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Doing it for the kids A tech-tower of questionable safety, a bottle of beer, photocopied flyers on which the photos don't really come out. This was a familiar aesthetic reproduced with great accuracy, the only real error being that the toilet facilities were quite clean (-but this was more than made up for by starting late). The lights went down, a loud and somewhat inefficient smoke machine farted intermittently and the band sauntered on. They could have been any band, and tonight they were. A bloke who looked a bit like Morrissey minced forward and launched into 'Panic'. The DJ had indeed been hung, no discs were being spun, this was a live form of reproduction. Morrissey was the first of six look/soundalike performers who would be appearing here tonight and pretending to be someone else. Each of them would first of all sing their own greatest hits, then some covers and then return to duet with another icon later in the night - and what a line-up! Robert Smith, Damon Albarn, Kylie Minogue, David Bowie and Jarvis Cocker. This show was a very loosely constructed affair, with performers mingling with the audience in and out of character. This was the cause of some conceptual confusion for this viewer - who whilst laughing at the cheek of making Damon Albarn sing 'Live Forever', turned around to see Bowie chatting to his girlfriend. This evening wasn't about accurate reproduction, about us really believing we're seeing these people. This was an evening of personal associations - I remember where I was when I first heard ...... Forsyth and Pollard know very well the power of pop and they wield it inspirationally, knowingly and above all lovingly. This wasn't a 'performance', this was a 'gig' - and the currency of the 'gig' is the 'song'. When the audience heard Jarvis and Bowie duet on Space Oddity - the undoubted highlight of the evening - it was their euphoria for song that was filling the gaps in the performer's impressions. Notions of authenticity had been challenged, real and replica had been smudged together - but as we all bounced along to 'Common People' and shouted 'JARVIS!!' at a man who plainly wasn't - it became apparent that this was less a tribute to six pop icons as a tribute to the gig itself and a loud, pissed-up requiem for authenticity. For that now comes second to nostalgia and economics. Oasis are the new Beatles, not the new Oasis. At £20-30 a ticket, £18 a T-shirt etc., etc. many peoples pocket money doesn't stretch to seeing the real thing play live in an expensive barn somewhere. But whilst their idols might not be, the kids can rest assured that Forsyth and Pollard are doing it for them. And they're much cheaper.
Doing it for the kids This article originally appeared in Live Art Magazine, May - July 1997
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