Mickeyboro Posted August 20 Share Posted August 20 And, more specifically, who ‘owns’ it after a split? I know the Wishbone Ash saga, but how have you dealt with such a thing? Stories please!🙏 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliff Edge Posted August 20 Share Posted August 20 All the bands I’ve ever been in, no one person actually owned it or the name. I owned the domain names of one of the more recent bands. When I left I kept renewing them until fairly recently. The band carried on until it naturally dissolved. The website had long gone by then. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted August 20 Share Posted August 20 Years ago I went to a photography exhibition and in one of the photos saw the name Nancy Johnson plastered all over some prescription pill-pots in one of the photos, I just thought, 'Ooh, cool name,' and wrote it down. As part of a small project for coding websites, I purchased the co.uk and set about all manner of goofery about a fake band called Nancy Johnson and their ridiculous escapades touring Europe and the USA (I think you can still go to the internet archive and pull up most of it). Roll forward a couple of years and by jingo, I'm in a band, we decide to adopt the name Nancy Johnson and off we go. Where things get stupid are that promoters are reading the website and think we're something we're not AND once in a while promoters seem to thing Nancy is a real person and actually ask us where our singer is. Inevitably, the line up changed (much like Pete Frame's Rock Family Trees) but I was the constant throughout until I bailed because of personality/musical differences. During the interim period, the new singer decides that we need a new name and adopts Who Killed Nancy Johnson?, which somehow reflects a change in musical styling from a fun pop/punk band to something a little more aggressive. If I'm brutally honest I wasn't really a fan of the WKNJ? rebrand. At the point of my departure, they carried on playing material I'd written/co-written and went through three bassists until calling it quits last year. Of the name Nancy Johnson, I don't know whether ownership comes into it to be honest, it's just a name, but in my little world I suppose that name came through me and I was the main driving force; I'd have preferred if the rebrand had been under a different name entirely and not including the original name. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mykesbass Posted August 20 Share Posted August 20 My last band incorporated the singer's name (our original drummer suggested that). I guess she will keep that one in perpetuity! My feeling is that if you are covers or blues covers then the name should give a bit of a clue as to what you do. Originals, it is all about branding. Band leader/originator should keep it unless someone else from the band came up with it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickeyboro Posted August 20 Author Share Posted August 20 2 minutes ago, Mykesbass said: My feeling is that if you are covers or blues covers then the name should give a bit of a clue as to what you do. Originals, it is all about branding. Band leader/originator should keep it unless someone else from the band came up with it. We are the Otis Jay Blues Band. Fairly clear labelling. Otis Joseph is my two and a half year old grandson, born as we got together. He owns the name, I guess! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mykesbass Posted August 20 Share Posted August 20 1 minute ago, Mickeyboro said: We are the Otis Jay Blues Band. Fairly clear labelling. Otis Joseph is my two and a half year old grandson, born as we got together. He owns the name, I guess! I think he'll happily let you use it for the next few years Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StickyDBRmf Posted August 20 Share Posted August 20 NancyJohnson that is the coolest story 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted August 20 Share Posted August 20 A good few years back I named the band I was in The Gorgeous Heroes. It was meant to be ironic but some took it a bit too seriously. We folded probably 16 years ago and never seen anyone else stupid enough to use the name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliff Edge Posted August 20 Share Posted August 20 Very soon after I started playing bass, still in school, I joined a rock ‘n roll band called Porridge and the Hubcaps. Well why not? We got a good few gigs before we lost one of the hubcaps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackroadkill Posted August 20 Share Posted August 20 We're the Dave Jackson Five; Dave Jackson is our singer, so I guess he owns it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
police squad Posted August 21 Share Posted August 21 Obviously names can be registered. Check out the whole Bucks Fizz / Original Bucks Fizz / The Fizz story. Only 1 original member in Bucks Fizz and 3 in The Fizz (although it will be 2 soon as Mike is retiring) I have been in 2 bands that registered their names and one band that was around for 30 years, which at one brief time had no original members in it till the original singer rejoined. People knew what the band were about and the evolving line up didnt detract from it. I don't think anybody in the UK is using the name now, but someone is in the States (original guitarist actually) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted August 21 Share Posted August 21 Certainly if you are an originals band having a unique band name is more important than ever. The name for my current band was chosen by joining two slightly related words together, even so when using any of the search engines I still need to put quotes around it otherwise they think it's a typo and also bring up results with the two words separated. Also it is important to consider the title of your band's album(s). When my first band were asked to produce a retrospective compilation we decided to call it "Richard, Roger, Rodney, Rastus, Raoul, Roderick, Randy, Rupert" which is a line from one of our songs. Unfortunately that means that lots of on-line resources think it's an album called "The Midnight Circus" by Richard, Roger, Rodney, Rastus, Raoul, Roderick, Randy, Rupert. And when they do get it right and provide a link to a download or streaming version of the album it's turns out to be a different album by another band also called The Midnight Circus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDaddy Posted August 21 Share Posted August 21 15 hours ago, Cliff Edge said: We got a good few gigs before we lost one of the hubcaps. Was that gig in Liverpool? 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmccombe7 Posted August 21 Share Posted August 21 If the band was in existence before i joined i don't have any issues with the name staying if i leave. Historically for me tif he band folded that was the end of it and the name was never used again by any member. However if i just chose to leave then the band continued with the same name and i'm ok with that. I guess a good example of this causing issues is Pink Floyd when they disbanded and David Gilmour ended up with the name even tho he wasn't a founding member. He did bring in Mason and Wright which then gave him a better argument for retaining the name but i believe many if not most song ideas in the early days were from Roger Waters. (correct me if i'm wrong ?) Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Browning Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 (edited) People can get precious about it. After a few months, the local paper told my first band to change our name. Can't think why, the original Beatles hadn't been active for about 7 years at the time. Edited August 23 by Steve Browning 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 Funnily enough (OP) my guitarist is in Martin Turner's band when he's not larking about with me. They even had to stop using the name "Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash", although all of the flight cases are still sprayed "MTWA". It's now "Martin Turner ex-Wishbone Ash" The lawyers made a lot of money on that one. Pretty sad really 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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