THE band Riviera Dogs will debut at the Tavistock Wharf on Friday night, having impressed and won over music fans across the region, with a formidable line-up of musicians who pride themselves on delivering a repertoire from the 80s and 90s that people will want to dance their socks off to!

Music and entertainment journalist Ellie Hudson caught up with singer Jimmy Alderson, former Joey the Lips vocalist, talks to us about his latest project.

You were formerly the frontman for Joey the Lips, is that history now or are you still on standby duties?

‘Well I fronted Joey for 12 years so it was a big part of my life but I’m happy to have moved on and be doing my own thing.

‘Riviera Dogs started as a side project for me and Simon Westaway whilst we were in Joey but we wanted to do something different, to play the music we grew up listening to and to have some fun.’

This is another covers band? Tell us what makes you stand out from the others and how do you go about selecting the songs you cover?

‘Good question, we try and tackle songs that others shy away from in terms of difficulty. I think the material sets aside from other cover bands.

‘We try and keep it all killer, no filler, so we have some rock, pop, some movie tunes, but it’s always pretty iconic.

‘I reckon we’ve got some of the best musicians around. They all work hard and take pride in making it sound right. It can be difficult choosing 80s and 90s tunes as there’s such a broad spectrum — we want to do justice whilst delivering in a slightly tongue-in-cheek kind of way.’

The 80s was a very synth laden era, have you got this covered?

‘Oh yes there’s some great synth pop in there so our keyboard playing Roger Cornish has his hands full, although we do less of the pre-programmed synth/drum machine electro pop stuff….but there’s some Spandau Ballet, Human League, Tears for Fears and Aha and the like!’

The Wharf books many tribute bands— have you ever been in one or felt you’d like to start one up?

‘I was in a pretty note perfect Blues Brothers band for a while and my wingman Simon Westaway and I have joked about doing a Toto tribute called Noto – having spent many years doing variants of the Motown / Stax / Commitments model. It’s great to be in a band where you’re not pretending to be someone else and that doesn’t really limit you to one style of music.’

Give us an idea of what’s on the cards for your show tomorrow night?

‘We’ve got a broad range of pop and rock from one hit wonders to movie anthems, off the top of my head this includes Huey Lewis, Go West, Peter Gabriel and Kenny Logan, plus we’ve got a brand new light rig with neon and spinney things and lasers. We’re excited to see it all come together.