Is Your Band Fake? The Complete RS Guide

Hey you! Yes, you, the second cousin of that Guess Who guitarist who’s trying to book gigs playing “American Woman”? The jig is up. In twenty states – most recently Nevada – it is now illegal to perform using a band name if you don’t have any of the original members. Some veteran artists have been outspoken in this band-banning crusade. The loudest voice has been Bowzer from Sha Na Na, whom we barely knew existed outside of our mothers’ vinyl collection and Adam Sandler’s “Chanukah Song.” Along his journey, he gathered the support of Mary Wilson from The Supremes, who claims that at one point, there were five different fake-Supremes touring the country. So who’s banned from playing the Las Vegas Strip? Read on: The L.A. Guns Despite the fact we probably wouldn’t see them if they were playing for free in our backyard, L.A. Guns offer an interesting case study. Currently, there are two L.A. Guns touring the country. One contains the founding member, Tracii Guns. The other employs singer Phil Lewis, who wasn’t a founding member, but he was the lead singer on the debut album, which was largely penned by Paul Black, who now is the lead singer of the Tracii’s L.A. Guns. But Lewis established himself as the voice of L.A. Guns, and he’s joined by a rhythm section that played on the majority of the albums. The Paul Black L.A. Guns, which have been touring as The L.A. Guns, may have to change their name in the event they play one of the twenty states with the law. The Beach Boys The ongoing legal battles between Mike Love and Al Jardine is what inspired us in the first place to investigate the sordid world of band names. Al Jardine, who’s technically a founding member of The Beach Boys (he took a year off in ’63), had been sued for touring under the name Beach Boys Family & Friends. Mike Love insisted that he had ownership of The Beach Boys name, rewarded by Brothers Records, the trademark holder, which Al Jardine is a minority shareholder.
Picture: Is Your Band Fake? The Complete RS Guide Published: 2007-06-08
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: General