If you’re going to earn a crust as a tribute band, there must be easier options than reaching out to fans of the hardest working man in rock and roll.

Bruce Springsteen is famous for sweat-stained sets that go on all night – the man they call The Boss has even got in trouble for it in the past.

Fans of his music would expect nothing less from any Springsteen tribute team – but Doug Freeman doesn’t mind a bit.

Doug, who has lived in Stevenage for nearly a decade, is the man in the spotlight when The Boss UK pulls into the town’s Gordon Craig Theatre on Sunday, May 15.

Behind him the band includes guitarist Tom Tolson, who also lives in the town, keyboard king and queen Gianni Boscarino and Lisa Kaminsky, Kasjusz Lipowski on sax and percussion, Richard Spooner on bass guitar and Paul Greenwood on drums.

Doug said: “All of us are Springsteen fans with most of us diehard since the early days.

“In the 90s when I was writing and performing my own material I was often reviewed in the music press with references to ‘Bruce Springsteen meets The Who’.”

It was during a meal out in Stevenage that Doug and Tom had the brainwave of taking their love for the Boss on the road.

So what’s in store for this homecoming gig?

“Mostly full-on electric with a couple of ballads – and we might just throw a surprise acoustic number in,” said Doug. “Every song we do seems to be a crowd-pleaser – every song the true Boss does is a crowd-pleaser in our eyes!

“There are some great fanatical Bruce fans out there and each one has their own favourites. We always seem to have a great reaction to Badlands, and Born in the USA.

“As a band we’re very grateful that just about every Bruce song is a classic – it makes the set list difficult to compile but easy to like and a joy to perform.”

The Gordon Craig show kicks off at 7.45pm and sadly won’t be allowed to run to the full four hours of a typical Springsteen gig, but then it is a Sunday night.

Visit www.gordon-craig.co.uk or call 01438 363200 for ticket details.