I’m sure we’ve discussed this before, but some acts are now completely “Trigger’s Broom” (in fact an act should be called that). I read that “Foreigner” are currently playing a tour of the USA, and there is not a single original member now. Dr Feelgood and Lynyrd Skynyrd are other bands with the same situation. Inevitably, all acts will become this eventually. Might it be better if they admit they are tributes to the band, unless they are recognised as a brand? I thing the current “Gong” is in the spirit of the original, but for anonymous faces slickly banging out the big numbers is more common. Should there be a copyright mark?
Bands with no original members left
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Yes are one example. Steve Howe kind of owns it, but he wasn’t an original member. Two of the current squad were appointed to take over as members died. Probably this band will exist forever.
Bucks Fizz are touring with no original members. The name is now owned by David Van Day – who was in a late incarnation of the group.
The original members are now touring the nostalgia circuit under the truncated name The Fizz
Buck Off! Would be a better name.
I believe the Bootleg Beatles have no original members left
Similarly, there are no original members in the two current lineups of Bjorn Again. One covers UK & Europe, the other Australasia. At their peak, there were three Bjorn Agains (the third covering North America).
I miss the old guys and gals.
Perhaps the original members of Bjorn Again will reappear as holograms.
Surely they’d have to be called ReBjorn Again?
Very good. 😀
I think there should be a Bjorn Again tribute act by now. They’ve been going for 35 years, they deserve a rest.
18 months ago, sole original member Spike was “sacked” / “asked to leave” (details are sketchy) The Quireboys.
The band intended to continue under the banner, leaving Spike to tour as “The Original Quireboy”. Spikes response was to get back together with as many original members as were up for it (No Ginger (busy with The Wildhearts) and only for a short time with Guy Bailey who sadly died earlier this year.
So there were 2 Quireboys doing the rounds – after much lawsuiting the Guy Griffin version relinquished the name.
So The Quireboys now have original members, but for 18 months there were none (and that band is now called Black Eyed Sons).
More ownership of the name shenanigans – both Sham 69 and Tim V’s Sham 69 are still active.
Tim V’s version contain no original members as they have all left to return to the Jimmy Pursey fronted original
I’m fascinated by all this. Ironically, no version of Sham 69 needs Jimmy Pursey – they just need a cardboard cut-out of him – because he doesn’t appear to sing at their shows: he just stands there like a gormless messiah, gurning at the punters with arms akimbo, trousers barely aloft, shirt adrift, while they do all the singing.
The Four Tops are still a going concern who not only feature none of their original members, but all of their original members are dead.
Pretty sure nobody’s left from the original lineup of The Skatalites.
A version of Dr. Feelgood have been touring for years, and still managed by Chris Fenwick, original band manager I believe.
and 3 of the current line-up have been with the band since 1983 – longer than Lee, Wilko, Jon B Sparkes, and The Big Figure were members
Those 3 are known as Over-And-Out, No Sparke and Go Figure.
There’s a short series on Radio 4 called Split Ends about bands finishing and what effects it has on people. The first one was about Dr Feelgood. The other two were Liberty. And Brix Smith of The Fall. The Dr Feelgood episode was very interesting. It’s on BBC Sounds
Soft Machine?
Well, quite…no original members since Ratledge left…
It’s a fine line. The aforementioned Dr. Feelgood have a direct line from the original line up and have never stopped, so they are the band. Similarly, the Fortunes have no original members but have never stopped.
Then there are the bands with just one original – I always think of them clinging on rather. Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich have, I think, only the original Beaky (I have to say that I did see them a few years ago and they were hilarious), and the Animals I think are really pushing their luck with just John Steel, although at least he is an original.
The Dreamers were here last year – they have one member who was in a very late version of Freddie and the Dreamers, and I do think that is very much a stretch to claim they are the Dreamers.
The Rolling Stones at least have two originals I guess….
Dreamers? They’re dreaming…
Don’t know if this is still the case but a few years back someone who joined the Little River Band after their heyday had the nerve to copyright the band name leaving all the original members in the lurch. He toured the USA as LRB while the original members were left to tour as their own tribute act. They may not be the favourite band of anyone on this site but they deserve better than that.
@Cookieboy
Bet the copyright chancer is laughing all the way to the bank
as he watches original members’ ticket sales dry to a trickle
It’s a shitful situation that hasn’t changed since I last read about it. I copied this off wikipedia…In December 2020, Rolling Stone Australia magazine reported that “the songwriters responsible for the band’s biggest songs – Graeham Goble, Glenn Shorrock, Beeb Birtles and David Briggs – are unable to perform as the Little River Band, the band they themselves invented back in 1974! A fake version of Little River Band continues to tour, playing parodies of their hits. The owner of the title, Stephen Housden, is adamant he won’t share the rights with the original members.
The Bonzos had this trouble too, which they won.
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/bonzodogbanned/
This is almost as bad as the other Aussie story about Men at Work’s Down Under.
Knowing the band had referenced the well-known kids’ song about the Kookaburra Tree in their hit, the guy bought the rights to the song purely so he could sue the band for royalties.
IIRC the flautist who inserted the instantly recognisable run of notes in DU ended up killing himself.
I believe the final verdict was pretty lenient on the band, and they only had to give a small portion of proceeds from income derived after the court case, rather than have to back-pay from when the band was massive. The resultant stress and cost of the case, however, was substantial.
Hard to believe that Greg Ham, the baby-faced flautist, died alone as an alcoholic and heroin addict. I think it was determined to have been a heart attack, but he was obviously on a downward spiral.
Bazza Masters was going to retire from Eddie & the Hot Rods in 2020 or so (last original) but Covid happened and he didn’t make it out the other side. In March 2021, bass player ‘Dipster’ Dean took over the singing and brought in a new bass player. Seemingly there was public demand and they didn’t have anything else to do, so… fair enough. Good luck to them. Here’s some ‘new’.
Napalm Death had no original members left by the time they go to the second side of their debut album.
Oh, that’s a top pop quiz fact.
Creedence Clearwater Revival are touring Blighty next year. All the booking sites blither on about Proud Mary etc, but are silent on who’s actually in the band. The two non-Fogartys still have something called Creedence Clearwater Revisited, but I presume that’s different from CCR as presently constituted. Could it be that CCR are now their own tribute band?
According to wiki, The Searchers toured the UK this year with none of the original 1960s line-up left.
That’s not right. John McNally was a real original from the 50s when he formed the band with Mike Pender. Frank Allen joined in 1964, replacing Tony Jackson. Those two own the Searchers name and were touring this year along with guitarist/singer Spencer James, who had replaced Pender in 1985. There have been a succession of drummers since Chris Curtis left in the 60s, but the lineup was remarkably stable. They did retire in 2019, but toured again in 2023 and 2024 due to public demand and John McNally getting fed up doing nothing at home!
Mike Pender went out with Mike Pender’s Searchers for years, causing all sorts of issues and ended up in court. Venues were quite cavalier in how they advertised Pender’s outfit. Safe to say that all parties concerned are somewhat bitter about the whole affair.
Spencer James has carried on with the latest drummer as ‘The Searchers Experience’, so maybe that was the band in question.
No originals in the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Or the Grimethorpe Colliery Band. All part of a band becoming a brand.
Joking aside, I had a conversation recently with someone who was moaning about tribute bands, and I said that a lot of these bands are indeed performing works that we wouldn’t otherwise hear live and we wouldn’t call the LPO a tribute act!
Never knew the LPO wrote their own stuff to begin with.
Respect.
I like the old joke about the older woman offered tickets to see The Vienna Boys’ Choir. “No thanks”, she said “I saw them fifteen years ago. Their voices will have broken by now”.
Quite prophetic.
Sounds like a Theseus’ ship if a group !
The UK version of the Beat has no original members, the singer/toaster is the son of Ranking Roger but that is the only connection. Stateside Dave Wakeling is still fronting “the English Beat” but no other original Beatsters skank on.
Right from the start they were known in the USA as “The English Beat”, as there was already another band called “The Beat” over there.
Has there ever been an instance of a band from the US appending “American” to their name because there’s already a band by that name in the UK?
Can’t think of any obvious ones … but it might have happened
Is that not the reason for The Detroit Spinners being named thus? Always assumed so..
I went to see the Philip Glass Ensemble yesterday. They have no original members, albeit one joined in 1972 and others over 20 years ago. In any event, they were magnificent.