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<\/p>\nToronto\u2019s Classic Albums Live is not a tribute show. There are no costumes, wigs, makeup or bad acting. Although the music is familiar, the musicians onstage aren\u2019t pretending to be somebody else.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t talk to the audience, we just stand there and play like an orchestra,\u201d says company founder Craig Martin. \u201cAnd that\u2019s enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Classic Albums Live reproduces classic rock albums onstage, in their entirety, with professional touring musicians and singers. Martin coined the phrase \u201cNote For Note, Cut For Cut\u201d as a marketing tool.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, there are more than a dozen people on the stage. If the group is \u201cplaying\u201d a Beatles or Pink Floyd album, say, there will be live violins and cellos to handle the orchestral score. If Indian music is on the menu (see Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band), someone will be playing a sitar, another a pair of tabla drums.<\/p>\n
Now in its 23rd year, Classic Albums Live returns to the Capitol Theatre Friday for a performance of the Beatles\u2019 Abbey Road.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Craig Martin.<\/p>\n
A singer, guitar and piano player, the 63-year-old Martin once growled and crooned like \u201cMick Jagger in the 1970s\u201d as part of a Rolling Stones tribute band. \u201cI just got to the point where I said \u201cLet\u2019s don\u2019t f\u2014in\u2019 dress up,\u201d he recalls. \u201cLet\u2019s go onstage in our jeans and play \u2018Stray Cat Blues.\u2019 So we started doing deep cuts, and not caring about anything else \u2013 just standing there and playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the magic is inherently there in the music, and not necessarily in the play-acting, the gimmick-free Stones act caught on. Particularly when they began playing beloved albums, deep cuts and all, the way the fans knew them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up as a musician,\u201d Martin explains. \u201cI\u2019ve never had a straight gig. So you kind of got to know the players, and the people you came up with. By the time you\u2019re in your 30s, if you\u2019re still in the game you\u2019re probably a professional musician.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw a lot of guys just drop off: \u2018Look man, I can\u2019t go on the road, I got a wife, got a kid, got a job, I\u2019m losing my hair \u2026\u2019 So what was left were some really, really great musicians. And when I started the company, I called just about every one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his phone contact list Martin has top-drawer musicians from all over Canada, and the United States, at the ready.<\/p>\n
\u201cNote for Note, Cut for Cut\u201d became, he says, a \u201cbeacon\u201d for great players.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they found out, \u2018I don\u2019t have to look like Brian May?\u2019 \u2018I don\u2019t have to act like Jimmy Page?\u2019 \u2018I don\u2019t have to put on a wig or anything like that?\u2019 they started approaching me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin keeps several editions of Classic Albums Live on the road simultaneously. With 230 dates per year on the calendar, in three countries, he\u2019s keeping dozens of musicians gainfully employed.<\/p>\n
Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac are the company\u2019s \u201ctried and true,\u201d he reveals, although the roster of availability includes iconic records by David Bowie, the Stones, AC\/DC, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, Queen, Bob Marley and others.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, experiments just don\u2019t sell the tickets. He could play Jethro Tull\u2019s Aqualung or Thick as a Brick, he explains, but it would be a commercial gamble. Would those shows attract an audience?<\/p>\n
\u201cWouldn\u2019t I be serving my musicians, and my community, and the company better if I put Abbey Road in there, and it sold out?\u201d<\/p>\n
The difference between tribute acts and Classic Albums Live, as Martin sees it, is like night and day. \u201cWe don\u2019t use screens, or big flashy lights. We don\u2019t wear costumes. People are just thrilled to see a perfect execution of the solo in \u2018While My Guitar Gently Weeps\u2019 or the vocals in \u2018Ziggy Stardust.\u2019 Performed perfectly, without all the crap. That\u2019s all you need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not to particularly diss costume-wearing tribute acts, mind you.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the power to anybody that gets on a stage and tries to feed their family,\u201d Martin says. \u201cTo make a living as a musician. I used to be a lot more biting about that, in the beginning, but I\u2019ve softened over the years. If you\u2019re going to play, play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hated them. And I was in one!\u201d<\/p>\n