Bands who had a clear leader who is no longer with them.

Who are some bands that had a clear dominant leader but was either somehow kicked out or is just no longer with them.

My examples would be Styx with Dennis DeYoung who pretty much dominated that band but now they function with him at all.

Pink Floyd without Roger Waters. Even though Syd was the original leader, Roger became the dominant leader in the 70's into the 80's. Obviously Gilmour took over the reigns ever since the mid 80's

Believe it or not, the original Rush with John Rutsey the drummer. He was actually the leader of that band and even talked to the audience at live shows and would introduce songs. After him they became more of a unified band with equal vote between them.

 

in the 70s Genesis - Peter Gabriel

initially Brian Jones with the Stones although Jagger soon took over

 

Grand Funk Railroad - Mark Farner

 

Jon Anderson with Yes

 

The Beatles - Pete Best

 

The Quarry Men

 

Creedence Clearwater 'Revisited' was touring a few years ago. Without John Fogerty.

 

Never would have considered Dennis DeYoung any more of a leader than Tommy Shaw was with Styx. He's certainly not a "clear leader," even if he wrote more of their biggest hits.

 

Big Country - Stuart Adamson
Manic Street Preachers - Richard Edwards
Midlake - Tim Smith

 

INXS

 

Uriah Heep, Ken Hensley or David Byron
Deep Purple, Richie Blackmore (left) or Jon Lord (died)
Ten Years After has played without Alvin Lee

 

james gang continued after joe walsh left not sure if was the leader or not....the velvet underground made one album after lou reed left.....the stranglers continued after hugh cornwell bailed.....buzzcocks with out howard devoto.....

 

They still are.

 

Spock's Beard without Neal Morse (left in 2002)
Dream Theater without Mike Portnoy (it was him and Petrucci running the show since the beginning...they're still good but definitely lacking something without Portnoy, as great as Mangini is as a drummer)
Genesis without Peter Gabriel
Pink Floyd without Roger Waters


by the time Jones was ousted from the Stones, he wasn't the leader...he'd been displaced long before by the Glimmer Twins

 

Thin Lizzy

 

He was kind of their Roger Waters for a while there, dominating the proceedings with his prolific songwriting and concepts. When I first encountered Styx in the 70's I always regarded DeYoung as the principal member.

 

Grateful Dead

Garcia wasn't the leader per se but we all know what was what.

 

To hear the other Stones tell it (and not just Jaggerrichards) Jones was never really the leader, although he tried to style himself as such.

 

Does Buddy Holly and the Crickets count?

 

To this day, I'm puzzled by the idea of Heep without Hensley.

 

He was clearly the dominant leader. It got to the point where it was either his way or the highway and Tommy Shaw ended up butting heads with him. He even made Tommy re audition for the band when they reunited for the remake of Lady for the greatest hits album.

 

Peter Gabriel was the lead singer of Genesis, but he was never really their "leader" the way someone like John Fogerty led CCR. If anyone was the leader of Genesis it was probably Tony Banks. Peter didn't even write all their lyrics. I think a big reason he left the band was that he didn't feel he had enough control of his own life.

 

The Specials without Jerry Dammers

 

Fleetwood Mac has got to be the band that has done so with the greatest success (without Peter Green) - if for no reason other than the level of success they achieved

 

I've been reading up on John Rutsey since getting Rush's first album this week and I was surprised to find out that he had lyrics written for the first album but when they went into the studio, he decided they were substandard and destroyed them, forcing Lee to come up with new ones on the fly.