Radiohead tribute band sings the praises of Rubicon Garden Rooms
The expertise provided by the team at Rubicon Garden Rooms has been music to the ears to members of the UK’s leading Radiohead tribute band.
Just Radiohead perform throughout the UK, replicating and performing the band’s hugely popular and influential music.
The sound-alike group, whose members are based on the Wirral and Merseyside, previously had to book rehearsal rooms in Liverpool and transport their kit there and back every time.
Looking for a more permanent and convenient solution, band member Shaun contacted Rubicon Garden Rooms for an answer.
The result is a bespoke, sound-proofed music studio installed in Shaun’s back garden.
The flexibility of the building also means Shaun, who lives on the Wirral, uses it as a home office for his day job running a motivational speaker and leadership management training company.
One of his partners is former British Olympic high jumper Steve Smith while the company has worked with celebrities including Ruby Wax, Sara Davies from Dragons’ Den and Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort as part of their motivational speakers programme.
Shaun, who performs the duties of Radiohead’s guitarist and keyboard player Jonny Greenwood in the tribute band, said having their own studio had brought a whole host of benefits.
He said: “We actually had a double length garage here and initially we were going to try to convert that.
“But it just started to look like it was going to be too problematic, so I got in touch with John and Rob Lyon at Rubicon Garden Rooms for advice.
“Having the studio has made a huge difference to the band, because it can be quite expensive to hire a rehearsal space, so we’re saving a lot of money doing that.
“It also means we don’t have to move our equipment so much.
Shaun added: “Rubicon were absolutely brilliant, they had quite a big team work on it, they were really courteous.
“We were quite astonished about how quickly it all happened – it was two to three weeks maximum from the start to finish.
“They were lovely guys, cleaned up after themselves and the pace that they work at is incredible.
“It has cavity walls with soundproof insulation, it has insulated glass in the windows as well, there’s soundproof plasterboard too.”
Shaun said the idea of forming a tribute band to Radiohead, renowned for their often complicated and innovative work, was hatched during the Covid lockdowns in 2021.
He said: “I had always played in bands as a hobby since I was younger.
“We are all accomplished musicians who had previously played in separate bands, but in Radiohead we all knew we were biting off quite a challenging band to try to tribute.
All the members of the band were huge fans of Radiohead, who rose to fame with the release of their debut album Pablo Honey in 1993, with their debut single Creep becoming a global hit.
The band’s popularity soared further with their album The Bends in 1995.
Their third album OK Computer was released in 1997 to massive success and is seen as a huge influence on some of today’s most popular bands, selling 30 million albums worldwide in the process.
“We are genuinely five Radiohead fans as well, especially Marc our singer, he is absolutely Radiohead nuts,” said Shaun.
“We try to make our performances as authentic as possible to the roles the actual people in the band play.
“We really try to stick to the way Radiohead play, we want to replicate the performance of Radiohead and focus on the quality of the music and the closeness to what it would be like watching Radiohead live.”
John Lyon, managing director of Rubicon Garden Rooms, was delighted Shaun and the band were so happy with the studio the firm had installed.
He said: “We’ve always done music studios and they continue to be popular.
“It’s been lovely working with Shaun, who is in such a highly-regarded tribute band.
“The building offers superb flexibility for the future too with an endless list of possible uses going forward.”
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