Oasis, Abba, Bono and more: What it's like to play in one of Ireland's top tribute acts

Irish Examiner

4 days ago

For James Bermingham, it was a question of Faith; that, and the other albums.
Matt Houlihan has become something of a Super Trouper. Derek Power found what he was looking for, and as for Gavin Fleming, well, he's feeling Supersonic.
Is it even better than the real thing? Definitely? Maybe.
Just ask some of the members of tribute bands who this weekend — almost every weekend — are playing shows to people up and down the country, and sometimes overseas.
According to Gavin Fleming, electrical engineer and marathon runner by day, but who turns into Liam Gallagher at the weekends, 'I know some people look at tribute bands as a bit 'cruise ship', but our fans would say different — I psyche myself up, it's raw, you get into the zone, and the day you lose that, you should give it up'.
There's not much chance of that these days, with Live Forever, the Oasis tribute band fronted by Gavin, playing shows to audiences already hyped by the prospect of the real Liam and Noel Gallagher getting back together again and playing a string of mega shows, including two nights in Croke Park this August.
The re-formed Mancunians taking to the stage for the first time in more than 15 years has provided a boost to Live Forever, just one of a number of tribute acts who in some peculiar, opaque way, seem to become something beyond a facsimile of another group. Often, the whole enterprise takes on a life of its own.
'I'm a passionate person, to put it mildly,' says Gavin, who is from Dublin. A self-described 'Oasis fanatic', he had no experience of music when he won a karaoke competition in the Swallows pub in his native Clondalkin, which led to him teaming up with Paul, aka Noel, and the other members to hone what they describe as the 'definitive' Oasis experience.
And while the band still work regular jobs, it means that every weekend, they are cranking up both the volume and the attitude to appreciative audiences who may even like the odd obscure B-side being dropped into the setlist.
'It's what they represent,' Gavin says of Oasis, sounding like a true believer. 'They are the band that defined an era, they are saying you can still get through this, it's the way out, it's the Irishness, it's that punching the air thing...'
YOU GOTTA HAVE FAITH
James Bermingham as George Michael: 'I'm so passionate about George's music, I fell into the role,' he says. 'It was like a hand in glove.'
James Bermingham knows the feeling.
Another Dub, he was a taxi driver whose livelihood took a huge hit in the economic crash, ultimately pushing him towards his passion for the work of George Michael.
A trained musician, James had been a pop fan since his childhood, but it was the album Faith which propelled his own particular obsession.
'I couldn't get work for love or money so I said I would go back to my first love,' James says of the recession years.
'I gave it a proper go. In 2011, I did my first show, I did the solo circuit in pubs and clubs, from there on in it accelerated, I got better with the feedback. You're programming yourself to be someone. It can be a pseudo science, and I applied those techniques to the tribute thing.'
According to Robbie Lee, the Svengali behind tributebands.ie, James is 'the head off George Michael', yet James himself says that he focused first on the voice, and then later on the appearance, the mannerisms.
He even took a kind of method acting approach, finding that on listening to George's old media interviews, if he replicated George's English accent when speaking, it helped with his impressive vocal delivery.
'I'm so passionate about George's music, I fell into the role,' he says. 'It was like a hand in glove.'
James Bermingham as George Michael: 'It is a privilege, to replicate someone who has been adored for decades and who is a timeless artist.'
Yet that doesn't mean that it did not take a whole pile of work to get to the point where being George Michael is now his full-time profession.
As James points out, George had a relatively small back catalogue, even including the Wham! era — 'it was quality over quantity'.
It means he had to nail every number so he can mix up the setlist.
Evidently, it's working: when we speak, he is gearing up for a main slot at the prestigious summer festival dedicated to George in his home suburb of Goring in London.
It surely helps that George's appeal is far from dimming and if anything, is growing among younger fans.
'My eldest daughter is 25, they love the '80s, they are crazy about the '80s,' James says. 'Her old classmates, they love Wham!, Duran Duran ... I'm 51 myself, and there was something magical about the '80s that was probably on a par with the '60s, it was a magical decade.'
It might say something that the ever-brilliant RnaG radio show An Taobh Tuathail, presented by Cian Ó'Cíobháin, recently finished its Friday night electronic/club show with the relatively obscure Wham! cut Nothing Looks the Same in the Light. James is delighted with this news.
'What I do when I find myself down and out sometimes is to never take it for granted,' he says. 'It is a privilege, to replicate someone who has been adored for decades and who is a timeless artist.'
A PERSONAL WATERLOO
Abbaesque, Matt Houlihan as Benny, top left: 'They are amazing songs, they are arranged beautifully. It's not Leonard Cohen or Rage Against The Machine but they are so well crafted." Photo: Gareth Chaney
For Matt Houlihan, the story was a little different. 'No, I was not [a fan], I will admit,' he says of Swedish pop legends Abba. Which, given he is Benny in the ultra-successful group Abbaesque, may have proved an issue.
'I had pretensions to be a serious musician back then, I had a future ahead of me of rock stardom and Glastonbury and all that kind of stuff and Abba was not on my radar at all.'
Born in England, raised in Clonmel, and a self-declared funk fan, being Benny was initially a bit of a challenge. 'For a few years I didn't like that fact that I was doing it,' he continues.
'I remember being in a bar in New York with my wife-to-be and sitting down talking to this fella and he was all about music and my wife said 'my husband plays music' and I started kicking her leg under the table.
"The band was Abbaesque, for whom Matt has played for approximately 25 years. 'I can still remember his name — Ramon. And he said, 'oh man, that's so bad, I feel so bad for you.''
It is safe to say those feelings don't linger these days. 'Now, I love it,' Matt says. 'They are amazing songs, they are arranged beautifully. It's not Leonard Cohen or Rage Against The Machine but they are so well crafted. They're about love and innocence. We get audiences from
infant to 90 years old, and the division of the sexes has changed a lot — there are more un-ironic male fans coming to the gigs, and that was never was the case before.'
Matt denies he had a Damascene moment where he ultimately embraced his role in what is a hugely successful enterprise, playing in an acclaimed band with its own dedicated following, but he does recall sharing a cigarette outside a club as he turned 50 with another musician.
'I said 'look at me, I'm wearing a wig, putting on high heels, acting like a twat on stage — what the fuck am I doing?' And she said: 'look at you, you're wearing a wig, putting on high heels, you're dancing around a stage for a living... And I said 'you're right'.There are worse ways to make a living.'
FINDING WHAT HE'S LOOKING FOR
Derek Power, in his former role as Bono: 'It takes a lot of work — it goes from really low to really high, it takes a lot of power.'
If Derek Power ever sold his soul, it was in the services of U2, more specifically his role as Bono for many years in the Joshua Tree.
Now retired from wearing the shades, and happily living in Tenerife, Derek's introduction to U2 was the classic War album, though his favourite is Achtung Baby.
'Bono has a distinctive vocal,' he says of the artist formally known as Paul Hewson. 'It takes a lot of work — it goes from really low to really high, it takes a lot of power.'
That range is something he mastered over the years, but he admits that when it comes to emulating Ireland's greatest ever band, there are some downsides.
'Everybody hates Bono,' he says with a laugh. 'Now, if I did it in mainland Europe, I'd make a fortune but in Ireland, it's marmite, people like him or people don't.'
Derek met Bono once, and found him to be absolutely charming. Gavin has met Liam, and had a similar encounter.
Robbie Lee, who first set up the tribute bands website way back in 1998, is convinced that the musicians are all invested in what they do.
He recalls a time when Live Forever were doing a show and Gavin had been preparing for a marathon, meaning his on-stage pint — always more of a prop in any case — was non-alcoholic. 'The publican says, 'you'd know he wasn't drinking.''
Gavin chuckles at this, and adds that Liam himself doesn't drink these days.
In fact, Liam is looking and sounding as good as ever, and as for a metamorphosis, it's arguable that anyone who listens to Colombia at high enough volume will end the song at least 20% Liam and feeling biblical.
So Oasis are very much here, but according to Robbie Lee, there can be a risk in the tribute scene when it comes to an act who has passed on, as their profile starts to slip away.
LIVING THE DREAM
Live Forever, the Oasis tribute band. Picture: Emily Quinn
Yet given the appetite for tribute acts, it seems the scene is as robust as ever, particularly in an era where the traditional pathway for an original band — demo, radio airplay, short-term deal with a label, potential stardom — seems a relic of another era.
'I'm not as factional as when I was a kid,' Matt says, sounding like someone who misses the era where you were almost defined as much by what bands you didn't like as those you did.
He is not the only interviewee to remark that these days, how you fare on social media, and particularly TikTok, is as likely to be a bellwether for future career prospects as a spin on a radio show.
Derek wonders whether a modern day U2 would make it as a far as album three or four, while James remarks that today, thanks to the internet, everything is effectively available all the time, instantly: 'You have multifaceted trends happening at the same time.'
There we were, now here we are. Are we in danger of drowning in a sea of nostalgia?
According to Gavin, absolutely not. 'The biggest rock and roll comeback of all time is coming,' he says with relish.
Live Forever will be 15 years on the go by next January. 'We always play it down but the people who come to our show, they're supporters of the band, and they say 'you constantly deliver'. I think we are more than a tribute band … we are normal working class lads out living a dream.'
Music can always exert its strange power. James Bermingham recalls the time he played a gig in a place near Sydney, Australia.
'We did a venue where the promoter forgot to promote the show, and the warm-up act was a thrash metal band, and I said 'how am I going to do this?' The other band said to try George's song Freedom 90. I went up and did that song with them, they stayed on for my set, it was all pop and glam, and those fans who were there for the death metal band stayed for the full hour of my set. Careless Whisper... they knew that song inside out.'
Live Forever will play Whelans Dublin from 2pm before Oasis take the stage in Croke Park on August 16 and 17. Tickets from whelanslive.com.
Abbaesque play Gleneagle Arena, Kerry on August 9 and Dolan's Warehouse, Limerick on September 20. Tickets from ticketmaster.ie.
The Ultimate George Michael Tribute performs at Palmerstown House Estate, Kildare on July 25. Tickets from thesummersessions.ie.
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