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

The '78/'79 Pistols stuff after John left the band.

 

That is probably more of a Brian Jones/Stones situation other than the elephant in the room of the name.

 

Clear leader?

 

Joplin was the leader and she left. They continued after that with Nick Gravenites & Kathi McDonald but I don't know who was considered the leader of that configuration. They have also reformed with various other singers. However, the thread doesn't ask who the leader is now, it asks who the leader is that left. Perhaps you were confused by my wording.

 

By the end of their run, all of the original members of the Soft Machine, including stalwart Mike Ratledge, had been squeezed out leaving Karl Jenkins as the leader.

 

In the Canterbury/prog world there was also National Health, started by Dave Stewart and Alan Gowen, but by the time they recorded their first album Gowen was no longer a full member of the band, and then after the second album Stewart left and Gowen came back.

 

The Jerry Garcia Band, renamed JGB, has continued after his death.

 

Buddy Holly's Crickets continued on after he was gone. No idea if they had much success though.

 

I take it you're referring to the critical and commercial failure of Mr. Bad Guy? That's not really fair on Barcelona and The Freddie Mercury Album/The Great Pretender, which were far more successful solo projects... Sure, even his biggest hits were only blips on the radar compared to what he achieved with Queen, but Freddie did quite a lot outside of the main group, and I've not even mentioned his contributions to the Metropolis or Time soundtrack, which also made quite good impressions.

 

Granted, they're just an oldies act, but Paul Revere & the Raiders.

Mark Lindsay was the face & voice of the band. Mark & Terry Melcher made the records.

 

I don't think the members of BB ever considered Joplin the leader. They were established before she joined. Sam Andrew is quoted in Wikipedia

 

Is it always clear who's the leader? Roger Waters may have grown into the main songwriter, but it's not for certain that he was always a leader in the strictest sense after Syd left. The songwriting credits were much more democratic through DSOTM. It wasn't until Animals that Roger really had most of his ideas in place. Even through The Wall, Gilmour was identifiable for singing most of the songs, even with Roger's lyrics.

 

John Fogerty was never in that crappy band.

 

I knew the band existed before Janis but they would have probably been a little known San Francisco band without her. Sam Andrew also quit with Janis to form the Kozmic Blues Band and only came back later and James Gurley died and Dave Getz wasn't the original drummer so does that make Peter Albin the leader since I believe he is the only consistent member. The band is still performing occasionally. I guess you could say they were leaderless if you don't think Janis called the shots especially after they were successful. I read somewhere that at times they felt like they were treated as Joplin's backing band.

 

Last time I checked Duke Fakir was still with us, so 3 out of 4. Sigh, do I ever feel old. Don't even get me started on The Temps.

 

The Talking Heads (albeit renamed "The Heads") released No Talking, Just Head after David Byrne left.

 

The true leader has been gone for almost 43 years. Though Dickey did become a musical leader, he didn't always have the right temperament for the job. That's crucial.

 

Barcelona was a duett album with Montserrat Cabaille and was an excursion into a complete different direction. The other albums you mention are posthumous releases with remixes and other things added by various producers.
The "Metropolis" contributions were also by the whole group and not just by Mercury, as Brian May said in several interviews.
I don't want to put Mercury down, but he worked best in the environment of the band and was definitely no leader with the other three just following him. "Queen" weren't like the "Dire Straits" or several other bands, that were more or less a solo-project.

 

AC/DC managed quite well after Bon died. He was such a force, who figured?

 

They went on? Really? How is that even possible??

 

Founder, definitely, but leadership depends on whom you ask. BS&T was regarded by some as Bobby Columby's band.

 

I've read that Colomby himself claimed it was his and Katz's band that just happened to have Kooper as vocalist, keyboardist and one of the main writers and arrangers. Kooper would describe it differently, of course.

Later Colomby certainly was the leader, at least from a business perspective.

 

And he is now, which enables him to send an all-palooka lineup out as BS&T.

 

Someone mentioned INXS up thread. Was Hutchence the band's leader? I always that that the Farris brothers were the driving force of that band.

 

I think The Police is a good example of what happens to bands when leadership starts to get murky. I believe they were Stewart Copeland's band until Sting began to assert himself and that was all she wrote.