1ollie3
(Birmingham)
Wednesday 19 Jun 2024, 10:09am
Billy Corgan needed to complete the lineup of a new Smashing Pumpkins tribute band. The rest of the band is in place and ready to go.
We aim to be the UK’s most authentic tribute to The Smashing Pumpkins, replicating the sound and image of the band as closely as possible. We’ll focus mainly on the original run of the Smashing Pumpkins, playing tracks from Gish through to Machina and everything in between.
Our Billy Corgan needs to share a passion for the Smashing Pumpkins and must be committed to establishing a high quality, authentic tribute act. Must be able to emulate the real Billy’s vocals as closely as possible, and also needs to be a competent guitar player capable of playing Billy’s lead and rhythm parts. Visuals are important for any good tribute band, so our Billy must be willing to replicate the real Billy’s image on stage. Aesthetically, we’ll be going for the mid-90’s Pumpkins image, so Billy would wear a black Zero shirt, silver trousers and ideally have a shaved head for gigs.
Location isn't important provided you are willing and able to travel. Current members are based in Birmingham, Yorkshire and Gloucestershire. The plan is to learn and practice our parts at home and meet up once a month for a 4/5 hour rehearsal until we're ready to start gigging. We aim to gig once a month on average. When we start gigging, rehearsals will be rare, only when we have a longer gap between gigs or when we want to add more songs to the setlist. Gigs will be all over the UK and will hopefully include a mix of festivals, headline shows and double-headers with other tribute bands.
In terms of gear, I have a replica of Billy’s blue 70’s hardtail Strat with ghost/pumpkin stickers which I’d be willing to lend to our front-man for gigs and rehearsals. This is a genuine limited edition 70’s hardtail Fender Strat re-issue, to which I’ve fitted with Billy’s signature Dimarzio pickups, had professionally re-sprayed in blue and I have replicas of the stickers. I’m also currently working on a replica of the Bat-Strat, complete with Lace Sensor pickups, which will be the other guitar (two guitars needed for different tunings). Our Billy will need their own amp/pedals or high-quality modeling gear to emulate the real Billy’s guitar tones as closely as possible.
Transport will also be necessary to get to gigs and rehearsals.
All members of the band will need to contribute towards the cost of rehearsals, and there may be some other expenses as we get the band up and running, such as buying the necessary gear and contributing to the cost of a video showreel to help market the band to promoters and booking agents. We’ll recoup these start-up costs and hopefully start making some money once we start gigging.