Topic: How musical acts got their names

[rob1966]

Didn't Led Zeppelin name come about because someone in the music industry said Jimmy Page's new band would go down like a Lead Baloon and Page heard about it so named the band Led Zeppelin.

Or is it a Rock N Roll urban myth.

Keith Moon, John Entwitle, Page and John Paul Jones did some work together and they talked about putting the music out and Moon is supposed to have said it would go down like a lead balloon - Enwistle has claimed he said it and not Moon. Page himself said in an interview that Moon came up with the name Led Zeppelin when they were messing about with band names - its probably all from the same conversation.

[Sangria]

Scandal

A Japanese all-female rock band. They rehearsed in an upstairs room in a shopping mall. Scandal was the name of a shop in the mall selling sex toys.

[Crosby Nick]

Shed Seven used to have 12 members until after make or break talks they decided to carry on as a 5 piece.

[soxfan]

Thin Lizzy

The name Thin Lizzy came from a robot character in The Dandy called Tin Lizzie, which they adjusted to Thin Lizzy as a playful reference to the local Dublin accent, in which "thin" would be pronounced as "t'in". For some of their early gigs, the band were mistakenly promoted as "Tin Lizzy" or "Tin Lizzie".

[soxfan]

Heart

In 1967, bassist Steve Fossen formed a band, The Army, along with Roger Fisher on guitar, Don Wilhelm on guitar, keyboards and lead vocals, and Ray Schaefer on drums. They played for several years in and around the Bothell, Washington, area, northeast of Seattle. They frequently played Bothell High School, Inglemoor High School, and Shorecrest High School, as well as many taverns and club venues. In 1969, the band went through line-up changes—Gary Ziegelman (former lead singer of Buffalo Clancy) on lead vocals, Roger on guitar, Steve on bass, James Cirrello on guitar, Ron Rudge on drums, Ken Hansen on percussion,—and a new name, White Heart.

The name White Heart came from a discussion Roger Fisher's brother Mike Fisher had with Michael Munro, who had come up with the name White Hart (without the "e", a reference to Arthur C. Clarke's Tales from the White Hart) for a band with Toby Cyr on lead guitar. Fisher asked and received permission to use the name for the Army, added the "e", and the Army became White Heart.

For a brief time in 1970, this line-up shortened its name to Heart and dropped "White". Founding member Roger Fisher's birthday is Valentine's Day (and the band would release their debut album in the US on that day, as well). The band subsequently went through more personnel changes. In 1971, Heart consisted of Steve Fossen, Roger Fisher, David Belzer (keys), and Jeff Johnson (drums). After Ann Wilson joined (in 1970 or 1972), the band was renamed Hocus Pocus.

Mike Fisher, Roger's brother, was set to be drafted into the military. Nancy Wilson has stated that when he did not report for duty, his home was raided, but he slipped out a rear window, escaped to Canada, and became a Vietnam War "draft dodger". One day in 1972 (or 1971), Mike crossed the border to visit family, and by chance, met Ann at a Hocus Pocus (or White Heart) show. According to Nancy, that meeting was "when she and Michael fell in love" and Ann decided to follow Mike back to Canada. Steve Fossen finished his college education before he also decided to move to Canada in late 1972, and Roger followed in late 1972 or early 1973. Along with Ann, Brian Johnstone (drums), and John Hannah (keyboards), the band Heart was officially formed. Ann's sister Nancy Wilson joined in 1974, and soon after became romantically involved with Roger.

[Alan_X]

Procol Harum were named after a cat. The cat’s fancy name was procul harun.

From Wiki:

Guy Stevens, their original manager, named the band after a Burmese cat, which had been bred by Eleonore Vogt-Chapman and belonged to Liz Coombes.[8][9] The cat's "cat fancy" name was Procul Harun, Procul being the breeder's prefix.[10]

[elbow]

Cast - the last word on the only and only album by John Power's previous band The La's

"The change is cast" - Lookin' Glass

[FlashingBlade]

Buzzcocks


70sTV Rock Drama " Rock Follies"....one main character ( julie Convengton?)...said ..in a gig I think..." Are you getting a buzz cocks?"

Great name..fits music perfectly....Pete Shelly's original idea for group name was ' Crikey!'

[Alan_X]

The Bonzo Dog Doodah Band got their name using a Dadaist cut up technique. Originally the Bonzo Dog Dada Band it was a combination of Bonzo the Dog and Dada.



Bonzo the Dog

[Stubbins]

 In the early 70s a group of four lads from the West country were forming a band, but didn't have a name. All they knew was that they wanted it to comprise of two words.

So they set about writing one word each on one piece of paper and another word each on a second piece of paper. Totally random.

The eldest of the lads & founding member - Martin Turner - then turned the pages over and matched the two sets of four words together. The best combination and the best sounding band name was;

WISHBONE ASH

[liverbloke]

Didn't Led Zeppelin name come about because someone in the music industry said Jimmy Page's new band would go down like a Lead Baloon and Page heard about it so named the band Led Zeppelin.

Or is it a Rock N Roll urban myth.

Keith Moon, John Entwitle, Page and John Paul Jones did some work together and they talked about putting the music out and Moon is supposed to have said it would go down like a lead balloon - Enwistle has claimed he said it and not Moon. Page himself said in an interview that Moon came up with the name Led Zeppelin when they were messing about with band names - its probably all from the same conversation.

Did you guys deliberately ignore my post 

Short cut for people in here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_band_name_etymologies

Hey party pooper!

[rob1966]

Did you guys deliberately ignore my post 


Hey party pooper!

What post?

[liverbloke]

What post?

https://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=345782.msg17299656#msg17299656

 

[rob1966]

https://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=345782.msg17299656#msg17299656

 

Yep, I totally missed that

[McrRed]

Pearl Jam

Originally performed under the name Mookie Blaylock, an NBA player, but they weren't allowed to keep the name, so they became Pearl Jam. Despite what they have claimed for years, were not named after Vedders great grandmother Pearl and her psychedelic Jam. Nor are they named after jizz, even though some members of the band were in Mother Love Bone.

They couldn't come up with a name and Jeff Ament came up with Pearl, which the band were ok with and then after a Neil Young concert, where he did a lot of jamming on stage, they added Jam.

Perhaps apocryphal but I always thought Pearl Jam was the mix of semen and blood from having sex during a period. Certainly makes more sense and fits in with the 10cc 'Spoonful brand of etymology.

[[new username under construction]]

Prefab Sprout

Paddy McAloon decided to stick two random words together.

And came up with his own name?

[rob1966]

Perhaps apocryphal but I always thought Pearl Jam was the mix of semen and blood from having sex during a period. Certainly makes more sense and fits in with the 10cc 'Spoonful brand of etymology.

One of the DJ's on Planet Rock said a few weeks ago, don't google Pearl Jam. I didn't find a rference to semen and blood, but I did find was a reference to thick semen. Thing is, the Americans don't call Jam Jam, they call it Jelly, so I can't see that they'd get any reference to Jam anyway.

I found the explanation in an interview with the band in I think rolling stone magazine. The band are well into surfing and a pearl is where you dip the nose of the board into the water and Ament suggested Pearl.

[Ziltoid]

Rush

"While they had been dreaming of playing, they had neglected to come up with a name for their group. So, a few days before the gig they sat around in John's basement trying to come up with an appropriate moniker. They weren't having much luck when John's older brother Bill piped up, 'Why don't you call the band Rush?,' and Rush it was."

About as interesting a story as how Steve Davis got nicknamed "interesting"

[Ziltoid]

Jethro Tull

Band names were often supplied by their booking agents' staff, one of whom, a history enthusiast, eventually christened them "Jethro Tull" after the 18th-century agriculturist. The name stuck because they happened to be using it the first time a club manager liked their show enough to invite them to return.

[The Gulleysucker]

Not sure if the link has already been posted but there's a huge list here, well worth browsing through.

[Stubbins]

Jethro Tull

Band names were often supplied by their booking agents' staff, one of whom, a history enthusiast, eventually christened them "Jethro Tull" after the 18th-century agriculturist. The name stuck because they happened to be using it the first time a club manager liked their show enough to invite them to return.

Most of the bookings back then were done over the phone. Apparently they turned up for many a gig in the very early days to see that they were billed as Jethro Toe.

[liverbloke]

eels

The genius that is Mark Oliver Everett signed a contract with Polydor and released A Man Called E under the name E.

The name eels was chosen so that the band's records would be close to E's solo records in an alphabetical ordering, although it was too late once they realized that numerous Eagles and Earth, Wind and Fire releases were in between 

Yep, that sounds like Mr Everett that does 

[Son of Spion]

Tears For Fears

and

Primal Scream.

Both names were influenced by American psychologist and psychotherapist Arthur Janov, who founded Primal Therapy. A model where the client repeatedly goes back into childhood memories to relive the pain. Janov wrote the book, 'The Primal Scream: Primal Therapy, The Cure For Neurosis.

On a sidenote, the 'Pleasure Principle' album name by Gary Numan was also influenced by psychology. This time Freudian psychology. The Pleasure Principle being the innate driving force that sees the human being seek immediate gratification and please and also shun pain. The Pleasure Principle urges us to fulfill our most basic and primitive urges.

The cover of the Pleasure Principle album is also a loose recreation of a painting by Rene Magritte, which is also called The Pleasure Principle.


Section 25.

The band based in Blackpool who were on the Factory label were named after Section 25 of the Mental Health Act.
Anyone who knows Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, OMD and Durutti Column might also know of this band.


Durutti Column.

Named in honour of anarchist fighters who fought in the Spanish Civil War and were led by Buenaventura Durruti. The band changed the spelling of his name slightly when taking the name.

[Son of Spion]

Bauhaus.

Named after a German school of art, design and architecture.

Mansun.

Chester based, but led by Wavertree vocalist Paul draper, Mansun started out as Manson until Charles Manson objected. The name was changed to Mansun. It's also said that spelling tipped it's hat to a song by The Verve, called 'a Man Called Sun'.

Ladytron.

Liverpool band named after a song on Roxy Music's debut album.

Stereolab.

An American record label called Vanguard had a sub-label devoted to the release of test records for stereo systems, called Stereolab.

[Stubbins]

EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER

....go figure.

They considered a few names. Amongst them Triton & Triumvirate and anything prefixed by Tri basically. But in the end they thought bollocks and when for the easy option. Though it's been said since that it was to give equal status to each band member rather than the more famous Keith Emerson. Though his name still came first in the final reckoning.

[So… Howard Philips]

EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER

....go figure.

They considered a few names. Amongst them Triton & Triumvirate and anything prefixed by Tri basically. But in the end they thought bollocks and when for the easy option. Though it's been said since that it was to give equal status to each band member rather than the more famous Keith Emerson. Though his name still came first in the final reckoning.

X
And because of alphabetical order?

[liverbloke]

Supertramp

The group initially dubbed themselves "Daddy". To avoid confusion with the similarly named Daddy Longlegs, the band changed its name to "Supertramp", a moniker inspired by The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by William Henry Davies.

Hey man if you haven't bothered with this group then get your shit together and listen to Crime Of The Century an absolute classic of an album - in fact, I'm off to listen to it now 

[The Gulleysucker]

Supertramp

The group initially dubbed themselves "Daddy". To avoid confusion with the similarly named Daddy Longlegs, the band changed its name to "Supertramp", a moniker inspired by The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by William Henry Davies.

Hey man if you haven't bothered with this group then get your shit together and listen to Crime Of The Century an absolute classic of an album - in fact, I'm off to listen to it now 

Yes, it was a good album for the time.

Supertramp were a bit like a much more accessible Yes who by then had got so far up their own arses that they'd become almost a parody of excess both in behaviour and musically. I mean Steve Howe actually used to book a seat on Concorde next to himself just for one of his guitars and they'd become a never play one note when you can play 1000 notes and change key and time signatures at least three times every 60 seconds and in every fucking interminably long tune.

[So… Howard Philips]

Yes, it was a good album for the time.

Supertramp were a bit like a much more accessible Yes who by then had got so far up their own arses that they'd become almost a parody of excess both in behaviour and musically. I mean Steve Howe actually used to book a seat on Concorde next to himself just for one of his guitars and they'd become a never play one note when you can play 1000 notes and change key and time signatures at least three times every 60 seconds and in every fucking interminably long tune.

I too went through a short Yes phase coinciding with being able to afford a second hand Leak Delta turntable and Wharfedale speakers.

[bradders1011]

Supertramp

The group initially dubbed themselves "Daddy". To avoid confusion with the similarly named Daddy Longlegs, the band changed its name to "Supertramp", a moniker inspired by The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by William Henry Davies.

Hey man if you haven't bothered with this group then get your shit together and listen to Crime Of The Century an absolute classic of an album - in fact, I'm off to listen to it now 

Love Supertramp.

Stuck Crime of the Century on Spotify at my mate's at about 2am during a session a few weeks ago, introduced them to the glory.

[The Gulleysucker]

I too went through a short Yes phase coinciding with being able to afford a second hand Leak Delta turntable and Wharfedale speakers.

An older sister introduced me to Yes with The Yes Album, must have been in late 1971, possibly early 1972.

I thought it was good but then by the follow up album (I think) Bill Bruford had been replaced by Alan White (Ex Plastic Ono Band) on drums and the original keyboard player had also left or been fired by the little Cheshire man who sang, and been replaced by Wakeman.

Now I have a tremendous amount of time for classically trained and almost virtuoso Wakeman,  with his piano playing on Life on Mars and Morning has Broken amongst much other great work,  but even he intimates it was all pretentious bollocks, which is pretty much what I thought at the time with their output from there on which just seemed to get more and more ridiculous.

Didn't they even produce a four record album towards the end before Punk kicked all that self indulgent nonsense into oblivion? I have hazy memories of going round to peoples houses and sometimes having to listen to what seemed like four fucking hours worth of that tosh.

The only tunes I can remember from all their considerable output are Yours is no disgrace (the short vocal one) and Roundabout.

[rob1966]

They have a little thing on Planet Rock when talking about the length of things  - "its even shorter than a Rick Wakeman keyboard solo"

[Ziltoid]

An older sister introduced me to Yes with The Yes Album, must have been in late 1971, possibly early 1972.

I thought it was good but then by the follow up album (I think) Bill Bruford had been replaced by Alan White (Ex Plastic Ono Band) on drums and the original keyboard player had also left or been fired by the little Cheshire man who sang, and been replaced by Wakeman.

Now I have a tremendous amount of time for classically trained and almost virtuoso Wakeman,  with his piano playing on Life on Mars and Morning has Broken amongst much other great work,  but even he intimates it was all pretentious bollocks, which is pretty much what I thought at the time with their output from there on which just seemed to get more and more ridiculous.

Didn't they even produce a four record album towards the end before Punk kicked all that self indulgent nonsense into oblivion? I have hazy memories of going round to peoples houses and sometimes having to listen to what seemed like four fucking hours worth of that tosh.

The only tunes I can remember from all their considerable output are Yours is no disgrace (the short vocal one) and Roundabout.

Tales from a Topographic Ocean - and yes it was tosh.  Loved early Yes though.  Even listening back to 90125 when they became "big" in the US , it's a pretty decent album.

Never saw Yes but did see ABWH back in 89

[soxfan]

Boston

At first, "Boston" was not really a band. Their first album is one of the biggest debut sellers in music history with over 17 million units sold. It was actually produced by mastermind and MIT grad Tom Scholtz, who played all of the instruments in his Boston-area basement studio (with the exception of one song's drums), with Brad Delp adding vocals to the multitrack tapes later in Los Angeles.

The record label, Epic, insisted that the "band" -- which didn't really exist -- do a live audition in order to secure a deal. Scholtz and Delp recruited Barry Goudreau on guitar (who had assisted on a earlier demo tape), bassist Fran Sheehan and drummer Sib Hashian to create a performing unit which could replicate Scholz's richly layered recordings on stage. The showcase was a success, and the band Boston was born.

[The Gulleysucker]

Vinegar Joe, a group formed from the remnants of the earlier and short lived rock group Dada, and featuring Elkie Brookes and Robert Palmer, apparently named themselves after the sobriquet for the noted 2nd WW Anglophobe and all round callous miseryguts US army General Joe Stillwell.

[So… Howard Philips]

An older sister introduced me to Yes with The Yes Album, must have been in late 1971, possibly early 1972.

I thought it was good but then by the follow up album (I think) Bill Bruford had been replaced by Alan White (Ex Plastic Ono Band) on drums and the original keyboard player had also left or been fired by the little Cheshire man who sang, and been replaced by Wakeman.

Now I have a tremendous amount of time for classically trained and almost virtuoso Wakeman,  with his piano playing on Life on Mars and Morning has Broken amongst much other great work,  but even he intimates it was all pretentious bollocks, which is pretty much what I thought at the time with their output from there on which just seemed to get more and more ridiculous.

Didn't they even produce a four record album towards the end before Punk kicked all that self indulgent nonsense into oblivion? I have hazy memories of going round to peoples houses and sometimes having to listen to what seemed like four fucking hours worth of that tosh.

The only tunes I can remember from all their considerable output are Yours is no disgrace (the short vocal one) and Roundabout.

The moment 'Station to Station' came out the sound of that train engine churning away replaced the ethereal Yes, never to be played again.

[elbow]

Boston

At first, "Boston" was not really a band. Their first album is one of the biggest debut sellers in music history with over 17 million units sold. It was actually produced by mastermind and MIT grad Tom Scholtz, who played all of the instruments in his Boston-area basement studio (with the exception of one song's drums), with Brad Delp adding vocals to the multitrack tapes later in Los Angeles.

The record label, Epic, insisted that the "band" -- which didn't really exist -- do a live audition in order to secure a deal. Scholtz and Delp recruited Barry Goudreau on guitar (who had assisted on a earlier demo tape), bassist Fran Sheehan and drummer Sib Hashian to create a performing unit which could replicate Scholz's richly layered recordings on stage. The showcase was a success, and the band Boston was born.

So the lead singer came from Boston then.
 

[liverbloke]

So the lead singer came from Boston then.
 

Your username mad me look up this band...

elbow

The band was called 'Mr Soft' (the name was later shortened to 'Soft') and then they changed their name a third time to 'Elbow' in 1997, inspired by a line in the BBC TV drama The Singing Detective in which the character Philip Marlow describes the word "elbow" as the loveliest word in the English language.

[Stubbins]

Vinegar Joe, a group formed from the remnants of the earlier and short lived rock group Dada, and featuring Elkie Brookes and Robert Palmer, apparently named themselves after the sobriquet for the noted 2nd WW Anglophobe and all round callous miseryguts US army General Joe Stillwell.

Vinegar Joe were a great rock n roll & blues band. Elkie Brooks full on centre stage and Robert Palmer the epitome of cool even in those early days. Never came away from a Vinegar Joe gig feeling short changed. Shame they never hit the heights as a band but I guess it set them in good stead for their solo careers.

Little known fact. Phil Collins applied to join the band but allegedly didn't pass the audition.

[mikeb58]

Slade...the name a secretary at the office gave her shoes! They called themselves Ambrose Slade first, Ambrose being the name of her handbag!