Tribute bands featuring original members

i saw a free concert in the park once by "the orchestra" with a keyboardist and violin player who used to play with ELO, and a couple ringers like glen burtnik (who was paul to marshall crenshaw's john in beatlemania) and parthenon huxley who's got a wikipedia page full of credentials. it was neat to see mik kaminski, who has played on some obscure but great british folk records (joe soap - keep it clean!).

i have heard good words about the current version of molly hatchet, who afaik have no original members.

There are two other threads for this.

a band called "three friends" that played the music of gentle giant

originally called "Rentle Giant"! changed to Three Friends when a third original member joined, though he only lasted one tour.



Jim Rodford has got to hold some record for being a ringer in the most past their prime Rock acts--IIRC, he was in the Kinks, the Zombies, and Badfinger in addition to the Animals.

Zac Starkey has clocked up The Who, Spencer Davis Group, Oasis, The Lightning Seeds and The Icicle Works at past-their-primes, though the latter two were only a few years late.

and of course there's the lords of 52nd street, with core members of billy joel's 70s band: Richie Cannata, Liberty DeVitto, and Russell Javors. plus a billy joel imitator.

my brother's high school buddy jon carin has played/toured with the who, pink floyd, roger waters, psychedelic furs, kate bush, elvis costello, and bryan ferry (at the live aid concert). wrong thread, i know, but relates to the zac starkey comment.

The Lords Of 52nd Street is a GREAT one.

does creedence clearwater revisited count?

― ras trevor, Thursday, February 26, 2009 5:33 AM (eleven years ago)

Yes, btw.



jon carin

Pink Floyd, Roger Waters and solo Gilmour is a good scoop.

fun fact: before he hit the big time, jon carin was in a band called industry with mercury coronia, another jericho high school alum, who self-released a semi-famous and deadly rare prog album called Cathedral ‎– Stained Glass Stories.

but back on topic, has anyone mentioned blue coupe with the bouchard brothers from BOC plus dennis dunaway from the alice cooper band?

Zac Starkey has clocked up The Who, Spencer Davis Group, Oasis, The Lightning Seeds and The Icicle Works at past-their-primes, though the latter two were only a few years late.

Jim Rodford has got to hold some record for being a ringer in the most past their prime Rock acts--IIRC, he was in the Kinks, the Zombies, and Badfinger in addition to the Animals.

speaking of castoffs, the martin barre band plays almost exclusively jethro tull material.

awww:

The Kast Off Kinks formed in 1994 to keep the music playing on, and it is what the name implies - the original line-up consisted of the band that played Lola (apart from Ray and Dave) - Avory, Dalton and Gosling - together In 2009, the line-up became the band that played Come Dancing - Avory, Gibbons and Rodford (respectively the Kinks’ longest-serving drummer, keyboard player and bassist) - still with Dave Clarke covering for the Davies brothers. Jim then became very busy playing with The Zombies and Argent, so John Dalton was persuaded out of retirement and now plays very regularly with The Kast Off Kinks .

Almost every other ex-Kink has guested with The Kast Off Kinks, including Ray Davies

Zak has been in the Who for longer than their previous three drummers combined.

Call it four, what the heck; wikipedia has them meeting Moon at a gig they played with a fill-in drummer, using the kit of the original drummer they'd v rudely fired during an audition with a producer.


Also, fun fact: he was offered a full partnership in the Who back around 2000 or so, but he turned it down.

! Being in business meetings with Daltrey and Townshend together must be a HUGE ballache, then.


But it reminds me of a one-off that wasted the opportunity to have a proper band name:

In January 2012, one act dropped out of the last day of Tasmania's MONA FOMA festival, and the booker asked another one if they'd play a second set. The Dresden Do11s were both hanging around for a couple of days to see other performers play, so said yes, but: didn't want to just play a normal show again, given the audience were likely to be repeat customers.

So A. P4lmer asked the booker if he'd play bass with them, expanding the band from a duo; he agreed. She then asked if he would mind playing the entire Violent Femmes first album, for that to be the show: Brian Ritchie, the bassist of then-acrimoniously-split Violent Femmes and Tasmanian resident, said yes, and brought a vibraphone too.

The album's songs need a guitarist to be performed. Happening to go to a PJ Harvey (non-festival) show that night, P4lmer and drummer Brian Viglione went backstage afterward to say hello to one of hers, and left with Mick Harvey having agreed to listen to the Violent Femmes for the first time, to learn all their album's songs in three days on various instruments, and with John Parish signing up to chip in on electric guitar.

(What reminded me:
The Femmes then recruited Viglione as drummer the next year, having settled a five-year lawsuit between Ritchie and Gano (and already managed to drive their original drummer out of a Coachella-prompted reunion after a few shows, with a shitty contract) during the year. He quit after a couple of years, exhausted with the acrimony still existing between Ritchie and Gano to such a degree that they would not even stand in the same room as each other.)

Al Jardine’s Endless Summer w/ Matt Jardine

Al Jardine's "Endless Summer Band," featuring various touring Boys and his own sons, one of whom later joined Mike's licensed Boys, and Al's "Beach Boys Family & Friends," featuring a different assortment of sideBoys, his sons, and Brian's daughters.

Thanks to a tip from DJP on twitter:

Here is Gene Loves Jezebel's wikipedia:

https://i.imgur.com/w18mtqy.jpg

At the red arrow, it says "After the Pre-Raphaelite Brothers tour (1997), Jay Aston refused to work with his brother unless Stevenson and Rizzo were brought back."

Rizzo has previously only been mentioned at the pink asterisk, for having recorded two songs on a best-of in 1995; the band formed in 1980. The wikipedia writers never bother to give his first name, nor what instrument he plays, and yet his presence (or otherwise) has led to two entirely separate versions of Gene Loves Jezebel existing for 23 years, and suing each other in 1997, 2008 and 2018. (Each band has released studio albums under the name!)

Since 2009, a settlement means that Jay Aston's band is Gene Loves Jezebel in the UK, but the tribute band "Michael Aston's Gene Loves Jezebel" is allowed to tour, whereas Michael Aston's band is Gene Loves Jezebel in the USA, but tribute act "Jay Aston's Gene Loves Jezebel" is allowed to tour there.

Michael Aston (who first quit the band in 1989, rejoining in 1993, before the twin brothers split again in 1997) owns genelovesjezebel.com, and has no other original members in his Jezebels. Jay Aston owns genelovesjezebel.co.uk, and has no other original members, BUT does occasionally have three members who played with the band at various points in the 1980s amongst his Jezebels, and in 2017 used them all on a record for the third time ever / first time since 1990.

^that’s amazing

As chronicled by the Mountain Goats in Abandoned Flesh:

They charted once or twice
They were on a major label
When the singer went solo
He left money on the table
The two main guys are related
They're at war with each other
Now there's two Genes loving Jezebel
One for each brother

from this thread: Once Upon a Time in L.A. 2021

The lead singer of The Stylistics left in 2000, and tours as Russell Thompkins Jr. & The New Stylistics, possibly with a 1980-85 Stylistic in his group. Two other original Stylistics continue to be in The Stylistics.

By 1975, there were three original Dramatics out of five in the Dramatics. One of them split and formed a second, competing Dramatics. The first Dramatics then became a near-tribute band called Ron Banks And The Dramatics. Circa 1979 this tribute band (with two original members) won a court case, and the alternate band (with one original member) became a tribute band called A Dramatic Experience (great name).

Also, beating Gene Loves Jezebel to the punch by two decades, since 1975 there have been two lineups of The Delfonics, led by founding-member brothers.

Terry Chambers now has a band called something like EX-TC

EX-CellenT one:

Chambers and longer-term XTC bloke Colin Moulding did one EP and some gigs as TC&I, Moulding specifically having rejected the name EXTC as too on the nose. Chambers continued playing with a couple of the backing members they'd used for their shows, considering carrying on as a gigging concern. On a social meeting, main XTC bloke and will-never-reform hermit Andy Partridge insisted that the name EXTC was too good to not use. Once Chambers had formed a full five-piece band, Partridge came to rehearsal to teach them the tricky parts from his songs.

They played one warm-up show in a local pub in Swindon last March, and cancelled their debut proper gig in Edinburgh due to the novel coronavirus two weeks later.

World Premiere | Adelaide Exclusive

Probably just a one-off for this Guitar Festival, but Derek Smalls is co-billed with Sydney rock band You Am I performing as The Majesty Of Tap, and it seems unlikely that he wouldn't play with them.

Dire Straits Legacy's lineup is:

- led by an Italian bloke who formed his first Dire Straits tribute band in 1988
- a popular Italian session keyboardist
- another keyboard player who joined Dire Straits in 1980, played on every track they ever recorded, and is in the RnR HOF as a member
- the sax player from King Crimson, who played on Dire Straits' album, EP, tour and live album from 1982-84
- an American bloke who was second guitar on Brothers In Arms and the tour thereafter, but quit performing in 1988 to spend twenty years as a marketing exec for guitar and gear companies
- a percussionist who joined Dire Straits in 1990 and has continued to tour as drummer or percussionist with Mark Knopfler since
- and Trevor Horn.

rofl

Without Ronnie Van Zant, LS were a tribute to their former self, even more than remaining Doors. who at least came up with some more original material. And that was when LS had a lot of surviving members from the last line-up to work with RVZ. They lost almost all pre-crash members--down to Gary Rossington and singer-guitarist Ricky Medlocke, who mainly played drums with them early on, like '71, '72. Some shows scheduled this year.

Trevor Horn being that dude you played with in college to call to help your cover band be able to play at the neighborhood picnic.

FP'ing dow again