When is a tribute act even better than the real thing? When it’s The Drifters? Well…

If I could turn back time… I’d head for 1953 to see The Drifters backing Clyde McPhatter. Actually, this unexpected availability of time travel presents many questions. Would you go and see the Sex Pistols in all the ramshackle, “I was there” frenzy of Saint Martins College, or wait until 1977 when they’d learned to play their instruments (well, apart from Sid)? Pink Floyd at UFO with Syd Barrett, or ‘The Wall’ at Wembley?
For The Drifters, 1964 might be a better bet. The US soul / doo-wop group have gone through 60 vocalists in their time but come the 60s were having hits like ‘Under the Boardwalk’ and ‘On Broadway’.
Why this obsession with the past, I hear you cry? Some sort of midlife crisis, swapping a motorbike for vinyl? No, our town has a
annual gala day, and this year’s band in the marquee – at £27 a head – is The Drifters. Except it’s not The Drifters. Not really.
And therein lies a tale. A music manager called George Treadwell ‘formed’ the band as backing for Clyde McPhatter and owned the name. In 1958 he fired the band’s five members and ironically the replacement members went on to great success in the 60s and 70s.
Even when the hits dried up they soldiered on – in 1975 ‘There Goes My First Love’ was a hit, just before a court case over the ownership of the name saw as many as nine different versions of the band in existence at various times. This bizarre and confusing situation saw one group ‘legal’ only in Canada, another featuring Ron McPhatter (son of Clyde), and even The Drifters Legends – managed by Treadwell featuring singers with a less tenuous link to the band than those in the band proper. Meanwhile ‘The Drifters’ soldiered on – the 1980s may have been a good time for a true chicken-on-the-basket experience, when Temptations lead Louis Price was brought in, and joined by a returning Ben E King.
Unfortunately it’s hard for me to be sanctimonious about what is, after all, just a tribute act. Where do you draw the line? As Mancunian despot Mark E Smith once said, “If it’s me and yer granny on bongos, it’s The Fall”. Given that he’s dispensed with nearly 50 musicians over the years, at least he’s honest.
So I note that glam rockers The Sweet are on tour in December. Turns out two of the four founding
members are dead, but a 50% survival rate isn’t bad in the music business. Sadly, they are divided into two factions: ‘Andy Scott’s Sweet’ and ‘Steve Priest’s Sweet’. Joining them on the bill are The Rubettes, fronted by Alan Williams (who mimed to original vocalist Paul Da Vinci on Top of the Pops). Also on the bill: Mud 2, who at least have the grace to tip us off that the closest they’ve come to Les Gray and co’s Mud is in the dictionary.
Happily, the name is, usually, a clue. Nearvana, Australian Doors, Bootleg Beatles – or for listeners in Scotland, Peat Loaf and Irn Midden. Although Deaf Shepherd and the Red Hot Chilli Pipers aren’t actually tribute acts at all, they’ve just folkies and pipers with a mischievous sense of humour.
Unfortunately, the joke will be on the punters this week as The so-called Drifters – or most likely, their management – will be laughing all the way to the bank.

NUMBERS ARE FUTILE
Sunlight on Black Horizon
(Song, by Toad)
Here in the UK, there’s sometimes an arrogance about music – didn’t we invent pop, after all? Sure, the Americans gave us Elvis, but apart from that… and as for Eurovision…
So when you learn that one of the most inventive releases in a while comes from a Greco-Portuguese duo, it’s time to reassess.
The eight tracks on this debut long-player may flit between established, recognisable styles – a bit of prog here, decidedly psychedelic overtones there – but as a whole, it sounds like it comes from, well, another country, at least.
Ok, make that another planet. Choral vocals ring out, swirling synths cascade around the mix as dulcimer-like samples punctuate heady, towering riffs.
It should probably be noted that the pair – Filipe Bernardo and Panos Baras – met while studying in this country. So we can maybe take a little credit for what is a great album in any language. HHHH

(This article originally appeared in the Kirkintilloch Herald)