“It’s hard enough to make seven people turn up to rehearsal weekly and take them to a gig, so I can’t imagine wanting to take any more on,” he laughs. Thunder Road, led by powerful frontman Gavin Leadbetter, have enjoyed burgeoning success with their energetic take on a long list of some of Springsteen’s best tracks from across his discography. “I think at the start we basically honed in on his greatest hits, and then from there we branched out,” Dean says. “But since then we’ve been inundated with requests from the diehards and now we play all sorts of stuff.”
It can be tricky to decide how faithful to popular recorded tracks a covers band should be, and Dean explains that while they may take small liberties here and there, they “tend to go towards the live versions of songs.” Each member has more than a little live experience, as Thunder Road initially began as a blooming country rock band. “We sort of just pinched guys from that band, and it was just lucky that most of them were into what our idea was. We did have to grab a few people from outside,” says Dean. “We had to find a sax player, and we had to find a female vocalist, so we managed to find those people after we sort of got it going. We were pretty lucky to already have the nucleus: the bassist, the drummer and the piano player. They were already there ready to go.”
Thunder Road’s sets are traditionally quite long, as the band have proven themselves quite determined to satisfy everyone’s desires. “It definitely does [take a lot out of you] when we play those big three-hour shows, my God. I don’t know how Gavin does it,” laughs Dean. “By the end of the night I am transfixed on him, wondering how he’s still going. Usually we sort of factor in a bit of a set break but those times where we’ve done the big shows he says, ‘Nup, let’s just keep going’, and we play through.”
The group have thought about performing a full album show but it’s still in the works. “We were toying with doing one of the classics: Born To Run, or Darkness On The Edge Of Town, or Born In The USA – they’re the three that kept getting thrown around. Hopefully one day we’ll get there.”
But they are, of course, going to check Brucie out when he graces the Rod Laver Arena later this month. “Yeah, yeah we’re all going! A few of us are going to multiple shows, so yeah, we’re definitely there. It is a bit of an outlay,” Dean says. “I think we all got caught up in the moment: buy tickets! Buy tickets! And now we’re like, ‘Gee whiz, did we really need to buy so many tickets?’”
BY ZOË RADAS
