Top tribute band put The Doors in the spotlight

Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@live.ie

With a front-man whose voice is eerily close to that of the late Jim Morrison, The Doors Alive ably recreate the music of the iconic group. Now, the London-based tribute band are on their way to Galway City and will play the Róisín Dubh this Saturday, March 25.

One of The Doors classic songs is called The End, and Jim Morrison met end his in Paris in 1971, where he is also buried. Have the group visited his grave?

“We have, actually,” says drummer Buzz Allan. “Personally, I’ve been there a few times and we visited Jim’s grave as a band on the 40th anniversary of his death.  The crowds that were there – there were hundreds and hundreds of people around his graveside. It was quite touching, quite something.”

The Doors Alive also performed in Paris as part of the 40th anniversary of Morrison’s death, paying tribute to a man who continues to endure as a musical icon. Buzz feels that popularity is well-deserved.

“His words and the music of The Doors happen to able to touch people emotionally, in a way that I don’t think many bands these days do,” he says. “I think the love of The Doors is passed down between generations. I know that in a lot of our audiences, you’ll often have two or three generations of the same family coming to see our show.”

The Doors Alive started out in 2004, but went through a few members before settling on their current line-up.

“I’m the longest standing member,” Buzz says. “Myself and the keyboard player (Norbert Varga) found each other through the weird world that is ‘tribute world’, basically. Eventually, he became permanent.

“Baz Meyer (guitar) was good friends with our previous singer. Our current ‘Jim’ we found through a fan of ours who sent us some of his YouTube clips when we were on the hunt for a new singer. We looked at a couple of his videos and we were absolutely blown away by him.”

And it’s no wonder – Mike Griffioen does an uncanny imitation of Jim Morrison’s voice and phrasing.

“It is freaky, it’s scary how close his styling is to Jim’s,” Buzz says. “The first time I saw his video, I shut my eyes and thought ‘no way, that can’t be Mike’s voice’. I don’t know how he does or what it is, but it is ridiculous. When we changed from our previous singer to Mike, it really did step the game up by quite some margin.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.