Gary James' Interview With Bruce Belland Of
The Four Preps



Bruce Belland is the original lead singer of The Four Preps. The Four Preps are probably best known for their hits "26 Miles", "Big Man", "Lazy Summer Night" and "Down By The Station". They toured with Ricky Nelson and appeared on both American Bandstand and The Ed Sullivan Show. The Four Preps are still performing, but these days Bruce Belland is mad as hell about tribute groups. He is talking about national acts that don't contain any original members, retain the same name and tour the country. His feeling is the public is being misled.

Q - How mad are you Bruce?

A - I'm angry about the phony groups, absolutely. I feel the public is being taken advantage of. I'm not angry about it, but I'm certainly in competition with the tribute groups. At least they are honest enough to call themselves tribute groups. There is a Beach Boys tribute group out here on the West Coast called Surfin' Surfari. They actually dress and walk like and look like the guys they are imitating. They have a Mike Love replica. They have a Brian Wilson replica. They are good. They sing okay, but they are honest enough. They don't call themselves The Beach Boys. In fact, they call themselves Surfin' Surfari. I've only run into groups maybe half a dozen times at shows where there is somebody out there calling themselves whoever and I know darn well, and admit to me backstage, that none of them ever made any records with that group or have they ever gotten permission to use the names. There's two parts to it. To not have an original member in the group and call yourself that name is bad enough to me, but when you do and no one has even given you permission from the original group to do it, that just seems like fraud to me. How can they do that?

Q - In the case of say a 1950s group, maybe there are no original members alive, or their manager.

A - Well, yeah. I mentioned that in my newsletter. Let's face it, the reason so many tribute groups are springing up is there are fewer and fewer of the original guys left. Now a perfect example to me of someone who has done it absolutely legitimately and with great style and great professionalism are The Four Freshmen. The four young men who are in The Four Freshmen now are the 23rd version of The Four Freshmen, but they were founded and mentored by, groomed by and coached by Bob Flanagan, the original lead singer and founder of the group. So, I have no problem with that. They got permission to use the name by a guy who owned the rights to the name and they were trained and coached by him to sound just like The Freshmen should. That's fine. There's none of the guys playing the Glenn Miller arrangements from The Glenn Miller Band, but they have got the right to use it and they know how to make it sound right and that's cool. That perpetuates the legacy, and frankly I hope when I'm gone I've found somebody, before I shuffle off, that can sound enough like The Preps and understand their legacy and what we were about and our style, to perpetuate it when I'm gone. I would like that. I don't know if it's gyping the public or not.

Q - What are you doing to make sure there is a Four Preps that goes on?

A - There are a couple of guys in the group that are younger. One by one I'm looking them over and talking to them about possibly doing that. Hopefully it's not going to happen for a while. (Laughs). But I certainly have a couple of guys in mind if and when I ever decide to move to the South of France for whatever years I have left. I would get them together and work them and coach them. Right down to getting the wardrobe because The Preps always had a very specific look on stage with the blazers and the school crest and the white bucks. If that ever happens, I want to see it done right. But that doesn't bother me. That's very different than the group getting up and saying "We're The Coasters," and none of them ever made a record with The Coasters, nor has anyone ever given them permission to use the name. That to me is just pure, simple fraud. People are buying their tickets to see one thing and no one is being honest enough to tell them they are not.

Q - Is the South of France where you'd like to retire to?

A - That's the proverbial place all of my sophisticated friends love to talk about. I've been there. Spent time there on vacations. I'm not sure frankly that I'd be happy living anywhere but L.A. I love this town. I grew up in Hollywood. My grand daughter is here. My daughter is here. That's my ideal fantasy, to spend half a year in the South of France. I'm not sure if I ever want to live there forever.

Q - I want to get back to that news letter you put out about tribute bands. We've got to call these bands something else.

A - Imposter groups is what I'd call them. (laughs)

Q - That sounds better. Tribute groups are, in my mind anyway, something entirely different.

A - You're right. There's one on the West coast here that works a lot at a local venue and they're called Ticket To Ride. Okay, that's fine. They're a tribute to The Beatles and no one is saying they're The Beatles, but it's groups like, I don't want to give specific names, but they're out there. There have been a couple of groups we've worked with that I know damn well weren't the groups. It's the imposter groups I'm talking about. I'm not thrilled with the tribute bands, not from any aesthetic standpoint at all, just because competitively they're killing bands like us. They're all over the place. They work for a third of the price our price is. And they sound just as good and some of 'em sound better than the original groups. A lot of producers are hiring them now rather than paying big money for any of the original stuff.

Q - The tribute band business is big business.

A - It's huge.

Q - A Beatles tribute band can command big bucks because The Beatles aren't performing anymore as a band.

A - Yeah. Well, that's the kind of tribute band that does really well. I have to tell you, we have an outdoor venue not far from me in Woodland Hills that has Summer concerts every Sunday afternoon. They probably have fifteen concerts through the course of the Summer. I've been going there for maybe ten years. There was a time when you could see The Lettermen and you could see Orleans. For maybe half the season it was legitimate bands and the other half was tribute. Now the whole season is tribute bands. There's not one original act as part of the season. So yeah, they've taken over. They work for a third to a half of what the act itself will work for. In the case of The Eagles, they must be seventy-five grand a night and so here's an Eagles (tribute) group you can get for five grand and a lot of promoters do it. I think the truth be known, a lot of the audience doesn't care.

Q - The Eagles, with their hits, probably command more than $75,000 a night. Joan Jett will get $35,000 to $50,000 a night. The Eagles get considerably more than $75,000 a night. We would see more original talent out there if it weren't for the fact that we've seen the collapse of record companies. And that's because talent was, in many cases, being cheated out of royalties.

A - Well, that's a funny thing. I'm not one to talk about that with any credibility. I've never, ever been cheated by anybody in this business, publishers, producers, certainly record companies. I don't know if Capitol Records has ever been accused of cheating anybody. There's a big agency in the business, the Harry Fox Agency. They're bill collectors for people who are owed royalties. I happened to talk to one at a music convention of some kind. I said, "Harry Fox. You go after people who owe money." He said, "You think you've got some money coming to you?" I said, "Well, let me tell you who I've been with, Capitol Records for thirteen years, Warner Brothers Publishing." He said, "Forget it. Capitol doesn't owe you a nickel. I've never busted them on any problem. They're the most honest company." Yeah, I hear about a lot of 'em getting cheated. I've never had that experience. I'm fortunate that way.

Official Website: www.TheFourPreps.com



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