Favourite band names [any genre]

Subject: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Feb 10 - 11:58 PM

The "If I Had a Band I'd Call It..." ongoing thread inspired this one. I was surprised that the filter didn't show any previous on the subject.

I think my favourite, for its multi-meaning ingenuity, was the Electric Light Orchestra ~ quite liked their music, of its kind which not really my best-loved genre: but always greatly enjoyed teasing out the various referential implications of their beautiful name.

So ~ what's yours?

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 18 Feb 10 - 02:42 AM

Old And In The Way.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 18 Feb 10 - 02:42 AM

Mine are all Mancunian: The Fall, Starless & Bible Black, The Woodbine & Ivy Band.

I do have a soft spot for some of the prog-rock band names of the seventies: Hatfield and the North, Matching Mole and so on.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: GUEST,ernest
Date: 18 Feb 10 - 03:26 AM

"One foot in the Grave"

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: cptsnapper
Date: 18 Feb 10 - 04:06 AM

Six Hands In Tempo, Decameron

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 18 Feb 10 - 04:31 AM

Matching Mole is even sweeter for its derivation; some choice Wyatt-esque wordplay punning on the French for Soft Machine, which is also a great name. Most contentious of the Mancs is, of course, Joy Division, who somehow managed to live up to it. In Gateshead there used to to a DIY sort-of-not-so-superstore which had a Joinery Division (I kid ye not) which I always thought would make a cool name, or at the very least a decent photograph.

One might be glad that the successful pop-covers cub band The Bystanders changed their name to Man, reportedly because it would look big on posters. To their fans, however, they will always be The Manband, which is just as well because they obviously weren't thinking ahead to Google. And I don't know why Simon Dupree and the Big Sound changed their name to Gentle Giant but I'm kinda glad they did. Whilst I'm perhaps the biggest & most indiscriminating Third Ear Band fan on the planet, I often ponder how things would have turned out if they'd stuck to The Giant Sun Trolley.   

Of all the bands I've been in, it is Rhombus of Doom I remember most fondly, not only for the name, but the music, the fractious internal politics, the opportunity to play with the finest rhythm section ever, some great vocalists, and in our sax player I had the honour of knowing, however so briefly, one of the nicest human beings that ever walked this earth. Our guitarist was one of the most innovative, open minded musicians I've ever met and he went on to form the equally great (in music as in name) Forkeye.

Favourite name ever? It's a toss up between Ace Brigode and his Fourteen Virginians and Sun Ra and his Omniverse Ultra 21st Century Arkestra...

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Terry McDonald
Date: 18 Feb 10 - 05:14 AM

My brother's re-emergence as a rock'n'roller in the late 1980s/early 1990s was as lead singer in a band called 'The Deckchairs.' The name relected their situation in that that they were a little frayed around the edges, always difficult to assemble,and liable to collapse at anytime.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 Feb 10 - 05:22 AM

I thought the young Asian band 'Cornershop' were very clever. I like people that can laugh at their own stereotypes:-) I like their music as well, which is an added bonus!

DeG

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: GUEST,Dáithí
Date: 18 Feb 10 - 05:22 AM

..Half Man Half Biscuit, closely followed by the Soft Machine, Fat Mattress...
D

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 18 Feb 10 - 05:38 AM

For someone who has posted 'Mancunians' what about

'Big John's Baekelite Nipple Band'.

Eh ?

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: GUEST,MC Fat (at work)
Date: 18 Feb 10 - 05:42 AM

Vince Wretch and the Pukettes, McKamikazie Highlanders, Willie Cutts and the Circumcisionists, Young Gifted and Fat, The Heaverly Brothers, The Two Rhetts, J Arthur and the Rankers, Driving Sideways......

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Feb 10 - 05:21 PM

There have been a couple of older threads about band names. I posted links to them in the other thread.

I still don't see why you started this one.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: GUEST,guest lurkin'
Date: 18 Feb 10 - 06:16 PM

Hackney Martians :-)

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Mr Fox
Date: 18 Feb 10 - 06:36 PM

Edward II and the Red-Hot Polkas

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: melodeonboy
Date: 18 Feb 10 - 07:41 PM

Many years ago I played for a Cambridge band called "Algy and The Swimming Pools" (geddit?). And the guitarist's name really was Algernon!

What about "The Trouser Trumpets" and "The Fabulous Fezheads"? Both from Kent.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Feb 10 - 09:28 PM

There have been a couple of older threads about band names. I posted links to them in the other thread.
I still don't see why you started this one.
=====================
Jim ~ I always, as enjoined, check filter before posting; did on this occasion & nothing came up: has happened to me twice recently {on other occasion found self repeating one of my own which most embarrassing!]. The filter needs to be more sensitive: one can surely never get the wording identical.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: GUEST,Captain Farrell
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 10:04 AM

Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers or the Mississippi Sheiks

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: frogprince
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 11:03 AM

Hadn't thought of this in years, and honestly I'm not making this up: When I was stationed on Guam, 1965-1966, there was a local group called "The Liberty Five". I doubt that I would even remember that, if it wasn't that the Lead singer's name was Toby Liberty.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Victor Mourning
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 11:24 AM

In the spirit of the original "If I Had a Band I'd Call It..." I'll mention that I do have a folk/Americana band and called it The Victor Mourning.

Anyway, some fave names (some of which work better if you know the bands' music) are The Gun Club, Roaring Jack (Alistair Hulett RIP), John Brown's Bodies (the 60s garage band, not to be confused with the modern reggae band) and of course The Dead Kennedys who pleasantly shocked us all by emerging with that name way back in 1980.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 08:55 PM

"The Flying Chaucers". And a former local band called "Jiggle the Handle". "Starboard List", of course. Oh, and another semi-local group, "Three Sheets to the Wind".

Linn

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: meself
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 09:20 PM

There is, or was, a rock band in Edmonton, Alberta, called 'The Joint Chiefs'. On the same theme, there is or was a blues band in Calgary called, 'Joint Effort'.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: DADGBE
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 10:14 PM

I can post this again now that my cookie has been restored.

There's an all female alternative rock band named, 'The Cunning Stunts'.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 11:07 PM

I remember a group entered in the Chorus Cup at Wagga Folk Festival in about 1978 that was called "Guru Murrumbidgee and the Stock Routers".

Think very carefully before pronouncing the last word.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Boston Bass
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 03:22 AM

I believe there is/was a band in Wales called "Cliff Rescue and the Helicopters" Wish I'd thought of that one.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Splott Man
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 06:16 AM

Beat me to it Boston Bass.

They still occasionally reassemble for a laugh.

They have the honour of being name-checked by Peter Kay on Phenix Nights.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: folkypaul
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 09:58 AM

How about "Me First & The Gimme Gimme's" a great band who only do covers.   Differently.

PaulO

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: fat B****rd
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 03:56 PM

Achilles and his Heels, Machine Gun Fellatio, Howlin' Wilf (sorry not a band, but still a great name)

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 04:59 PM

Les Miserables and the Proper Pissers.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Jack Campin
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 06:30 PM

In early music: The Callipygian Players

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 21 Feb 10 - 06:38 PM

My son's new band, "The Escort Knights": guess they get a few strange requests!

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: kendall
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 04:18 PM

Generic

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: mikesamwild
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 07:26 AM

The Stunt Kites played round Sheffield
I always liked a name in Annie Proulx's Shipping News - Bleak Joe Cove sounded a bit Billy Bragg on a pessimistic day away from Dorset

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 07:33 AM

I once had the (very brief) pleasure of being one of the line-up of the a capella trio - Flatt, Capp and Muffler

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Bobert
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 07:41 AM

My all-time favorite name was the band, "Bloodwyn Pig"... Not too sure why... Maybe if I knew more about the word Bloodwyn it might be a different story...

My second favorite was a short lived country-rock band that I was in in the 70s... We called ourselves, "Doctor Rupert and the Wiggly Digits"... Just say "no to drugs"... lol...

B~

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: GUEST,band
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 09:12 AM

I saw a flyer for a band in Copenhagen called 'throbbing gristle'.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: alanabit
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 09:32 AM

Ken Wood and the Mixers were a UK R&B band in the eighties.
I always liked the name "The Temperance Seven." There were actually nine of them, because, as they explained, "We are one over the eight!"

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 11:53 AM

Another I remember was Telephone Bill and the Smooth Operators, run in his youth by Cambridge singer Nick Barraclough who went on to be a BBC Radio 2 presenter.
(For furriners ~ a telephone bill here is the account for payment sent quarterly by the telephone company.)

In a different field, I always found Barenaked Ladies intriguing, as its members were neither.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Peter the Squeezer
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 04:56 PM

How about "The Betty Swallocks Band"?

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 07:13 PM

Yes, definitely heard THEM! You must be from near where I live P the S, where there is also a band called DISBAND.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Bounty Hound
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 07:18 PM

Several years ago, when ther trend was for a band to be 'Someone and the.......' there was a barn dance band called 'Gay Gordon and the Dashing White Sergeants' and equally brave, a rock band called 'Buster Hymen and the Penetrators'

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Dave Hunt
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 09:13 PM

Three friends had a band doing 30s/40s songs - Trio con Brio - great name!
Still very active - The Titanic Syncopators (A band on ship!)

Some of the bands I have worked with as a caller :-

From above - 'Les Miserables and the Proper Pissers' - that's got to be you Ian! or is it Baz??(and it was Les as in Dawson and Miserables as in English miserable)
Llandaff Hope(A band from South Wales), Syphon the Python, The Expanding Waist Band, Bass Insincts, Alf Alfa and the Wild Oats, Ceilidhography, Desperate Measures, Metric Foot, Cwm Dancing, Melons for Ecstacy, Hoover the Dog, Wall Star Village Band, Top Tup Band,(from Derbyshire), Used Notes, May Contain Nuts (another great name - and very appropriate!).

Miss Trunt

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: mikesamwild
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 08:18 AM

The Dashing White Privates were a short lived dance band ( maybe a Kippers title?)

The late great Tony Capstick would conclude a moving piece with 'Not a dry seat in the house'

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: glueman
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 08:31 AM

Butt Hole Surfers, Half Man Half Biscuit, The Pork Dukes, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, The Upsetters, Thirteenth Floor Elevators.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Splott Man
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 09:32 AM

Bobert...    Blodwyn is a Welsh girl's name. It means white flower.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: topical tom
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 09:52 AM

The Mother Folkers
The Four Bitchin' Babes

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Arnie
Date: 11 Mar 10 - 09:43 AM

I always liked The Dead Sea Surfers as a band name. Saw them once in High Wycombe and they all wore Hawaian shirts and shorts and brought a bit of sunshine to the club - they were as funny as the name suggests. At a bar in the same town, I also met Morris, from Morris and the Minors which is another great name. I think he told me that he wrote The Deserter that Simon Nicol and Fairport now perform.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: frogprince
Date: 11 Mar 10 - 10:51 AM

I still think that, for names that were really "right", and so well chosen as to be a real career asset, the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead are both hard to beat.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Folknacious
Date: 11 Mar 10 - 12:23 PM

But never have a band name that's better than the band. Ceilidh Minogue spring to mind

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 11 Mar 10 - 08:00 PM

Slight thread drift here, but the talk of Gay Gordons reminds me that at Stonehaven Festival they have an aqua ceilidh every year in the town's outdoor (but warmly heated!) swimming pool. Dance list:
The Spray Gordons
The Splashing white sergeant
Slip the Willow
The Naval Two step
Aquarian Barn Dance
Highland Splattische
The Flyfishing Scotsman
The Spraysome Reel
etc, etc

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Allen in Oz
Date: 11 Mar 10 - 10:33 PM

There was an all-girl band playing in Tamworth , New South Wales, Australia known as:

Doris Dazed (their leader was Doris)

AD

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Matt_R
Date: 11 Mar 10 - 10:44 PM

Wild Billy Childish & The Buff Medways

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Matt_R
Date: 11 Mar 10 - 10:55 PM

Whoops ... their full name is Wild Billy Childish & The Friends of the Buff Medway Fanciers Association.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: alanabit
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 12:52 AM

Ivor Biggun and the Red Nosed Burglers, with their classic "The Winker's Song". Now that could be a good one for Little Hawk's recent thread!

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 02:04 AM

Megadeth (funny, tho' not intended to be)
Ultra Vivid Scene
Momus (Roman god of debauchery)
Ozrics Tentacles
Alice Cooper (when contrasted with Kate Rusby?)
The Hot Club of France
The Mothers of Invention
They Might be Giants
Butthole Surfers
Echo and the Bunnymen
Peter, Bjorn & John (for hip retro styling)
A Tribe Called Quest
The Cat Empire
Captain Beefheart
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Soil & "Pimp" Sessions (for the quotation marks..)
L.F.O. (Low-frequency ocsillation)
Bebop Deluxe
Cocteau Twins
Ian Dury & the Blockheads
Groove Armada
House of Love

think I aughta quit there..

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 02:21 AM

PS:

Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart

(as well as having a good name, deserve a mention as when I first started realising that these old songs existed, I learned my second traditional song off 'em! The Blacksmith )

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: GUEST,CupOfTea
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 10:24 AM

Imagine if Monty Python named an all-male a cappella ensemble specializing in choral music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance - they couldn't do any better than

Suspicious Cheese Lords

It almost takes some of the fun away to know it's based on a mondegreen of a Latin lyric, but it is my favorite early music group name.

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Rowan
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 06:02 PM

I remember a group entered in the Chorus Cup at Wagga Folk Festival in about 1978 that was called "Guru Murrumbidgee and the Stock Routers".

That was when many folkies (and others) in Oz had become adherents of the Maharishi, not long after many others had become members of the Divine Blight, which became another short-lived group.

On an earlier thread I can't now find I mentioned that the first all-female rock band in Oz was called "Hens' Teeth" (from Canberra?) and a later, better-known one from Sydney was "Ovarian Sisters".

While playing with "Flying Pieman" I occasionally guested with the Melbourne bush band "Rum, Buggery and the Lash"; both groups were known to make reference to flashing pink privates while assembling sets for the Dashing White Sergeant. "Cockies' Joy" and "Messmates" are both names I've liked and used when playing specific repertoires to relevant contexts. And there's a group of Sydneysiders with a maritime repertoire who, when past their thirties, formed a group called "The Roaring Forties".

Great names, all of them.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Jayto
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 06:21 PM

The Bad Seeds. That has been my favorite for years now.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 13 Mar 10 - 09:47 AM

There's a San Francisco band called Belle Monroe and Her Brewglass Boys; for years I've been trying to get my jam group to adopt the name Once Born Gospel Singers (the first name attached to us was Point Isabel Poodle Players since the two original members met at the Point Isabel dog park while walking their poodles. I, the third member was never comfortable with that since it disrespected my dogs, Labradors. I tried to get a couple of other names adopted as well, Charlie Bond and the Bail Jumpers and Monday Night at Sally's (time and location of our regular jam). When I record with some of the members we are Kratz&Jammers.

Of course I've always liked The Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service...oh, and Dire Straits. And, in old timey/bluegrass The Dry Branch Fire Squad. Another great name and great band, The Austin Lounge Lizards.

Charles

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 12:38 PM

I think my UN-favourite has to be Edward II and the Red Hot Polkas. Think of its horrible implications! Ugh!

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: maple_leaf_boy
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 12:54 PM

"The Divorcees" and "The Whisky Kisses" are cool band names.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: oldhippie
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 04:17 PM

Beat Farmers
Cocktail Slippers

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: maple_leaf_boy
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 05:46 PM

I almost forgot "Alert The Medic". These are local bands. They tend
to have interesting names.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 15 Nov 10 - 06:26 PM

Red Molly... still don't know what it means, is it some sorta mutant
             tropical fish? great name, great band

You know, I hadn't thought about it for years, but when I was young I always thought "The Beatles" was a brilliant name. I guess they hit the mark.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Splott Man
Date: 16 Nov 10 - 05:58 AM

Red Molly is a character in the Richard Thompson song Vincent Black Lightning 1952.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Leadfingers
Date: 16 Nov 10 - 09:14 AM

Very Good R&B band from High Wycombe back in thbe early seventies - 'Brewers Droop' - and the Uxbridge Ceilidh Band -'The A40 Improvement scheme' !
Duo I was in post 'Fools Gold' was 'No Turn Unstoned' . aka 'The Psychodilly Banjo Beards From Hell'

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: raymond greenoaken
Date: 16 Nov 10 - 12:42 PM

Dr Strangely Strange

The Pasadena Roof Orchestra

The Faulties

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Nov 10 - 03:09 PM

In his pub rock days, James Hunter used to bill himself as "Howlin' Wilf".

I once saw a hand-written sign in a North London pub window for a country/bluegrass act called "Banjovi".

"Norfolk & Chance" was actually a racehorse, but the name would suit a slightly second-rate folk duo even better.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: Ernest
Date: 16 Nov 10 - 03:48 PM

Ialways liked that name of a western swing trio:

"The Hot Club of Cowtown"

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: mandotim
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 04:59 AM

Simon Mayor used to play in a band called 'Slim Panatella and the Mellow Virginians'.

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: mattkeen
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 05:31 AM

I once once in a band called George Herbert and the Metaphysical Poets

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 05:40 AM

Mattkeen ~~ Love that one. Out of interest ~

a. Did you actually have a George Herbert; or a George &/or a Herbert? or any real rationale beyond the merely delightfully referential?

b. What sort of music did you play?

♥♫❤Michael❤♫♥

Subject: RE: Favourite band names [any genre]
From: mandotim
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 05:57 AM

My first ever band at school had a name culled from a random opening of a science textbook; the name? De Broglie Wavelength. The bass player went on to better things. He was (name drop) Maartin Allcock. Jethro Tull and Fairport Convention don't have the same cachet though, do they?