The Bass Players New Successful Project
Posted by Commoner on 9 July 2008 - 12:53pm.
Help! I need a good answer to a friends email and so forgive me if I have overlooked a recent thread but its a relatively simple question, "How often when a band splits up or changes its lineup is there a successful 'new project' for anyone leaving the the band OTHER than the frontman/woman?" For example that means no Phil Collins or Macca but I guess we could have New Order and Richard Thompson to start with? I am not sure what George Harrison counts as though. Success counts as strong record sales or critical acclaim I guess? Please Discuss.....from reading below I believe we proving there is life after the break up...
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Fleetwood Mac
The rhythm section did quite well.
The guys from the Beat who formed the Fine Young Cannibals had one of the biggest hits ever.
Lemmy
Whose royalty cheques over the years would you rather trouser? Motorhead’s or that of the group who kicked him out, Hawkwind?
Hawkwind's...
What's your point, Richard?
I would imagine neither...
would have me lounging outside the Tuscan villa on a diamond-encrusted lounger.
Quite...
...there'd be no change after buying your SS-issue Speedos
Guitarist from Mud
Did rather nicely for himself writing, among other things, Kylie's Can't Get You Out Of My Head.
A few more
Former La John Power's Cast were pretty ubiquitous for a few years
Bobby Gillespie did OK after leaving the JAMC
Wayne Hussey's Mission was (for a while, at least) bigger than the Sisters of Mercy
Some band called Foo Fighters comes to mind
Norman Cook did fairly well after the Housemartins
John Power
He's slowly getting more interest in his solo stuff too. It's good, more "roots" (I quote the man himself, who I got chatting to at Green Man last year).
Guy Chambers
Guy Chambers did alright after leaving World Party, becoming Robbie Williams co-writer and producer.
and The Lemon Trees
Pretty good but very obscure
Talking of which
World Party only existed thru' Karl Wallinger having left the waterboys. Anthony Thistlewaite had a go as well, producing a couple of records, before becoming nearly a SawDoctor.
Foo Fighters
Yeah, yeah Nirvana yada yada, but I bet Dave Grohl's smiling more these days
Alex James
Way before Graham Coxon's solo albums and Damon's reinvention, Alex was part of Me Me Me and Fat Les. He's also been in Wigwam and now a fancy dan country man with a bestselling book
no offence but Fat Les and Mememe hardly compare
to Damon and Graham's stuff! Plus his book bottled it imho - not half as salacious as it purports to be. Nice floppy hair though.
Ooh this is good...keep them coming!
keep them coming!
Rick Wakeman...
...had a fair few hit albums back in the 1970s.
Brian Eno's another one- don't know if his solo career was massively commercially successful but he's had a very prolific career with lots of critical acclaim.
Wakeman/Eno
Re: Eno-there's a pervasive belief that he made a fortune from the Microsoft startup sound, but apparently not ...
http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/05/tiny-music-makers-pt-2-microsoft-...
The Seahorses
John Squire's post Stone Roses bunch?
Other guitarists:
Johnny Marr's done ok over the years since The Smiths split.
Stuart Adamson formed Big Country after The Skids split; they
did pretty well.
Mick Jones and Big Audio Dynamite
Tony James (ex Generation X) - Sigue Sigue Sputnik (dunno about success!)
The bass player from Altered Images Johnny McElhone went on to form Hipsway who had some success mid 80s and then Texas who were huge for a while.
The Seahorses
I suspect that particular example rather fails to qualify in terms of either record sales or critical acclaim…
Not in my student digs
It was rarely off the stereo.
Mani
Mani did alright - joined Primal Scream!
How many of the
How many of the record-buying public (or critics or even esteemed Word readers) actually ever set foot in these so-called digs, though?
The Breeders
There's a small (admittedly tiny) school of thought that believes The Breeders wee all over Pixies
Jah Wobble
After a shaky start, following his departure from Public Image Limited, Wobble embarked on a solo career which has hit more targets than it's missed, notably with his excellent Invaders Of The Heart albums. Certainly more interesting and prolific than the post-Wobble PiL.
Does...
... Levon Helm count?
The guys from the Beat
who went on to form Fine Young Cannibals.
already claimed by Mr Hepworth
so have you a substitute suggestion(s)?
oh poo
soz all. erm... can I have Sheryl Crowe? Backing singer to successful star, or Craig Logan from Bros who became hugely successful behind the scenes -management? A&R?
Buzzcocks anybody?
Punk seems to be a particularly fertile ground for this thread>
The successful version of the band was after Howard Devoto left.
How about That Petrol Emotion? Formed out of the remains of The Undertones.
The Other Three
...from Joy Division managed to make a bit of a name for themselves after their frontman's departure from the band and this life.
Let alone Electronic
and the Other Two (as Morris/Gilbert called themselves.) Even Monaco.
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings....
Anyone?
It's My Party
Went to number one for 4 weeks for Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin, more than they achieved with Spirogyra, Egg, Hatfield & The North, National Health, etc.
Then there was the other Dave Stewart who once played in Longdancer & The Tourists.
Mmm... only half marks for the latter Dave.
...since his post-Tourists big success with Eurythmics was in partnership with that androgynous woman who was the frontperson of The Tourists, and the question was about non-frontmen going on to bigger things. Yellow card!
But Mum
It's not fair. I never mentioned Annie.
Shhhh!
Don't mention Annie - damn, too late!
The keyboard player
...from The Nice did OK, too, as did the bass player from King Crimson's first incarnation, and one of Atomic Rooster's old drummers.
possibly another thread..
generated from your lack of name-checking there which could be "Naming famous bands whose members names we cant remember"
Oh, alright then...
Emerson, Lake, Palmer, respectively.
Jools Holland!!!!
He does alright for himself since leaving Squeeze no?
Yeah but
is he a big seller or critically acclaimed (arguably gone backwards on the latter)...having his mug on TV doesnt count...
Ah but
his 'stock' and general celebness has outweighed that.
He's acclaimed
by Dr. John, and that'll do for me.
I think Jools Holland the 'entity'...
qualifies as a successful project! But there is question as to whether or not he's succesful with his music because he is on the tv. And whether or not his music is actually any good, despite the fact that he's an awesome pianist.
Vince Clarke...
..Yazoo, The Assembly, Erasure and now Yazoo again, all since leaving Depeche Mode.
and then probably...
he'll be back with Depeche Mode next year for a 'Speak and Spell' reunion tour I'll wager!
The Yazoo gigs
were completely brilliant. I'd do an album with Dame Alison of Moyet if I was him.
does Robbie Williams count
i mean - didn't write the songs for TT...made a decent fist of a solo career.
Mike rutherford in Mike and the mechanics? I mean, i realise he's not the frontman of the latter...
And how about Big in Japan - i'm not sure who the frontman was, but it had Bill Drummond, Ian Broudie and Holly Johnson, and all had significant success with other bands
i was leaning towards
members who played bass, drums etc if you get my drift...as opposed to 'dancers'
okay - leave aside the fat dancer
but the rest are kosher, right?
Now now
Pack that in. That's the level of Noel Gallagher, and seeing as he's now anointed 'a legend' due to wishing Blur died of AIDs, it's a wrong turn to make. What would have happened if Bob Dylan had started out as part of a boyband? Just pulling out a guitar would've been a Judas moment enough. Or what if The Beatles spent the first half of their career having jelly mopped off their naked buttocks? Or if Van Morrison paid his dues with two school gigs a day and a PA in a gay club in the evening? You are veering into cheap shots and snobbery and I didn't subscribe to this illustrous and mighty organ for that sort of behaviour.
i wasn't *being* snobby, as it happens.
I initially mentioned Robbie Williams without any attempt at 'his oeuvre is beneath me' stylings, but when Commoner weighed in with 'leaving aside dancers' I just couldn't resist employing a Gallagherism.
It appears I have genuinely offended you and if that's the case, I am sorry - it wasn't meant in a mean-spirited way.
I stand by what I said. He wasn't the frontman in Take That. Take that were largely One Bloke Singing And Writing Songs and Four Others Dancing and Ooohing. He left, and he became a successful recording artiste in his own right. As a frontman.
m'kay?
It's okay
I still love you
I hope its okay with me too
Did I "weigh in"? Sorry about that...think of my input as the bumpers in a bowling alley guiding balls down the intentional path...
Mwah
Yes darling
Which Ivan?
the rest of TT? Obviously not. Or do you mean the other suggestions listed above by fellow threaders...who am I to say but its nice to watch from the sidelines....
mike and mechanics..
big in japan, etc...
smartypants!
the fat dancer comment
I assume 'the rest' meant the non-TT suggestions
Bass players done good
Ronnie Lane had a career after The Faces
Mike Oldfield had a side project or two after Kevin Ayers
Sid Vicious does not count
Funny you mention The Faces...
...they're the perfect example of a band continuing succesfully after the singer moved on....
Is Fat Mattress scraping the barrel?
Buddy Miles formed his own band, as did Billy Cobham. Crikey, lots more drummers Jon Hisemans Tempest, Aynsley Dunbars Retaliation.
Don Henley...
The Boys of Summer and all that. Not sure of any further success mind...
Ultimate(ly)?
The Sensational Alex harvey band. (Well, it must pay a bill or two!) Thin Lizzy. Queen.
Fairport Convention have lost everybody at one time or another, if not in synchronicity, but they did also break up entirely for a few years as wel as even that.
Surely the most conspicuous case...
....of somebody coming out from behind the drums is Phil Collins?
Booby prize
He said no Phil Collins.
If you say Macca now we will have to ban you for at least, oh, 10 minutes.
Heh Beany mate....
Why do you assume I am a 'He'?
Yeah, 'fraid so
its about them establishing a 'new successful act' rather than an evolution of an old one. But to be fair other contributions are blurring my intentional thread, perhaps I was not clear enough for all, however I am not precious...its a great treasure of band member journeys....
Not
the Incredibly Humor-Impaired Don Henley? What was that band he was in? The Iggles? The Aglets? Yeah, that's it.
The drummer out of Curved Air..
...did alright once he'd picked up a new bass player and Zoot Money's old guitar player. A mate of mine was at Hyde Park watching the new band recently when a bloke brushed past him followed by his very pretty and much younger-looking wife, apologising to all and sundry and panting "Wait for me, Sam!". Touched by the hem of la Winslet, indeed.
A couple more.
Shirley Manson used to play keyboards for Goodbye Mr Mackenzie before joining Garbage.
Throwing Muses drummer David Narcizo recorded an album under the name "Lakuna" after the Muses split up the first time, but I'm not sure if that counts as successful or not. I liked it...
Garbage
Garbage....also featured drummer Butch Vig who previously produced a rather popular album called "Nevermind".
and before that, Killdozer
for whom he once played the iceberg lettuce.
That's an achievement ranked well above producing Nevermind round these parts.
David Crosby?
Rhythm guitar and essentially harmonies with the Byrds.
Gram Parsons....
...now you mention The Byrds...
Ronnie Wood
...now you mention The Birds
three more Bass players
did they outshine their original bands? Maybe,maybe not..but they had(have) something going on
John Cale
Barry Adamson
and Ray Burns AKA Captain Sensible
Mercury Rev, Libertines, N'Sync, Suede, Hole, Clash
-Jonathan Donahue played 2nd guitar on a couple of Flaming Lips albums, then left and became better known as the singer in Mercury Rev.
-Johnny Borrell apparently played in a then-unsigned Libertines for a bit, but later sings in Razorlight.
-Justin Timberlake. Can't say I was up on N'Sync, but my good lady tells me he was not the obvious one to go onto solo success.
-Bernard Butler is probably busier than Brett Anderson.
Bassist's:
-Mellisa Auf Der Maur, formally of Hole, quite a bit of solo success since.
-Paul Simonnon does alright for himself, recently as a member of The Good The Bad & The Queen.
Bow Wow Wow
...were the original Ants of Adam And The Ants fame until Adam decided to get Malcolm McLaren who promptly nicked them to form the pop version.
Probably one of the best things to happen though, cos then the even more pop version of The Ants happened with Marco.
Coincidence
I bumped into Marco in London by chance a cfew weeks back, he said he's still doing music with a band called The Wolfmen.
After the Ants he also had success working with Sinead O'Connor.
Dave Grohl....has already been mentioned
PS - Why can you only edit posts ,not delete them ?!
Thought of a few more on the way home
Barry Andrews followed up his time in XTC by forming Shriekback.
Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh went from the Human League to Heaven 17.
David Ball went on to make some decent tunes (and "Swamp Thing") as part of The Grid after Soft Cell broke up.
Huey Lewis
He was the harmonica player with Clover when they supported Thin Lizzy in 1976 (they backed Elvis Costello on My Aim Is True a year later). I remember feeling a bit sorry for him as he ambled about the stage looking lost & parping inaudibly. Bugger me if he didn't go global with The News a few years later.
It's rather strange
to read a Lizzy biog and learn about the close friendship between Philo and Huey Lewis. They would seem to be a rather incongruous pairing. Maybe Mr Lewis was a bit more of a rawk animal than Hip to be Square would indicate?
I don't know, Fraser...
The song I Want A New Drug showed a level of chemical savvy you wouldn't normally associate with Huey
Eg White
Once in 80s boy band Brother Beyond and less successful Yip Yip Coyote - now succesful producer with Duffy and Adele, Will Young, James Morrison (co-wrote Will's Leave Right Now and James' You Give Me Something and Duffy's Rockferry and Warwick Avenue). Also worked with Kylie, Jamelia Take That and James Blunt.
That's certainly a success story!
Not sure I can forgive working with James Blunt mind you....
And does anyone remember Eg
And does anyone remember Eg and Alice? Probably not. Brief radio play for the single sometime in the early 90's - Indian. Nice.
And not a bad albumen too
Sorry. Lucky for me my coat's already by the door...
Yep
Loved that record...still got it somewhere...
Indian
Pure class. Alice was a model, wasn't she?
No one' smentioned The Power Station
But that's probably for the best.
Richard Hawley
The marvellous bronchial Orbison was in The Longpigs, then Pulp for a bit. Oooh, and Relaxed Muscle.
MIDGES EVERYWHERE
Midge Ure didnt do too badly when not fronting 80 overblown art-synth-rocker-pompous-facial-hair-shallow Ultravox i seem to remember:
1. Rich Kids (pre-ultravox/ex-slik)
2. Visage (side project)
3. Solo (did he have a number 1 mid-eighties?)
4. Mick Karn (1 singel side project bag of wank!)
5. Band Aid (apparently he did write the theme to z-cars all over again, with words about starving africans missing christmas or something - dont quote me on that one!)
Hmm... then again it depends on how you measure 'success' really!
Roger Waters - bass player
I don't think anyone's mentioned him so far. Obviously didn't go onto top his previous band, but still doing alright by any reasonable standard. I suppose he was the front man to some extent so maybe he doesn't count?
I would argue that he's had a better solo career than David Gilmour (unless you cheat and count post 87 Pink Floyd as part of Gilmour's solo career).
I guess you could mention:
Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Both did pretty well after The Yardbirds.
How did any of John Mayalls sidesmen prosper?
I'm not going to list them here, but safe to say a virtual who's who of 70s guitar music played by white englishmen.
Peter Hook and Monaco?
Thought not.
Didn't that posh Justine
from Elastica play in Suede once?
New Order -- different
New Order is really "Band front person/figurehead departs and the band goes on to greater success" I can think of three others....
Oooh! A puzzle!
OK, let's see...
Bob Dylan and The Band? Or does that not count, since they were being the backing band for a solo artist, rather than Dylan being the leader of a band per se?
Certainly not Queen, who crash-and-burned when Freddie died (their Ernie Wise to his Eric Morecambe?).
Genesis after Peter Gabriel left, that's one, for sure.
Marillion
They've done more than okay since Fish left.
....and Iron Maiden.
They became much more succesful with second vocalist Bruce Dickinson.
Deep Purple spring to my aged mind....
....as another, to Nick Simpers chagrin. Became smaller again when 2nd vocalist left, and, arguably, smaller still when 3rd vocalist left and 2nd re-joined.
I'd try and be as clever for Black Sabbath, but Ozzy arguably bigger than post Ozzy variants. Uriah Heep post David Byrne? Who knows? (Who cares?)
David Byron
I think you mean. Though the image of David Byrne fronting The Heep is one I'll treasure for ever!
Woops!
But I agree: there is a great suggestion for an unlikely pairings strand!
Talking Heads fronted by David Byron might be, um, different also. Oooooooo oooooooooooo psycho killaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAGH
not to mention
Kiss being fronted by this fine filly...
Iron Maiden plus other puzzle pieces
Brilliant! Iron Maiden is what I looking for but couldn't recall. The three I had in mind were Peter Gabriel, Syd Barrett (management left with him assuming Pink Floyd was dead without their songwriter) and Vince Clarke.
The last incarnation of Vic
The last incarnation of Vic Godard and the Subway Sect got fed up with Vic and became ...the Joboxers. strangely this appeared to happen half way through a show at Ronnie Scotts. 1st half of the gig was with Vic second half was with Dig Wayne...a very strange night.
RONNIE WOOD
was the bass player in Jeff Beck's band back in the 60's. He didn't do too bad after moving from 4 strings to 6.
Ronnie Wood
Ahhbut he was a six-stringer before being Jeff Beck's bassist, ISTR.
MAX WEINBERG
is of course The E Street Band drummer but he carved himself out a very successful career in the US after Bruce put the band on hold in 90's. He formed what became the house band on Conan O'Brien's show and I think has released a couple of cd's under his own name now.
RINGO STARR
did OK for a man once described as being not even the best drummer in The Beatles.
and is being OK
the same as 'successful'?
I APOLOGISE FOR MY UNDER-STATEMENT
Sold lot's of records, Thomas the Tank Engine, recovering alcoholic, multi-millionaire, married a Bond girl, loved by millions (whatever Word readers think), owns a large part of Surrey, was at one point in the 70's the most successful ex-Beatle. You're right: he's a flop.
DAVID GILMOUR
When dear old Rog' quit, the remaining Floyd were doomed.
ROGER WATERS
would never sell a single record after leaving the Floyd. Would he?
Dave Parsons, bass player in Transvision Vamp...
went on to join Bush and sold millions of records in America.
You could fill a book...
..with all the side projects launched by members of Yes through the years. Not that Badger, White, The Cyn, Cinema or any of the others were successful enough to count but how about Bill Bruford who left Yes and after stints with King Crimson and touring with Genesis had reasonable success with his Earthworks project?
Or there are the drummer and keyboard player who left Deep Purple to start up Paice, Ashton & Lord. But then you could fill another book with ex-Purple members' projects.
Mind you, the whole discussion was over at the first mention of Dave Grohl. Surely the most successful move from behind the drum kit ever. (Since Phil Collins doesn't count apparently)
You forgot
Ringo (see above)
Nah
I reckon Foo Fighters is more of a success then Thomas the Tank Engine ;)
Roger Waters/David Gilmour
I long for the day when they bury the hatchet (preferably not in one another) and realise they were far better in the Floyd than they've ever been solo.
I like Roger's solo work a lot, particularly Amused to Death, and Dave can still string together a guitar solo to die for, but each really needs the other - Roger writes the best lyrics and Dave the best music. As they get older, their occasional sparring looks more and more childish.
The Floyd's final tour was the greatest live show I've ever seen, and I doubt I'll ever see anything to top it. If Roger could have been there to give it a bit of edge, well, I think I might have simply exploded from sheer pleasure...
Lowell George
Former Mothers of Invention rhythm guitarist / novelty vocalist (fake German accent) forms Little Feat after being fired for writing a certain drug-referencing song called Willing which he wants to perform. Frank Zappa was vehemently anti-drugs, but he was also vehemently anti- performing any material written by the other Mothers.
Barry Adamson
It could certainly be argued that Barry Adamson has managed rather nicely on his own after leaving Magazine and The Bad Seeds.