Or am I? Jill Campbell Mackay speaks to three tribute artists who will join other performers for a show in Paphos this week
WHAT do you do, if you are a classically trained pianist with less than lush locks and you wake up one day to find the gigs with orchestras have dried up? Neither do five-star hotels any longer require a chap tinkling the ivories during cocktail hour. How does one then earn a crust?
Andrew Oliver reincarnated himself as an Elton John tribute act, first spending an intensive year studying the great Dame; reading books, copying from videos his mannerisms, shelling out for sheet music and trying to memorise every line of his 77 hit songs.
When I met him and fellow tribute artists in the foyer of a Paphos Hotel last week they were easy to spot. Elton John was in a particularly enthusiastic road-kill jacket, sporting a seriously dodgy wig, dangly earrings and blue-tinted spectacles. Elvis, in the muscular form of Chris Kings, was clad in the King’s pre hamburger look (1970s): all white, and glitter, with a strange fringed scarf tied across his sculptured buttocks, atop his head another suspect wig loomed large. TCB (taking care of business ) sparkly rings like knuckle dusters adorned his fingers.
Less encumbered by garishness was Jamie Reeves as Robbie Williams, for this is one exceedingly low maintenance chap who brings to his stage act only his attitude, songs, and a rather lack lustre T shirt. He has gone through a painful tattoo route in order to further emulate his idol.
That’s the first thing I ask the guys; did they feel that there was a risk that this absolute devotion to a mega star would not end after the wigs and ‘hurting’ trousers were removed? Elvis confessed only to playing his idol’s music 24/7. He is also devoid of an evangelical enthusiasm for amphetamines and neither does he emulate the great man’s girlie foot fetish, so no need for his body guard (in the form of his 65 year old Mum) to have to check out the groupies’ tootsies before inviting them back to his Limassol-based ‘Graceland’.
Elton, on the other hand, is a spangly old tart who after three decades of bone shaking mileage has become the third best-selling artist in the history of music, an epicurean patron of the arts, noted philanthropist and regular dispenser of Mount Etna levels of bile. Andrew, by contrast, displays a rather mild manner devoid of any hissy fits. He went on to explain why he chose Elton as his tribute: “I have a great deal of respect for the man himself, but very few people can really play him, as he is a very talented musician and, as I was classically trained, I never have to resort to mimicry when playing the piano like so many do. I also sing so the audience gets real a value for money performance. I make every effort to get hold of as many original Elton outfits as I can and there is a shop in London ‘Out of the Closet’ that Elton brings his stage clothes to, and that’s where I buy them, along with his glasses. For all three of us, it’s about giving the audience the closest version possible to the real thing and we all work very hard to achieve that.”
Robbie, in the diminutive form of Jamie, is the definite youngster of the trio and has to work doubly hard to compete with these two legends of rock. “I was singing in a karaoke bar when someone suggested I looked like Robbie so it just carried on from there, and now I make a good living being a tribute artist and at the same time I just love the buzz performing gives me. Even if I am asked to sing Angels a zillion times a year, it’s still a great and enjoyable way to live.”
All the guys agreed that performing is their all-time high, serving to liberate the ego and feed the soul. It gives them the best injection of adrenalin possible and all three are addicted. That said, Elvis does seem to be a chap who is just that bit more liberated, wearing as he does of an evening, a sequin-encrusted posing pouch which, doubtless after a heavy night of gold lame wearing is then liable to be exposed to the audience during a rendition of ‘There Goes My Everything’.
l Paphos Variety Shocase, featuring the three guys in addition to Ray Ritchie, Andy Feet and Wendi Kaye’s Divas Show. Wednesday April 6, 8pm at the Hnioxos Cine Restaurant, Chlorakas (down from Steptoes next to the petrol station). Tickets £5 available from the PAWS Dog Shelter Charity Tel: 99 683775 (also available at the door). All proceeds from the show will go to the same charity
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