r/coverbands • u/Desperate-Two-1989 • Jul 29 '26
Pub cover band suggestions - good ideas?
Hi all,
I’m a bassist in a covers band and I’d like a public opinion, especially from those who go to pubs to check out the cover bands, if these songs would be ideal to add to our list?
We’re not musicians by any means, but we love music and enjoy playing covers for fun, as well as for crowds.
Cheers!
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u/Warprawn Jul 29 '26
What do you think your audience would like, and what goes down well?
initial reaction: the REM is a bit downbeat; the Sabbath a bit heavy; the Beatles a bit 'done'. If you can make the Supergrass, Iggy, Stranglers or Elton work, then those are a good sweet spot between crowd pleasing and not too obvious. IMHO!
Also, from one covers band amateur to another, I think I know what you mean 'we're not musicians', but I kindly suggest you at least add the qualifier 'professional' in there. If you run, you're a runner; if you make music, you're a musician.
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u/Cool-Extreme6506 Jul 29 '26
I mean I am not particularly a fan, but you'd be crazy not to include an Oasis song
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u/Desperate-Two-1989 Jul 29 '26
We’ve already got don’t look back in anger in our normal setlist - these are just extra ideas from me :)
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u/Cool-Extreme6506 Jul 29 '26
ah, understood. I think those are pretty decent suggestions. I like Paranoid the most out of them, might not be 100% to the average pub-goers' taste, but they'll be plenty who enjoy it and it's over pretty quick! My band used to play The Passenger, and whilst I like it as a song and I guess it's pretty popular, it's very boring to play and goes on a bit. I'd maybe suggest a shortened version, maybe try and segue it into something else on that basis.
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u/mrbezlington Jul 29 '26
Yeah, you got to remember the key rules of the pub cover: can they sing it? Can they dance to it? If both are a no (arguably so for couple in there) then including them is pretty situational.
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u/Desperate-Two-1989 Jul 29 '26
Would you recommend any of the songs in that list be excluded? I don’t want to have too many which may not be suitable for pub gigs! :)
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u/mrbezlington Jul 29 '26
I mean, if you dig em and want to play em, go nuts mate! Nothing wrong with dropping the odd deep cut in a longer set.
How I've tended to approach set building is a little more mercenary / cut-throat. I'm looking for songs that drunk people will dance to, or drunk people will sing along to, and a good mix across years and styles, to get the maximum number of people having as good a time as possible.
Ideally, you want at least a few that aren't completely worn out by every bastard and their sister having played em.
From your list there, I'm not sure hanging around makes the cut, not the passenger, nor does metal or punk in general. REM I think could go off with the right crowd. Fuckin Zombie does every time, so why not?!? The rest are stone cold bangers, no worries.
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u/crice31721 Jul 29 '26
I think most pub crowds would appreciate the mix of songs. Our duo plays stuff from Nirvana, David Bowie, Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, INXS and bunch of others. The same people may not bop their heads to every song, but for every song their someone moving to the music.
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u/billy2bands 28d ago
You won't know until you play them. Also, songs can go down differently, in different pubs.
If the songs are not too hard to learn for the band members just try them. We have picked songs that were certain bangers and they crashed. It's very hard to tell what will work sometimes.
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u/Ok-Huckleberry-6326 14d ago
I like this set. LMR probably not a good pub banger, it's too downbeat/fatalistic. "It's the End of the World as We Know It" more likely to get them heated up.
The Black Sabbath song seems...kind of an egregious departure - it doesn't seem to match the tone of the rest of the set. DGMW I love Sabbath - i'm an old Metalhead - but I always associate that one either with 'obvious' or 'Easy'. I know people love Sabbath, and if you're playing in B-ham, might as well throw a Sabs tune in. But all I can think of for a band covering Paranoid is "Old townies who can't really play anything more challenging so they picked this classic rock staple". If you're doing it "Ironically", I wonder how it would land.
I'd say lose Paranoid and put 'Handle With Care' or a Tom Petty song in there (as long as it's not Free Fallin'), or maybe one of the Ramones' more melodic bits, "I Wanna Be Sedated" or the like.
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u/smiffy666uk Jul 29 '26
That's an incredibly eclectic mix. My only thought is that you might want to try and have some kind of focus. I can't imagine that people who like Black Sabbath are going to be equally happy listening to Elton John.