From simon@alphabeck.co.uk Tue Jul 20 04:23:39 2010
Subject:Re: OT!! Late/ Great ///Extinct Band Names
Well, here is a list of bands I played in from the age of 15 to the present day:
The Vinyl Junkies - my first band. We tried to play new-wave songs by The Boomtown Rats, Devo and Elvis Costello. I was the bass player, using my newly home-made Gibson copy.
The Beatless - satirical R&B band (guitar, bass and drums), playing songs about school life. I played bass and sang. We later added a tenor sax and became...
The Beatless+1 - More of the same, but we were good enough to eventually become...
The Rhythm Reckers [sic]- My first proper gigging band. Eclectic jazz-rockers with myself on keyboards (Hohner Pianet T; later a borrrowed Fender Rhodes) for the first time, plus the advantage of a music teacher on bass and vocals, two sax players and a repertoire extending from Procul Harum to Santana, The Police and Cream. We even added a 'cello and flute for performances of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Variations on a theme of Paganini"!
Compulsion - I moved to London in 1981, added a Casio CT-202 to my Hohner Pianet and joined this funk-pop band featuring music journalist Mick Heatley on bass and rhythm guitar - on two-guitar songs I switched to bass. We played very few gigs, but I have fond memories of this band.
The Difference - After Compulsion disbanded (the lead guitarist turned 30 and announced that he was now "too old!") I switched back to bass and joined a strange, doomy 4-piece combining psychedelic imagery, heavy lead guitar and reggae-inspired rhythms. After gigging round London for a year or two, Compulsion disbanded. Their ex-vocalist Anthea and I then formed...
Mix It Up - An electro-pop duo, possibly best described as a cross between Wham! and Eurythmics. Anthea wrote the songs and sang, while I arranged and played all the instruments; bass, piano, Pianet, synths (now including a Casio CZ-101), chromatic harmonica, drum machine and percussion. We gigged all over London; live, we used 4-track backing tapes, one for each song, and I played bass. We made a 12" EP, "Mickey Reform" in 1986 and disbanded about a year later. We briefly regrouped in the early 1990s to record a folk-influenced track "Walking on Stones" for a charity project. Our song "Sever the Connection" is in the repertoire of my current band, The Skanx.
The Turkey Nailers - At the same time as Mix It Up, I was also keyboardist for a Booker T-style 4-piece featuring Guyanese guitarist/vocalist Ray Pereira and bassist "Mad" Pete Duke. The two bands even shared some gigs. The band's name was from an interview I read in Guitar Player magazine - "Hey, man - let's get into the studio and nail that turkey!".
The Firebirds - In the early 1990s I was approached by guitarist/vocalist Alan Higgins to form a 6-piece blues and soul band with a horn section. This was my main band for a couple of years.
The AlleyKats - A long-term friend of mine, singer-songwriter and pianist Kat Platt decided to form a jump-blues band but only wanted to sing. She asked me to play piano, and eventually added Pete Duke on bass. Due to personality problems with the horn section we only gigged sporadically, and Kat soon left the band, to be replaced by veteran American bluesman "Mississippi" John L. Watson. The band became...
The Odyssey Blues Band - John L. Watson was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi and trained as a singer. In the early 1960s he came to England with the USAF and, in his own words "never went home". In the 60s he gigged with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones and recorded with psychedelic band The Web. The Odyssey Blues Band marked his 1990s comeback, beginning with a live showcase on BBC Radio 1 (with only one rehearsal!) and including appearances at blues festivals; Isle of Wight, the Barbican (London) and Dublin. We also recorded a CD, "Ass Kickin' Time". John L Watson quit the band in about 1999 at which point I also left. Original members Pete Duke, Alf Mitchell and Rupert Webster still gig together.
The Skanx - I have always loved reggae music, but had never really played it in a dedicated band. In 2008 I saw an ad in our local guitar shop calling for musicans for a ska band. I phoned up and was invited to a rehearsal. Within a year we were an 11-piece with a 5-piece horn section, two vocalists and a revamped rhythm section. We play mostly original material with a few well-chosen cover versions. Our gigs have covered south-east England, and we recently recorded a 5-track EP, available on iTunes. My current keyboard rig comprises a Wurlitzer EP-200 electric piano (owned jointly by the band), a Casio WK-3000 for organ sounds and of course a Stylophone.
Simon
----- Original Message -----
From: MRK7421@aol.com
To: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2010 4:13 AM
Subject: [CWSG] OT!! Late/ Great ///Extinct Band Names
I am interested in collecting BAND NAMES of bands that no longer exist. I
find this somewhat fascinating since we seem to live in a world where logos
are everything. A good band name can go a long way, even if the music sucks.
Since I grew up in the Pacific Northwest , I am going to throw out a few
from some of the bands that I grew up with ... along with some comments about
the bands.
1. The Live Five . These guys were from Salem Oregon, one of the first
live bands I ever heard. Their recordings of classic R and B covers like "
Shake a Tail Feather" and "Lets Go Lets Go Lets Go" on the Jerden label out of
Seattle still hold up well today.
2 . Notary Sojac. They got their name from the old Smokey Stover comic
strip. A very creative and hip band name, that no one really knew the meaning
of. Excellent original music from this 6 piece unit... their melodic use of
3 guitars preceeded the style that was later used by the Allman Brothers
and others.
3. Melodious Funk. This one was an off shoot of the P.H. Phactor Jug Band,
the original bunch of Portland hippie musicians. This name is a play on
Thelonious Monk in case you didn't get it.
4. No DeLay. When Portland harmonica master Paul Delay went to prison, the
remaining members grabbed Linda Hornbuckle and turned this blues band into
a funk band. Would have been a great band name with or without Paul.
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