Band Name History

[tauzero]

Cymex - formed at International Hall in That London, named after a brand of industrial vacuum cleaners because somebody had a promotional single that started "5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - the Cymex are coming!" - rock originals and covers

BHX - named after the TLA for Birmingham airport - rock originals

Nightmusic - a literal translation of Nachtmusik - pop covers

Cristonelles - a mashup of the singer's children's names - pop covers

Caprice - name of unknown origin - rock originals

Cuddly Spiders - named during an evening of drunkenness between the guitarist and me - rock originals and covers

Ruffian on the Stairs - named by the drummer, a big Joe Orton fan, after one of his plays - soulish originals

Torn in Two - renamed from the Anthill Mob before I joined - soft rock originals

Nightshade - name of unknown origin before I joined - hard rock originals

Naked Touch - now there's a name I didn't like. The keyboard player came up with it and none of us were able to think of a better alternative quickly enough - soft rock originals

Bleeding Hearts - originally a duo, I think it was the guitarist who came up with it rather than me - folk-rock originals

The Symptoms - arrived at after one of the traditional debates - mainly soft rock covers, a few originals

New Corona Band - named after the dulcimer player's father's old band, the Corona Band, which in its turn was named for the band round a cigar - trad ceilidh band

Breakaway - name of unknown origin before I joined - pop covers

Second Time Round - named because it's me and Mrs Zero, and we got together and got married 25 years after we'd first gone out together - variety of covers and originals

Licksntrix - named before I joined, not one of my favourite names - rock covers

The Lightning - named before I joined - rock and power pop covers, some originals

Different Glory - named before I joined - soft rock originals

Spiral Six - Coventry based, the name was derived from Coventry being the city of Three Spires, and there being six in the band (see how well that worked for Level 42) - a covers offshoot of Different Glory

Distant Earth - never got to gigging, name derived from Arthur C Clarke's "Songs of Distant Earth" - prog covers

Space Monkey - originally named, er, something else, got renamed when an audience member said "you're a bunch of space monkeys" - mainly 80s covers

Space Cadets - a subset of Space Monkey - mainly 80s covers

a2RK - named from the initial letters of the original band members' first names (there were two As), which left them a hostage to fortune as it should probably be called Mark now - prog originals

Dirty Roses - a product of innumerable discussions which we finally agreed on - rock covers

[ezbass]

5 hours ago, Linus27 said:

 

So Alan who played in Heartfakers and I believe DiamondHearts played drums for us in The Bee-Bops. Lovely chap and a superb drummer.

That is the very man, also known as Mr Clock. I consider myself lucky to have played with him for so many years (he was also in Inside Information and Some Kinda Voodoo). In fact, he’s visiting me this coming weekend!

[Linus27]

1 hour ago, ezbass said:

That is the very man, also known as Mr Clock. I consider myself lucky to have played with him for so many years (he was also in Inside Information and Some Kinda Voodoo). In fact, he’s visiting me this coming weekend!

Awesome, he is a superb drummer. Absolute joy playing 50's Rock n Roll with him, he made it so much fun and great to be around.

 

Please please say hello to him from Michael who was in The Bee-Bops and that I hope he's keeping well 👍

[Franticsmurf]

7 hours ago, tauzero said:

Nightshade - name of unknown origin before I joined - hard rock originals

The name of my first band was Nightshade - Hawkwindesque sci fi originals and a few related covers, around 1988. Never gigged and no singer, quickly morphed into:

Jovian Winter - Similar originals and covers but with a few more accessible covers thrown in to try and extend the set to 90 minutes. We had a marathon naming session at which the classic suggestions 'Cheese Sandwich' and 'Jackboots of Buddha' were put forward. 

Fragile Earth - proggy originals, a few similar covers to flesh out the set.

Frantic Smurf (hence my tag) was a one off reunion of the three bands above in one appallingly chaotic gig. Well attended but soon forgotten.

Mr McHenry - all covers, an eclectic mix from the four of us which included 'Like a Virgin', 'Blockbuster', 'Black or White' and 'Black Dog'.

Ramtops - Britpoppy/rocky originals with some strange time signatures.

Shine - Britpop covers

There followed several years go duos (I played guitar and bass with the same singer for all of them) including 'Getting Even', 'RUK', 'Stigma', 'Louie & Co' and the last one which became:

The Insiders (and later, The Insiderz) which had a great pub rock set and a not so great (I wasn't a fan) function set. On and off I played bass and sometimes guitar in this one for about 20 years until Covid. 

Skeleton Krew - a one-off gig at a venue that liked us. We played on the Friday as 'The Insiders' and they had also booked us to do Halloween which was the following night, but they didn't want the same band name on the posters. 

The Long Road - music of The Eagles, which worked alongside The Insiders as it was basically the same line-up. This lasted a couple of years until Covid. 

The Rewinderz formed from 4/5ths of The Insiderz, initially to play rock 'n' roll covers but sort of slid back to the pub standards when the R 'n' R gigs didn't materialise. 

I record, but don't perform, my own originals under the name 'Phunki Drengka' (which is one of the many ways to spell the name of a village on the Everest Base Camp trail).

 

[mike257]

God, this is going to take some digging up....

The Funks - aged about 9/10, with some kids from the next street.  I was on lead vocals.  Lasted two "rehearsals" before we got bored and went back to riding bikes and playing football

Blueprint - aged about 16, some semi-competent original material and a load of covers, imploded when the drummers classical musician parents disapproved of us booking a gig at the Cavern.  He became a very successful orchestral percussionist, so they were probably right

B-BOM - aged about 17 - Played the usual array of underage local band nights, playing a handful of originals mixed in with Rage Against The Machine, Green Day, Nirvana, Foos covers and the like

Amidst Speculation - 2002, a one night only, completely improvised metal gig with me, a guitarist, two drummers and two singers.  Entirely as chaotic and ill-advised as the description suggests!

Call To Order - 2002-2003, hit 18 years of age, was allowed in proper venues legitimately.  First "proper" original project. Two members from previous band.  Grungy, riffy, rock tunes with a political leaning. 

Mexican Alibi - 2003 - pre-existing bassless band that I joined on bass as an occasional live and studio member.  Weird angular indie-rock with odd time signatures. Lots of fun sweaty local gigs.

Seven - 2004, me and the drummer from Call To Order plus a couple of new mates.  Moody, dark rock tunes with electronics and samples from films that we thought made us sound clever.  Played a few half decent supports in the local Academy/Barfly venues

The Idiot Rate - 2005-2007, three of us from Seven with a new singer/guitarist.  Best effort at "taking it seriously", apparently one of the first unsigned bands to be booked on an Academy headline tour (in the smallest rooms, and nobody came to most of them).  We were aiming for the early 2000s British post-hardcore thing (Hundred Reasons, Hell Is For Heroes, early Biffy Clyro) but everyone just called us emo 😄 did a lot of DIY touring and some decent headline shows and support slots at home (including Enter Shikari, Sikth, and a very early and raw Bring Me The Horizon, who we definitely didn't envisage becoming an arena filling rock behemoth at the time!)

Connecting Flight - 2007/9 - mathy, noisy, At The Drive-In-esque stuff with the singer from Seven and a revolving cast of half the guitarists in Liverpool, which became....

In/Casino/Out - 2008/9 which was essentially the same band and revolving cast as above. 

Hotwire - possibly 2007ish - classic rock influenced with two mega guitarists and a singing drummer, joined temporarily for a few months to fill in

The Buffalo Riot - 2008-2010 - a different direction, americana channeling Ryan Adams and CSNY with the singer from The Idiot Rate.  A marked change after years of noisy riffs, and they're still going now!

The Brave Kid - 2011 - my last solid effort at making original music.  Big rock songs with singalong choruses, twisty riffs in strange time signatures and the best drummer I've ever had in a band. Imploded quickly due to rotating singer shenanigans.  All my gigging as a muso since then has been in function/corporate world

The Recollection 2012-2014 - function band, swapped the fat strings for the skinny ones and bought a Tele.  My first dip in wedding world which led to a few years full-timing it

Motown Gold 2014-2019 - pretending to be James Jamerson, who wouldn't love it?

 

Hung up my gigging shoes in early 2019 because it was getting in the way of my other career/love as a tour manager and sound engineer, so I just make other people's bands loud now and only play bass at home or mucking about at soundchecks.  It's brought up some nice memories racking my brains to think of it all though, and I'm sure I've missed a couple of bands along the way too, not to mention countless ones I've depped for that I didn't list!

Edited August 19, 2022 by mike257

[Nicko]

TNT a band name inspired by our collective love of all things AC/DC formed by a bunch of school friends of whom only the drummer had any idea what they were doing (he eventually went on to a successful session career and now owns a drum emporium).  Thankfully we never progressed past playing in the drummers bedroom.

Pearl Necklace A covers band formed by a bunch of construction workers on a massive petrochemical refinery project in Qatar named the Pearl GTL project.  The name lasted, even though the entertainment team (unofficially the ministry of fun) found out what a pearl necklace was.  Played an eclectic mixture of southern rock, indie pop and classic rock.  The only time I've heard a set contain stuff by CCR and Colbie Caillat.  The band split when I decided to come back to the UK, although more because the gigs were bad for the leaders alcohol problem than me being irreplaceable.

Nearly Dead A bunch of ageing friends who'd been together for years mainly playing dad rock. I joined then when their bass player left and we met about once a month for a year or so. They talked of gigs but nothing ever happened.

Albion Named due to the guitarists obsession with all things Libertines - fell apart before gigging due to musical differences - that is other members suggesting songs that weren't written by Doherty or Barat, and partly because the guitarist was ex RAF and couldn't get on with the singer who was still an  NCO in the RAF.

Rock Lizards Guitarist was a believer in the conspiracy that our leaders were Lizards in disguise - a spin off from the previous band Ruled by Lizards.  It's no surprise this didn't last long.  Mainly post punk with a bit of punk thrown in.

Firefly.  Chosen by committee as the least offensive of the options.  Mainly 90s pub covers.  Lasted until the drummer and guitarist couldn't be in the same room without a fight.

Blacklight a random suggestion while sat at a pub in Chertsey after practice one night.  Our art teacher drummer liked the juxtapsition of light and dark - I liked the fact it's what the police use to look for bodily fluids.  Came up with quite a good logo and played a few gigs before Covid killed it off - playing pretty a fairly similar set to the remnants of Firefly.  

 

Doing this has suggested that there's considerably more to band names than meets the eye and the worse the reason for the band name the more pain the band will bring.

[Muzz]

Due to some agent-related unpleasantness a couple of years ago*, our function/covers trio needed to gig temporarily with an alternative name, so the BL decided on Lucky Pierre. We did this for a few gigs until the drummer, an Italian chap who is otherwise flawless of character barring a certain prudishness, had a conversation with someone in a pub who told him what it meant...he nearly didn't go on for the second set...

 

 

* Actually more likely four years ago...Covid, innit?

[Leonard Smalls]

53 minutes ago, Muzz said:

told him what it meant

Wot? Is it some disgustingness of which I'm unaware? How could this be?

There's a band called Lucky Pierre in Llandrindod Wells...

 

Edited to add: Aah, now I see. At least I didn't use images when I searched!

Edited August 20, 2022 by Leonard Smalls

[redbandit599]

Turbo Condom and the Fish Fingers - we knew one song (House of the Rising Sun) which the drummer could sing but couldn't play, we made up two others - the drum kit fell over. Our mates in the garage at the party thought we were gods....

Dumper - the above 3 piece became a 5 piece and learned how to plug everything in. We gigged a lot and by the end actually got quite good, somehow.

Red Raw and Sore - one guitarist left and we ' rebranded ' only played a couple of gigs then packed it in for a bit.

NightOwl- myself and two other Dumpers, plus a new girl singer and another good guitarist.  Quite a few gigs , well received- pregnancy stopped play ( very amicably of course.)

Declined Transaction- I work for a corporate credit card company and this band was formed by an old punk director, an inspired name choice. The most fun I had at work 3 singers ( one awesome) great drummer, two bassist and two dodgy guitarists. Said director blagged us into British Summer Time in Hyde Park, twice. We released a single. Had our name banned by the CEO (American Bible Belter - nuff said...)

Hoaxx- my current band, probably the best I've been in. Get more gigs offered than we want 🙂

 

[police squad]

On 18/08/2022 at 09:07, uk_lefty said:

Bands I was involved in naming:

 

 

 

Cocktails and Dreams - 80s covers

 

 

that's a great 80s band name

[KingBollock]

Sagitta - My first band, put together by myself and my brother. I got the name from a huge star map I used to have on the ceiling above my bed. It’s a constellation consisting of four stars (there were four of us). Then there were only three of us so I changed the name. First, briefly, to Skull and then to Mandragora.

 

Deviance - An already established Metal and Thrash covers band with originals.

 

66Crush - Rock and metal covers band. I hated the name, but then it was suggested by the singer who wrote a song about having sex in the back of a three wheeled van…

 

John Doe - Rock and metal covers and originals. Despite the rubbish name, this band was great. Really talented and great people. One of my biggest regrets is having to leave this band, though I wasn’t given any real choice (due to stuff outside of the band).

 

Bum F*ckers From Hell - Death metal band, originals. There was supposed to be an offer to be on a bill with Bolt Thrower, at which point everyone started taking things far too seriously, the name got changed to Cerberus and promptly fizzled out.

 

That last band was in the early 90s, I then lost contact with everyone I knew and, due to my circumstances, I’ve done bugger all since.

[uk_lefty]

11 minutes ago, police squad said:

that's a great 80s band name

It was a coin toss between that and Risky Business. Can you see the inspiration here? Unfortunately the band never really got going and since then I've sold my fretless Warwick and headless Status/ Washburn. One day.... One day....

Edited August 21, 2022 by uk_lefty

[police squad]

All based in souh east kent

1982, I was fourteen and did my first gig with Glass Maze. Bass and vocals. mainly T.Rex and Buddy Holly covers. Drummer grew up and played keys for Toyah for many years. We had two young Royal Marines on brass a few years later.

Out of Touch. About 1986.Guitar and vocals. Rock covers, did a few pub gigs

1987 Joined another pub rock band called 3AM plyed bass and B/vocals

This morphed into Roadhouse. Rock covers with an ex Tenpole Tudor drummer. bass and eventually lead vocals too

I joined an originals Band Called Hope n Glory. Big hair, 80s rock.Vocals only this one. Interest from Rod Smallwood but the band folded.

The Crack. 1989. 60s covers, Bass and shared lead vocals with gutarist. Beatles, Marmalade, Beach boys, Searchers, Hollies. Great band

1990 Scandal. Pub rock, many gigs, great band bass nd vocals

About 1998 ish The Little Alligators. bass and b/vocals. Guitarist from Scandal and his wife singing. Bit more modern stuff with girl singing

About 2002 I joined Live n Kickin.Guitar and b/vocals, then I replaced the lead singer. Theyy been going about 15 years at this point. Very succesful local rock covers band

2010 reformed Scandal for a bit

Then did Aftershock with the kid from Britains got Talent on drume. Very good band, guitars and vocals  2 singers, me and the drummers mum, her husband on lead guitar and my wife on bass. Band fell apart

Rejoined Live n Kickin again, just as a singer but replaced the bass player when he passed away 

Miami Vice. 80s duo, guitar and vocals. Very succesful and still going

Miami Vice reloaded. Same as the duo but a full band. The most amazing rythmnn section I've ever played with

[police squad]

16 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

It was a coin toss between that and Risky Business. Can you see the inspiration here? Unfortunately the band never really got going and since then I've sold my fretless Warwick and headless Status/ Washburn. One day.... One day....

great idea. Cocktails and Dreams wins it for me. My 80s thing is called Miami Vice

[Happy Jack]

22 hours ago, Nicko said:

TNT a band name inspired by our collective love of all things AC/DC formed by a bunch of school friends of whom only the drummer had any idea what they were doing ....

 

Bizarrely enough, I lived in a big shared house on Mortlake Road in Kew in the mid-70s with a bunch of school friends who were wannabee rockstars and were obsessed with AC/DC. 

 

One night they had a particularly heavy session on the indulgences. The next morning I got up and looked out of my window at the South Circular, to find that they had spray-painted their new band name in six-foot letters across the entire road.

 

That name? Well of course it was TNT.

 

[joeystrange]

8 Idle Hands - First band. Indie/punk-ish. We wanted to call I it Idle Hands but there was a local blues band called The Idle Hands so we decided to add the 8, despite being a 3-piece.

 

UgLi - Blues/rock. Once described as Stevie Ray Vaughan meets Rage Against The Machine.

 

Patchwork Grace - Named before I joined. Grunge/punk band. One album and some decent touring.

 

JD & the FDCs - Rock n roll/punk. I love this band. The name was an acronym of Jamie Delerict & the F*cking Douchebag C*nts which was something we got from a friend’s band. At the time we thought just a string of letters was really funny (we even called our first release The FDCCDEP) but we fairly quickly wished we’d chosen something more memorable. By then it was too late.

Two albums released and a few years of solid touring.

 

Spunk Volcano & the Eruptions - Punk/thrash/rock n roll/whatever. Named for our singer whose stage name in his main band (Dirtbox Disco) is Spunk Volcano. Long story. Sometimes shortened to SV & the Eruptions.

Three/four albums (two plus one double album) since I joined. Lots of UK/Euro touring.

 

MeMe Detroit - Indie/grunge. Name came from the singer and started as a solo project. Slowly turned into a band and I joined around a year ago.

 

A few other things here and there but these are the bands I’ve been a member of.

Edited August 21, 2022 by joeystrange

[Dad3353]

1 hour ago, joeystrange said:

...JD & the FDCs - Rock n roll/punk. I love this band. The name was an acronym of Jamie Delerict & the F*cking Douchebag C*nts...

 

[Pedantry]

Not an acronym (which has to spell out a pronouncable word, such as LOL, or ASAP...), but the initials of ...

[/Pedantry]

[TeresaFR]

In chronological order:

 

The Noctuary (Very pro-form of...)

Mourning For Autumn

Every Black Day

Ghost Light

 

All goth bands. With differing levels of skill and competency. Sometimes great skill and no skill were present at the same time in the early bands.

 

[Cat Burrito]

• 1988 - 1989 - Nine Lives (Glam / Sleaze done very badly indeed)
• 1989 - 1990 - Whore in Reverence (Sixth Form Goth band)
• 1994-1995 - SkinTrade (Glam / Sleaze band)
• 1995-1998 - The Ex-Boyfriends (Pop Punk with a dash of britpop)
• 1998-2000 -  SpyCatcher (60s Mod)
• 2004-2005  Stone Circle (country rock)
• 2004-2007 - Grand Union Music Show (country rock jam band)
• 2007 - CC Rider (country rock)
• 2008-2009 - The Driver Brothers (country rock)
• 2008-2009 - The Ely Plains (country rock)
• 2009 - 2019 - Case Hardin (Americana)
• 2013-2016, 2017-current - The Jimmy Sixes (50s r&b / 60s Garage)
• 2015-2016 - The 58 Shakes (50s rock n roll)
• 2016 - 2022 - Creedence Clearwater Revival Revival (tribute to CCR)
• 2017 - current - Richard Davies & the Dissidents (New Wave / Alternative)
• 2019 - current - Last Great Dreamers (Power Pop)
• 2021 - current - Deadlight Dance (Post Punk / Goth)
• 2022 - current - Slyder Smith & the Oblivion Kids (Rock)

[silverfoxnik]

On 18/08/2022 at 09:14, Happy Jack said:

Since 2005, and listing only the bands that actually gigged:

 

Squishy Fish - rock covers [formed in The Horniman pub and originally named The Horny Men, the rest of the band changed the name at a drinking session without teling me. I left after the first gig]

The Fields - dreadful functions band [originally formed by parents of children at Fieldings Primary School]

Bang To Rights - pop/rock covers

Brentford Nylons - loose covers

Junkyard Dogs - pop/rock covers [this was Bang To Rights but without a keys player]

King Ralph - steampunk originals [most people assumed that the 'King was an abbreviation]

Rocky Elvis - 6'5" Elvis impersonator with a scractch TCB band, dep gig

Soul Disciples - Northern Soul, dep gig

Dani Molino - Spanish singer/songwriter

Karena K - English singer/songwriter

Mick's Lawmen - power trio with an identity crisis [the drummer really was called Mick Law, so the name was a no-brainer]

Sapphire Grooves - hip, laidback covers

Long String Hawkers - ramshackle semi-acoustic Depression-era (1930s, not 1980s) songs

Hinterland - English singer/songwriter, dep gig

Westbound Piccadilly - country/folk originals, dep gig

Red Herring - stupidly STUPIDLY LOUD rock trio, dep gigs

Resonance - functions band, dep gigs

Chiltern Hillbillies - country band [supposedly, not so much on close inspection]

Fat Walters Band - Southern rock, wandering into country

Raw Delia - blues rock

Damo & The Dynamites - old school rock'n'roll and rockabilly

Broken Spoke - country band [an attempt to do it right after leaving the Chiltern Hillbillies]

Harmonica Lewinsky - cheeky cockney rave-up [I'm not making this up], dep gig

Streamline 55s - rockabilly

Soul Seniors - classic soul

RAMcache - original pop

 

Across those 26 bands I've played about 500 gigs, but about 400 of those were with just three bands.

"Harmonica Lewinsky" 😂🤣😂

[BreadBin]

1 hour ago, silverfoxnik said:

"Harmonica Lewinsky" 😂🤣😂

There was a local band called Velocity Kendall, and there's one around at the moment called Foxy Acetylene!

 

My list is...

Defiants - comedy thrash covers

Maternoster - Industrial Goth

The Flesh Gods - Psychedelic Space rock

Textured Air - Trippy live Techno Dub

Lowered Tones - moody Bristolian electronica 

The Condiments - folk

And currently, Aimless Arrows - which I am struggling to describe effectively! Semi acoustic, with leanings in all kinds of directions.

[Manwithvan]

Nice thread, and some great names.

Here’s some also rans.

 

Colloidal State - school band name found by a young swot in a chemistry textbook.

The Joe 90s - art school band featuring spectacles.

Schoen ist anders - German for ‘beauty is not like this’: it was in Austria.

Reverend Frank and the Loose Canons - pub blues band, not very tight. I liked the name though.

Jazz Indigo - sensible name for sensible jazz standards outfit.

The Shackletons - accordion, bass and voice. Named by Vic Reeves before I joined, apparently.