Band name meanings/bands original names

[The Large One]

The high numbers - The Who

The Detours > The Who > The High Numbers > The Who

David Bowie - Davy & Davie Jones

And 'Davy Jones & The Lower Third'

 

[BadFish]

Stone Roses - The Patrol

 

[We Won't Be Druv]

Hawkwind - named after Nik Turner who cleared his throat and broke wind frequently.

 

[skipper734]

Conversation in The Scene, club in Ham Yard, West End, and repeated in the The Florida Rooms Brighton........... They're the High Numbers.........What? Can't hear say again.........The High Numbers...... The Who? Yer, close enough. The Who it is then. Probably.
I spent a lot of time in both Clubs, it's a pity I never heard this conversation.

 

[attila]

The Alarm - The Toilets
(OK, many will sneer they were still shit, but I liked 'em, still see Mike Peters occasionally, two times cancer survivor and great charity worker)

 

[Superphil]

Charged GBH were originally call GBH, but had to add "Charged" to it due to some copyright thing with an American band I believe.

Boomtown Rats - Mark Skid & the Y Fronts

 

[Superphil]

And 'Davy Jones & The Lower Third'

Well if we're talking about his bands then don't forget The Konrads, King Bees, The Manish Boys, The Buzz, The Riot Squad, Arnold Corns, The Hype, Harry the Butcher, David Bowies Imagination and of course Tin Machine.

 

[Pevenseagull]

Les Tossers - The Bee Gees (I think)

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Neil Innes, Bonzo Dog etc. and I would not agree.

While Innes claims the title came from an American pulp fiction magazine, the phrase may have been coined by Richard Hoggart in his 1957 book The Uses of Literacy, which discussed British popular culture and was a pioneering work in the cultural studies field. The term appears in Chapter 8, "The Newer Mass Art: Sex in Shiny Packets", under part C: "Sex and Violence Novels". Hoggart provides a list of "imitations" of the "terse, periodic titles" of these novels, including "Sweetie, Take It Hot"; "The Lady Takes a Dive"; "Aim Low, Angel"; "Sweetheart, Curves Can Kill"; and "Death-Cab for Cutie".
Ben Gibbard used the title of the song as the name of the rock band he founded in 1997, saying "The name was never supposed to be something that someone was going to reference 15 years on. So yeah, I would absolutely go back and give it a more obvious name."[SUP][2]

<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[/SUP]

Just found this on Wikipedia, which I appreciate may not be the most reliable, but it seems a likely route.

Band name[edit]

Gibbard took the band name from the title of the song written by Neil Innes and Vivian Stanshall and performed by their group, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, in The Beatles' 1967 film, Magical Mystery Tour. The song's name was in turn taken from an invented pulp fiction crime magazine, devised by Richard Hoggart as part of his 1957 study of working class culture The Uses of Literacy. In a 2011 interview, Gibbard stated "The name was never supposed to be something that someone was going to reference 15 years on. So yeah, I would absolutely go back and give it a more obvious name."[50]

 

[Nibble]

The Weak Heartdrops - The Clash
Civilian - Audioslave
The Golliwogs - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Composition of Sound - Depeche Mode
Sharp Young Men became Faith No Man became Faith No More
Late - Foo Fighters
Mookie Blaylock became Pearl Jam. I believe Blaylock was a basketball player.

 

[The Large One]

Led Zeppelin's name came from a phrase (claimed by both Keith Moon and John Entwistle) describing a poor gig as going down 'like a lead Zeppelin'.

 

[Nibble]

I met the daughter of one of the Bonzo Doo Dah band or whatever they are called in a travel lodge in Bristol Temple Meads. She was on a "Plenty Of Fish" (which I had never heard of) date with some bloke. Both completely shitfaced. She was absolutely mental and kept going about the band whom I had only vaguely heard of which made her sound even crazier. I felt sorry for her date. To me she was like a drunken dog barking occassionaly muttering something about plenty of fish and dog crap.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

Jedward - Edwonathan.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

U2 was a spyplane, not a submarine.

My Chemical Romance is from the subtitle of the novel Ecstasy by Irvine Welsh
T'Pau was a character is Star Trek
Heaven 17 get their name from a group in A Clockwork Orange

Spocks grandmother = t'pau

 

[Driver8]

The Alarm - The Toilets
(OK, many will sneer they were still shit, but I liked 'em, still see Mike Peters occasionally, two times cancer survivor and great charity worker)

He lives near me. Have you seen the film based on his story of getting a single into the charts with a fake band? It's called Vinyl and was made where my son works.

 

[Box of Frogs]

Bee Gees - named after racetrack promoter Bill Goode (not Brothers Gibb).

The Teardrop Explodes, taken from a panel caption in the Marvel comic strip 'Daredevil'.

Partly true: They were introduced to radio DJ Bill Gates by racetrack promoter Bill Goode (who saw them perform at Brisbane's original Archerfield Speedway in 1959). Gates renamed them the "Bee Gees" after his, Goode's, and Barry Gibb's initials—thus the name was not specifically a reference to "Brothers Gibb", despite popular belief.

 

[brakespear]

INXS have their name because the The Farriss Brothers (also a previous name for the band) wanted a name similar to XTC.

 

[Albumen]

Radiohead was named after a Talking Heads song

 

[Nibble]

The Killers took their name from the name of a fictional band written on the bass drum in New Order's video for the song Crystal.

The Ramones comes from the name Paul McCartney used to check into hotels, Paul Ramon.

 

[Mtoto]

According to an interview in the Racing Post a few years back, Franz Ferdinand were watching Channel 4 Racing while trying to come up with a name and saw Archduke Ferdinand win the 2001 Northumberland Plate at Newcastle.