Joe Cocker - The flame keeps burning
Glory to Joe Cocker: Mad Dogs Unchained (from left Deric Dyer, Megan Wolf, Wolf Ginandes, Elliott Tuffin, Marty Richards, Cliff Goodwin, Mitch Chakour) have dedicated themselves to the work of the exceptional British singer who died in 2014.
The tribute band Mad Dogs Unchained is dedicated to the work of Joe Cocker. And found a singer who can do Cocker too. In February and March 2018 she will be on tour in Germany.
Ehre sei Joe Cocker: Mad Dogs Unchained (v. l. Deric Dyer, Megan Wolf, Wolf Ginandes, Elliott Tuffin, Marty Richards, Cliff Goodwin, Mitch Chakour) haben sich dem Werk des 2014 verstorbenen britischen Ausnahmesängers verschrieben.
Hanover/Dresden/Berlin. The man is waving his arms. His fingers are in constant motion, as if they could feel the music of his band. He twitches his legs like he's electrified. And the voice is bourbon and rust. "I get by with a little help from my friends," he roars out. And when all his tenderness and futility can no longer be put into words, then his last resort is the scream. Joe Cocker is dead, long live Joe Cocker, it seems. However, the one suffering and starving on stage is Elliott Tuffin, singer of Mad Dogs Unchained, a tribute band that feels committed to the work of the English singer who died in December 2014.
Elliott Tuffin - A Cocker fan from childhood
The 45-year-old is so far an unknown outside of the London scene. Tuffin used to be a chauffeur, but has been performing in pubs for decades, making a living playing blues, rhythm and blues, cocker songs. Tuffin has loved Cocker's music since his father played him his song "Delta Lady" when he was four years old. "Then last year this call came from America," Tuffin recalls. "Deric Dyer asked me if I would sing in his Cocker Tribute Band." It was like a dream.
“When I heard about Joe's death on the radio, it came as a shock to me as the news of John F. Kennedy's death. You never forget where you were in that moment," says Dyer, who played saxophone on and off for Joe Cocker from the late '70s until 2004. Six months later, he had the idea of reviving Cocker's musical legacy "with a band that would do Joe credit."
Cocker's former companions Cliff Goodwin (guitar) and Mitch Chakour (keyboards) were on board immediately, but the search for a singer took forever and seemed in vain. Until Goodwin's wife heard Tuffin's version of "Unchain My Heart" on Facebook. "Nobody's ever been that close," Goodwin recalls of the moment. Mad Dogs Unchained was complete.
Name change: From Cocker Rocks to Mad Dogs Unchained
Or better Cocker Rocks - that's the name of the band until last week, when Joe Cocker's German law firm asserted personal rights. So now "crazy dogs" (after Cocker's 1970 live album) that are "off the chain". The far better name anyway. The posters are now being reprinted, as are the booklets of their live album.
Tuffin sounds like Cocker's voice went straight down his throat. No, he didn't train, says Tuffin. "I happen to be able to sing like him." The cocker moves were also not played, he swears over the phone. "When you sing the words like that, your whole body gets into this vibration, tension. Then you move in exactly the same way.” It is inconceivable to him that there could be people who consider his Mad Dogs to be blasphemy and money-making. "Joe is my king, I've met him a dozen times," he says. "I would never do anything that he wouldn't approve of." Adds Dyer, from Worcester, Massachusetts, "It's not about the money for us, it's about the feeling." While the three Americans are still stuck in their own solo careers ("It's coming right now we feel like we're driving three highways at once" - Dyer), Elliott is already thinking of full albums with songs Cocker never recorded. And he also wrote his own songs.
Joe Cocker's brother wants to go to the London concert
"They have the bite and the intensity that Joe would have asked for," says Victor Cocker, Joe Cocker's four-year older brother, to this newspaper. "Elliott isn't just another Cocker impersonator with a gruff voice. He knows every detail of Joe's music and absorbed it all. He would get Joe's blessing for that.” Vic Cocker wants to do the last check in February, when he attends the band's London concert. In general, he sees the work of the tribute bands positively, “as long as they are good musicians, enjoy the music and don't just use Joe's name to get an audience. They keep Joe's flame burning.”