GIGS IN FEBRUARY 2007

THE BAND CLUB, ST.AUSTELL (24TH FEBRUARY)

THE KULT

Let me lay my cards on the table first; I`m not a fan of tribute bands. Well let me be more precise; I`m not a fan of tribute bands of bands you can still see in the flesh. I`ve got time for the ones who give you something you can`t get from the originals because they`re dead, but when the real band is still touring, it seems a tad crap to watch a copy. A "cheap immitation, son of fake," as The Sid Presley Experience once said. However, against my better judgement and with hopes of a similar experience to The Bootleg Beatles/T-Rextacy tribute bands, I was dragged along to see this lot.

The Saturday night was wet and windy, (which helped), the venue was the social club known as St.Austell`s Band Club, (which more linked to brass band music officially than the regular tribute acts that play there), and tonight`s tribute band was called The Kult. Can you guess who they were a tribute to, boys and girls? The answer would seem pretty obvious from the name, but I bet you couldn`t have guessed if you`d only been able to see them.

Their line up appeared to contain a chunky, dehydrated Axl Rose on vocals, a nervous cowboy version of John Power (from Cast/La`s) on one guitar and James Dreyfus (TV gay actor from Gimme, Gimme, Gimme & Rowan Atkinson`s Thin Blue Line cop comedy), playing the part of a camp Billy Duffy on the other guitar. What ex-Man U star Eric Cantona was doing on the drums was anyone`s guess. It was a truely bizarre sight.

That said, the band played well to a half empty room which contained maybe three or four Cult fans, (well done if you guessed correctly!), and there was even a spate of dancing girlies by the last few numbers. Sound-wise, the band were pretty close to the originals and played many album tracks mixed in with the hit singles that showed they had a real love of the band. The hits were nailed, as you would expect, (with the exception of `She Sells Sanctuary`) and the job was done.

Overall I`d say that the band were average and the audience worse. I`d say they deserved each other, but the imbalance would make that untrue. As a tribute act, the sound was fine, the visuals less so.

At £6 per non-member, I have to say I`ve seen better for a lot less.

www.thekult-tribute.co.uk