As far as tribute acts go, they’re either done to a very high professional standard, or are done on an unsatisfactory level.
Keef Le Reef, the main singer of ‘Not The Rolling Stones’, defiantly rose to the occasion. Not only did he sound awfully like Mick Jagger himself, he was also one of the most incredible lookalikes I have ever seen!
Keef (clearly being a big ‘stones’ fan), obviously knew the ins and outs of Jagger’s stage work when it came to live performances. If you were a Stones fan, you were in for a treat!
On Saturday 11th November at the Colchester Arts Centre, I was lucky enough to come along to one of their gigs. The event itself attracted a diverse age group, from young kids to seniors. Doors opened at 7.30pm and the tribute band started 45 minutes later.
I was quite surprised to see how popular the event turned out to be. Initially, I was sceptical about how it would pan out, but nonetheless I pushed myself down to the front so I could get a clear view of how they expressed themselves on stage – and it’s evident from first glance the amount of effort that had gone into this tribute act. T
The band announced that they were surviving on little sleep as the previous day they did a gig all the way in Muscat, Oman. From this alone, I was pretty impressed.
They began with ‘Start me up’ and I’m pleased to say they sounded a lot like The Rolling Stones. However, with a few songs in they began to all sound the same.
Nonetheless the crowd were loving it.
I was fascinated by how talented the three guitarists were, not forgetting the man on the keyboard and the man on the drums! They engaged with the crowd well by encouraging a singalong song to ‘Ruby Tuesday’. I am not the biggest Rolling Stones fan but from this I can gather that this is rather a popular song.
The crowd were singing along and the overall atmosphere was amazing.
They decided to do something a bit different; Keef Le Reef or ‘Mick Jagger’ did a duet with the backing singer. They both got really into it and it worked very well. ‘Mick’ danced to every single song while singing and, as previously mentioned, they were a little sleep deprived so this was very admirable. Likewise with the guitarists, backing singer and the other instrumentalists.
After nine songs there was a short interval whereby everyone piled to the bar for refreshments. Some time passed and they were back on stage. This time starting up with ‘Sympathy for the Devil’. The crowd seemed more alive than ever as there was a lot more dancing – whether that was due to the consumption of alcohol or not I do not know but that’s beside the point.
The crowd were really getting into the performance. ‘Paint it Black’ was by far their best song, thereby the one that got the biggest reaction, everybody including me were singing along and I did genuinely get a sense of being at a real concert and not the Arts Centre.
After a total of 15 songs the gig finished at about 10.20.
From peoples facial expressions I gathered they had a phenomenal night – and I’m pleased to say I did too.
Cassie Murphy