Новая книга - "Rock Band Name Origins".
------------------------------------------
THEY are household names of rock and pop, but were they the names the bands’ founders first thought of? And what gave them the inspiration for the famous moniker we now all know them by? One band name was inspired by a friendly neighbour, another group took theirs from an Aldous Huxley book about drugs. A new book charts how 240 of the most famous music acts from the Sixties to today got their names. We’ve plucked some musical notes from the book — Rock Band Name Origins — to let you know the score.
AC/DC: Band member Angus Young got the name from the back of his sister Margaret’s sewing machine. Before that, they called themselves Third World War.
ABBA: The Money, Money, Money only started rolling in for the disco favourites after they changed their name from the hum-drum Bjorn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid to their rearranged initials.
THE BEATLES: John Lennon and pals from Quarry Bank High School, Liverpool, named their skiffle group The Blackjacks, then The Quarrymen which Paul McCartney and George Harrison later joined. The name changed to The Beatals — a tribute to Buddy Holly’s Crickets — The Silver Beetles, The Silver Beats and finally to The Beatles, joined by drummer Ringo Starr in 1962.
BLUR: Would they have become Britpop stars with their original name — Seymour? Record bosses didn’t think so and ordered a change.
COLDPLAY: The name came from a poem called Child’s Reflections, Cold Play. Chris Martin and Co planned to call themselves Starfish.
DIRE STRAITS: Mark Knopfler’s band went for a name reflecting their early financial situation.
THE DOORS: This came from The Doors Of Perception, an Aldous Huxley book about taking mind-altering drugs.
DURAN DURAN: Simon le Bon and his Eighties new romantics were inspired by evil scientist Dr Durand Durand (sic) in the cult sci-fi movie Barbarella.
FOO FIGHTERS: Founder Dave Grohl, a UFO fan, took the title from the name given to mysterious balls of light seen by the US military over Germany in WWII.
FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD: This came from a newspaper headline about Frank Sinatra’s move from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.
GARBAGE: Butch Vig was remixing some samples when fellow percussionist Paulie Ryan suggested: “This stuff sounds like garbage.” Vig said: “Yeah, but at some point I am going to turn this garbage into a song.” In fact he turned Garbage into a group.
KEANE: The name came from Cherry Keane, a favourite neighbour of band member Tom Chaplin.
LED ZEPPELIN: The Who drummer Keith Moon said starting a new supergroup called The New Yardbirds would go down like a “lead Zeppelin”. The band, (with John Bonham on drums) used that instead, dropping the “a” in “lead” to prevent “thick Americans” pronouncing it as “leed”.
MEAT LOAF: Michael Lee Aday claims he was called Meat Loaf by his dad who was jealous of all the affection he got from his mum.
OASIS: Named after the Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon, Wiltshire, which was listed as one of the gig venues on an Inspiral Carpets poster on the Gallagher brothers’ bedroom wall.
PET SHOP BOYS: A tribute to friends of band member Chris Lowe who worked in a, um, pet shop.
PINK FLOYD: Originally named The Tea Set, Syd Barrett’s band were to play at an RAF base but found another group with the same name on the bill. Barrett quickly changed it to The Pink Floyd Sound in honour of two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.
QUEEN: Freddie Mercury revealed: “The concept of Queen is to be regal and majestic. Glamour is part of us and we want to be dandy.”
THE ROLLING STONES: Band member Brian Jones was on the phone to a newspaper to advertise the group when he was asked their name. He looked at the names of tracks on a Muddy Waters album in front of him, spied the first track ‘Rollin’ Stone Blues’ and said, ‘I don’t know . . . The Rollin’ Stones.’
THE SEX PISTOLS: Manager Malcolm McLaren wanted the name of his clothes shop Sex in the title.
THE SPICE GIRLS: The manufactured girl band were originally called Touch. That was after they had rejected Take Five and Five Alive. Geri Halliwell came up with the name Spice — and the idea of five different spices to reflect their different characters — during an aerobics class.
STING: The Police frontman was born Gordon Sumner but his nickname came from a jumper that made him look like a bumble bee.
R.E.M.: It stands for Rapid Eye Movement and the band saw the letters, a stage in a person’s sleeping pattern, in a dictionary. Their original name choice? Can Of P***.
ROCK Band Name Origins, by Greg Metzer, is published by McFarland. Its’s out now, priced Ј30.95.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/music/article1482567.ece
