OUR final installment of the greatest supergroups of all time is a ripper because it includes the two best all-star collaborations of all time.
This wasn't a matter of saving the best for last - that's just how the alphabet works.
Temple Of The Dog
IT'S only the passage of time that has made this truly the work of a supergroup - and a highly regarded album - but even still, when this group gathered to record their lone album in 1990, it featured the big hitters of the then-nascent Seattle scene. A tribute album to Mother Love Bone singer Andrew Wood, who died of a heroin overdose in '90, the band brought together Wood's bandmates Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament, plus Soundgarden's Matt Cameron and Chris Cornell, as well as then-unknowns Mike McCready and Eddie Vedder. By the time the album was released, Gossard, Ament, McCready and Vedder had formed Pearl Jam and were working on Ten, while Soundgarden were making Badmotorfinger - both breakthrough albums that helped make Temple Of The Dog a lost grunge classic.
Them Crooked Vultures
THE second greatest supergroup of all time seemed like an impossible rock 'n' roll dream - Nirvana's drummer, Led Zeppelin's bassist and Queens Of The Stone Age's guitarist... yeah, right. As if that will ever happen. In fact, Dave Grohl first mentioned the line-up back in 2005 (even adding that Paul McCartney was a back-up on bass had John Paul Jones been unavailable), so when nothing materialised for four years, everyone thought it was a joke. Then they dropped their self-titled debut and actually managed to live up to expectations - the hardest thing for a supergroup to do. The totally awesome news is that they're already working on a second album.
Tomahawk
UNDERGROUND alt-rock afficionados were stoked with this line-up: vocalist Mike Patton (Faith No More/Mr Bungle/Fantomas), Duane Denison (The Jesus Lizard), John Stanier (Helmet/The Mark Of Cain) and Kevin Rutmanis (The Melvins/The Cows). The end result was equally impressive - their debut self-titled album was a rocky left-field outing held together by the story of a serial killer. Their second album Mit Gas was equally good, and the band is still going strong (without Rutmanis), releasing a third album in 2007 called Anonymous, which comprises modern reworkings of old Native American songs.
Traveling Wilburys
THE greatest supergroup of all time. Even if it just included ex-Beatle George Harrison and Bob Dylan, it would be awesome but there's also Roy "The Big O" Orbison, head Heartbreaker Tom Petty and the comparitively lesser-known Geoff Lynne of ELO. Gathered together by Harrison to record a B-side for the former Fabs single This Is Love, but the end result - Handle With Care - turned out to be too good and, in a rare example of record label intelligence, Warner Brothers suggested it be released as its own single. The group put out debut album Vol 1 shortly before Orbison's death in late '88 and reteamed in '90 to make the less-successful Vol 3 (yes, there's no Vol 2. Their popularity endured so much that when the two albums were released as a box set in 2007 after many years out of print, they charted higher than they had on their initial release.
Velvet Revolver
WHAT if Guns N' Roses were fronted by Stone Temple Pilots' Scott Weiland? It's not something many people were wondering about until Velvet Revolver formed in 2004 and unleashed the surprisingly awesome Contraband. The band, seemingly a match made in rehab heaven, has ex-Gunners rhythm section Matt Sorum and Duff McKagan and guitarist Slash joined by rhythm guitarist Dave Kushner (Wasted Youth/Infectious Grooves) and Weiland. They released a second album, Libertad, to a less sparkling, but still positive response in 2007. Weiland has since left to reform STP.
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