IF you didn't enjoy last week's column about sons of famous musicians, then you probably won't like this one.
Here are five more offspring of musical legends, and how they've dealt with standing in the shadows of giants.
Joe Sumner
BEFORE Sting became Sting and started The Police, he was plain old school teacher Gordon Sumner and he and his first wife had a son named Joseph. In 2003, Joe and his band Fiction Plane release their debut album Everything Will Never Be OK to some good reviews, which noted they sounded more like U2 than The Police. They released a second album (Left Side Of The Brain) and a third (Sparks) was released this week, and the band have enjoyed some success in Europe and the US. Despite label attempts to play down the Son of Sting connection, Fiction Plane supported The Police on their 2007 reunion tour, and it has been noted that Fiction Plane is an anagram of Infant Police.
Dweezil Zappa
THE son of Frank, Dweezil is perhaps best known here for his recent work paying tribute to his late father. Zappa Plays Zappa concerts were staged around the world for the past four years and are expected to continue, but Dweezil has done a lot more in his career than just pay homage to his father's music (and be responsible for posthumous releases and preservation). Aside from some movie cameos (The Running Man, Pretty In Pink), Dweezil was an MTV VJ, voiced Ajax on the cartoon Duckman, and co-hosted a cooking show, while musically he has released a number of solo albums plus a couple with his brother Ahmet, and guested on a Weird Al Yankovic album. And for nearly two decades he has been working on a 75-minute-long musical piece called What The Hell Was I Thinking? which features other guitarist including Brian May, Eddie Van Halen and Angus Young.
Dhani Harrison
A DEAD-RINGER for his dad George, Dhani even sounds a bit like his father, both vocally and guitar-wise. In recent years, Dhani has been playing with his band Thenewno2 but he first stepped into the spotlight at Concert For George, a tribute show for his late dad that saw him share a stage with the likes of Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Ravi Shankar, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Ringo Starr, Jim Keltner, Joe Brown (singer) and Paul McCartney. Dhani also completed George's posthumous album Brainwashed and has worked with the Wu-Tang Clan, was instrumental in getting Rock Band: The Beatles made, and has jammed with Conan O'Brien. Thenewno2 are well-worth checking out and have released one album - You Are Here in 2008.
Zak Starkey
WHILE his dad Ringo is often lamented as the worst great drummer of all time, Zak is actually a highly regarded stickman - so much so that when The Who were looking for someone to replace the late Keith Moon they called on Ringo's lad. Moon was in fact Zak's drum teacher, with Zak a competent-enough drummer as a youngster that he was able to play pub gigs from the age of 12. Starkey now tours regularly with The Who and has also worked with Oasis, Paul Weller, The Waterboys and The Spencer Davis Group, as well as being a founding member of the short-lived Johnny Marr & The Healers.
Sean Lennon
THE son of John and Yoko took a less conventional musical path than his half-brother Julian. Sean, who was five when his father was shot, worked on a number of his mother's albums as a teenager, as well as co-writing All I Ever Wanted with Lenny Kravitz. But rather than start his own band he joined experimental indie group Cibo Matto, finally releasing a solo album Into The Sun aged 23. It would be another eight years before he released another solo record, spending that time working with Cibo Matto, as a session muso, and hip-hop acts Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Handsome Boy Modeling School and Jurassic 5. He has since released a second solo album and done a number of film scores.
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