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The Lonely: A Tribute to Roy Orbison: All the famous hits performed

Roy Orbison fans in Red Deer get chance to ‘hear’ iconic singer through tribute performance

A musical tribute to an iconic singer who once headlined over The Beatles will be performed this month in Red Deer.

The Lonely: A Tribute to Roy Orbison, will be held Thursday, Sept. 29. at the Memorial Centre.

The five-person stage show features all the classic Orbison songs: Oh Pretty Woman, You Got It, Blue Bayou, Only the Lonely, Crying, Dream Baby, In Dreams, and others.

And the smooth, multi-octave voice performing these tunes will sound eerily familiar.

Vancouver Island singer Mike Demers formed the tribute band The Lonely after realizing his ability to replicate Orbison’s dulcet tones had left his regular audiences shouting out requests for Orbison covers.

It was challenging to find the right backup band. He started by asking his friend, drummer Benji Duke to join. Duke then pulled other musicians he thought would fit the bill — Chris Lloyd on guitar, Jack Weyler on keyboards, and bassist Stefan Bozenich.

From their first performance in January, they knew they had the right chemistry to pull off one of pop culture’s most revered acts.

Roy Orbison was a Texan who made his mark recording for the fabled Sun Records in 1956, alongside Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. His breakthrough came with a string of hits on the Monument label, starting in the early ‘60s.

Orbison adopted his trademark dark sunglasses and toured in the U.S. and abroad — including a U.K. tour on which he headlined over the Beatles.

Orbison continued producing hits right through the 1960s and early ’70s. His flagging career was revived in 1986 when director David Lynch’s showcased Orbison’s music in his cult film Blue Velvet, and the singer became popular with a whole new generation of fans.

Soon after joining the supergroup The Travelling Wilburys (consisting of Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and George Harrison), Orbison died of a heart attack in 1988.

But his distinctive sound lives on during live performances by The Lonely.

Tickets are available from the Black Knight Ticket Centre.