The group\u2019s first attempt at a Queen tribute band failed due to the \u201cextraordinarily difficult\u201d music, Brunkard says. \u201cWe went off and we did 80s music for a few years. That was also difficult. But it was sufficiently enough to bring us up to a standard where we could go back to Queen again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBrian May built his own guitar,\u201d Brunkard says, which created an early challenge for the group. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t just really buy something that would do it and have that sound. So I had to go on that voyage … That involved chasing down people who supplied Brian May.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brian Keville, who plays Freddie Mercury<\/a>, hired a seamstress to create his costumes initially. \u201cHe\u2019s become something of a seamstress himself,\u201d Brunkard says. \u201cIt was the only way to do it. Freddie\u2019s got a lot of iconic costumes. They had to be studied. We had to figure out how to make them.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cAnd then there was the music. And the music is insane. People don\u2019t realise how complex that stuff is.\u201d The group have faced their challenges, and things nearly fell apart a couple of times. The most recent challenge was faced when Keville got cancer. \u201cHe\u2019s over it now … but at the time it was pretty bleak.\u201d<\/p>\n Brunkard is conscious of \u201cthe clock running against you\u201d. \u201cI\u2019m 45 now … The good news is I get to wear a wig, but at some point you do age out of it as well.\u201d He describes imitating May as \u201can honour\u201d. Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet \u201chopped up and sang with us in Kildare one year. He did We Are The Champions with us. And he said it was like being on stage with Queen\u201d.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s led to other opportunities. \u201cWhen you spend a lot of time trying to become someone else, people who want to do it on a hobby basis start to look into you. I have a little side business … helping people sound and play guitar like Brian May.\u201d <\/p>\n Some fans and audience members become very emotional at shows, he says. \u201cThey see that this is taking it seriously. There is a little bit of tongue-in-cheek-ness to it. But we\u2019re all celebrating it together, and it feels real.\u201d<\/p>\n Being part of a tribute band doesn\u2019t stop musicians from making their own music, Brunkard says. \u201cThere\u2019s a kind of a juxtaposition that\u2019s put on musicians the whole time: \u2018if you\u2019re not writing songs, you\u2019re not really a musician\u2019. It\u2019s kind of a nonsense. Most musicians don\u2019t write songs or compose.\u201d<\/p>\n Scott Maher plays Paul McCartney<\/a> in tribute band The Classic Beatles<\/a>, and like several Irish artists and bands, they started their career busking on Grafton Street in Dublin.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s how we learned harmonies. At the time, it was all very 90s and we were kind of obsessed with The Beatles<\/a>.\u201d The group decided to \u201cput on wigs and suits and do the character, and take on an act, as opposed to just being a musician. It\u2019s all born out of an obsession with The Beatles\u201d.<\/p>\n Maher met the other members of the band through school and \u201cfriends of friends\u201d. He and Rob McKinney, who plays George Harrison, have been with the band since the beginning. \u201cWe absolutely love what we do.\u201d <\/p>\n Maher is a full-time musician, though not a full-time \u201cBeatle\u201d, he says. He finds alternating between the two a \u201creally good challenge\u201d. \u201cI could find myself recording a song that I\u2019ve written on a Monday, and then playing a simple acoustic guitar pub gig on a Thursday, and then playing to five or six hundred people in a theatre on a Saturday night as Paul McCartney. I could be doing funerals on a Tuesday morning. It\u2019s a very wide and varied experience being a musician.\u201d<\/p>\n He previously played John Lennon, but when their \u201cPaul\u201d left the group, Maher says it was easier to change role than find a replacement, even if that move involved learning to play the bass guitar left-handed. \u201cIt was a bit of an undertaking\u201d, he admits. They\u2019ve have had some great experiences, Maher says. \u201cIt takes us around the world. Down the years we did a couple of nights with [Beatles producer] Sir George Martin.\u201d <\/p>\n [\u00a0Are The Beatles too big to fade into obscurity?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n \u201cWe also did a gig for the queen of England [Elizabeth II]\u201d, he adds, explaining how they attended a celebration of her coronation. The group didn\u2019t know they were due to play for the queen, just that they were in London to play for a high-profile client. \u201cIt was at the time that Britney Spears was in London … The girl came back and said \u2018Okay guys the client tonight is her majesty the queen\u2019, and we were like \u2018ah not Britney Spears, no?\u2019\u201d Maher insists the queen had a little dance while they performed.<\/p>\n With a new Beatles movie featuring Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan due for release in 2028<\/a>, it\u2019s a good time to be a Classic Beatle. <\/p>\n Rod Stephen is the only remaining original member of Bj\u00f6rn Again. He started at 29 and now in his 60s, he and Bj\u00f6rn Again are still going strong. <\/p>\n The band began in Melbourne, Australia, in 1987. \u201cWhat people were tending to do in 1988, was dressing up in jeans, T-shirt trying to imitate American bands and covering them … Everyone was in a cover band. It was kind of very dull, and very comfortable. So I thought I\u2019m going to turn this on its head. And I\u2019m going to go out on stage, dressed up as Abba<\/a>, playing Abba\u2019s stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n The band quickly snowballed into \u201ccult\u201d status in Australia, Stephen explains. By the end of 1989 \u201cwe were a household name throughout Australia\u201d.<\/p>\n It was never Stephen\u2019s intention that Bj\u00f6rn Again would be a tribute band. \u201cIt was a band set up with lots of creative new ideas, and the iconic look of Abba and their music as a platform,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s so much in a Bj\u00f6rn Again show that\u2019s very creative and original, the main one being the choreography. Abba didn\u2019t dance at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Stephen, who brings Bj\u00f6rn Again\u2019s show to Dublin\u2019s Olympia Theatre in 2027, tops and tails songs for a live performance, giving him the opportunity for his own musical arrangement. \u201cFor a lot of the ends I\u2019ve actually put my own music in there.\u201d<\/p>\n Stephen knows what Abba think of Bj\u00f6rn Again, as they\u2019ve told him. Benny and Bj\u00f6rn asked to meet the group on their first trip to Sweden. We thought \u201cwe\u2019d be taken to the police station for crimes against Abba\u201d, he jokes. In reality \u201cthey were fascinated to hear about the things that we were doing\u201d.<\/p>\n Forty years on, Stephen doesn\u2019t worry about becoming too old for Bj\u00f6rn Again. \u201cI think Bj\u00f6rn Again should be ageing,\u201d he says, \u201cin the same way that Abba are not afraid to demonstrate getting old\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I like doing something, I\u2019ll do it … The best thing for me is to look out and see an audience having a great time. I love it.\u201d <\/p>\n Siobhan Kennedy-Perri has played the role of Stevie Nicks<\/a> in the tribute band Mack Fleetwood for the past 10 years, having previously played Christine McVie in another Fleetwood Mac<\/a> band. <\/p>\n Kennedy-Perri is a classically trained singer and has been a musician all her life. \u201cStevie Nicks is such an iconic character and I get to wear the most amazing clothes,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s fantastic, but it\u2019s absolutely baffling to me the way people react, because they nearly react to me like I am her,\u201d she says. Kennedy-Perri says she enjoys getting to play alongside \u201cwonderful musicians\u201d, as she describes her fellow bandmates. <\/p>\n \u201cWe sold out the Olympia in May. It was just amazing … We did the Ulster Hall and that\u2019s where Led Zeppelin played\u201d, she says. \u201cSometimes people would say to me, it\u2019s like you channel Stevie Nicks.\u201d<\/p>\n Being in the band is \u201cmore or less\u201d Kennedy-Perri\u2019s full time job. She teaches music also, but cut back as the band\u2019s popularity grew. \u201cWe\u2019ll have grandparents, parents and kids from the same family,\u201d coming to concerts, she says of their multigenerational appeal. <\/p>\n![\"Qween:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/WEAIFY7ALFBDPKBNAMKVJLTOZU.jpg\")
Qween: Eoghan O’Neill plays bass guitar, Graham Sheridan on drums, Brian Keville as singer Freddie Mercury, Thomas Brunkard as guitarist Brian May and James McGeehan on keyboard. Photograph: Bryan Meade for The Irish Times <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/FGRPZBWDOFCDJBIBFSVKBOG5FM.jpg\")
The Classic Beatles performing at the Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray, Co Wicklow. Photograph: Tom Honan for The Irish Times ![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6J2GWTCXGVBWNAD5K4ZCGBPAVM.jpg\")
The Classic Beatles: Rob McKinney as George Harrison and Scott Maher as Paul McCartney. Photograph: Tom Honan for The Irish Times <\/p>\n![\"Abba](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/LFGBJ3YYZZB3TMEZMBQ6LJ6DYI.jpg\")
Abba tribute band Bjorn Again performing at Punchestown Music Festival in 2017. Photograph: Debbie Hickey\/Getty Images ![\"Björn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/XV6IMG2U3JGRNKIHUNAS2NB2HI.jpg\")
Bj\u00f6rn Again will perform at Dublin\u2019s Olympia Theatre in 2027 <\/p>\n![\"Siobhan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/YA5MA32OSNADPK4SXT5GVOCVBI.JPG\")
Siobhan Kennedy-Perri as Stevie Nicks. Photograph: Arthur Allison\/Pacemaker Press
\n ![\"Siobhan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/I77YLR3Q3VFWZMYHV6CEVRSP7I.JPG\")
Siobhan Kennedy-Perri performing as Stevie Nicks in the tribute band Mack Fleetwood at the Empire Music Hall in Belfast. Photograph: Arthur Allison\/Pacemaker Press <\/p>\n