4 years ago / Admin
FAN HALEN - Van Halen Tribute Act...
We're speaking with phenomenal guitarist Derek Fuller who plays the role of iconic ROCK guitarist Eddie Van Halen in one of the world’s premier and most AUTHENTIC tribute to Van Halen, FAN HALEN.
Hi Derek and welcome to The TRIBUTE Show from Australia….
DF:- Thank you, excited to be talking with you and all the Rockers down under!
TTS:- How long has FAN HALEN been together?
DF:- 2018 will mark our 15th year doing Fan Halen, which honestly I can’t believe. I never in my wildest dreams would have thought we’d be doing this for this long. When we started, we were in our late 30s, now we’re all in our early 50s. I thought no one would ever want to see a bunch of 50 year olds trying to reenact Van Halen but what I didn’t account for is our audience is growing older with us… and they’re still showing up so I guess we’ll just keep on doing it until no one shows up!
TTS:- Was it hard to put together this band as your bassist George DuBose and vocalist Ernie Berru have an uncanny likeness to original Van Halen members Michael Anthony & David Lee Roth which fits our slogan “you won’t believe your eyes!” ?
DF:- It wasn’t as difficult as you might think. Yes George is Michael Anthony’s doppelganger and Ernie looks a lot like a young David Lee Roth but what you may not realize are these guys, including myself and our drummer Michael Thompson, are die-hard Van Halen fans. All of us grew up with Van Halen being our favorite band, going to see Van Halen, wearing the Van Halen concert jersey to high school, etc.. Because we’re all so passionate about Van Halen we kind of all gravitated to each other.
TTS:- You have such a recognisable name for your tribute band. What made you choose FAN HALEN ?
DF:- Actually our drummer came up with the name. There was a band in Los Angeles called “Fans” back in the day, so he took that and came up with Fan Halen. The instant we heard it, we said that’s it! It’s perfect. We’re obviously huge fans of Van Halen and when you see it on the marquee you know exactly who we’re paying tribute to. Oh and by the way, we received a letter from Eddie Van Halen letting us know he loves the name too!
TTS:- We all love the early era Van Halen but do you also perform all the other eras of Van Halen ?
DF:- Well, it depends on how you look at it. We believe there’s only one Van Halen and that’s when Diamond David Lee Roth was/is the singer. The other version to us is Van Hagar, which is also a great band, but a completely different band in our opinion. So to be more direct we only do David Lee Roth era Van Halen. Although we have on occasion done some Sammy Hagar VH when we have our friend from Phoenix come up and join us for some tunes.
TTS:- How much of the “REAL" Van Halen Show do you incorporate into your show from staging, guitars & equipment ?
DF:- We try and be as “authentic” as possible, this is why our tagline is, “The World’s Most Authentic Tribute to Van Halen.” We study old bootleg videos, pictures, audio recordings etc. and incorporate as much as possible of the Van Halen show into our show. All our instruments are exact replicas, our amps are exact replicas, our backdrops, our wardrobe, stage banter, stage moves, etc. Our favorite compliment after a show is when a guy comes up and tells us how our show brought him right back when he saw Van Halen for the first time in 1983 and he felt like he just saw Van Halen again. That’s pretty awesome.
TTS:- Eddie Van Halen is the most iconic guitarist of the modern era, do you find it hard or even intimidating performing all his signature sounds, guitar playing as well as on stage antics live knowing you would also have a legion of guitarists in the audience glued to your guitar playing ?
First and foremost, there’s only one Eddie Van Halen and NO ONE, I mean NO ONE, can duplicate his playing, as he is a one of a kind guitar genius. I just do my best. I’ve been an “EVH” student most of my life and there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t practice and try to improve my “Eddie licks.” Now having said that, yes I use to be a little intimidated. I would think, who am I to think I can play as well as arguably the world’s best rock guitarist. However, today I’m not intimidated at all. Yes, there are guitar players in the crowd, they’re the ones staring at my fingers, but they’re such a small percentage of the crowd as the majority just want to have a great time and get lost in the illusion that they’re at a Van Halen concert and I focus primarily on them. Now that’s not to say I don’t pick out a guitar player in the crowd and position myself right in front of them right before the Ice Cream Man lead just for fun.
TTS:- What has been your most memorable show/performance ?
DF:- Over the 15 years we’ve had many memorable shows. Performing on live TV to 40 million homes at the Whisky a-go-go in Hollywood twice was memorable for sure. Performing on the same stage as Elvis Presley at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas was memorable. Performing in front of 30,000 New Year’s Eve revelers in Downtown Las Vegas was memorable. Performing for the US troops on an air force base in Tokyo Japan on the 4th of July was memorable as they were so thankful. But I guess the most memorable show was when we performed in front of 15,000 people in Dallas Texas. What made this show so memorable was because we performed at the same venue, same stage, same sound system etc. as Van Halen played. It was the closest to feeling like a “real” rock band and not just a tribute band. I remember flying home from that show and pinching myself thinking, did we just do that?!?
TTS:- Have you toured outside the USA ?
DF:- Yes! One of the greatest perks of being in a tribute band is we’ve been able to travel the world. We’ve performed in Italy, Tokyo, Costa Rica, Trinidad, Canada, Mexico and we’d love to perform in Australia one day!
TTS:- We have played you guys on our TV Show here in Australia to rave reviews so here’s the deal ! We’d love to see your fantastic show down under in Australia in the near future. Any plans or anything you want to tell our Australian fans ?
DF:- We’d love to perform in Australia as we know there’s many many Van Halen fans there and I think they’d really enjoy the show. I’ll leave you with this, and we often say this during our show. We don’t think we’re Van Halen, we’re just “fans” like you! What we do is celebrate America’s #1 rock-n-roll band so come join the celebration!
TTS:- Thanks for your time Derek and The TRIBUTE Show in Australia wishes you and your band more success and fingers crossed to see you here in Australia !
DF:- Thank you!
To find out more about FAN HALEN visit them here:-
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
OFFICIAL FACEBOOK PAGE
https://www.facebook.com/fanhalen
CHECK OUT THEIR UPCOMING TOUR DATES
http://www.bandsintown.com/fanhalen
Read more4 years ago / Admin
POISON 'US - Poison Tribute Act...
With Classics like "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" - "Nothin But A Goodtime" - "Unskinny Bop" and more, we are joined by the and only Matty Bee, AKA ‘Aussie Brett’, from Australia’s only POISON tribute band “Poison'Us” in New South Wales, Australia.
TTS:- Hi Matty and welcome to The TRIBUTE Show !
MB:- Thanks for having me!
TTS:- We love the name. Who came up with it and what made you choose it ?
MB:- Our name came from wanting to incorporate the actual word “Poison” but the “Us” refers to the 4 of us in the show! So we all felt it was perfect!
TTS:- We notice that you also do BRET MICHAELS’ solo material in your show, how has the audience embraced it ?
MB:- We actually don’t do any Bret Michaels solo songs but what we do occasionally is songs off the album Poison’D which was a compilation of covers Poison recorded. Bret does incorporate these at times in his Bret Micheals Band Show.
As to the Audience they love to hear well known tunes that they can react to and rock along with so they work well.
TTS:- Have any of the POSION members reached out to you as your the only POISON tribute in Australia ?
MB:- This question is one I’d like to not answer in detail, however I will say I have had contact from the band and they are very aware of our show!
TTS:- Over the last year we have noticed the TRIBUTE scene in Australia has really picked up with major tours of many different TRIBUTE artists from overseas touring Australia.
What is your opinion on that?
MB:- I love it - Live Music needs to be heard and being here in Australia we don’t really get the regular shows or tours of major artists due to our distance! Having Tribute shows that accurately replicate the shows they represent is not easy, and to see shows that have gotten every aspect right is always well received by the fans! It’s respected if it’s right and the music is available to be heard live.
TTS:- Who and what were your influences which made you become a vocalist ?
MB:- Without question Paul Stanley is my number one - always has been always will be. Kiss are my favourite band hands down.I however dont sing in the same area as Paul and am a definite Baritone with my vocal style! Poison came into my world in 1986 and i was hooked! Bret has always been an inspiration for me and I had an uncanny likeness to him so it all developed from there!
Other musical influences would be Motley Crüe, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi so you can see I’m a true 80s Rock Child.
TTS:- Whats your favourite song you like playing live?
MB:- The song that gets the best response is Every Rose, but I always feel a huge lift in the crowd when we start Fallen Angel. So I’d say those two are the best crowd wise.
I personally like doing Talk Dirty To Me - it’s such a killer song with some good punch and fun lyrics! So that would be my pick.
TTS:- We see that your starting to tour interstate more, especially in Melbourne.
What has that been like?
MB:- Fantastic!!! we are well known and well respected in Melbourne! Our fan base is the biggest there and to say we love it would be an understatement - we just can’t wait for our Melbourne Shows and to rock with our Melbourne fans! We are also playing in Adelaide early 2018 along with Queensland Shows throughout next year. We head to Canberra in two weeks so our show is National, we love to tour our cities to bring Poison to the people!!
TTS:- Whats the strangest things thats happened on stage or on tour?
MB:- What happens on tour stays on tour (haha) But we haven’t had anything really stand out outside of the usual Titty Flashers!
However I usually try to make the guys laugh with our own inside joke during the intro to Let It Play! I always change it up and rap in some fun sentences that at times has had us all in hysterics!!!! It’s our thing but we love it!
TTS:- Who are your favourite TRIBUTE bands firstly in Australia and Overseas?
MB:- In Australia I can’t go past our Melbourne Brothers The Australian Bon Jovi Show & Def Repplica. We owe a lot of our interstate success to those two incredible Tribute Shows.
I also love Kissteria The Australian Kiss Show and have a huge respect for Killer Queen, Appetite For Destruction, The Australian Guns n Roses Show to name a few!
Internationally there are many but some that come to mind are - Atomic Punks, Paradise Kitty, Fan Halen, Helles Belles, Raiding The Rock Vault.
TTS:- We played your on our TV Show to great reviews. We can’t wait to have you guys again on the show and a sit down interview.
But before we sign off is there anything you want to tell your Australian & even overseas fans ?
MB:- A Big thanks for the support. We plan to continue to tour and take the show to as many cities as is possible. We are planning on some overseas tours that we are excited about! Most importantly is to keep supporting live music, it’s very much appreciated and we as bands simply cannot keep doing what we do without full venues!!
It’s Nothing But A Damn Goodtime!!
TTS:- Thank you so much for your time Matty. The TRIBUTE Show in Australia wishes yourself and your ASS kicking band Poison'Us more success , and looking forward to catching up with you again.
MB:- Again much appreciated and thank you The Tribute Show for your support!!
To find out more about POISON 'US visit them here:-
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
OFFICIAL FACEBOOK PAGE
https://www.facebook.com/po1sonustributeshow
Read more