make my style of playing more similar to that of Roger Taylor. Also, as part of a tribute band, you can’t settle for mediocre. We were rehearsed as a band but we could’ve been even better, especially when we’re paying tribute to one of the most electrifying live bands of all time who not only delivered a marvel of a performance but also played nearly every show perfectly. Also, I have learned that to be more successful, I need to be more organised as an individual and as part of a band. This means properly scheduling rehearsals and sticking to that schedule, also always making sure to have a rehearsal another time if it needs to be cancelled for some reason to make up for it.

This project relates to the music industry because we needed to do certain things to give a fitting performance. This included maybe playing songs we wouldn’t have otherwise played, or playing songs we didn’t like. If we had to play  song that we didn’t like we were less likely to practice it and therefore more likely to deliver  poor performance. In the music industry, you often have to listen to, and play music that you dont like, but have to get on with it as it is your job to deliver this performance.

Taking what i’ve learned from this project and using it to improve for my next project, I would be more organised, more willing to practice and play songs i may not necessarily like, and communicate with other students better. Communication is an important one as you always need to communicate with people no matter what you’re doing. For my final project i will almost certainly need to communicate with another student or tutor, and I will need to do this in a professional and respectful way. On the organisational side, it would be beneficial for me to keep  running log of everything that i have done so that there will never be any guess work as to what I have done towards the end and also so that thee is solid proof of what i’ve done.

BIBLIOGRAPHY