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What's In A Band Name?














Here are the stories behind the monikers

So how do bands end up with their names? Is there a band-naming website? Well, yes, actually, but none of these acts needed it. Gavin Cumine gets etymological

When Lou Reed moved into his new apartment in New York in the early Sixties he came across a book called The Velvet Underground, by Michael Leigh, which detailed various underground sexual practices of the early Sixties.

In 1977 post-industrial Manchester Ian Curtis was reading The House of Dolls by by Yehiel De-Nur. In the novel De-Nur describes joy divisions, which were, allegedly, groups of Jewish women in concentration camps during the Second World War kept for the sexual pleasure of Nazi soldiers.

In the early nineties the band The Rain were looking for a new lead singer and a change of name. They decided to take on local loudmouth Liam Gallagher as singer. Hanging on the wall of Liam's bedroom, which he shared with brother Noel, was an Inspiral Carpets tour poster. Noel at the time was a roadie for the band. On the poster was one of the venues : the Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon.

The beginning of any band's biography is their name. It is the starting point of a band that will accompany its sound for the rest of their career, through success and failure. Some band-names come around by coincidence, careful thought or just simply for the fact that it is a great combination of words that slip off the tongue easily. Here are some of the best stories behind the names.

Source: www.independent.co.uk

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