Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Pretenders Must Be Able To Sing For Impersonators, Looks Alone Can’t Take You To The Top

Wayne Kissire steps on stage wearing his black sequined jacket and his shirt unbuttoned to midchest.

The audience response makes him feel like a music legend.

The women cheer and sway as he grabs the microphone. They sing along to his every word. They are transfixed.

Yes, the fans gathered here like Kissire. But, in truth, it’s not him they’re swooning over. It’s Neil Diamond - the man Kissire is impersonating as he sings “America” or “I Am I Said” or “Love on the Rocks.”

“I do sound just like Neil Diamond. That’s not bragging, that’s just fact. Luckily, I look a bit like him, too - with the right lights and the music playing.”

It is the lot of impersonators to be loved not for being themselves, but for being someone else. Still, as the impersonators themselves will tell you, it’s not a bad gig to have. Imitation, as the saying goes, is the sincerest form of flattery. But it’s also a good way to make a buck.

“The screaming and the yelling and whooping and the hollering - it uplifts me,” Kissire says. “It’s just a good feeling.”

Everyone has seen an Elvis impersonator - they’re a dime a dozen. But what about a Barbra Streisand or a Wayne Newton look-and-sound-alike? Among those who’ve been duplicated on the tribute circuit (the heart of which is located in Las Vegas and L.A.) are Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton and Karen Carpenter. Even Garth Brooks and the Partridge Family have found themselves flattered by mimicry.

In the near future, Spokane will play host to a number of such acts.

BackBeat, a Beatles tribute act that has appeared on television and in movies, performs at the Met Wednesday and next Thursday. Kayce Glasse transforms into Patsy Cline for her show at The Met Feb. 22. The Rolling Stones … er … Sticky Fingers (fronted by Dick Swagger and Richard Keith) perform on April 8 at Beasley Coliseum and April 9-10 at The Met. And Wild Child, a Doors tribute act, is tentatively scheduled for October.

“In my opinion, it’s a wonderful thing if it’s good,” says Bill Westbrook, president of Arizona-based Perfection Entertainment, which works with tribute groups throughout the country. “If the show is true to form and really portrays the act, then the people walk out of the concert really feeling - even though they know better - that they saw the real thing and they saw it at a reasonable price.”

When, after all, was the last time you could see The Stones for $15?

Sure, any Joe with a sneer like Mick Jagger can lip synch in a tribute act. And plenty do. But for a real class act, it isn’t enough to look like the star. You have to sing like the star, too.

“If you come out and look like Barbra Streisand and sing like Tony Martin, it could be a problem,” says Westbrook, who still gets chills when he hears a good Orbison impersonator sing “Pretty Woman.”

BackBeat got its start in 1992 when Paramount pulled together four actors who looked like the Beatles. The studio needed them for a miniseries about Elvis. But the reaction to BackBeat encouraged the band to take the show on the road.

“Being actors, it was easy for us to simulate being the Beatles. It was the music that we really had to work hard on,” says Dan “George Harrison” Lopez. “Fortunately for the four of us, we all have a real strong ability musically.”

BackBeat performs all their own instruments (replicas of those used by the Beatles) and cover the supergroup’s career from 1960 to 1970, complete with fake British accents and costume changes. The band members like to boast that it’s even their real hair, although they do use wigs to re-create the Beatles hippie days.

In addition to playing around the country, the band has been in three movies, including “Vegas Vacation” with Chevy Chase.

Lopez believes much of the interest in tribute acts such as BackBeat and Sticky Fingers has to do with frustration over today’s music.

“Overall, I don’t think the quality of music is as good as it was in the ‘50s and ‘60s. People have seen the Spice Girls and Hanson. It’s OK for what it is but it’s not the Beatles or Jimi Hendrix.”

It’s also a chance for younger kids to see acts that passed away or broke up before they were even born, says Carl James, owner of A Sign of the Times, the Spokane nostalgia store promoting the BackBeat show.

“Kids in junior high and high school are just now realizing this music is cool,” he says.

Kissire has performed around Spokane for 30 years - both as a one-man show and in bands such as Double Trouble and Fly By Night.

It was in 1991 during a stint in Nevada as a karaoke host that Kissire realized his talent for re-creating Diamond.

Kissire would sing a few Diamond tunes to put people in the proper karaoke mood. A scout for the Super Stars tribute show in Las Vegas caught his act and asked Kissire to step in for their regular Neil Diamond impersonator - who was out of town.

The response was overwhelming.

“Every time I came out on the stage and sang those songs, I had the crowd roaring. It felt so good. I felt like a star myself. I felt like Neil Diamond.”

Undeniably, there is a certain kitsch factor. There’s something funny about seeing a tribute act - about seeing a man named Dick Swagger strut and crow like Mick Jagger or seeing John Lennon revived in long hair and beads for a rendition of “Back in the USSR.”

That’s something BackBeat takes in stride. “When we watch films of the Beatles, they’re very funny guys. So we try to bring a lot of humor to our show.”

Still, it is - to say the least - a strange phenomenon to watch musicians pretend to be other musicians. But stranger even is the audience reaction.

“I have seen hundreds and hundreds of people line up for autographs from BackBeat and Sticky Fingers. I’ve seen teenage girls stand on the side of the stage and scream like they did in the ‘60s. I can’t explain it now any more than I could explain it then,” Westbrook says.

Lopez points out that, unlike some Elvis impersonators, the BackBeat boys do not actually believe they’re the Beatles.

“There have been girls who get a little excited and want to be with one of the Beatles. But we’re grounded and we know the image is what they want and not us.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONCERT BackBeat, a Tribute to the Beatles, comes to the Met Wednesday and Thursday next week. Tickets are $15 and $12, available at G&B Select-a-Seat outlets or call (800) 325-SEAT. Wayne Kissire performs at Templins Resort in Post Falls Friday and Saturday. The show starts at 8:30 p.m. and there is no cover charge.

This sidebar appeared with the story: CONCERT BackBeat, a Tribute to the Beatles, comes to the Met Wednesday and Thursday next week. Tickets are $15 and $12, available at G&B; Select-a-Seat outlets or call (800) 325-SEAT. Wayne Kissire performs at Templins Resort in Post Falls Friday and Saturday. The show starts at 8:30 p.m. and there is no cover charge.