Come subsequent Might 26 in Moncton, N.B., Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman will kick off a nationwide tour beneath the identify The Guess Who. The final time they performed a present like this was July 30, 2003 for SARSfest in Toronto.
Why so lengthy? As a result of every of them left The Guess Who earlier than it was completed.
Randy exited in 1970 and Burton in 1975, and the group carried on with bass participant Jim Kale and drummer Garry Peterson. It was Kale who realized that there was no clear possession of the identify “The Guess Who,” so he filed for its trademark within the U.S. in 1986 with out telling Burton or Randy. The group continued with out its two major gamers and songwriters.
And it obtained weirder. Kale stopped showing with The Guess Who in 2016 and Peterson was semi-retired, showing with the band solely now and again. Followers turning as much as see the band noticed and heard a efficiency from musicians who had no connection to the unique group. The identify was the identical. The songs had been the identical. The members of the band weren’t.
In 2023, each Cummings and Bachman sued to get the identify again, saying that this model of The Guess Who was “nothing greater than a canopy band,” and did nothing to disabuse audiences of the truth that Cummings and Bachman had been now not with the group. Kale and Peterson fought again, arguing a type of “you snooze, you lose,” saying that the statute of limitations on trademark disputes had lengthy handed.
The excellent news is that all the things was settled in September 2024. The trademark is now owned collectively by Cummings and Bachman, enabling them to embark on this 2026 tour formally as The Guess Who.
That is an instance of the “band vs. model” debate that’s solely getting louder, one thing that I first beginning writing about in 2022. What number of unique members does a band want to ensure that it to legitimately market itself as that group? Two? One? None?
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Musical nostalgia continues to be a significant moneymaker, and artists are nonetheless touring into their 70s and even 80s. Nonetheless, members of these acts are being claimed by the calamities of previous age, if not the Grim Reaper.
The Rolling Stones will proceed to be The Rolling Stones so long as Mick and Keef are there. Fleetwood Mac with out Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham? That’s slicing it shut. ZZ High with simply Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard? They’ve been in a position to pull it off.
And I’ve little doubt that Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson will probably be simply effective as a reunited Rush, though it will likely be powerful for a lot of followers to see the band onstage with out Neil Peart. Was it powerful watching The Who with simply Pete and Roger? For me it was.
There are dozens of bands with just one unique member remaining: Bush (frontman and chief Gavin Rossdale), Danzig (Glenn Danzig), Everclear (Artwork Alexakis), Jethro Tull (Ian Anderson), Megadeth (Dave Mustaine), Ministry (Al Jourgensen), Queens of the Stone Age (Josh Homme), Soul Asylum (Dave Pirner), The Treatment (Robert Smith), The Seashore Boys (Mike Love), Boston (Tom Scholz), Emerson Lake and Palmer (drummer Carl Palmer), and Deep Purple (drummer Ian Paice) are only a few examples.
Then we’ve got what can charitably be referred to as “successor bands.” Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have mentioned many instances that the KISS expertise is so large that it doesn’t matter who’s onstage within the costumes. There’s a model of The Allman Brothers band that’s nonetheless enjoying gigs however doesn’t embrace a single member of the unique group shaped by Duane and Gregg again in 1969. This present iteration is being promoted an entity that’s protecting the spirit of the Allman Brothers alive, one thing that has the complete endorsement of the Allman households.
Subsequent will convey a double-headliner highway journey that includes Foreigner and Lynyrd Skynyrd, two bands which have been inducted into The Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame. The Double Hassle Double Imaginative and prescient tour will function some model of Foreigner that may not embrace guitarist Mick Jones, the final remaining unique member. He hasn’t toured with the group since 2022 due to well being causes associated to Parkinson’s.
In the meantime, there are zero unique members left in Skynyrd following the dying of Gary Rossington in 2023. Everybody else within the lineup joined later, though John Van Zant, brother of Ronnie who died in that 1977 aircraft crash, a minimum of retains a familial connection going.
This, nevertheless, shouldn’t be taking place properly. Paste calls this a “rock and roll con job” that “guarantees all of the hits, all of the nostalgia, and not one of the unique members.” It’s akin to an previous airliner that has gone by so many D checks, essentially the most exhaustive upkeep process wanted each six to 10 years. Ultimately, so most of the aircraft’s unique elements are changed, it stops being the aircraft it was when it left the manufacturing unit. (For extra of this philosophy, learn up on the Ship of Theseus drawback.)
There’s a sure stage of ick right here that additionally applies to Blood, Sweat & Tears, Quiet Riot, Ratt, GWAR (however who would discover with all that costuming?), Iron Butterfly, Canned Warmth, Little River Band, Molly Hatchet, Sepultura, and the Spinners. There’s even a model of The Glenn Miller Orchestra (est. 1938) nonetheless enjoying gigs. All that we’re actually left with are the logos and associated IP.
Which brings me again to this “band vs. model” debate. How lengthy will followers proceed to purchase in? I predict it’ll worsen with AI, holograms, and avatars. T-shirts will nonetheless be offered, and there would be the regular meet n’ greets, particular ticket packages, and all the opposite sundry choices. There’s cash to be made. Who cares if it’s the identical band you grew up with?
Immediately, the band by no means has to interrupt up, and regardless of what number of members depart or die, we’ll in all probability all the time be capable of purchase a ticket to the present.
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