The Bob Villains will pay tribute to Bob Dylan at The Griffin, Whetstone, on Saturday. The four piece band covers everything from Dylan’s early acoustic days to full on electric rock. I spoke to frontman Gary Sear…

Tell me about the band

We don’t just go through the motions. Bob has often had his tongue firmly in his cheek, we try to reflect that in our set.

The guys in the band never let me get too serious.

What would you say to people toencourage them to come and see the Bob Villains?

Many people sing along to Bob’s songs and don’t even know they were written by Dylan.

People have even been known to dance at our gigs - but me and Bob would prefer if you just tapped your feet.

As well as being a great influence on popular music, Bob was influenced by a lot of other musicians. Do you reflect that in the Bob Villains?

Absolutely. If there is a link in a song to another artist we try to call it. It could be a guitar lick from our own Pete Sutton slipping in a Canned Heat riff or an early rock n roll progression or maybe I’ll throw in a bit of Elvis if there is a connection.

We even do quick fire quiz questions during the show.

A correct answer may get you a pint from our bass player. What the hell, a crazy wrong answer will get you one too.

We also show case some of Bob’s contemporaries on occasion. You’ll often hear Neil Young, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and even Joany Baez in the set.

Bob has just launched his own brand of whisky. What kind of liquor would you put your name to? What would you call it?

A 40 per cent Polish vodka. I’d simply call it Villains Vodka.