Don’t underestimate the power of a great tribute act

It’s 2025. The streaming era is upon us, the 90’s weren’t 10 years ago, and disco is (pretty much) still dead, but if there’s a time you’ve been dying to go back to, seeing a tribute act is the perfect way to do it.

This year, Elly Jarmain is celebrating 25 years of playing the “Material Girl”, Madonna. Back in the ‘80s, she “loved how punky and cool she was and how provocative she was”. At 18, she joined a funk band, and it was then when people began to say she looked like Madonna. With tributes like Bjorn Again taking off in the UK,  Elly was drawn into doing it herself, but knew that it was no easy feat, admitting, “It was quite a big responsibility because I was a big fan. Because I knew that I had her on such a high pedestal”.

Fast forward to today, and Elly has worked out that she’s sung Madonna’s 1983 hit, Holiday 1837 times and counting. That’s some dedication, but why Madonna?

She admires that Madonna uses her position of power for good, an example being her voice during the AIDS epidemic. She says, “[Madonna] was handing out leaflets and stuff at concerts when everybody else was portraying it as this dirty disease that nobody wanted anything to do with”. Madonna has a strong personality and has always been outspoken, which has resonated with her audiences who can go to Elly’s shows and, for one night, live in Madonna’s feisty, catchy, yet inclusive world.

Elly admitted that, like many, the 2020 pandemic caused her to rethink everything, but the wise words of reassurance from her drummer her of why they did it: “they walk in and they let go of all their stress for the two, three hours that they’re in that place and they walk out feeling uplifted, often feeling as though they’re ready to face whatever’s coming at them from that period of time”.

Elly sat with that and felt reassured with her place in the world, and rightly so, her shows are phenomenal.

Mikey Allison joined the UK’s leading Stone Roses tribute in 2016. Before he was Ian Brown, he was in original band for 12 years and remembered thinking that “a tribute was quite an easy route”. Fast forward nine years and he realises how wrong was, now saying “We believe we are the number one tribute to The Stone Roses, so we’ve got to make sure we remain focused and recreate that as best we can”.

Mikey says the band’s success comes down to the dedication and time they put in, including watching the original band over and over again to make sure they nail all the music mannerisms and intricacies, even recreating specialist gigs, like their 1991 Blackpool gig, where Ian Brown plays bongos. The tributers tracked down those exact kind of bongos.

Mikey sees a real duty in doing what he does. Lots of teenagers and 20-somethings attend their shows, and he remarks “Those youngsters won’t get the opportunity to see The Stone Roses live”. Similar to Elly, Mikey sees it as his duty to get it right so that people who weren’t there in The Stone Roses’ heyday can experience a taste of Madchester through their show. Most wholesomely, Mikey says sometimes when he’s playing, “he closes his eyes, pretends it’s 1989, and feels like a kid again”.

Steve Nelson takes a business-minded approach to tributing. “I’m very excel, numbers, and business!”. Steve is musical director of and plays Benny in Thank You For The Music, the leading ABBA show in the country. Whilst a talented and passionate musician (at just 15 he was representing the UK around the world playing keyboard for Yamaha), Steve saw the importance of making tributing a sustainable career in a competitive (and expensive) world.

At 21, he set up a business plan, which he jokingly narrowed down to,  “I like to dress up in white Lycra and high heels, all I need is £50,000”. Despite his humour, his talent tied in with his business-first approach led to ABBA Fever, one of the most successful touring shows in the UK and Europe in its heyday. He’s also managed the FastLove Word Tour, which was highlighted in the top 50 touring shows in Europe in 2019.

Steve says, “I had no idea when I started doing ABBA that I’d still be doing it now”. And when asked why he chose ABBA, he says (of course) “It was business!”. This was even before Mamma Mia! (the movie) catapulted the Swedish pop band’s music further into mainstream obsession, showing the accuracy of Steve’s foresight.

Those like Steve who focus on the numbers behind the performance have ensured their acts play a crucial role in keeping music venues alive. Andrew Elsender, Regional Market Manager for Academy Music Group, says,  “Tribute events are integral to the core of our business. Whilst normal touring schedules can often be seasonal […] tribute shows are able to fill the gaps in the diary, allowing venues to be open for longer periods of the year.

However, despite making tributing sustainable, the multi-tribute star said, “No matter what I do, it has to be a party”, echoing the ethos of the world of tributing: a celebration of people’s favourite songs and memories that takes them away from everything else. Andrew Elsender agrees, saying “we often find that tribute shows are more of a celebration”.

All three of these tribute acts are actively touring now, join the party and let them take you back to a time in music!