Overstaffed bands

[Stumpy Pepys]

Bands with far too many members compared to the sound they actually made.

I nominate Showaddywaddy.

So Solid Crew also qualify, but they did lose several of them over time, if memory serves.

[WOM]

Maroon Fucking Five. Seven...7...VII...douchebags to make that thin-as-piss racket.

[WOM]

And as big a fan as I am, Grateful Dead had a surfeit of drummers.

[Nocturnal Submission]

The London Philharmonic Orchestra. Do they really need that many French horns! I mean, do they!

[Toby Gymshorts]

Parliament Funkadelic.

I've seen them live, and there were more people on the stage than in the crowd. They were fucking brilliant, like.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Much as it pains me to say it, the E Street band is suffering somewhat from bloat these days. I know Clarence was irreplaceable but trying to make up for him with three brass players isn't really necessary. And how many guitarists are there now? Three... four... more?

[Benjm]

The London Philharmonic Orchestra. Do they really need that many French horns! I mean, do they!

A friend of mine has been to see a few of the Orchestral/Classical treatments of dance and pop music that are going around. He reckons that there are significant differences in what you get, personnel wise, between the different offerings. Pete Tong apparently offers the best pound-to-player ratio with Ibiza Classics whereas canny Manchester businessman Peter Hook adopts more of a chamber approach for his Hacienda versions.

[Fussbudget]

The Polyphonic Spree have got about ten times as many members as they (or any band) actually need.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra. Do they really need that many French horns! I mean, do they!

The BBC Symphony Orchestra certainly looked a little overstaffed for this performance

[Satchmo Distel]

Wings

[Benjm]

Ed Sheeran

[Satchmo Distel]

Boney M

[Sits]

Ed Sheeran

<applause>

If memory serves, Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Albertos Y Lost Trios Paranoias, Blue Rondo a la Turk, and Light of the World.

[3 Colours Red]

Milli Vanilli.

[Jah Womble]

This thread confirms that Frank Farian was clearly paying far too many people throughout his career.

I can remember seeing Calexico a couple of decades back and there seemed to be about 8,000 of them on stage. Good, though.

[Duncan Gardner]

Stu Cook's ill-advised lead vocals. He was the 5th best singer in 4-piece Creedence

[elguapo4]

Wham!

[Guy Profumo]

Thompson Twins.

Both first and second incarnations.

[Guy Profumo]

Ed Sheeran

<double applause>

But not half as much as Michael Bolton.

[elguapo4]

Genuinely Dr Hook,there seemed like there was about 10 of them on stage.

[Sean of the Shed]

The Polyphonic Spree.

[Gangster Octopus]

If memory serves, Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Albertos Y Lost Trios Paranoias, Blue Rondo a la Turk, and Light of the World.

Dunno anything about Light Of The World, but having seen and enjoyed the other three live, you're hopelessly wrong...

[Guy Profumo]

<applause>

If memory serves, Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Albertos Y Lost Trios Paranoias, Blue Rondo a la Turk, and Light of the World.

Dunno about Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias, but Alberto Frog and his Animal Band could easily have paid off the conductor to no great loss.

[Sits]

Dunno anything about Light Of The World, but having seen and enjoyed the other three live, you're hopelessly wrong...

Glad to hear it. To be honest I was just thinking of big bands.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Hardly gratuitous bloat, admittedly, but I remember Ned's Atomic Dustbin having two bass players.

[Jah Womble]

I think that the London post-rock band Rothko have three.

Which, for a four-piece, isn't bad going.