WHAT’S IN A NAME?
I’ve only been buying Prog for five or six issues; I’m not really a progressive music fan, I’m a music fan, if you get what I mean. One thing that’s always annoyed me are the ridiculous names that groups call themselves. I’ve been a music promoter for at least 17 years full-time and 33 years part-time before that, and it never failed to amaze me how little thought goes into the naming of a band – I once had to promote a band called No Talent Whatsoever (OK, so I was wrong about them, they’re the big stars we all know and love – yeah, right!), so perhaps you might see where I’m coming from.
Can you imagine The Beatles having the same impact on the world if they’d called themselves Fish On Friday or Psychedelic Porn Crumpets? Names like The Beatles, The Animals, Iron Maiden, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Saxon, Metallica etc are now clichéd or boring, but they also had/have a timeless quality about them, and they were of a time (60s, 70s, etc). Groups called themselves after insects in the 60s: The Earwigs, The Spiders etc, and anything heavy metal-sounding (70s) like Iron Maiden, etc. Now we’ve got all these different genres of music and no overall trend in music, so bands are no longer following suite, calling themselves after insects or metal objects, and for years there hasn’t been a ‘recognisable’ music trend like punk or metal. Bands that take up the slightly more ridiculous names tend to have shorter lifespans. There’s always the exceptions, of course, take Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, and …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead (I wonder just what the longest name for a band has ever been?).
Anyways, to all you budding musicians forming your first group out there, there really is a serious decision to make, and hitting on the right name is almost as important as being a great musician.