Entertainment For Lively Minds
Two for the price of one
This week I have been mostly visiting the Mrs in hospital. To help pass the journey (20-25 minutes each way) I have been playing a different CD each day and was re-visiting the first few Depeche Mode albums.
Listening to A Broken Frame I quite vividly remembered how it was back then. Vince left DM and I felt like that was it. One of my favourite bands at the time, and not just because I'm a Basildonian, had come to an end. Then not only did they come back with an LP I really liked, but Vince popped up with Yazoo. Instead of losing a favourite band I now had an extra one.
It was like one of those planaria worms where you cut a bit off and both bits grow into a new one.
It was similar with Human League who looked like they were goners but we ended up with the League plus Heaven 17.
Another example is Adam and the Ants. When the band basically left Adam we ended up with two bands. When Kings of the Wild Frontier came out it may have been a very different thing to Dirk Wears White Sox but by crikey it was a catchy thing, and Bow Wow Wow's first album was a corker too. And they were great fun live.
Any more examples? Despite what Alan Partridge says about Wings (the band the Beatles could have been) they don't count. I'm thinking of bands where the new incarnations were in the same league, even if they were quite different.
I can think of enough examples where one good band begat another (Sex Pistols/PIL, Nirvana/Foo Fighters) but I've gone blank on bands begatting multiple other bands of similar quality and/or stature.
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Certainly not Oasis
Or The Libertines.
But Spacemen 3's offspring of Spiritualized, Spectrum and Darkside burned brightly for a while.
Pink Floyd gave us Syd, Roge and that band that played on Pulse.
Flute-y Kraftwerk gave us Neu and Die Roboter.
Deep Purple begat Rainbow and Whitesnake.
The noisy and messy Flaming Lips gave us Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips 2.0.
And the output of the solo Wu-Tang-ers probably beats the Clan.
I can only think of two other
Talking Heads/Tom Tom Club/David Byrne solo/+ Eno ( all good )
and
Genesis/Peter Gabriel/Phil Collins/Mike & the Mechanics ( I don't really like any of those incarnations ).
Well obviously
you've missed the mighty Pendle Coven, Burnley's finest techno combo who begat the even mightier Demdike Stare and also solo-spin off project MLZ (aka Miles). Not household names round these parts but they've entertained me hugely over the last couple of years in all their guises. What I like best is the music they make is quite frightening, but they're clearly bloody nice blokes!
Just to prove I didn't make all that up, here they are..
Demdike Stare
...got Tryptych the other week, been listening to little else recently. Great design too.
Great!
glad to know someone else is into these.
I highly recommend their Mix CDs as well if you can track them down
Not sure if his really counts,
but Blur begat Gorillaz, and Graham Coxon's solo career, both of which are great.
How About...
Throwing Muses and Belly after Tanya Donnelly left to form the latter?
Actually, Pixies/Breeders might count, although Kim Deal never actually left Pixies of course.
You could also add
The solo work of Kristin Hersh and the 50 Foot Wave output.
That's the one I was going to offer.
Plus the solo Frank Black. A good deal of creativity in those bands. Loved it all, and still do.
Agree with the OP on Depeche / Yazoo, and I'd add the first Erasure album too - very Yazooish...
Still More Pixies/Muses connections
There were an awful lot of good people orbiting around Kim Deal (can think of worse places to be) weren't there?
Could extend further to include The Amps and The Kelley Deal 6000 too.
Josephine Wiggs (from POD-era Breeders) was in The Perfect Disaster pre-Breeders, but not sure if they overlapped?
David Narcizo from Throwing Muses even produced that rarest of things, the Good Solo Album By The Drummer under the name of Lakuna. Though I think he did rope in Kristin Hersh for a bit of extra guitar.
Of course there's Tanya Donnelly's solo stuff too.
Any number of talented musicians passed
through Frank Zappa's band: Lowell George went off to form Little Feat, Steve Vai, Adrian Belew, Flo & Eddie, Jean-Luc Ponty, Eddie Jobson, Tommy Mars and numerous others. Maybe not household names or entirely Word-friendly, but I'd suggest that the Frank Zappa Academy has produced more outstanding graduates than any other rock band.
M Ponty
Jean-Luc had a successful jazz career before Frank came calling, but I'm sure he had a higher profile post Zappa.
Uncle Tupelo
A better band in Wilco, and a pretty good one in Son Volt.
Two spring to mind that haven't been mentioned
The Beta Band (Aliens & various solo)
Husker Du (Sugar etc)
Errr....
House Of Pain & Limp Bizkit?
DJ Lethal from HOP left and joined LB doing nothing apart from rudimentary record scratching?
Maybe not then.
Shriekback
Formed by Barry Andrews and Dave Allen, leaving XTC and Gang Of Four to carry on without them.
More of a Three-For-Two that one.
How about Howard Devoto leaving Buzzcocks to form Magazine?
And Barry Andrews
later re-joined Andy Partridge as 'Monstrance' and recorded a pretty decent album of improvised instrumentals (more fun than it sounds)
The Skids, Skuds...
...Big Country and The Armoury Show both had merit in their own right after the death of the parent band.
Wham!
Once you'd recovered from the heartbreak of the breakup of the band, you could avail yourself of a copy of Faith and a copy of Son of Albert.
I may...
...be the only person in the planet that has Son of Albert, but not Faith.
I never heard any of Son of Albert
What does it sound like Jo? Was Ridgeley really the Linda McCartney?
Played once
I cannot really remember what it sounds like, as it was played once or twice at the most.
It was sort of soft-rock (bad variety) with terriblw guitars turned up very loudly in the mix, and, if I recall correctly, had an atrocious Everly Brothers covers. Other than that, entirely forgettable.
I *think* it was a contractual obligation, and even he didn't really care.
However, for Word readers, Danny Thompson was on bass. Oh yes.
You may be
the only person on the planet who owns a copy of Son of Albert, with the exceptions of Andrew Ridgeley and Andrew Ridgeley's mum.
BUZZCOCKS!!
Howard leaves. Buzzcocks mutate into fabulous pop band. Howard unleashes Magazine.
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY
Bad seeds, Crime and the city solution(versions one and two), These immortal souls etc etc.
See family tree that came with Bad seeds greatest hits thing for the full horror.
...The Waterboys...
Of course the Waterboys post-This is the Sea schism, gave birth to World Party, a great band in their own right.
I was just pondering
how many bands that "proliferate" were/are involved with Mute records.
Remember all the one off things Vince has done. Now he's making another record with M.L.Gore!!
THE FLOWERS OF ROMANCE
Or London s.s. Everyone was in them. Even Nick Kent.
I love this thread.
The London SS - Similar to Big In Japan and the Crucial Three?
No record deal but the members splintered into all sorts of other bands and work (Frankie, Wah, Lightning Seeds, Teardrops, Echo)
Big in japan
Released two 7"s on Eric's. The crucial three never played outwith a bedroom. London S.S. "rehearsed". You're quite correct though.
The Big in Japan family tree has to be seen to be believed and if you include production and management it's collosal.
Remember Bill Drummond, Budgie and Balfe were all in there too.
The La's....
Begat Cast, lending a drummer to Oasis, who begat Beady Eye...
I'll get me coat
Sex Pistols
Not only PiL, The Rich Kids & The Professionals are definitely worth a listen
Jam => Style Council => Paul Weller (solo)
Fairport Convention
begat Steeleye Span, which begat The Albion Country Band which begat The Albion Dance Band which then became The Albion Band (you get the idea, + the roughly hundred members who have passed through the ranks] which begat the Home Service.
Fairport also begat Fotheringay and Richard and Linda Thompson which leads to French Frith Kaiser and Thompson and of course Mr Thompson's solo career.
The Futureheads & Field Music
Pete Brewis left the former and formed the latter. Both now excellent.
Massivers, there hasn't been enough jazz on this thread
I don't know if this really counts, but over the years, Miles Davis's various bands begat successful solo careers for...
Bill Evans (piano)
Paul Chambers
Wynton Kelly
John Coltrane
Sonny Stitt
Hank Mobley
Ron Carter
Tony Williams
Herbie Hancock
Sam Rivers
Wayne Shorter
Dave Holland
Chick Corea
Joe Zawinul
Jack DeJohnette
Keith Jarrett
Benny Maupin
Gary Bartz
Sonny Sharrock
Bill Evans (sax)
Billy Cobham
... and many, many more.