The Charity Awards winners are inspiring, says Ian Allsop, but merely copying their ideas is not enough.

There are certain lines that you could never imagine starting a column with – until you do. The next one is a perfect illustration, or at least would have been if I hadn’t already opened this piece with two sentences of self-indulgent waffle to provide context.

Recently I took our pet rabbits to be looked after at a ‘bunny hotel’ run by a bloke who used to be the drummer in the UK’s leading T. Rex tribute act, T.Rextasy. While on the holiday that followed I found myself watching a Madness tribute band.

This led me to ponder what a bizarre way openly pretending to be someone else and actually dressing, acting and (sometimes) sounding like them is to make a living. And are they really doing it as a tribute, or to exploit the original act? A tribute makes it sound like it should be for their benefit, a way of honouring them.

Sometimes the ‘tributee’ is dead, either physically or creatively, but increasingly there are tributes to acts that are still very much alive and performing. Even Olly Murs has one, which will be useful for Olly Murs when he slides even further into obscurity as he can then get away with earning a crust as a tribute act to himself.

You get to the stage where, if the tribute act is so authentic as to be virtually indistinguishable from the original, then will people actually care which one they are hearing or seeing? The willingness of people to be so impressed by, and accepting of, such legitimate artistic forgery is what made Stars In Their Eyes such a successful TV idea. And it is the principle that fuels the entire black market industry in rip-off fashion accessories.

There has long been a debate in the charity world about whether there are too many organisations registered to do the same thing, simply copying the work of existing, well-established charities.

But this well-intentioned and usually innocent replication isn’t quite the same thing. Basically tribute acts are things that look like the real thing, but are operating behind a veneer of artificiality. They may not be illegal but, equally, there is something about them that doesn’t always seem quite right.

The charity equivalent would be the Cup Trust. Which is something that the Charity Commission continues to get a good kicking over, as it is painted as a sort of tribute regulatory body to some of the great underfunded and ineffectual ones from history, such as the FSA.

David Cameron’s waxy pallor

It isn’t just musicians who have garnered tribute acts. Recently we have seen evidence of horses being used as a culinary tribute to cows; David Cameron’s waxy pallor means he resembles his own figure at Madame Tussauds; while the current government as a whole is increasingly turning itself into a tribute act to the Tory administration of the 1980s.

Cuts in public spending, friction with Argentina over the Falklands, rising unemployment and in-fighting over Europe that may ultimately prove terminal, are but four examples of déjà vu. We have certainly had the opportunity to assess the legacy and impact of that 1980s government recently, with the death of its matriarch.

Which, in itself, led to a national debate on what an appropriate, or otherwise, form of tribute to such a divisive figure should be. But I think we should probably leave that for now because if I get started on Margaret Thatcher who knows where it may end.

Perhaps I should instead become a tribute columnist, and simply echo some of the great scribes of the past. I am not talking about parodying someone. I am talking about basically repeating word for word what, for example, Keith Waterhouse wrote in 1975.

I would be perfectly upfront about it and give authorship of the column a slightly different name utilising a bad, charity-related pun. Is there mileage in a Richard St Littlejohn Ambulance column perhaps?

More than simply copying

If I can somehow squeeze a serious point from this it is that there are better ways to pay tribute than simply copying, albeit accurately. Take inspiration from something and create something new and worthwhile yourself.

That’s what the charities recognised at this month’s Charity Awards will demonstrate – innovation and creativity. Other charities can then pay tribute by congratulating them for that and taking forward their example.

It is in this way that the sector has always been able to move on.

And at least it could never be accused of being a tribute to the charity sector of the 1980s, or any other time, even if some of the debates and issues surrounding its passion and spirit sometimes make it feel that way.