Bands with one to zero original members

The Yardbirds - Jim McCarty

 

beat me to it

 

Peter Föller is the singer on the track Plastic People, also on Rockin' Rollin' Roller and This song is just for you, and also plays bass on the album. The other singer on the album is Bernd 'Nossi' Noske, the drummer.

 

Also - my pick goes to Renaissance - with that said Annie Haslam is great however I can't help but feel touring 90% of material you didn't write feels kind of strange. They need a new bass player mostly, they don't get as much done with dual keyboards such as The Enid (there's another one for you) with that said the "feel" is there, just without a good bass presence... shame that the second most important member (Jon Camp) happens to be alive but apparently they hate eachother, or at least aren't ever going to play a show again sadly.

 

I think his collaboration with Schoelling was several years after he had a falling out with the old man.
From what I heard of LOOM , it was pretty good, but I haven't sprung for the import CDs yet.

 

I KNEW I had the wrong name, need to work on my German he's one of my favorite members of all the TD line ups.

 

She's not an original member herself, and they haven't had one since 1972 or so.

 

This may not be an exact fit for the OP's premise, but The JGB (Jerry Garcia Band) toured as the JGB after Jerry and bassist John Kahn died. I always thought that was a bit tasteless to cash in on Jerry's name like that, but who knows if it were his wishes that they continue.

 

Hey, I spelled it wrong too. I left off the 'm'.

 

Great example. And of course, TD was in the "only one original member" category for decades before that. Chris Franke left in the 80s and I'm not sure if he was an original (although obviously he was there for their classic period).

 

I would be astonished to discover that Jerry ever expressed an opinion on that subject one way or the other.

 

Once you get to zero original members, you might as well go see a cover band.

 

I just picked the Cure for an example because someone else mentioned them. They're not a band I follow, so I actually had no idea who was in the band or for how. long. Also, Reeves Gabrels is in the Cure now??

I was just making the point that "Band with two or three long time non-original members" could, in a lot of cases, be considered more legit than "Lead singer/songwriter with a bunch of kids".

 

Uriah Heep - Mick Box

 

Makes you wonder how something like that happens. Here is a band that was very big in the '70's mostly due to the lead singer's vocals (IMO) and their somewhat catchy tunes and now they can't even enjoy their own fame.

 

I thought Top Topham was back in the band?

 

Jerry (and the rest of the Grateful Dead) reportedly felt like he needed to keep playing live year after year in order to provide a livelihood for the Dead's crew. If the JGB are doing that, maybe he would have approved.

 

He left a few years ago due to health issues. They recently changed the line up again according to Facebook and added a new guitarist. Chris Dreja came back for a bit but he left again as well.

 

Yes, I agree. When I heard radio spots promoting them in concert locally as 'The JGB', I thought it was one of the saddest and most classless things I had heard. But I've read interviews with keyboardist Melvin Seals who's wish was just to carry on in the spirit of Jerry, honoring him and playing his music. But really? You had to use that name?

 

Sarzo is actually the 3rd member of Whitesnake to play with The Guess Who. Drummer Brian Tichy and current Whitesnake bassist Michael Devin (whom Sarzo replaced) also played with The Guess Who.

I agree Sarzo should be doing something better (or more interesting). Oh well...

 

And beware of a group called the Legendary Drifters. Not sure if they're still out there, but they added the word "Legendary" to the name to skirt claims of copyright infringement. They did Drifters songs and misrepresented themselves as the original group (although none of the members were ever in the real Drifters). They were sued more than once by original members, and made a pretty horrible CD of mostly live Drifters covers. The CD was simply called The Legendary Drifters, apparently to mislead people into thinking that was just the name of the album and that it was the original group.

 

Yeah, I recall Dreja had a stroke in 2015 poor sod. Hadn't realised Top had moved on so soon. I thought it was ironic he came back, as everyone mentions the "big three", seemingly oblivious (not on SHMF obviously!) that Top was the original guitarist.

 

I doubt that was happening, though. I'm pretty sure almost everyone employed by Grateful Dead Productions was cut loose after Jerry died. Certainly they weren't touring with Steve Parish as guitar tech, etc.

Yeah, my reaction was very much "Really?" when I first heard about the band, but at the same time, I sort of appreciate the dilemma that they were in. I'm sure Seals would have been just as happy, maybe happier, playing the same music as "The Melvin Seals Band", but he knew he wouldn't have drawn half as many fans that way. Similar to the way Ratdog went from being "Ratdog" to "Ratdog featuring Bob Weir" a few years after Jerry died. Whether you're doing it for the money, or to keep the music alive, you want to get as many people in the door as possible.

 

Yeah, that seems like a misguided attempt at honoring him. I suppose The Jerry Garcia Band not Featuring Jerry Garcia wasn't considered.

 

You make solid points. But it just rubbed me the wrong way (and kind of still does) when I first heard them promoting themselves as 'The JGB' when there's no JG. Even something as simplistic as "Friends of Jerry" would have been a better choice.