A couple of weeks ago I had a great evening seeing a tribute band at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester. I had been given tickets as a birthday present by a friend. Elio Pace and his band played the ‘Billy Joel Songbook’. It took me back 40 years!
I had previously been suspicious about the idea of a tribute band, fearing it might be something like a poor karaoke performance. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The quality was outstanding, and about as close as possible to attending a genuine Billy Joel concert.
There were a number of reasons why the concert was so good. First, the musicians were high-quality professionals. The guitarist was a member of the current line-up of Queen. The saxophonist had played with Amy Winehouse. Second, they clearly loved the music of Billy Joel. Elio Pace expressed near worship for him as the ‘greatest singer-songwriter ever’. You got the sense that they loved the music that they were playing. Third, they played the songs exactly as they had been written. They did not alter or adjust them. They did not play their own songs instead of Joel’s. Pace was at pains to stress several times that he was playing a song ‘just the way that Billy meant it to be played’. Fourth, they played the full range of Billy Joel’s oeuvre. They did not just play the well-known hits and crowd favourites. They played more obscure album tracks. The 30 songs they played gave a representative cross-section of all his work, from all different eras of his composition. You gained a sense of the whole man. Finally, it was clear that Pace knew Billy Joel personally. He was able to share personal anecdotes about him. He has been invited by Joel to host a concert in which his very first band united to play together again for the first time in years. They played from their personal experience of the man.
Does anyone notice? Does anyone care? Is it worth it?
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