SOMETIMES bands pretend to be other bands. Sometimes it's for creative and artistic reasons, sometimes it's for financial ones. Occasionally it's just for a laugh.
Seeing as how we had a huge response to the last article we did on the subject of "nom de discs" (about 1000 hits on the website) we thought go the Hollywood route and do a sequel.
It was tempting to put David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust on the list, but that was more to do with lots of cocaine, rather than Bowie actually pretending to be someone else.
R.E.M./Hornets Attack Victor Mature
BANDS often use fake names to play small secret gigs. Something For Kate have played under the name Hawaiian Robots, while The Living End like to use names made up of Melbourne suburbs. R.E.M. went with the awesome moniker Hornets Attack Victor Mature as a pseudonym when they roadtested new material at small clubs during their '80s heyday. The name came from an actual newspaper headline about the legendarily bad actor getting swarmed while playing golf. The strange thing is that the name Hornets Attack Victor Mature circulated as an LA punk band in the early '80s, despite there being no actual band. The music industry was abuzz about this hip new band that didn't exist, and the name remains an industry joke to this day.
Sub Sub/Doves
BRITISH dance act Sub Sub was a trio with a hit single (Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use)) and a well-received album to their name by 1994. But just as they were about to finish up their follow-up, a fire destroyed their studio, completely erasing two years of hard work. By the time Jimi Goodwin and twins Jez and Andy Williams pulled themselves together, the dance years had passed and the trio decided to take a new route, swapping their nightclub anthems for sweeping pop-rock epics big on guitars and an indie vibe. And thus the band Doves rose from the ashes of Sub Sub, with the trio choosing to ditch the old name lest anyone buy their albums looking for four-on-the-floor dance tunes - a rare case of a band pretending not to be their former selves rather than cash in on past glories.
Paul McCartney & Wings/Suzy & The Red Stripes
FOR a while there Linda McCartney was about as popular as Yoko Ono, as Paul McCartney's post-Beatles band Wings attracted a lot of detractors. Perhaps to dodge all the bad press and reviews, Paul and Linda decided to release Linda's song Seaside Woman under the name Suzy & The Red Stripes rather than put it on the Wings album Red Rose Speedway. The track is similar to the cod-reggae Paul loved to bust out on occasion, from The Beatles' Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da to Wings track C Moon (even the middle bit of Live And Let Die shows Paul's love of a good Jamaican groove). The pseudonym thing was another love of Paul's - Sgt Pepper's was originally Paul's suggestion as a way for The Beatles to pretend to be someone less fab for a while.
Hoodoo Gurus/Persian Rugs
AUSSIE rock legends Hoodoo Gurus disbanded in 1998 and three years later Persian Rugs appeared - featuring all four members of the Gurus. They released an EP and an album (Turkish Delight) and played at Homebake (on the same bill as Hoodoo Gurus). Head Guru (and head Rug) Dave Faulkner said the Rugs was an experiment in sounding like the '60s, which critics had often accused the Gurus of doing anyway (see Like, Wow - Wipeout for example). But perhaps the bizarrest thing about the Rugs was that they even recorded a track for a Hoodoo Gurus tribute albums, something also done by XTC, who contributed a version of one of their own songs to a tribute album under the name Terry And The Lovemen.
Garth Brooks/Chris Gaines
ACCORDING to Wikipedia, country-rock star Garth Brooks has sold 68,051,000 albums, of which probably 68,050,000 were bought by Americans. So the US was horrified when their beloved Brooks suddenly became conflicted rocker Chris Gaines in preparation for a movie. Brooks not only released an album as Gaines but started doing interviews in the new persona, complete with dark hair and guy-liner. His fans freaked, not fully understanding that it was all just publicity for the planned film. The album bombed by Brooks' standards, the film was dropped and Brooks dyed his hair back to his usual colour - all further evidence that country music fans are afraid of new things and don't like to be challenged.
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