Sometimes when a successful band splits up, former members feel inclined to continue earning income from performing its songs (which, after all, they helped to make famous). Only these aren’t always the same members that hold legal rights to the band name. The result is diluted versions of popular bands, often with only one or two original musicians and some oddly-altered-for-legal-reasons name, still treading the boards playing their tunes. 

Acts like these have been confusing and dividing fans since the beginnings of rock & roll, particularly when two or more incarnations of ostensibly the same band have existed simultaneously (as with Ratt, Gene Loves Jezebel, Yes, L.A. Guns, The Village People, Queensrÿche, T.S.O.L. and many more). 

We took a look at 10 (well, actually 11) such “bastardized bands”. 

1. THE PLATTERS & THE DRIFTERS

It appears almost impossible to walk into any casino, cruise ship, or county fair without encountering the Platters or the Drifters — or at least acts bearing variants of these names. Both extremely successful vocal groups formed in the early 1950s, they also pioneered mind-mindbogglingly convoluted line-up changes, splinter groups, legal spats, and unauthorized incarnations which sometimes had only tenuous connections to their namesakes. Since the 1970s, up to 20 different Platters have been concurrently crisscrossing North America at any one time, including Paul Robi’s Platters, the Legendary Platters, and the World Famous Platters. Meanwhile, the famously unstable Drifters became variously Bill Pinkney’s Original Drifters, the New Drifters, the Drifters featuring Dock Green, and more; boasting at least 65 different members over the years.

2. CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVISITED

Formed in 1995, Creedence Clearwater Revisited has endured far longer than its “mother band”, Creedence Clearwater Revival (which was active 1967-1972). Creedence Clearwater Revisited is literally a Creedence Clearwater Revival revival, featuring former members Stu Cook and Doug Clifford performing live versions of the latter’s hugely influential rootsy rock songs. And this is no casual enterprise, with Revisited having performed up to 190 shows a year, and even today still booking around 50 gigs annually. Chief Revival songwriter John Fogerty sued to stop their use of the “Revisited” name (fourth original CCR member, John’s brother Tom Fogerty, passed in 1990), forcing Cook and Clifford to briefly change its name to “Cosmo’s Factory,” but ultimately the pair prevailed.

3. FROM THE JAM

Since The Jam’s frontman and chief songwriter Paul Weller disbanded the Brit mod/punk legends in 1982, he’s categorically ruled out reuniting. So it didn’t seem unreasonable when, a quarter-century later, Jam drummer Rick Buckler and bassist Bruce Foxton took a second shot at the band’s glittering catalog as From The Jam. With the apparently ageless Foxton, an uncanny Weller-alike in Russell Hastings, and a second guitarist, FTJ actually did a better job of recreating the original recordings than the original trio sometimes did, resulting in sold-out shows on both sides of the Atlantic. The band’s Jam-iness was badly bruised by the exit of Buckler in 2009, but they continue to tour and released a live album a couple of years back.

4. DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES: RETURN TO LOVE

The cobbled-together line-up of iconic girl group the Supremes for 2000’s “Diana Ross & the Supremes: Return to Love” reunion tour was bastardized in a most unusual way. For while all three performers — Ross, Scherrie Payne, and Lynda Laurence — were indeed former Supremes, none of the trio had ever previously been in the group at the same time, and Payne and Laurence hadn’t even sung on any of the “Return to Love” hits. It was all about money, with heyday Supremes Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong balking at Ross being offered way more than they for what would’ve been a much more credible reunion. A decidedly mixed response from fans resulted in “Return to Love” being cancelled halfway through.

5. STEVE GRIMMETT’S GRIM REAPER

Singer Steve Grimmett’s current incarnation of 1980s Brit metal stalwarts Grim Reaper is another splinter band that’s lasted longer than the original. With the siren-voiced Grimmett always the quartet’s most recognizable asset, to many his utterly convincing possessive-credit version is simply a continuation of the Grim Reaper. Founded by guitarist Nick Bowcott in 1979, Reaper enjoyed worldwide success with 1984 debut album See You in Hell before dissolving in a legal quagmire four years later. Repeat spins on MTV’s Beavis and Butt-Head brought renewed visibility in the ‘90s, but it wasn’t until 2006 that Grimmett reactivated the band, with virtuoso guitarist Ian Nash his constant foil. They continue to tour worldwide, despite Grimmett’s 2017 partial leg amputation, with new album At The Gates released in October.

6. ENGLISH DOGS

English Dogs hold a uniquely nuanced place among bastardized bands. Originally hardcore punks who toured with Discharge and GBH in the early 1980s, their second line-up spawned a punk-metal crossover sound. Today, two incarnations of the band coexist, with each playing not only different songs, but in a different style. One version, featuring original vocalist “Wakey”, performs music from English Dogs’ punk catalog. The other, including original (and former Damned) drummer “Pinch” and onetime Prodigy live guitarist Gizz Butt, focuses on the band’s crossover era. The “punk fucking rock” incarnation released a new EP this summer, while a variant of what its Facebook page calls “English Dogs — Metal” appears to still be active. Meanwhile, Butt’s other band Janus Stark are opening for The Wildhearts this fall.

7. THE NEW FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD FEATURING DAVEY JOHNSON

Even by its own account, the “new” Frankie Goes to Hollywood that apparently performed hundreds of U.S. shows in 1998-2000 (including at L.A.’s House of Blues) had only the flimsiest of claims to the name. And according to anyone close to the original FGTH, which stormed charts with 1983 single “Relax”, the Alabama act that latterly went by “The New Frankie Goes to Hollywood featuring Davey Johnson” entirely fabricated even those. “New” FGTH vocalist Davey Johnson and guitarist Will Martin insisted that they were uncredited session musicians on Frankie’s debut album, and even that Davey was the brother of Frankie singer Holly Johnson, getting as far as touring with A Flock of Seagulls before being exposed in Spin and Pollstar magazines.

8. DOORS OF THE 21st CENTURY

One of the most high-profile “ex members” bands, even performing on VH1 Classic and The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, The Doors of the 21st Century featured original Doors members Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger alongside Cult frontman Ian Astbury (who’d long drawn comparisons to late Doors singer Jim Morrison). Formed in 2002, they were promptly slapped with injunctions from Morrison’s estate and Doors drummer John Densmore, resulting in their subsequently performing as “D21C”, “Riders on the Storm”, “Manzarek–Krieger”, and “Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger of The Doors”. They lost considerable star power when Astbury departed in 2007, but continued for six more years fronted by Fuel’s Brett Scallions, Steelheart’s Miljenko Matijevic, and Dave Brock of Doors tribute band Wild Child.

9. SUBLIME WITH ROME

With their lead vocalist/guitarist Bradley Nowell tragically overdosing two months before Sublime’s 1996 eponymous album made them a global phenomenon, it was understandable that the remaining members of the Long Beach ska-punk trio would want to one day continue the band. But it wasn’t until 2009 that they returned, with 21-year-old Sublime superfan Rome Ramirez filling Nowell’s role alongside original members Eric Wilson (bass) and Bud Gaugh (drums). Immediately after their first performance, however, they were threatened with a lawsuit over their use of the Sublime name by Nowell’s estate, and soon had to modify this to Sublime with Rome. Gaugh departed in 2011, but SwR continues to perform original Sublime songs while releasing its own, similarly 420-friendly studio albums.

10. OINGO BOINGO FORMER MEMBERS

Scoring full marks for truth in advertizing, Oingo Boingo Former Members is precisely that: original 1980s and ‘90s-era members of the beloved L.A. new wave act Johnny “Vatos” Hernandez, Sam “Sluggo” Phipps, and Carl Graves (plus, on occasion, Steve Bartek, John Avila, and Doug Lacy), augmented by reoccurring non-Boingos. Formerly known as “Oingo Boingo Dance Party”, they’ve been playing the West Coast since 2005, even playing L.A.’s nearly 6,000-capacity Greek Theatre. OBFM has earned quite a following because, with Oingo founder Danny Elfman now a successful movie soundtrack composer and disinterested in reuniting with Boingo, this is as close as you’ll get to seeing the original, musically-complex ensemble since its farewell tour in 1995.

 

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