It is Wednesday November 13th, and REMbrandt are encamped at Jeff’s house, rehearsing for our show at Venue24 in Bognor on the 30th. It’s going well. We were planning for a straight rock show this time, as opposed to a potentially more complicated set, involving the piano and other additional instruments and gear.
People often ask questions about what we choose to play. The band historically has been able to play a few tracks from every one of R.E.M.’s 31 year, 15 studio album career. Not everybody appreciates a full historical retrospective though, they just want the hits. We’re thinking more that this venue needs a lot of gear, the parking isn’t very easy, and the venue is upstairs with no lift. We might be chickens, but we’re not spring chickens, so a straightforward setup is decided upon.
As I was saying...
As I was saying, all was going well, and we rattled through the songs happily enough. We finish, pack up, and then James says, “By the way, Bognor will be my last gig with the band. I’d like a bit of extra time to myself, I’ve been in the band ten years, and I think I’ve done my time.”
It was a bit of a blow, to be honest, and a surprise to all of us. There were comments afterwards as to whether I’d known it was coming, but I didn’t. He waited and told all of us together, which was a fair call.
James’s playing career as the bassist for REMbrandt started not 50 yards from Venue24 in Bognor at a bar called ‘Cheers’. That line up would have included Steve Hayden, the band’s creator and original lead singer, Rolf Smith on drums and Lloyd Gissing on lead guitar. I would have been the rhythm guitarist at that point, I didn’t step up properly until Lloyd left.
The symmetry, or geographical full circle of this seemed to appeal to James. James got co-opted into the band at a pretty early stage when our original bass player, Ben Rouse, ran away to tour the world with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. I’d recently met James at an open mic night we were running in Waterlooville, and he’d mentioned he’d played bass with a few function bands, so he seemed like a pretty safe bet.
Since then, James’s contribution to the band has been considerable. In order to do tribute bands well I think you have to go that extra bit further, otherwise what differentiates you really from an ordinary covers band? We’ve always leaned towards a live interpretation of R.E.M. rather than slavishly trying to recreate the nuances of all the records. R.E.M. themselves didn’t do that, they just wanted to be a group of friends in a rock band together. Our ethos is pretty similar.
Learning the songs properly though, with appropriate gear and authenticity takes special effort, and James has had this in spades. He has helped me push that band from a pub band to a proper theatre and festival act. We’re definitely not the most successful tribute band on the circuit, but we enjoy what we do, and we love doing something different from everybody else.
When Bill Berry, R.E.M.s original drummer left the band, Michael Stipe said “A three legged dog is still a dog, it’s just not quite the same”. And so it will be with James. Thank you for your hard work and dedication….. (my better looking, twin brother) ;-)
Anyhoo. We played the gig, it went really well - many of you came, I’m grateful for that. Check out our facebook and instagram pages for more videos and photos of the evening.
Big question now is…what do we do about it???
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