How The Ogretones proved “there is mileage in a Shrek tribute band”
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The Ogretones, a nine-piece band from Hampshire, have become the UK's premier Shrek-themed musical tribute band, performing iconic songs from the soundtracks of the Shrek Cinematic Universe.
Hailing from the swamps of Hampshire, The Ogretones, fronted by Andrew Pennick, have become the UK's premier Shrek-themed musical tribute band, performing iconic songs from the soundtracks of the Shrek Cinematic Universe.
The nine-piece band, fronted by guitarist and vocalist Andy (Shrek), vocalist Caroline (Fiona), bassist Dave (Donkey), lead guitarist Oscar (Puss in Boots), drummer Jamie (Big Bad Wolf), keyboardist Joe (Gingerbread Man) and a three-piece brass section the (three blind mice), all perform dressed in attires associated with their respective career. The idea to form the Shrek-themed band was the brainchild of Pennick himself.
“As it currently stands, we are indeed the first and only UK musical tribute to the Shrek soundtracks,” Pennick explained. “I don't think anyone else out there is joining us on this mission. It was my idea originally. I was in another band before this. I've been in bands for years but the most recent one I was doing function-y stuff. I was doing weddings and parties and that sort of thing. I was just looking at the set list one day before a show and I realised that we had two or three, I think, songs on there which were always really popular with the crowd.
“I always really enjoyed hearing them and I was aware that those songs had been in the Shrek franchise. I started thinking to myself, I was going back, reviewing and thinking about all the other songs that I knew were in the Shrek films and I thought all of these are really good tracks, they're always going to be really popular with people. Maybe there's mileage in a band that only plays the songs from the Shrek franchise, maybe that's their whole thing. So I put the call out and here we are probably four or four and a half years later. It transpires there is in fact mileage in a Shrek tribute band,” Pennick added.
The beauty behind ‘The Ogretones is that whether they’re performing material from the 1960’s or 2000’s they have a universal appeal, with music that’s nostalgic to older audiences and exciting and fresh for younger audiences. The first show they held in public was at the Railway Inn in Winchester, a venue which they sold-out, a surefire sign that audiences were on board with the concept and that appeal has stretched even further.
The band hold their signature “Ogrepalooza” events, putting on a live experience that stretches beyond a live set. The Ogretones have DJ Boo-urns performing both before and after the band and they also hold costume contests, allowing fans to come dressed as Shrek characters themselves and also earn a prize for their costumes. “I think it's probably safe to say actually some of the audience costumes these days often end up outdoing ours,” Pennick admitted.
“We've seen some incredible efforts over the years and it's really nice that people want to get involved like that. People will often book tickets to the shows like a big group of them as an outing, a bunch of friends getting together and coordinating costumes and things and yeah we've seen some really good efforts,” he finished. But how did the “Ogrepalooza” events start?
“We were quite lucky we got approached by a couple of chaps who had this kind of idea in mind. They booked us just as a one-off event in London in 2024, I think it was. Their idea was to make it like get the band in, but also make the whole night specifically curated so there's a DJ beforehand spinning kind of tunes from the era to get everyone feeling nice and nostalgic and then things like the costume competition, we've had like photo booths at the events before a lot of places a lot of venues we go they'll do like themed cocktails and things as well just to really enhance the experience. We had such a good time and that night went so well that the following year they said ‘Look,do you want to take this on the road? Do you want to play some events in some other cities as well?’ We said yep and then that happened again this year, which is what took us up to Manchester last week. That's where we're going with Reading and then returning to London where it all started.
As a band, The Ogretones are coming up to three-and-a-half years as a band performing in public and with four Shrek films to choose from, for now, they have a comprehensive list of options to choose from when it comes to their live performances. The likes of Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Willie Nelson, Joan Jett, Ricky Martin, Bonnie Tyler, Buzzcocks, The Monkees and Counting Crows have all contributed to the soundtrack of the Shrek movies. So how do The Ogretones approach creating a setlist for their events?
“I think some of the decision making was almost kind of done for us. There are some songs which we know we couldn't get away without putting in. I mean you've obviously got your classics like All-Star, Holding Out For A Hero, Accidentally in Love, if people book tickets to come see a Shrek tribute band they're expecting to see some of those songs,” Pennick said.
“There's probably a few others you can throw into that bucket there's things like David Bowie, you've got Changes from the second film, Funky Town from the second film, Bad Reputation from the first film, I think a lot of those really need to go in there as we start drifting into sort of the third and fourth films the number starts dropping off a little bit. I think people are less fussed. There's not many that are kind of must-haves for each individual one and unfortunately the Puss In Boots films have not continued the theme. They're all original scores in those so we haven't managed to look for any from those back catalogues,” Pennick finished.
The Ogretones will perform in Reading and London this week, with tickets available here.