Tribute bands featuring original members

No spurious line-ups of the real band with 80% new members, no grizzled veterans getting up to guest on one song, no wacky one-off secret gigs under an alias; real live tribute acts containing an original member (or more) of the homaged band - let us list and consider them.

Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg: a new kid on the block, following Marky's success doing a tour of slideshow presentations followed by a set of hits with local pickup bands. Amazingly, features a singer who formed a Misfits tribute band while he was actually in The Misfits.

The Special Beat: long-standing collection of no fixed musicians, currently including not only Ranking Roger from The Beat and Neville Staple from The Specials, but also Pauline Black of The Selector. Presumably haven't changed their name to The Special Beat Selector out of concern for brand dilution only.

Who's The Daddy Now?: pub-rock stop-gap for both members of Carter USM to play Carter covers with a band full of young pals to 50 people and a dog, before getting over it and playing them without the band to 5000 fat 30somethings.

The Gift: the drummer from The Jam forms Jam tribute band, later joined by bassist from The Jam. In order to discover audience from The Jam, eventually change name to From The Jam.

I think you've just about covered it.

Related is tribute bands having members of the original bands DJ for them--Mani playing a few baggyu hits after the Stoned Roses play etc.

No spurious line-ups of the real band with 80% new members

Lots of these are exactly that though, it's just they've been forced to adopt a different name for legal reasons e.g. Michael Clarke's Byrds Celebration.

Phil Collins once drummed for The Musical Box, later commenting that he didn't do nearly as good a job as their regular drummer.

Yeah I'm pretty sure From The Jam were billing themselves as The Jam for a bit. xpost

No, never as The Jam - legal issues, etc. I saw their third or fourth show, and they went out as FTJ from the start.

Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger had to rename their band Riders On The Storm after they got sued by John Densmore for calling themselves the Doors.

I think you've just about covered it.

I'm sure there's one I forgot! And I wanted someone to remind me.

Lots of these are exactly that though, it's just they've been forced to adopt a different name for legal reasons e.g. Michael Clarke's Byrds Celebration.

That's a different thing again, like the now-Birtles Shorrock Globle selling the name Little River Band to an American company for tax debts. Baby Lemonade splitting from Arthur Lee but keeping the recently-rejoined Johnny Echols probably counts though - did they just bill themselves as The Love Band or some such?

im sure steven adler played in a group that did GNR covers, not sure if that's exclusively what they played though

Manzarek/Krieger/Wolfchild might have started as, or had an intermediary stage as, 21st Century Doors - both good ones.

YES!!! Adler's Appetite was the fifth one I couldn't remember.

Wolfchild! Also Stewart Copeland briefly I think.

x-post

the fifth one I couldn't remember

And the earliest example I ever heard of. I think they evolved into a more general bar band later on but did indeed start as a straight Gunners tribute. (Er, based on eight-hand print reports.)

YES!!! Adler's Appetite was the fifth one I couldn't remember.

just had a quick look at their wiki page, seems there was a lot of tension between steven adler & the rest of the group causing a few members to leave, a legal battle over the name & a much delayed album! sounds familiar..

does creedence clearwater revisited count?

the adler thing is still going on! i just saw an ad for a milwaukee show recently. apparently they play "appetite for destruction" in full.

New B34utiful S0uth featuring neither of the dudes who wrote the songs.

No original members

Four Good Men - ex-members of H2O and Simple Minds perform the hits of, you guessed it, H2O and Simple Minds. Plus new, original material!

Without googling, that must be some British band called H20 because from an American perspective, they would be really weird on a bill with Simple Minds.

There were a couple of pseudo-Byrds incarnations/tribute acts with either/both Skip Battin and Michael Clarke

xpost. Not the punk H2O. This H2O are the early 80s Scottish one-hit wonder synth team that Alan McGee was in at one point.

Oh wow I've been mixing up H2O and PhD for years and years

PhD? The Canadian rapper?

H20 = I Dream To Sleep and fuck knows what else
PhD = Jim Diamond + other blokes = I Won't Let You Down and fuck knows what else

Well, strictly speaking: The Headcoats and Thee Headcoatees. Although, that's not really the sort of thing you're after I guess.

I guess you could put the whole post-Garcia sea of Grateful Dead spinoffs like The Other Ones/The Dead in here, kinda. Or bands playing their old material under a different name for legal reasons (Heaven & Hell instead of Black Sabbath, The Heads instead of the Talking Heads). Maybe that's a whole other thing, though.

Velvet Revolver

OMG SOOPERGROOPZ playing songs from the members' previous bands but ostensibly are new bands releasing new albums are kind of a different deal

Saw another good one of these last night: “Lick, The Australian Lemonheads Show*” played one gig in October 1991, reformed for one gig exactly ten years later, and have played twice, unbilled, in the last couple of years as Evan Dando’s encore. Lineup is Dando with not-yet-Lemonheads-songwriter-in-1991 Tom Morgan on bass, and not-yet-in-1991/now-former-Lemonheads-bassist Nic Dalton on drums, doing a bunch of Lick songs plus Different Drum.

For the second encore he also got the two surviving members of The Eastern Dark onstage together for the first time in 23 years to do an Eastern Dark cover, but that’s a clear case of grizzled veterans getting up to guest on one song.

*Half the bands gigging in Sydney in 1990-92 were The Australian Famousoverseasband Show. There were at least three Cure ones, and my high school history teacher quit because the The Australian Doors Show he drummed in got big enough to tour Europe for 18 months.

This is of strictly regional/local interest for Clevelanders and Ohioans of the 1970s/80s, but still:

Michael Stanley Band alumnus and co-founder Jonah Koslen and friends have assembled a show called Stage Pass Now that’s an expanded, complete recreation of the MSB double-live album Stage Pass. They’re playing the two-hour show at the Winchester, Saturday, April 18 and the Tangier, Saturday the 25th.

It’s one of the Michael Stanley Band’s signature records, though its title player won’t be onstage. The Stage Pass Now lineup comprises Northeast Ohio veterans Donny Thompson (Easy Street Band), Bill March (Beau Coup and Koslen’s Heroes), Rik Williger (the Short Circuits), and Van Eidom (Kooch, ESB).

“I told Michael what I intended to do, and he liked it,” says Koslen, the lead guitarist who co-wrote and performed many classics with the bandleader from 1974 to ’77. Koslen says he didn’t ask Stanley to participate, because Stanley didn’t seem interesting in revisiting past glories. “He was more interested in (playing) his new material.”

Koslen says the two remain close friends. The guitarist performed two songs with Stanley’s Resonators at the Tangier last month. And Stanley’s label, Line Level, has issued Koslen’s last two releases.

The band will recreate the arrangements from the record, plus songs from the era. An expanded take on the acoustic segment will include four extra tunes: “Ladies’ Choice,” Blue Jean Boy,” “Gypsy Eyes,” and “Among My Friends Again.”

Culled from four October 1976 sets at the old Agora Ballroom, the disc was released by Epic, and is the group’s only gold album. “It shows how great the band was,” says Koslen. “It’s a recording that holds together as a whole piece of music. I think it could be pointed to as a milestone in Cleveland music. I’m told all the time by people that it’s their favorite live album.”

A case of the exact opposite, but during Jon Anderson's abscence because of his illness, Yes have recruited a replacement singer from a Yes tribute band.

Defend The Indefensible: The Beautiful South

The band will feature Dave Hemingway (vocals), Alison Wheeler (Vocals), David Stead (Drums), Damon Butcher (Keyboards), Gary Birtles & Tony Robinson.. . The band will introduce their new guitarist, and bass player, on stage.

http://i19.ebayimg.com/05/i/001/41/53/6473_2.JPG

http://bluegirlredstate.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/newcars2.jpg

The New Cars

With Jimmy Chamberlin, Ian McCulloch, (?), Ozzy Osbourne and (?) ???

Nope, Prarie Prince (of the Tubes) on drums and Todd Rundgren on vox/guitar. Not sure who the gent on the far right leaning against Todd is. He looks a bit like Ben Stiller.

damn, King Boiled Potato beat King Boy Pato to the New Beautiful South by four months. They could have done much better on the name though, perhaps Songs For Whoever?

Over the Rainbow features several ex-members of Rainbow, but none of the founders, and features Ritchie Blackmore's son on guitar!

^ high-quality example

"spurious line-ups of the real band" that induct members' offspring into the family firm could be a rich vein too

Does Genesis when Ray Wilson was in the band count? =) hee hee.

To be fair to Pato, King Boiled Potato was slightly closer to the source.

That's not source, that's butter.

slightly closer to

took the listing of members to make me notice how wonderfully redundant the concept is! seriously though, have a word with them about the name. Carry On Up The Chicken In A Basket Circuit?

Does this count? http://www.cjramone.com (on tour now)

nah, see first post for the distinction being drawn

Oh, ok. Apologies.

Current touring Yes lineup with Oliver Wakeman on keys and some Canadian guy from a Yes cover band as "Jon Anderson".

my brother's high school buddy jon carin has played/toured with the who, pink floyd, roger waters, psychedelic furs, kate bush, elvis costello, and bryan ferry (at the live aid concert). wrong thread, i know, but relates to the zac starkey comment.

The Lords Of 52nd Street is a GREAT one.

does creedence clearwater revisited count?

― ras trevor, Thursday, February 26, 2009 5:33 AM (eleven years ago)

Yes, btw.



jon carin

Pink Floyd, Roger Waters and solo Gilmour is a good scoop.

fun fact: before he hit the big time, jon carin was in a band called industry with mercury coronia, another jericho high school alum, who self-released a semi-famous and deadly rare prog album called Cathedral ‎– Stained Glass Stories.

but back on topic, has anyone mentioned blue coupe with the bouchard brothers from BOC plus dennis dunaway from the alice cooper band?

Zac Starkey has clocked up The Who, Spencer Davis Group, Oasis, The Lightning Seeds and The Icicle Works at past-their-primes, though the latter two were only a few years late.

Jim Rodford has got to hold some record for being a ringer in the most past their prime Rock acts--IIRC, he was in the Kinks, the Zombies, and Badfinger in addition to the Animals.

speaking of castoffs, the martin barre band plays almost exclusively jethro tull material.

awww:

The Kast Off Kinks formed in 1994 to keep the music playing on, and it is what the name implies - the original line-up consisted of the band that played Lola (apart from Ray and Dave) - Avory, Dalton and Gosling - together In 2009, the line-up became the band that played Come Dancing - Avory, Gibbons and Rodford (respectively the Kinks’ longest-serving drummer, keyboard player and bassist) - still with Dave Clarke covering for the Davies brothers. Jim then became very busy playing with The Zombies and Argent, so John Dalton was persuaded out of retirement and now plays very regularly with The Kast Off Kinks .

Almost every other ex-Kink has guested with The Kast Off Kinks, including Ray Davies

Zak has been in the Who for longer than their previous three drummers combined.

Call it four, what the heck; wikipedia has them meeting Moon at a gig they played with a fill-in drummer, using the kit of the original drummer they'd v rudely fired during an audition with a producer.


Also, fun fact: he was offered a full partnership in the Who back around 2000 or so, but he turned it down.

! Being in business meetings with Daltrey and Townshend together must be a HUGE ballache, then.


But it reminds me of a one-off that wasted the opportunity to have a proper band name:

In January 2012, one act dropped out of the last day of Tasmania's MONA FOMA festival, and the booker asked another one if they'd play a second set. The Dresden Do11s were both hanging around for a couple of days to see other performers play, so said yes, but: didn't want to just play a normal show again, given the audience were likely to be repeat customers.

So A. P4lmer asked the booker if he'd play bass with them, expanding the band from a duo; he agreed. She then asked if he would mind playing the entire Violent Femmes first album, for that to be the show: Brian Ritchie, the bassist of then-acrimoniously-split Violent Femmes and Tasmanian resident, said yes, and brought a vibraphone too.

The album's songs need a guitarist to be performed. Happening to go to a PJ Harvey (non-festival) show that night, P4lmer and drummer Brian Viglione went backstage afterward to say hello to one of hers, and left with Mick Harvey having agreed to listen to the Violent Femmes for the first time, to learn all their album's songs in three days on various instruments, and with John Parish signing up to chip in on electric guitar.

(What reminded me:
The Femmes then recruited Viglione as drummer the next year, having settled a five-year lawsuit between Ritchie and Gano (and already managed to drive their original drummer out of a Coachella-prompted reunion after a few shows, with a shitty contract) during the year. He quit after a couple of years, exhausted with the acrimony still existing between Ritchie and Gano to such a degree that they would not even stand in the same room as each other.)

Al Jardine’s Endless Summer w/ Matt Jardine

Al Jardine's "Endless Summer Band," featuring various touring Boys and his own sons, one of whom later joined Mike's licensed Boys, and Al's "Beach Boys Family & Friends," featuring a different assortment of sideBoys, his sons, and Brian's daughters.

Thanks to a tip from DJP on twitter:

Here is Gene Loves Jezebel's wikipedia:

https://i.imgur.com/w18mtqy.jpg

At the red arrow, it says "After the Pre-Raphaelite Brothers tour (1997), Jay Aston refused to work with his brother unless Stevenson and Rizzo were brought back."

Rizzo has previously only been mentioned at the pink asterisk, for having recorded two songs on a best-of in 1995; the band formed in 1980. The wikipedia writers never bother to give his first name, nor what instrument he plays, and yet his presence (or otherwise) has led to two entirely separate versions of Gene Loves Jezebel existing for 23 years, and suing each other in 1997, 2008 and 2018. (Each band has released studio albums under the name!)

Since 2009, a settlement means that Jay Aston's band is Gene Loves Jezebel in the UK, but the tribute band "Michael Aston's Gene Loves Jezebel" is allowed to tour, whereas Michael Aston's band is Gene Loves Jezebel in the USA, but tribute act "Jay Aston's Gene Loves Jezebel" is allowed to tour there.

Michael Aston (who first quit the band in 1989, rejoining in 1993, before the twin brothers split again in 1997) owns genelovesjezebel.com, and has no other original members in his Jezebels. Jay Aston owns genelovesjezebel.co.uk, and has no other original members, BUT does occasionally have three members who played with the band at various points in the 1980s amongst his Jezebels, and in 2017 used them all on a record for the third time ever / first time since 1990.

^that’s amazing

As chronicled by the Mountain Goats in Abandoned Flesh:

They charted once or twice
They were on a major label
When the singer went solo
He left money on the table
The two main guys are related
They're at war with each other
Now there's two Genes loving Jezebel
One for each brother

from this thread: Once Upon a Time in L.A. 2021

The lead singer of The Stylistics left in 2000, and tours as Russell Thompkins Jr. & The New Stylistics, possibly with a 1980-85 Stylistic in his group. Two other original Stylistics continue to be in The Stylistics.

By 1975, there were three original Dramatics out of five in the Dramatics. One of them split and formed a second, competing Dramatics. The first Dramatics then became a near-tribute band called Ron Banks And The Dramatics. Circa 1979 this tribute band (with two original members) won a court case, and the alternate band (with one original member) became a tribute band called A Dramatic Experience (great name).

Also, beating Gene Loves Jezebel to the punch by two decades, since 1975 there have been two lineups of The Delfonics, led by founding-member brothers.

Terry Chambers now has a band called something like EX-TC

EX-CellenT one:

Chambers and longer-term XTC bloke Colin Moulding did one EP and some gigs as TC&I, Moulding specifically having rejected the name EXTC as too on the nose. Chambers continued playing with a couple of the backing members they'd used for their shows, considering carrying on as a gigging concern. On a social meeting, main XTC bloke and will-never-reform hermit Andy Partridge insisted that the name EXTC was too good to not use. Once Chambers had formed a full five-piece band, Partridge came to rehearsal to teach them the tricky parts from his songs.

They played one warm-up show in a local pub in Swindon last March, and cancelled their debut proper gig in Edinburgh due to the novel coronavirus two weeks later.

World Premiere | Adelaide Exclusive

Probably just a one-off for this Guitar Festival, but Derek Smalls is co-billed with Sydney rock band You Am I performing as The Majesty Of Tap, and it seems unlikely that he wouldn't play with them.

Dire Straits Legacy's lineup is:

- led by an Italian bloke who formed his first Dire Straits tribute band in 1988
- a popular Italian session keyboardist
- another keyboard player who joined Dire Straits in 1980, played on every track they ever recorded, and is in the RnR HOF as a member
- the sax player from King Crimson, who played on Dire Straits' album, EP, tour and live album from 1982-84
- an American bloke who was second guitar on Brothers In Arms and the tour thereafter, but quit performing in 1988 to spend twenty years as a marketing exec for guitar and gear companies
- a percussionist who joined Dire Straits in 1990 and has continued to tour as drummer or percussionist with Mark Knopfler since
- and Trevor Horn.

rofl

Without Ronnie Van Zant, LS were a tribute to their former self, even more than remaining Doors. who at least came up with some more original material. And that was when LS had a lot of surviving members from the last line-up to work with RVZ. They lost almost all pre-crash members--down to Gary Rossington and singer-guitarist Ricky Medlocke, who mainly played drums with them early on, like '71, '72. Some shows scheduled this year.

Trevor Horn being that dude you played with in college to call to help your cover band be able to play at the neighborhood picnic.

FP'ing dow again

With the departure of Sublime bassist Eric Wilson, the only remaining original member of Sublime tribute band Sublime With Rome is Rome Ramirez, who has announced he will disband at the end of the year, following a self-titled album and farewell tour.

this maybe sorta kinda fits the thread but i fuckin love this video of fabio lione playing rhapsody songs backed by some chilean youngsters having the time of their lives https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipj98uhvmRI

Sex Pistols tribute band Generation Sex features Steve Jones and Paul Cook, the original guitarist and drummer of the Sex Pistols.

Generation X tribute band Generation Sex features Billy Idol and Tony James, the original singer and bassist of Generation X.

There's also an actual Pistols reunion happening in August, with Jones, Cook and Matlock and some bloke called Frank Carter filling in for the sadly absent Lydon.

a local festival has the Big Star Quintet which is Jody Stephens with members of Wilco, the dBs, and the Posies.

^^Stephens also works with a similar group called Big Star 3rd that focuses on, duh, the third Big Star album.

There's also an actual Pistols reunion happening in August, with Jones, Cook and Matlock and some bloke called Frank Carter filling in for the sadly absent Lydon.

I misread this as Frank Turner and my head temporarily exploded

^ that’s a one-off fundraiser billed as “Frank Carter and the Sex Pistols,” which imo is fair

bringing the metal versions of this because it's rampant there...

I am Morbid is the death metal version of this, basically spurned ex-Morbid Angel bandmates who missed playing MA tunes forming a band that only plays early period MA tunes. the kicker being now it has more members of the classic lineup than actual MA does now, and they actually just replaced actual Morbid Angel on the Devastation on the Nation tour (mostly cos I think the promoter figured if we didn't have MA in some form that sale would collapse or refunds requested).

Venom, Inc were one of these (when you had Abaddon and Mantas, plus ex-Venom vocalist Demolition Man in the band), but then they messed it up by recording new music together and firing Abaddon. so no longer a 'tribute act' (though at first I don't know that there were plans to record). Nocturnus AD were also an example of this, with Mike Browning forming the band to just play these songs, until they too recorded two albums, so...no longer counts.

Death to All basically the best version of this, Death songs featuring usually 40%-50% ex-members of Death, play all Death songs as a tribute to Chuck.

the next example doesn't fit neatly but is just a fun story if you don't know it. anyway, there's this gimmicky Polish black metal band called Batushka. the gimmick is their music and lyrics are influenced by the Eastern Orthodox church and they wear habits on stage and play a weird form of black metal worship music.

I find their music and live show dull and unremarkable, almost as if it was geared towards people who are too afraid to like Ghost out of fear of being labeled a poser. but that isn't the point.

the band basically came to a breaking point when their founder and brainchild Krzysztof Drabikowski either pissed people off so much that they quit, and he fired vocalist Bartek "Bartłomiej" Krysiuk (Варфоломей) via Instagram post. Days later, that post was deleted, replaced by a post saying it was Drabikowski who is fired and committing copyright infringement, because Krysiuk had gotten the band signed to Metal Blade a few years earlier without Drabikowski's involvement, and was the one who filed the copyright.

It was a bit like the situation where there were briefly two Queensryches, however that only happened for a short period of a few months while a lawsuit panned out, whereas here, for several years, two different Batushkas were performing under the same name, and it was EXTREMELY difficult to know which one you were seeing since they perform shrouded so you can't see their faces, and their setlists overlap.

The only time I saw them, it was the stolen Batushka w/ Krysiuk. and I only figured it out after the show started by looking at Setlist.fm and finding songs that only that second group wrote listed. Lots of people didn't even know they weren't seeing the original band or that there was a dispute. the ones that do usually ask "which Batushka?" when Batushka comes.

this finally ended earlier this year when Drabikowski successfully defeated Krysiuk, forcing him to change the name. now they'll KIND of be a tribute band I guess until they record another album.

also I can say with my full chest that both Batushki suck

a local festival has the Big Star Quintet which is Jody Stephens with members of Wilco, the dBs, and the Posies.

― na (NA), Wednesday, June 5, 2024 10:49 AM (five months ago)

and the bass man, he has all the right moves...

(Mike Mills of REM)

Nudedragons, a tribute band containing Kim Thayil, Ben Shepherd and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden, played a debut* half-hour set this weekend with singer Shaina Shepherd.

(zealous copyright robots have zapped the audio on Duff's guest duet)

* 14 years after using the anagram for a warm-up gig for the real band's reunion at the same venue.

That was really painful

Didn't realize that Love (now Johnny Echols backed by Baby Lemonade) was still touring. Dunno how I feel about that.

LOVE with Johnny Echols sees Arthur Lee's longest serving band continue to perform the classic songs from Love's first three albums Love, Da Capo, Four Sail and of course the timeless Forever Changes.

This isn't just a nostalgia trip - their shows are drawing in an increasingly younger audience as teens and students are discovering the timeless music produced by these 60s legends performed by a band that is truly on top of its game.

Johnny Echols: “I so look forward to performing LOVE's extraordinary music to an appreciative audience. We perform much of Forever Changes, as well as favorites from our extensive catalogue… a few deep cuts as well as a few surprises!”

FWIW, I have two friends in their early seventies who have been active members of the UK Love fandom community for many years, and they still very much rate the current incarnation.

when i saw them about 20 years ago i think it was just echols and lee from the 60s lineup

When I saw them maybe that long ago it was Lee and Baby Lemonade but not Echols.

the classic songs from Love's first three albums Love, Da Capo, Four Sail and of course the timeless Forever Changes

so, their first four albums then?

That wording works — a lot of people know or have Forever Changes but don’t know how many or which albums came before it, and the title Four Sail can be confusing.

IIRC Echols joined the Lee Plus Baby Lemonade lineup less than a year before Arthur’s death

He didn't play on "Four Sail" of course.

wait the title of Four Sail is correct and the wording of the blurb isn’t

I had just woken up

BOOTLEG BLONDIE are the world’s No.1 official Debbie Harry and Blondie tribute band, established in 2001. This band are the only tribute to have performed with two original founder members of Blondie, legendary drummer Clem Burke and singer, songwriter bass player and author Gary Valentine. [...]

To celebrate 40 years since the release of Blondie’s iconic 1978 album ‘Parallel Lines’ Clem joined Bootleg Blondie on drums for not one but two UK tours in 2019 covering nearly 5,000 miles and playing to over 7,000 people!

That’s 1.4 people per mile

irl heh heh

The Saints '73-'78 is a band dedicated to performing the music made between 1973 and 1978 by singer/songwriter Chris Bailey, guitarist/songwriter Ed Kuepper, and pianist/bassist/drummer Ivor Hay. Its members are singer Mark Arm (of Mudhoney / Green River / etc), guitarist Mick Harvey (of the Bad Seeds / PJ Harvey / etc), bassist Peter Oxley (of the Sunnyboys / King St's first woodfired pizza restaurant) and guitarist Ed Kuepper & drummer Ivor Hay. They are touring the US in July, August and November of this year.

From Andrew Hickey's podcast on Status Quo:

Ma Kelly’s Greasy Spoon was the last album to feature Roy Lynes. He wasn’t as invested in being a star as the rest of the group, and stopping at a petrol station he met a woman who he fell in love with pretty much instantly. A week later, on the train to a gig in Aberdeen, he decided he’d had enough, got off the train in Stoke-on-Trent, and the band didn’t see him again for decades, by which time he was living in Australia, still married to the woman he’d met at the petrol station, and occasionally playing in a Status Quo tribute band.

Having started the podcast ‘Band Geek with Richie Castellano’ in 2014, the Blue Öyster Cult man played with a revolving group of his friends and special guests, collectively known as The Band Geeks. They started to build an online following and were lauded for their covers of classic rock and pop songs and to date have generated over 30 million YouTube views. But it was their versions of YES songs that caught the attention of Anderson who enthused… “The first time I heard the BAND GEEKS I truly freaked out - they sound just like the classic YES of the seventies, the YES that I know and love…”.

As a result, in 2023 Jon Anderson and The Band Geeks took to the road for the first time. The natural chemistry between Anderson and the band was palpable giving fans the full YES experience that many may not have expected to see again!

Andy Summers with Call The Police. (his own Police tribute band)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A92AhNycr5Q