When you first listen to Superchería’s soothing rock ballads, least of all their first album ‘Una Casa Detrás’, it comes as no surprise that the Argentine four-piece were heavily influenced by The Beatles. With Revolver, the Brit-foursome created “pretty much a bible for songwriters,” they tell The Argentina Independent, adding that “That kind of music cuts to the core of us.”

Any fans of the Argentine great Charly García should have a listen too, though it is Luis Spinetta, and namely his phase in ‘Pescado Rabioso’, a band whose short-lived but wildly successful trajectory are considered an important part of the country’s musical history, that inspired them the most.

Superchería’s four members met in high school, and sharing a love of rock music, practiced playing together, becoming solid friends along the way. However, they didn’t formally get together until 2007, at which point they started writing and performing with more maturity. With the enigmatic Pira Bastourre and Joaquín Alvarez as frontmen, supported by Martín Tuffano on bass and vocals, and Jerry Ferala on drums, the band made their debut at the Sala Pueyrredón, a haven for up and coming rock groups in Buenos Aires’ alternative music scene.

This is a route they have always intended to go down: “In the underground or alternative music scene in Argentina you can find loads of really very talented bands that show just how, after a bit of a dry patch, a new wave is emerging”. Not surprising then that their circuit has taken them to the edgier venues the city has to offer—La Cigale, The Roxy, and La Castorera amongst others—where their nostalgic lyrics and uplifting vocals have gathered a solid fan base.

Of all their gigs, the one they remember most fondly is the debut performance of their first album in September 2010. Where their first release was an EP, ‘Una Casa Detrás’ is their first full album. “The production, the stage, the room full of people was amazing- it was also a seminal moment, to be playing the disc live so soon after finishing it off”.

Highlights of the album include ‘Te Quema los Pies’, (It burns your feet), with a definite brit-pop vibe, or the hauntingly romantic ‘Dormí conmigo’ (I slept with me). But the tone of the album is very versatile, with a seamless mix of heavier and lighter Strokes-esque rock. What’s more, you can download it absolutely free off their website!

Though time machines have yet to be invented, a trip back to the swinging 60s isn’t as far away as you think. Argentina’s enormous Beatles following finally materialized in museum form when Rodolfo Vázquez, owner of The Cavern Club in Buenos Aires and huge Beatles fanatic, decided to create a Mecca of his own for other lovers of Beatles way of life.

Buenos Aires’ very own Beatles Museum opened on 3rd January 2011 by Vázquez and is one of the only Beatles museums outside of Liverpool. The petite Beatles gallery is located Paseo La Plaza — a short and picturesque walkway off the street, full of cafés, trees and small shops. As the doors of the museum open, your trip back in time begins — Beatles music wafts around the cordial room filled with glass cases protecting Vázquez’s prized collectables. Merchandize and albums from the sunrise and sunset of the Beatles can be found wall-to-wall in the cozy museum space.

Vázquez’s love for the ideology and musical stylings of the Beatles was planted early on in his life. “When I was ten I was given a Beatles record by a friend of mine from school,” he recalled. “ I listened to the song “In My Life”…I have been a fanatic ever since.” And for the last 43 years, he has been a collector and treasurer of various Beatles memorabilia from around the world.

Assembling his collection since the age of ten, Vázquez has acquired numerous rare and distinct treasures that many Beatles fans have never seen. Collecting so many pieces has landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records since 2001, though he proudly displays only a fraction of his collection at a time.

There are 2,000 of the items currently in the museum, though he admits his collection in its entirety totals to about 8,500 Beatles objects, and over 3,500 of these collectables are vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, EPs, singles and magazines. For this reason, and space permitting, he plans on having his musical novelties on a rotation so each visit to the museum can be a fresh experience.

Current items on display in the museum range from original letters written by close relatives of the John Lennon and George Harrison, to oddities like limited edition Beatles Monopoly games and colorfully decorated Beatles dolls and glass figurines. An entire cabinet alone is dedicated to John Lennon and Yoko Ono, including a wedding book of memorabilia — magazine covers, a replica of their marriage certificate in Gibraltar, replicas of Lennon’s legendary glasses and more.

With such an extensive collection, Vázquez admits that it is hard to pick a singularly prized piece above the rest. “There are really too many things, but this is something I really love,” he said, motioning to a small box containing dozens of colorful envelopes behind the display glass. “This is a box of gum packets from around 1964. Each of the gum packets is decorated by a different Beatles album cover.”

Visitors meandering through the music filled room witness small fragments of Beatles history and glimpses into the craze that is alive and well today in Buenos Aires — replicas of concert costumes, concert tickets, programs and even Beatles commemorative plates.

A world record setting collection, assembled over decades by Vázquez is not just a trip back in time for his guests, but for himself as well. “I have been putting this collection together since I was a little. Some were gifts, some where bought — at the time there weren’t many things in Buenos Aires, originally, but people would go on vacation and come back with what they could,” he explained. “And after they came back from visiting London, Liverpool, or the United States, they would begin to bring things and people began to trade their items.” Vázquez himself has visited the United Kingdom six times and represents Argentina’s love for the Beatles.

Though the Beatles have a widespread and dedicated fan base, the River Plate versus Boca Juniors futbol rivalry is not the only rivalry that Argentina hosts.

“Many say Argentina is very “Rolling Stones”, but that is not true,” emphasized Vázquez. “Argentina is very Beatles.” As testament to that, the Beatles museum has seen over 3,000 visitors since opening in January. “That many visitors in just one month is incredible,” he said. “Especially since these months many of the people of Buenos Aires are on vacation elsewhere.”

What had started as a small project and exhibition for Vázquez quickly turned into a permanent destination for locals and tourists, which Vázquez hopes brings as much joy to others as it does to him. The exhibit, though ever changing, is open all weeklong, after all, true Beatles passion never rests.

Does the phrase ‘tribute band’ makes you think of balding Meatloaf wannabes in bulging leathers playing to an empty bar on a Monday night? Think again. In Argentina a flush of talented musicians are bringing the music they love to an appreciative public and by all accounts their star is rising.

If rumours are to be believed Lionel Messi – poster boy of the Argentine football team and self-professed Oasis fan – performs incognito as Noel Gallagher on his days away from the pitch.

True or false, this has put a household name on a phenomenon that has been gathering momentum under the radar for the last ten years.

Supply & demand

Argentina has been neglected until quite recently by bands on world tours. Although Paul McCartney and Bon Jovi both played Buenos Aires in the last few weeks, few people can actually afford to go and tickets evaporate in a matter of hours.

Tickets for Regina Spektor’s recent show were first offered to Banco Francés clients and sold out before they were even made available to the public. If that doesn’t raise questions about the accessibility of music in this country, nothing does.

Alejandro Iglesias, 37, bassist in Ummagumma – a tribute to Pink Floyd – believes that tribute culture has blossomed because the groups supplied music where there was demand: “Tribute bands here fill a vacancy in live music culture. People like going out; watching live music, going to the theatre or the cinema.

“Their popularity in Argentina has something to do with people wanting to hear their favourite music live and the fact that the original bands never really came. Of the big bands only the Stones, U2 and Queen once in 1981, a long time ago.

Tickets for McCartney’s gig at the River Plate stadium last week cost between $200 and $6,400, with VIP passes reaching nearly $10,000 – for many it’s far too expensive.

According to Valerio Rinaldi, who created Bistek Musica two years ago and has just put on his first tribute night, prohibitive ticket prices and limited availability are adding fuel to the fire.

Having played in a U2 tribute called Mestizo for many years he is now in a good position to comment on the phenomenon looking from the outside in.

Speaking from a triple-header tribute night at Librario in Palermo, where Slang, Nightboat and Police Station played last week, he says: “The entrance fee is much more accessible than trying to see the original band and people come because they know what they’re letting themselves in for.”

Wilki Amieva, who plays keyboard in Queen tribute Bigot and the Yellow Campers – a reference to Freddie Mercury’s iconic facial hair, it transpires, agrees: “People are starting to perform here from all over the world now but for years nobody came so there are economic factors that are behind the emergence of cover band culture.

“The people here love that music, they like getting involved in the performance and singing along – they’re crazy for it!” he says.

Fitting the bill

How do you even go about creating a tribute to a band as iconic as Queen? Imitation might be the highest form of praise but there must be more to it than finding a false moustache and hip-hugging trousers if people are going to pay to see you perform their favourite tracks.

There seem to be two schools of thought in cover band psychology: to visually replicate the original as faithfully as possible and synthesise the real thing on stage; or not to even attempt recreating the ‘look’ and to focus on re-creating the original sound.

Bigot’s César Barabino, who performs in Brian May’s long curly wig and black waist coat, describes the dichotomy the band faced in creating a tribute to Queen.

“At the beginning we had a discussion about how to do this properly and we decided that it involved not just creating the sound but also visually stimulating the crowd by adding a flavour of the Queen spectacle to our performance. So we put on some costumes…bought a wig and the catsuit – it’s fun!

“We never know exactly how many are going to turn up but the last few times there haven’t been enough seats so we’re starting to look for bigger places to play which can’t be a bad thing!” he adds.

Is it a credit to him that his playing is convincing enough not to need the costume but as he says, the wig and waistcoat are good visual aids during the performance – bringing a bit of Queen’s magic to the small smoky theatre where they performed in October.

Fitting the bill

Another important decision the bands have to make is which songs they play. It is perhaps a testament to the growing culture, and approval from lifelong fans that bands like Bigot are looking for bigger venues when they don’t play anything from Queen’s greatest hits.

First formed in 2008, the band markets itself as an alternative homage to the original band. They eschew well-worn classics and greatest hits for Queen’s early 1970s material and based on the fact that they regularly sell out of tickets, they must be onto a winner.

Lead singer Mattias Figueroa, who performs wearing a harlequin spandex catsuit, says that they play the music they want to play for the joy of playing it and not to bring in ticket sales. They play for people that are real fans, like themselves.

“A huge amount of people like Queen; their music has filtered into popular culture so that a lot of people like their songs without realising that it’s them,” he says from a rehearsal session.

“Most tributes play number ones from their later work but we think that market’s a bit flooded so we’re doing something different. We’re just a group of friends in a band, sometimes we argue, sure, but the important thing is that we do it because we enjoy it and we enjoy the music.”

Catering to the public

Like any band, fans are crucial to success and survival. Tribute bands face the incisive criticism of lifelong fans of the original band who won’t be fooled by fancy dress and a few lasers.

Ummagumma initially started playing their own music but after playing a few Pink Floyd covers to live audiences to rapturous applause, they realised that this was what the public wanted and they haven’t looked back.

Alejandro says, “We have a lot of the things that they use in their shows, like the light show, the round screen, pyrotechnics, videos, the inflatable pig…although we can’t use it in every venue because it’s really big.

“What we play depends on where we play, now we’re going to La Plata – a place we’ve never played before – so we’ll play a mixture of classics and less well-known stuff.”

He says that when they go back to venues they’ve played in the past and where they’ve earned a name for themselves, they can do a more varied set playing less classics and more of the B-sides and older music that diehard fans really want to hear.

The fine line between reality and fantasy

Presumably to play like Dave Gilmour, you have to think like Dave Gilmour. But how far is too far? The Beats purportedly speak to each other in Liverpudlian accents and call each other Paul, Ringo, George and John in real life.

But other bands, like Nightboat, decide from the outset that they aren’t even going to attempt to recreate the original band’s image. Sergio Ferro has been the lead singer since the Duran Duran tribute was formed in 2006, in the wake of their 2005 tour to Buenos Aires. Having worked on Radio Aloha in Mar del Plata, he had sung in choirs but never played with a band before in his life.

They came together in a fan forum and practise together once a week. He says that the market is split into bands that go for image and those that go for sound: “In our case, the tribute is concerned with the music more than image. We’ve got two women so already the image is ‘wrong’.

“For us it’s more important to get the sound right and we focus on that, I mean if the two go together that’s amazing but for me the music is the most important thing,” he says.

Sergio says that the original fans are also coming out of the woodwork: “There’s a growing culture of fanaticas viejas; 80-year-olds that come with their children and grandchildren – we have a total spectrum of fans.”

Tribute band culture here is something of an amnesty between musicians that want to play and a public that wants to hear the music they love live.

Although tribute bands have surely existed world-wide for as long as fan culture, now is a particular moment in time when Argentina is the right place for them to thrive. Long may they continue with their cat suits and cover songs.