Tribute Night

Tribute Night is a long and winding train ride through the wonderful, eclectic world of popular music and a celebration of its most important, influential, innovative and fun exponents.  These are the people who crafted the soundtracks of our lives.

It’s a simple but winning formula: every three months, a different artist is featured and various local musicians play various songs by the featured artist in various and often surprising ways.  Occasionally, it is more of a theme than an artist.  All are welcome to get involved by choosing a song or two to learn and play on the night or by coming to listen and sing along.  If you’ve been to one of these nights before, you’ll know that they can be silly amounts of fun.

Following a pandemic-induced hiatus, we returned with a Christmas Special in December 2022, and the schedule proper continues with Beyoncé & Destiny’s Child on Saturday 18 March 2023.

To find out more, including how to get involved, send an email to Zac at TributeNight@hotmail.co.uk and join the mailing list.  You can also visit our Facebook page for more information.

A Brief History Of Tribute Night

The seeds were sown when esteemed performance poet, celebrated author and local legend, AF Harrold, thought it might be rather fun to organise an evening of Leonard Cohen songs in July 2005.  It was so successful and fun that he repeated the whole exercise a year later, decided to hold similar nights for different artists at quarterly intervals, and thus was spawned Tribute Night.

Now in its seventeenth year, the Tribute Night formula has been applied to the following artists and themes:

1. Leonard Cohen - August 2006
2. Prince - November 2006
3. David Bowie - February 2007
4. The Beatles - May 2007
5. Bob Dylan - August 2007
6. Frank Zappa - November 2007
7. Queen - February 2008
8. Blondie - May 2008
9. The Kinks - August 2008
10. XTC - November 2008
11. The Smiths & Morrissey - February 2009
12. Kate Bush - April 2009
13. Led Zeppelin - August 2009
14. The Cure - November 2009
15. The Rolling Stones - February 2010
16. Madness - May 2010
17. Fleetwood Mac - August 2010
18. Depeche Mode - November 2010
19. The Velvet Underground & Lou Reed - February 2011
20. Elvis Costello - May 2011
21. One Hit Wonders - 5th Birthday Special - August 2011
22. Pink Floyd - November 2011
23. Pulp - February 2012
24. ABBA - May 2012
25. Joni Mitchell - August 2012
26. Black Sabbath - November 2012
27. Pet Shop Boys - February 2013
28. R.E.M. - May 2013
29. Björk - August 2013
30. Bruce Springsteen - November 2013
31. The Clash - February 2014
32. Bee Gees - May 2014
33. The Who - August 2014
34. Beck - November 2014
35. T.Rex - February 2015
36. 60 Years Of Eurovision - May 2015
37. Nirvana - August 2015
38. Chic - November 2015
39. Then That’s What We Called Music 1991 - Celebrating The Rising Sun’s 25th Birthday - February 2016
40. It’s Your Birthday Number Ones! - pre-10th Birthday Special - May 2016
41. Tribute Night’s Greatest Hits - 10th Birthday Special - August 2016
42. Radiohead - Tribbers’ Choice - November 2016
43. George Michael & Wham! - February 2017
44. Status Quo - May 2017
45. Carole King - August 2017
46. Bob Marley - November 2017
47. Kylie Minogue - January 2018
48. Billy Joel - May 2018
49. James Bond Themes - August 2018
50. Eagles - November 2018
51. Madonna - January 2019
52. Small Faces - May 2019
53. Stevie Wonder - August 2019
54. AC/DC - November 2019
55. Elvis Presley - February 2020
56. Beyoncé & Destiny’s Child - March 2023
57. The Human League & Heaven 17 - June 2023

In addition to the above, there are the occasional ‘off-piste’ specials to mark particular occasions, standing outside the regular quarterly schedule.  So far, these have included:

• Leonard Cohen Night III: Sing Another Song, Boys - July 2015 - marking the 10th anniversary of the event that sowed the seeds of Tribute Night.
• David Bowie: “…and the stars look very different today.” - April 2016 - a special celebration of the late, great David Bowie following the news of his untimely death.
• Christmas Special - an annual festive shindig.