A short history of how some well known Bands arrived at their choice of name.

Hoave you ever wondered how bands decide upon their names? Here are some of the more unusual stories.

1. Led Zeppelin (formerly the New Yardbirds)

In April 1968, John Entwistle and Keith Moon of The Who mused on the idea of forming a super-group with session guitarist Jimmy Page and Traffic singer Steve Winwood.

During one of their early meetings, Entwistle apparently said.

“We should call it Lead Zeppelin because it’ll go down like a lead balloon.”

The super-group never happened, but later that year when Page was looking to change the name of his band the New Yardbirds, Entwistle’s suggestion came to mind.

Lead became Led after Peter Grant, the band’s manager, allegedly suggested it would prevent ‘thick Americans’ from pronouncing it ‘leed’.

2. U2 (formerly The Hype)

Bono and the boys were looking for something that wouldn’t limit them to a style or time and liked XTC’s punning name.

They chose You Too to emphasise that all fans should share the band’s music and excitement. U2 also happens to be the name of a US military spy plane.

3. The Beatles (formerly The Quarry Men and Johnny and the Moondogs)

Many theories surround this, but the most reliable suggests that John Lennon arrived at the name in homage to heroes Buddy Holly and the Crickets. He chose The Beetles perhaps in reference to the motorbike gang in the film The Wild One, changing it to The Beatles as a play on words with Beat music.

4. The Sex Pistols (formerly the Swankers)

Originally called Sex after manager Malcolm McClaren’s clothes shop on the Kings Road in Chelsea, London. The name was changed after McClaren thought it too short and provocative to get any airplay. The Pistol was added to contribute to the band’s already violent public image, and to allude to pistils, the sex organs of a flower.

5. Joy Division (formerly Warsaw)

Controversially named after the Nazi’s joy divisions, where groups of Jewish women were kept in makeshift brothels in concentration camps.

6. New Order

Accused of continuing the Nazi association after Joy Division – Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf about ‘the new order of the Third Reich’ – the band actually took its name from a Guardian (a UK Newspaper) headline about ‘The People’s New Order of Kampuchea’.

7. The Buzzcocks

Based on the charming term ‘bus cock’, which refers to an erection obtained while sitting on a bus and being aroused by vibrations from the heavy diesel engine.

8. The Who

Apocryphal perhaps, but legend has it that Townsend, Daltrey, Entwistle and Moon were so hard of hearing that while brainstorming ideas for a name they kept asking ‘The Who’.

9. Small Faces

Inspired by The Who song ‘I’m the Face’. Small Faces was chosen because they were very small in stature. When the taller Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart joined the vertically challenged band, they became The Faces.

10. De La Soul

They combined hip-hop and soul to produce the DAISY (Da Inner Sound Y’all) Age, inventing daisy soul, which became De La Soul.

Ten Other Former Band Names

1. The Beach Boys – The Pendletones

2. Black Sabbath – Polka Tulk

3. Blur – Seymour

4. The Clash – The London SS; The 101’ers

5. Credence Clearwater Revival – The Golliwogs

6. The Doors – The Psychedelic Rangers

7. The Goo Goo Dolls – The Sex Maggots

8. Pulp – Arabacus Pulp

9. Radiohead – On A Friday

10. The Who – The High Numbers

So your record and CD collection could have had a different look, if not a different sound...

Sources

The Observer Book of Music (Observer Books 2007)