Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Keeping it in the family

I read on Yahoo! Music that plans are afoot to extend the shelf life of a heavily made up American rock phenomenon,

According to the New York Times, Kiss manager Doc McGhee 'has been toying with the idea of recruiting an entire band to...don the band's famous makeup.' McGhee said, 'Kiss is more like Doritos or Pepsi, as far as a brand name is concerned. They're more characters than the individual person. I think (new members) have a legitimate chance to carry the franchise.
I've got a good story that is not unlike that.

Years ago I knew two musician brothers, one a session player and the other who - while not a member - was gigging in the brass section of an up and coming band to save money to get married.

In the fullness of time the up and coming band got a two record deal and the main members trooped into the studio to record their first single. All, however, was not as it appeared. After the track was apparently in the can the session musician got a call from the producer asking him to come in and redo the bass on the record. It gets better, he also told his brother that peers and colleagues of his got called in to redo the drums, the keyboards, the guitars and everything else except the vocals.

When his brother turned up to play live with the band a couple of weeks later he found that the band had called a meeting and fired the singer.

So the next week their debut single came out without even one member of the current band performing on it although, apart from the singer, they remained blissfully ignorant of the fact.

To my disappointment, there were no Villi Manilli type revelations though, as it bombed. I still wish I had a copy somehow.

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