THIS week's list is a fairly esoteric one, but it comes from one of those odd conversations the
Musicology brains trust has from time to time.
The question: what are the five greatest bands with a colour in their name?
Do a quick Google search and you'll find this is a popular question for some reason - not sure why, but here we go for the fun of it.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
ORIGINALLY named Tony Flow & The Miraculous Masters Of Mayhem, these Californian funk-punks changed their name to the much-catchier-but-still-lengthy Red Hot Chili Peppers after their first gig. Singer Anthony Kiedis wrote in his entertaining autobiography Scar Tissue that the name was "a derivation of a classic old-school Americana blues or jazz name... there was Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and also other bands that had 'red hot' this or 'chili' that''. There was also an English band in the '70s called Chilli Willi & The Red Hot Peppers, but RHCP claimed to have never heard of them.
Black Sabbath
IN Judaism the black Sabbath is the last Sabbath before Tisha B'Av - a time of fasting to remember the destruction of the first two temples of Jerusalem. However the legendary heavy metal band of the same name were probably unaware they had just named themselves after a 25-hour period that forbid eating, bathing and having sex. Instead, Black Sabbath had picked the name from a Boris Karloff horror film, which inspired singer Ozzy Osbourne to write the occult-centric song called Black Sabbath and the band to attempt to create a sound they hoped would be the musical equivalent of scary movies.
Green Day
THE story goes that a "green day'' in the Bay Area of California is either a day when there is lots of marijuana around or a day that you just smoke a lot of it. Either way, the members of a Cali-punk band called Sweet Children were certainly fond of the herb, so much so that they changed their name to Green Day. Other possibly apocryphal stories suggest that frontman Billie Joe Armstrong got the name from something Ernie said on Sesame Street and that Billie Joe was either suitably impressed or stoned enough to take the name for his band.
Pink Floyd
SYD Barrett, Pink Floyd's resident madman/genius, pulled the band's name together from the handles of two American blues players, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, whose names he had seen in the liner notes of a Blind Boy Fuller album. However, some members of the British press and music industry failed to catch on and thought that Pink Floyd was the name of one of the band members. The group immortalised this is in the rocking industry kiss-off Have A Cigar, in which the record company narrator naively asks in the lyrics "Oh by the way, which one is Pink?''.
Silverchair
THE three young lads from Newcastle who became Silverchair were originally called The Innocent Criminals, but when SBS and Triple J came knocking on their door with the intent of making them famous, they discovered the name was taken. To find a new one, Ben, Chris and Daniel decided to combine the names of two of their favourite songs - Nirvana's Sliver and You Am I's Berlin Chair. Despite being in Year 8, they're spelling wasn't quite up to scratch, otherwise they would have been forever known by the more unpleasant name 'Sliverchair'.
And because there was lots of them here are some more cool colour bands worth checking out:
Deep Purple, Goldfrapp, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Black Flag, The White Stripes, King Crimson, Maroon 5, Cream, Nine Black Alps, The Coral, Goldfinger, The Black Keys, Black Crowes, Green River, Big Black.
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