groups who no longer should be without certain living members?!

Oh, here's a good (bad) one. SAHB without Alex.

https://i.discogs.com/f3_d5m4MtscP5osRtGEcYiR_0J8MCHAwrFOvDPMypxA/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:597/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEzODc0/MDMtMTYyNzI5NjIz/Ny02OTUzLmpwZWc.jpeg

Yeah, when a band's actually named after the main person and they're not in it any more it's getting kind of silly.

Foghat will be my town this summer paired with The Guess Who, another band with the drummer as the only surviving member. Burton Cummings' voice is so distinctive that I would immediately dismiss any lineup without him in it. Yet again, he was in the band for 10 years: 1966-1975 (plus a few reunion tours.) Some guy named Derek Sharp has been their singer since 2008, so 14 years plus.

The most obvious one to me is The VU without Lou Reed.

Bowie attended a post-Lou VU show and struck up a conversation with Doug Yule afterwards. After a few minutes Doug realized, “Hm, this guy thinks I’m Lou.”

Xpost to be fair, they recorded without Alex Harvey, I think he was poorly and took a break. Rejoined them a year later.

(He's on the back of the sleeve, literally)

Yeah, when a band's actually named after the main person and they're not in it any more it's getting kind of silly.

Continuing the Glasgow connection, what about TV series that carry on for 16 years after the death of character the series is named after?

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

supertramp without Roger Hodgson, journey without Steve Perry, styx without Dennis DeYoung, foreigner without Lou Gramm

styx without Dennis DeYoung

I support this bc Gowan fronting Styx is awesomely hilarious and fitting.

Kansas without Kerry Livgren, which has been the case since about 1984

BREAKING NEWS: Several longtime band members of Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly, including co-founder Roame, have formed their own group, "The Formerly Of Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly," and will go on tour this summer with @HamiltonAnthony. 1/5 pic.twitter.com/29jX9BB5ot

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) May 8, 2023

I don't know why the SAHB didn't go on as The Sensational Band

Because honestly they didn't sound very sensational on that record. And "The Band" was already taken.

The Formerly of Maze?

um could have possibly found a better name than that to convey the same thing

Should have called themselves the Escapees.

"The Formerly Of Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly"! (But minus Frankie Beverly)

If he ever comes out of retirement and guests with them they can be The Formerly Of Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly Featuring Frankie Beverly

should of changed their name to Corn

Gina Hartman, Fox sisters reunite as 'Everything But the Everything But the Girl Girl'.

like can't they get in trouble for using Frankie's name even though what they mean is "we're formerly of the touring version of Maze that had Frankie Beverly in it but now he's not in our group", like...did nobody consult an entertainment lawyer

They are called "TMF Formerly Of Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly" ... I'm guessing autocorrect messed up the name in that tweet.

lol that makes a lot more sense.

my fav live band to go see is Oingo Boingo sans Danny Elfman. It's all the OG dudes, but for legal and booking reasons, they go by OINGO BOINGO FORMER MEMBERS and all their merch has FORMER MEMBERS as big as OINGO BOINGO. It's SO STUPID. Sickest band tho.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/ZYkAAOSwLGNjECtt/s-l500.png

:zoviet*france: have never been as good since Robin Storey left, he was responsible for so much of the gritty ethno-ambient textures of their early work. In fact it's well documented that some of their early albums were just Storey solo.

The Bad Seeds have never been as good since Bargeld and Harvey left, obviously Cave sees Ellis as his main creative foil these days but it's not the same.

And obviously Fairport Convention have never been as good since Richard Thompson left.

A few years ago Fairport Convention toured playing "Liege and Lief" in its entirety; none of the current line-up played on the record.

There was a Them album after Van Morrison left.

simon nicol played on l&l

the rosie thru rising for the moon (maybe gottle o geer if that counts) fairport had no original members but when nicol came back they had that covered

Kast Off Kinks is spot-on for the purpose
https://kastoffkinks.co.uk/

Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly was always a weird name to begin with. Also I believe he still tours with some version of Maze, does this mean there is a version out there without him that still has his name awkwardly in the band name?

Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly Featuring Frankie Beverly

should have 4 Mazes in each region, Maze North, Maze South, Maze East, Maze West. a good band is hard to find.

https://gerryspacemakers.com/

I love the gratuitous interrobang in the thread title.

Lol

Wall of Voodoo post-Stan Ridgway seems very weird to me, I'm sure the other members contributed a lot but his vocals seem like such a defining part of the band. Plus apparently their drummer left at the same time.

I'm reminded of the Best Show gag about the reunited Ramones (three drummers and a bassist).

Reminds me that La Düsseldorf literally was a band of three drummers.

I'm pretty sure that ZZ Top is touring with lynyrd Skynyrd this summer. that is wrong on so many levels.

Skynyrd seems to have been slowly taken over by the replacement members, like an ant being consumed by invasive fungus.

Dusty Hill's sub for the forthcoming dates is a guy called Elwood. Works for me!

now that rock & roll is largely a nostalgia business, I'd expect this to become the norm over the next couple of decades, if it isn't the norm already. I mean the good news is that you'll still be able to see the stones in 2040, and they'll only play the hits.

Elwood Francis was Billy Gibbons' guitar tech, and it was Dusty Hill's wish that ZZ continue with Elwood on bass. I feel like that's a whole different situation than Skynyrd.

No, I generally agree. But they certainly water down their brand by touring with zombie Skynyrd.

So many deaths in Skynyrd. Crazy that Johnny has been the lead vocalist since 1987, way longer than Ronnie ever was. I only ever saw them once, back in the 70s, but I imagine they still put on a capable show, zombies and all.

Are there any rock bands with no living members left?

oh Jimi Hendrix Experience I guess

I would say Viola Beach but there seem to have been some early members who'd left before the unfortunate and fatal accident.

Ramones

Original members, yeah, but not replacement members

I think we had a thread on this

Cream are only a Clapton away from this

I think all the members of Buddy Holly and the Crickets are dead, but probably not all who played under the Crickets name.

When I was a kid I saw something called "Buffalo Springfield Revisited." I was wondering if they were a tribute band, but I guess they had one original BS member, Bruce Palmer.

totally counts!

the thing about this phenomenon is that if the band is purely touring, and not recording new music, often times the new incarnation of the band can recreate the sound with stunning authenticity (not like I Am Morbid, where that band's lead guitarist plays the leads much differently than Trey Azagthoth). if you forget "hey this isn't really the guys who recorded that album I loved years ago", you can have a good time.

but once an incarnation with no original members (or an original member who didn't contribute to the songwriting in a meaningful way or wasn't the face of the band) starts recording new music, it usually falls flat because they're either trying to recreate something that doesn't flow naturally from them, so it sounds phony, or they make the music they want to make and you wonder what the fuck it has to do with the band name it is attached to.

like I'm sure there aren't many fans of the Foreigner album that came out 9 years ago and featured only Mick Jones.

Yes are a good example of that on both counts, there's something weird and unnatural about the current lineup, but the band Jon Anderson's been touring with to play the classics actually does sound pretty great

They could still theoretically put the Anderson-Bruford-Wakeman-Howe project back together, although it's unlikely since a) Bruford is retired, and b) the others all seem to hate each other. Maybe they should all go out with their own backing musicians playing the Yes classics? Saves them pretending it's still actually a band.

Has any group managed to successfully become dynastic with children of original members assuming parent duties? I feel like logistically this is more likely with duos.

― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, July 18, 2023 11:55 AM (twelve minutes ago)

Feel like Cheap Trick is getting there with Daxx on drums and Robin Zander's son on guitar & backing (sometimes lead) vocals

― chr1sb3singer, Wednesday, July 19, 2023 3:10 AM (six days ago)

Does DJ Yella and Li'l Eazy-E currently on "the Straight Outta Compton tour" count?

If it's just kids joining alongside the parents, there's a rich vein, with a recent highlight the current lineup of Crowded House including as many of Neil Finn's offspring as it does founding members.

(and special ILM asterisk for the pre-split lineup of Supergrass containing as many of Gaz Coombes' siblings as it did non-Coombes members in toto.)

Yella has done that N.W.A. Family cash-in touring nonsense for a while. Impressive that MC Ren has never been roped into it

Years of touring have seen The Weight Band revive “The Woodstock Sound,” keeping the spirit of Americana/Roots Rock alive for audiences of all ages. Performing their own music, as well as classic songs from The Band, The Weight Band is led by Jim Weider, a 15-year former member of both The Band and the Levon Helm Band, whose famed Woodstock barn group originated in.

Eh ...

take it to Tribute bands featuring original members

They paved the way for The Average Weight Band!

ha

Weight, Weight
I never had a chance to load you

serious tangent here ―and maybevi should take this elsrwhere― but besides like schoolboy crush, does anyone really awb seriously? i mean, in hindsight.

anyway.

sorry i got so flabbergasted i littered myself with typos. i think you get what i meant. mostly i hate awb. thanks for coming to my ted talk.

so yeah. the band is cool for a legacy act, but not if it's nobody from the actual band.