TRIBUTE BAND: Not so The Stones in Worthing
THINK of most Rolling Stones tribute bands, and the sad fact is that a large part of their act is built around taking the mick out of Mick & Co.
Not so The Stones , who make their Worthing debut at the Assembly Hall on Friday, February 5, at 8pm.
"We copy everything, but I don't accentuate it or try to make it funny like other bands do," says lead singer and Jagger-lookalike Ben Wattam.
"We do all the clothes from all the different eras but we don't take it to a joke level.
"Other bands use it as a gimmick. We put on a great show with the music and the lights and the act and the mannerisms, but it is all a proper tribute.
"We actually see it as an art form. We do it seriously!"
For Ben, it all goes back to the day he started to grow his hair: "My family was always into The Rolling Stones and The Beatles and Led Zeppelin and the big rock bands, and when I grew my hair people started calling me Mick Jagger.
"I hated it. I didn't want to look like Mick Jagger at the age of 12. I wanted to look like Bon Jovi! But it followed me right through school and university and into work.
"But I was actually brought up on the Stones. My dad is a folk guitarist, and I was always playing the guitar, and I was just heavily into the Stones. It's just the liveliness and the rawness and the energy that the Rolling Stones bring to their music. I would say that the Mick Taylor era, late 60s, early 70s, was my favourite era.
"Anyway, I was playing music for quite a long time. I went to a jam sessions. I used to have a band, and we decided to do a couple of Rolling Stones numbers.
"We did Jumpin' Jack Flash just off the cuff, and your keyboard player - and now managersaw me and said I sounded like Mick Jagger.
"He asked me if I would like to do a one-off Rolling Stones tribute.
"It went down so well that we decided to take it a little bit further and started a covers band. It has just grown and grown from there."
Tickets on 01903 206206.
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Monday 13 February 2012
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