TRIBUTE ARTISTS ALERT

Soul-Patrol is going to start taking these entities more seriously.

In fact, we will have a hardcore/serious review of an outstanding “Tribute Artist” in the next Soul-Patrol Newsletter, just to kick things off.

We commit to the following

1. Posting documented HONEST reviews on our web site.

2. Actively encourage music fans to spend the money and enjoy the really good ones.

4. Actively discourage music fans from spending their money on poor quality.

5. Identifying FAKE groups along the way.

We commit to using the TRUTH IN ROCK legislation as a guideline.

We commit to developing our own policies for “grey areas.”

SO WHATS A GREY AREA?????

Sometimes a FAKE GROUP isn’t identified by the characteristics of a corrupt group. Sometimes it isn’t the group or its management that is corrupt. Sometimes the promoter is the source of the corruption!

FOR EXAMPLE….

1. INTENTIONAL MIS-SPELLING – Intentional mis-spelling the name of the artist wrong in the advertising. Technically they aren’t advertising that the original artist will be there. But if you just glance at the ad, without the assistance of a dictionary, you might just think that the original artist will be performing.

2. LARGE/BOLD/FLAMBOYANT AD TEXT – Sometimes you will see the name of an original group in LARGE/BOLD/FLAMBOYANT TEXT being used and right underneath/next to such text the word revue/tribute/re-creation/etc. on the smallest possible font size. Technically, the promoter isn’t trying to claim the original artist will be performing. However, we know that promoter is trying to fool the public into buying a ticket.

3. SPINOFFS – (the toughest of all)

Sometimes groups break up. For both good and bad reasons. We aren’t trying to be the judge of that. However, what it often results in are multiple people utilizing the original group name. Let’s call them “SPINOFFS” and sometimes there are more than just 2. When that happens, you can almost always count on at least one of the “SPINOFFS” consistently giving a great performance and at at least one of the “SPINOFFS” consistently giving a terrible performance. THE PROBLEM IS THAT TECHNICALLY ONE OF THOSE “SPINOFFS” IS LEGALLY ENTITLED TO USE THE ORIGINAL NAME. THE OTHER “SPINOFF” ARE TECHNICALLY “TRIBUTE GROUPS.” (even though the “tribute” may actually be better than the remaining originals)

I have an opinion on how I think we should handle “SPINOFFS.” However, before Soul-Patrol creates a policy in this area, I’d be really curious as to how you think of “SPINOFFS?

There are of course other “grey areas.” If you know of other, please send them to me.

In fact if you already have some of the lists that you know that I will ultimately be crating of your own, please send them to me, so that I can get a head start