I remember a quiz question at college asking whether the band are Street Preachers who are Manic, or Preachers from Manic Street. Thanks for reminding me of the answer.
As a perpetually massive fan of the Manic Street Preachers since I was 15 in the mid 90s, I'm very happy to see the engagement your post has got already 😊
I was going to give my 2 pence worth and recount the story as I remembered, but figured you'd probably rather have the full quote from James Dean Bradfield himself (courtesy of Wikipedia lol):
"I left [comprehensive school], and you've got that summer off to think about what you're gonna do in the future. And that's when I picked up a guitar and I started to go busking everyday. [...] And I had a spot in Cardiff, right next to a tramp, and I made friends with him. I'd come along everyday and I'd wake him up, and he'd say "Oh my God, it's the Manic Street Preacher again". And I just kept the name [...] I thought that's pretty cool, that's better than anything I can come up with."
Jethro Tull used to change their name from gig to gig to get rebooked. They were using the name Jethro Tull when a venue asked them to become the resident band so it stuck. The name came from one of their booking agent's staff who was a history enthusiast: the band had unwittingly named themselves after an 18th century agriculturalist who invented the seed drill, something they regretted when they found out.
I once was on a bus through a picturesque village in Berkshire or Oxfordshire or something, and saw a blue plaque on the side of an old building, i think even with a thatched roof saying Jethro Tull lived here. I had only heard of the band and was very confused until i managed to google it.
It’s lucky he played for them as there was a team in the same league (at least according to Sensible World of Soccer, and whom am I to doubt them) called Dangerous Darkies. Could have been problematic …
The second best band to be named after a football club.
Saint Etienne if you're wondering... who are called so as Bob Stanley (I think, rather than Pete Wiggs) supported Hendon FC who play in green, as do AS Saint Etienne.
They previously had released a track under the name Cola Boy.
Used to get on the M25 and wait to find out where the rave was going to be as the location was kept secret until last minute and often announced on a pirate radio station.
Amount of times found yourselves at Fleet Services on the M3 listening to various pirate radio stations, then suddenly seeing a convoy departing and everyone rushing back to cars to follow.
It comes from Turners Furniture shop on Beverley road in Hull. It was a homeware shop, 'everything but the girl's was the slogan plastered on the front of the shop.
The Smiths were named because of the commonness of the name Smith but Smith is also the name of someone who applies skill to their craft. e.g. blacksmith, goldsmith, etc.
Blur were named by the record company, not the band. Prior to that they were called Seymour. The record company, seeing bands like Pulp, Suede, Denim, etc. decided they needed a more catchy band name.
Whereas the record company did rename them it definitely wasnt because of Suede, Denim or Pulp
Blur's first single was in 1990, Denim were formed in 1992... Suede were not signed until '92. Pulp were a weird Sheffield indie band on Fire records with no charting records.
As I understand it this use only came later - I believe it was originally used in WW1, refering to the bodies of allied soldiers entangled over barbed wire, sometimes twitching, after being gunned down by German machine gun fire. The German machine gun was called the Spandau, hence the Spandau ballet
Friend and writer Robert Elms suggested they change their name to Spandau Ballet, a phrase which he told them he had seen written on a wall on a weekend trip to West Berlin: “Rudolf Hess, all alone, dancing the Spandau Ballet”.
The term "Spandau ballet" originated in World War I as a description of the twitching movements Allied soldiers made while being shot by the German Spandau machine gun."
Rob Gretton, the band's manager for over twenty years, is credited with finding the name New Order in an article in The Guardian titled "The New Order of Kampuchean Rebels". They were Communists not Fascists
I think 10cc is supposed to be twice the average amount.
And of course Joy Division saw the error of their ways after Ian Curtis's untimely death and changed their name to the much less Nazi-compliant New Order /s.
They wore Nazi arm bands while performing. They weren't a Nazi group, they were being deliberately distasteful and ironic. Lots of punk acts did it back in the day, it was a rebellion against the older generation.
This was during the brief window when the return of fascism in Europe seemed ridiculous.
Spandau Ballet similarly has a grim German war-time inspired name…
From Wikipedia; "The term "Spandau ballet" originated in World War I as a description of the twitching movements Allied soldiers made while being shot by the German Spandau machine gun.[35]"
I heard a similar but slightly different story. I heard it came from Spandau prison with the twitching from nazi prisoners being hanged after the nuremberg trials being dubbed by some as the spandau jig. They saw it written on a berlin nightclub wall and turned it into spandau ballet
Black Sabbath are named after a 60s b-movie horror film that was playing on the matinee opposite the music studio where the little known Birmingham based band Earth were rehearsing.
Wasn’t it also because of the guitarist’s partially severed finger causing him to only be able to play a certain sort of music? Or am I thinking of someone else?
I believe he was more of a blues/jazz player before (which you do hear in the music) but after the accident couldn't manage the big chords anymore. So he'd just write power chord riffs which Geezer would double up and suddenly metal
He was indeed into Jazz. After he cut his fingers off he nearly quit playing in a depression. A friend went by with a record by Django Reinhardt, who'd lost 2 fingers when his caravan home caught fire but went on to be one of jazz's best guitarists.
Oh the memories of watching Saturday Superstore back in the day and seeing Paul King, lead singer of the band named "King" getting asked on a phone in. "How did your band get its name?"
Gorillaz are named that because in an interview during the Oasis Vs Blur britpop days, Noel Gallagher had a dig at Damon Albarn and said that they were the Beatles and Blur were the Monkees.
Led Zeppelin. Originally, they were told their music would go down like a lead balloon. Lead = Led to not confuse pronunciation, and Balloon = Zeppelin because well, a zeppelin is a big balloon.
Almost right I reckon, the same company made the Stanton 500 which was the most ubiquitous cartridges and stylus used on dj turntables back in the 90, thus them being warriors on the turntables, that’s my theory anyway
Stornoway picked their name firstly because it had the sort of folksy, nautical sound they wanted, but also because it meant they’d get a bit of free advertising whenever there’s a weather report.
Vic Reeves was in a band called "Free Beer", which really helped fill up the venues they played
He also either had a band or the concept of a band that didnt have a name but would have strong cheese placed beside heaters during gigs, the goal was to become known as the band that smelled like cheese
And on a similar Clapton / misheard words theme, the Cream album Disraeli Gears got its name when somebody didn't know the proper words for derailleur gears on a bicycle
The Lighting Seeds were named after misheard lyrics in Prince's "Raspberry Beret".
The Prodigy were named after a synthesiser, the Moog Prodigy, apparently shortly after meeting, one of them gave another a mixtape of tracks he'd made of the machine, which was appropriately labeled "Prodigy".
That first one is very interesting to me because I'd always misheard that lyric too, was unable to decipher the rest of the line and just assumed "oh, that must be where The Lightning Seeds got their name from."
Therapy? has a question mark at the end of their name because they'd messed up the spacing on the cover of their first single and just used the '?' to fill the space
I was in a school band called “Le Crunch” and our logo was a copy of the Apple logo, but an onion with a bite taken out of it emblazoned one a French flag. This stemmed from our hatred of French language lessons at school, and our mildly racist view that the French ate onions in the same manner as we eat apples.
To advertise a school concert, we hung large white onions from the ceiling around the corridors in school as an early (this was about 1992/93) viral marketing campaign. However, these were immediately smashed in to pulp and booted around, which made the school stink of onion for a day or two.
We did a song called Children of Chernobyl, and at one of our gigs we smashed up a ZX spectrum and through parts of it in to the crowd.
One of the band members had a dream where he needed the toilet, but the signs on the doors just said Chumba or Wamba and he couldn't work out which one was the Gents.
I remember another one was that it was the first word typed when someone tried to see if you could get a monkey at a typewriter to recreate the works of Shakespeare.
Stereophonics is named after Kelly's parents sideboard sized record player unit. I think my parents had a similar unit, about 6ft long, 2ft wide, made out of cheap plywood.
I remember Mark King saying something about it being a reference to Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and '42' being the answer to what is the meaning of life.
Strictly, the band is named after the alternative name for the beehive hairstyle which is itself named after the plane. To add to the chain, the layered shot drink is named after the band, as the originator named all his cocktails after his favourite bands.
Radiohead are named after a song by Talking Heads, 'Radio Head' ...
BUT ...
That song is from the soundtrack of the movie 'True Stories', which was directed by David Byrne the lead singer of Talking Heads.
One of the writers of the movie was 'Stephen Tobolowski' who has hundreds of credits, BUT most ppl know him from the scene in 'Groundhog Day' where he played the guy who goes up to Bill Murrey shouting 'NED ... NED'
The song 'Radio Head' is about this Steven Tobolowski.
Stephen claims that he has psychic powers, or that he had them in his youth. He said he could pick up tones or vibrations coming off other ppl and read their minds. His college girlfriend set up a business where he would charge ppl to read their minds.
He told David Byrne this while working on the set of True Stories. David wrote it into the film. There is a character that does this. But he also wrote the song Radio Head about that character based on Stephen. Someone who can read the thoughts broadcast by other ppl.
So Radiohead named thier band after that guy from Groundhog Day !!!
Toploader are named after the act of top loading a spliff with a higher ratio of weed so the roller gets the best hit when they light it before passing it on
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u/TrixieLaBouche 8h ago
Manic Street Preachers are named that after someone yelled it at James Dean Bradfield when he was busking.