Just finished reading Don Powell’s autobiography and a thought struck.
The original members of Slade are all still with us and could reform some 55 years after they first performed together.
I know it’s hypothetical as it will never happen but are there any others of that vintage?
Slade. The Oldest Originals Still Out There?
The original Genesis line-up (of a similar vintage) perhaps
ZZ Top are still standing (since 1969) with all original members
The very idea of the original lineup of Genesis reforming is quite terrifying. I shan’t sleep tonight.
I will be awaking in a cold sweat, having been dreaming of a singing sunflower.
The very idea of ANY lineup of Genesis reforming is terrifying.
All of the classic line-ups (64-69) of Manfred Mann are alive and well, and often play together – excluding the eponymous organ-botherer himself, natch.
…also excluding Jack Bruce RIP…
I confess I thought he left ahead of the classic line-up, but it was him on bass for Pretty Flamingo, it seems.
Yes, indeed – one of only two number one hit singles on which he played bass…
And I know the other! That’s worth a drink a drink a drink!
Well, you win the white carnation…
The Hollies? All original line-up still alive I think.
Not to mention CSNY
Dave Crosby is still alive. How?
(see also: Keef)
Eric Haydock, the original bass guitarist in the Hollies, died in 2019.
Ah missed that
Talking Heads
Roxy Music
He was only on the first album, but co-founder with Bryan Ferry, Graham Simpson, died about 10 years ago. There was a film about him made shortly before he died – I don’t think his brush with fame did much for him.
Totally unfairly, in the context of Roxy Music, I discounted the bassist. Sorry Graham.
All the original members of Procol Harem are still skipping.
Harum, unless you’re referring to a summer of love-themed brothel.
Totally going on Dragon’s Den with that.
I think he was talking about the all female tribute band
And they aren’t anyway, the great B.J. Wilson having skipped this mortal coil a good while back. Fabulous and inventive drummer.
Ah, but B.J. Wilson wasn’t in the original line up. The original line up still be skipping.
You sure? Sure you’re sure?
Yep, I got encyclopedias and everything.
Dang, I devoted too much time and attention to spelling the Procol bit right and not enough to the Harum bit. Never get that problem with Duran Duran.
I believe the longest running group is the Isley brothers. They formed in the late 50s and are about to release a new album.
But O’Kelly is dead.
Brezhnev never told us!
Horslips – all five from the 1972-80 ‘classic line-up’ are still with us. 50th anniversary next year. Three still periodically performing under the Horslips umbrella. But in theory the 1971 ‘first single’ line-up, with Declan Sinnott, could still perform together…
This is a terrific montage of pics from the launch events of their first two singles – ‘Johnny’s Wedding’ with Sinnott on guitar (from 3:16 on), ‘Green Gravel’ with Gus Guest (deceased) on guitar (from the start) – and from their first album, with Johnny Fean on guitar.
Iommi, Butler, Osbourne and Ward still with us. They may not be the oldest ones still with us, but they may be the most unlikely ones. There’s a lot to be said for that old black magic.
It’s Noddy Holder’s 75th birthday today.
I’d better hang up my stocking on my wall
Much lesser lights than the above but Rockpile are still alive if not necessarily kicking.
Many fans are desperate for them to do a tour but I would find it slightly distasteful for Nick Lowe to start singing again about making Americans Squirm.
10cc are all still alive and kicking. The name still operates as a touring vehicle for Graham Gouldman. There is zero chance of any sort of regrouping. Eric Stewart for one has retired (and has had some less than complementary things to say about Gouldman, if Liam Newton’s biography of the band is anything to go by). The last attempt at a regrouping for the Meanwhile… album turned out something of a damp squib, Godley and Creme making only brief appearances.
Kevin and Lol don’t get on either, it’s like ABBA
Kevin didn’t want to be under his thumb foreeeeeever.
Golden Earring, founded in 1961. A reunion gig is unlikely as the four core members announced last year that they’ll be retiring. You never know with these Dutch musicians though – maybe some Saturday evening TV show is reason enough to do it one last time… (Focus did it, Nits did it…)
Pretty sure the original Mahavishnu Orchestra is still alive, and probably still playing their first song of the evening some 50 years after they started.
Yes, I’m in the front row as we speak – I think they’re just coming to the climax of a 50-year version of ‘Dance of Maya’…
Has anyone survived a whole show and thus been able to say? If your audience are dead, who knows if you are still playing?
If a tree falls in the forest…
Stephen Colbert had a good line with Rush when he interviewed them:
“You’re known for your long songs. Have you ever started playing one, and half way through realised that you’re being influenced by the same song you’re playing?”
Simon Nicol, one of the founders of Fairport Convention (in 1967) once recalled that it was midway through a performance of ‘Sloth’ – a plodding song / Dicky Thompo solo vehicle of tortuous length – in 1974 that he thought ‘I don’t want to do this any more’. And left for a couple of years holiday in the Albion Band.
They famously still hadn’t finished the song when he returned to the band many moons later
Boom tish! Back of the net!
Just returning quickly to the OP, I’m just at the end of the fabulous Dave Hill audiobook biography and he made the point, many times through the book that Don Powell had amnesia most of the way through the Slade’s glory years and struggled after that. I wonder how reliable his memoirs would be given that there seemed no point in him learning anything before he got to the studio.
The 4 older Osmond Brothers started as a barbershop quartet in 1962. I think them, Donny, Jimmy and Marie are all still alive.
one of the great underground(*) bands, The Wombles, still the original lineup.
(*) also overground
Mike Batt turning out to be a prick has ruined the Wombles.
(accidental HMHB song lyric alert)
Well there was that rumour that Thomsk was replaced by a more compliant lookalike, hoping the kids wouldn’t notice. Well – THIS kid noticed. Tom was becoming a bit of a liability on set, which delayed the release of S3 for several weeks due to his “forgetfulness” – a trait that was hastily written into his character. In the studio, he participated little. Any instructions from Batt were met with a glassy-eyed, expressionless stare. He had to go.
In T’s 2005 autobiography “Remember I was a Womble?” the period before 1977 was dismissed as a haze with very few details which is put down to the madness of success and groupies and touring. At around the time of Minuetto Allegreto he’s a very different Womble indeed and there’s a very good reason for that.
I was suspicious when he started picking up more litter.