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Tonight, Matthew, we’re going to be The Doors

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Did anyone else spot Field Music’s announcement of their side gig as a Doors tribute band? The stark reality is that there’s simply not enough money in being Field Music so they need a side hustle and what better way of doing than by playing music that they love to actual paying audiences? Has anyone else ever done anything like this before? I’m not sure they have. We’re definitely in an entirely new phase of the music biz now.

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  1. So, earlier today I mentioned on the Field Music Facebook that we’d started playing gigs as a Doors tribute band. A gentleman called Phil responded with a really interesting question which throws up loads of issues regarding creativity and the music industry at the present time. Please don’t hassle Phil – he may be a bit disappointed in us and, more so, disappointed with the implications – but it is definitely a worthwhile question. He said, “Genuine question- why would you do this? I mean, the Doors didn’t become brilliant by being a tribute band, rather by exploring their own musical and spiritual dark corners. Seems odd, in some ways unconfident for a band I perceive as a popular act to spend their time performing as a tribute act.”

    The first stage in answering this question is the straightforward one. Why are we doing this? Making a living from making our own music has become increasingly difficult. We need other income streams. We have a lot of musical skill. We love The Doors. We became musicians by learning how to play this stuff when we were kids. Lots of venues put on tribute acts. Lots of people go to see tribute acts. We think that we could be really, really bloody good at doing this one. By doing maybe one show a month we can fill a hole in our dire finances.

    The next stage is the why behind each component. Why has it become difficult to make a living from original music? Well, for one, it’s always been difficult. But where we used to see a lot of casual record buying – how many of you spent a tenner on a CD back in the 90s and only ever listened to it once? – we now have a streaming culture where casual listeners get the same experience but without wasting that cash (which inadvertently subsided thousands of smaller artists.) Streaming also funnels attention and money to the top – the middle class of record makers either fights to get to the top table (by making music which fits the streaming paradigm) or gets a real job.

    In our case in particular, we’ve now been going for twenty years, sticking rigorously to making the kind of music we want to make with absolutely no regard to what might be popular. Without an indie dancefloor hit we can’t do the heritage circuit (and honestly, a Doors tribute band is probably more suited to my temperament), and without any sense of novelty (oh, another Field Music album ruminating on the passing of time, memory, anxiety and disappointment. How surprising!, and without fitting into any playlistable genre, we have quietly passed into contemporary irrelevance, despite writing new songs and making new records which are, no false modesty here, as good as, or better than anything we’ve made before.

    And on the subject of avoiding false modesty, I mentioned our musical skill. Boy, we are really, really skilled. Thirty+ years of developing as instrumentalists, singers, composers, arrangers, engineers, bandleaders… We’re really good at it. But in the current climate, those skills are basically worthless. The grassroots music industry is so on its-arse, that no one has any money to pay us to employ those skills. In recent years we’ve often been asked to be the house band for one all star event or another, working with different singers and different ensembles, learning their songs plus covers, twenty or thirty at a time. Even when we’ve been paid for these things, there’s no way the fee can cover the time we put into working on these events…

    …We always go above and beyond. And, you know, that’s fine – we like to contribute to our musical community. And also, each time it becomes something like a research project – we’re interrogating other people’s music, finding out what makes it tick and inevitably synthesising some of that into what we make ourselves. But also, wouldn’t it be awesome if we could actually get paid (more than a fraction of minimum wage) for this level of musical expertise we have?

    Why do people go to watch tribute acts? Because they want to be entertained! For better or worse, we haven’t been entertainers since we played (Doors songs, obvs) round the pubs in the mid-90s, and even then, I’m sure the most entertaining thing about us was seeing little kids playing old music so, so seriously. We’d go home after a gig and analyse our faults over bottles of cheap supermarket lager, almost exactly as we do now. Since we started writing our own music, we’ve been treating it (and how we present it) as art – never as entertainment. It’s no wonder we’re such a niche concern. It’s difficult not to be hugely precious about our creations. Maybe we can let that go (and feel some joy) by lovingly playing someone else’s music to entertain an audience.

    As an addendum, any embarrassment I might have felt about doing this has dissolved. Why the hell should I be embarrassed about devoting a chunk of time to music that I love, playing it with people I love, applying to it the same passion, dedication and care we take with all of our musical endeavours, and doing it all so that we still have time to make our own music, and as Phil puts it “exploring [our] own musical and spiritual dark corners?”

    Peace, love and faux-leather trousers,
    David/Jim

  2. A moving commentary on where we are today re “popular” music making. And what can we as (relatively) Ordinary Joes do?
    The streaming genie is out of the bottle and whilst buying CDs, watching live gigs, buying merch etc is obviously good, for most acts without hits or enormous fan bases, that makes little or no financial difference.
    My son and my 70 year-old cousin are the only people I know who still buy physical CDs and/or vinyl and plays them on proper old-fashioned hi-fi equipment. Recently I’ve noticed a minor trend of separate bookstand speakers driven by streaming amps but the vast majority play a small standalone unit , mostly through their phones.
    As ever, AfterWorders are the exception rather than the rule

  4. “Lots of venues put on tribute acts. Lots of people go to see tribute acts”

    This is very true, many small venues do this because (a) it’s cheaper for them, (b) not too many established bands will want to play a 500-1000 capacity venue, (c) the audience know what they’re getting.

    “Making a living from making our own music has become increasingly difficult.”

    Sadly a reality (unless you play enormodomes), so does make sense to find another income stream. And then throw an original into the show, and be sure to have a well stocked merch table.

    Fair play to them.
    And it’s not unlike out of work actors waiting tables or other fill in jobs until the break comes.

  5. I must say that Field Music have completely passed me by, but that defence/explanation made a lot of sense. Good luck to them for trying something different to make a living. I hope it works for them.

    I’m sure that, thanks to TV, social media, and, to some extent, Simon Cowell and his “talent” shows, there must be a whole generation that imagines that all singers and musicians who manage to release an album and/or single, or hit it big on streaming platforms, must be living the high life from day one. Clearly that is far from the truth.

    I recall an interview with Steve Hogarth of Marillion, who has been with the band for the best part of 40 years, and was a jobbing musician for years before that. True, their days of smash hits (and, indeed, Smash Hits) are long behind them, but they have released numerous albums that have done OK, and their fan weekends are always packed. IIRC, he said that in a good year, he probably earns about the same as your local GP. OK, that’s a good wedge compared to many of us, but it’s not multiple-mansions-and-private-plane territory. And that’s after decades in the business.

    Bravo to Field Music for being do honest about what must be a difficult situation. They are undoubtedly not alone.

  6. If cover bands are done in the right way, ie no dressing up like the subject in their heyday, and the focus being the music itself, then what’s the problem?
    Recently I’ve seen (the superbly named) Echoes Of The Bunnymen, who focus on the original band’s first 4 albums, with, not so much a meticulous detail, (although they are bloody good at that) but more a “reenactment” or “restoration” if you like, playing with the punky zeal and sheer locked in tightness of those early years, a feat which the originals just can’t quite pull of these days. Honestly, check these guys out, you won’t regret it.
    My point is that 3 of the four are in another band, The Amber List, who plough a similar furrow but with all their own material. It’s great in it own right but it is almost impossible to get traction these days and I suspect Echoes means their other band becomes a little more manageable.

    • If I went to see a tribute to a band known for a strong visual element, Abba let’s say, I’d be disappointed if act didn’t dress up. Not that a I often do. I can hear the country music festival in the park at the end of my road from this sofa, and will shortly be treated (audio only) to tribute acts to Shania Twain, Chris Stapleton and Luke Combs. These last two names mean nothing to me, but the town centre was awash with stetsons and fringed cowboy boots earlier and I guess the tribute acts dress up too.

      • The (American) singer in our Americana band was delighted to hear there’d be a Country flavoured festival, subsidised by the local council. Talking to one of the organisers, they promised a varied bill featuring name headliners plus local artists, who were encouraged to apply for the lower bill/smaller stage. So she applied.

        The lineup was released featuring a decent headliner for each day… and no local acts at all, just cover bands (Dolly, Cash, generic country etc). It’s not the end of the world we didn’t get a spot, but no acts at all coming from the local area was a bit of a shocker. Wonder if the council know (or care) this is how their money is being spent?

  7. Artists of all stripes do whatever is necessary to earn a crust and survive. No different to anybody else. Unless you are born into a family where money is no object of course. During the course of my life I’ve been a roadsweeper, I’ve worked on the bins, I’ve drawn the dole, printed t-shirts, managed a sign making company and been a bookseller amongst other things. Musicians just like other artists can’t expect preferential treatment. You do what is necessary to survive and to hopefully keep creating.

    • Indeed, ordinary jobbing musicians will do their own gigs, back others, teach, write articles and try to live as cheaply as possible. Lots of quite well known musicians do 121 teaching on line, for example. Songwriters run songwriting courses, etc. The purist is one bad week away from mini cabbing.

  8. It just amazes me that so many of these has-beens and also-rans are still going. I guess it’s better than the alternative and enough fans and admirers want it. Tribute bands can be a great night out and often enable us to see an act that would otherwise be in an unappealing venue in more comfortable, modest surroundings with convenient conveniences you might say, an important factor these days.

  9. Good for them, A) for doing it, and B) being so open about it, I hope it works and they get to make a decent living from playing music, surely the baseline ambition here…

    In terms of the wider music biz, I can’t help remembering that years ago, in reference to “Stars In Their Eyes”, Chris de Burgh wryly commented that he couldn’t get booked onto a prime time Saturday night TV show, but someone impersonating him could…

    All that said, a big part of me thinks it’s utterly bizarre that a band who Prince publicly bigged-up can’t make a living, but them’s the breaks I guess…

  11. There are also bands like the now defunct Dylan Project, which was Tulane hit maker Steve Gibbons, along with various Fairporters, who performed a very credible show of Dylan songs. In that band was PJ Wright, of Steve Gibbons Band, Little Johnny England and Trad.Arr. He was also in the short lived Fotheringay 2, before Jerry Donahue’s catastrophic stroke scuppered that. So he has, with other alumni thereof, set up the Sandy Denny Project, and very good they are too. I have not seen them, but the equivalent John Martyn Project get very good reviews.
    There will be more of this.

    • I saw The Dylan Project a few times they were always excellent and I have some of the band’s CDs. I met with Steve Gibbons a couple of times at these shows he was excellent fellow each time. I’m glad to see that he’s still touring.

  12. My SOS pal interviewed Field Music at the time of (Measure) and they were barely scraping by then, so to hear their income has fallen since means they must be really hard up. They also have kids now.

    If they need to do a few covers gigs to pay for the next Field Music album, good luck to them.

    • Indeed! Probably my favourite “new” band* of the last 20 years: I hope they can keep it together. I’d go and see them doing Doors covers – or Prince covers – or Gentle Giant covers – whatever they need to do, really…

      (*you know what I mean – not old 1970s prog, etc)

  13. Fair play to them. As an added bonus the announcement has probably got Field Music more attention than anything they’ve done as themselves in years. I’m now going to give them a first listen, something that I probably wouldn’t have done otherwise.

    • I’m certainly going to keep an eye open for any local appearances.

      They do have a bit of previous for this sort of thing too – some years back I saw them perform a specially commissioned set of CBeebies stompers for a kids event at the Durham Book Festival. Highlights included ripping versions of the Octonauts theme and Go Jetters, as well as a (mercifully brief) chorus of Baby Shark.

  17. There’s a certain strain of music snob that decries playing covers on the basis that’s it’s automatically inferior because it’s not “authentic”. More often than they are ardent fans of 60s and 70s bands that played plenty of cover versions in their day, as well as appropriating the music of others without due acknowledgement.

    An example is a blues guitarist I follow on FB who’s in his early 30s who was bad mouthing tribute bands on the basis he finds it difficult to get gigs in venues “because of them”. Naturally he’s also totally opposed to streaming (although his stuff is all on the main platforms) and slagged off Glastonbury form start to end. I pointed out that all of these involve musicians paid for working and audiences being entertained. And he plays cover versions. As unimpressed as he was by me pointing this out, to his credit he didn’t block me (yet).

    I can’t help by compare him to older (and IMHO more talented guys) like Geoff Whitehorn or Robbie McIntosh who have taken all sorts of gigs over the years in between doing their own thing when they can. And as far as I know, not taken to badmouthing other musicians as a result.

    More power to Field Music’s collective elbows.

  18. Thing is, tribute bands are what people want because the originals are mostly no longer around. I think the concept has changed from being perceived as a poor man’s cheesy night out to a set of highly professional and polished acts. I’ve just got back from seeing Rumours of Fleetwood Mac for the second time this year (the bright lights of Basingstoke beckoned once more) and stonkingly good they were too. So much so that I didn’t even notice they had a different ‘Stevie Nicks’ from the last time I saw them.

    I’m conflicted over the concept of original acts moonlighting as tribute bands though. R.E.M. as a Byrds tribute band? Adele doing Dusty Springfield? Oasis ripping off The Beatles – no, wait……

  19. If Field Music bring their DOORS show to Stockholm, I will definitely go.

    Good luck to them. Their honesty about how tough it is to make a living as a musician in 2025 will hopefully make a lot of people give this all some thought.

  20. The Small Fakers (who are also genuinely fantastic live) seem to be able to fund their unfortunately still fairly obscure originals band The Veras. And try as you might you won’t get to see the Small Faces live any time soon.

  22. Something that struck me from Field Music’s statement, quoted above:

    “Why do people go to watch tribute acts? Because they want to be entertained! For better or worse, we haven’t been entertainers since we played (Doors songs, obvs) round the pubs in the mid-90s, and even then, I’m sure the most entertaining thing about us was seeing little kids playing old music so, so seriously. We’d go home after a gig and analyse our faults over bottles of cheap supermarket lager, almost exactly as we do now. Since we started writing our own music, we’ve been treating it (and how we present it) as art – never as entertainment. It’s no wonder we’re such a niche concern. ”

    I recall a statement from the Artistic Director of Tomorrow’s Warriors, Gary Crosby. He said musicians must never forget they are entertainers, if they want to make a living at it.

    Perhaps that is why Indie music has never been quite as popular as Dance music with Joe Public. It’s just not as entertaining.

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