When a band changes it’s name

Sometimes when a band changes it’s name, along with it their fortunes do the same. On the Scottish scene I can think of a few of late; Brother Louis Collective became Admiral Fallow, Young Father’s used to be the highly embarrasing 3style and The View used to be called The Libertines..ahaha.

On a bigger scale the most famous in indie terms has to be Kaiser Chiefs who struggled for years under the moniker Parva, before becoming a bona fide chart shagging success under their new name.

So why do bands do this? A guy I used to know who managed a few bands signed to major labels use to say to bands, never put the year when they formed on bio’s, because as time goes on labels look at that date and assume you must not be very good if you’ve had zero interest, say within 2 years of it.

I think some bands do go on that, and others just get sick of their name. I was in a band called Thieves In Suits. Initially I liked the name, but soon dj’s such as 6music’s Tom Robinson began linking the name to the credit crunch. We would be introduced with something cheesy like “And finally the worlds banks collapsed but along came Thieves In Suits to lift us out of the doledrums.” Eurggghhhh. We weren’t even a political group! We could have easily just changed our name and carried on, if it wasn’t for our completely mental fucking drummer and his constant erection, so we split up instead. 

Sometimes band’s change their names but I end up preferring their old ones. I much prefer Brother Louis Collective to Admiral Fallow for example, or The Dials to Lost In Audio (who once gave someone a cd with their music on it, only for it to turn out to be blank. Genius. Not intentional mind.) 

Anyway, if you can be arsed, tell me this:

What’s your favourite band name-before-they-changed-it-and-became-huge?