It’s not all slog here at Freak Towers, we do occasionally get invited along to see the bands in action. On Saturday I was asked along to watch two of our top Scottish tribute acts in, Duran an Duran and Dirty Harry rock the Liquid Rooms in Edinburgh. Despite being of an age that I could have seen both bands at their respective peaks, I never did.
Duran an Duran were up first, playing such a not perfect version of Rio that my mate thought they were using tracks! Au contraire. There are some very good tribute bands out there who play the songs and play them very well. However, if you’re a tribute to a band from Birmingham who helped launch MTV in America in 1982 and who were at the cutting edge of an often under-rated pop culture phenomenon, it needs to be more than just playing the songs and these guys deliver!
Dirty Harry (great name!) formed in Edinburgh in early 2011, and were was borne out of singing doctor, Sarah Kennedy’s desire to create a act which could play homage to everyone’s favourite rock goddess, Debbie Harry and to the band who practically invented Power Pop, Blondie. Nearly four decades after Blondie emerged onto the anarchic downtown New York punk scene Sarah struck gold on Gumtree and found four of Edinburgh’s finest musicians to complete the line up.
Great night all round and it was nice to be in a night club and not feel like the oldest guy in there!
