Early versions of bands

[VTTBoscombe]

As many lovers of early eighties mersey beat will know, "The Crucial Three" were, three mates Julian Cope, Ian McCulloch and Pete Wylie.
I loved TX, the Bunnymen and a Wah! so although the Crucial Three were basically messing around in the front rooms and garages and not doing anything much- they kicked off three bands that added to a lot of my enjoyment of music.

Any other early incarnations of bands where each member went off and did something "useful"?

[Jah Womble]

Early versions of bands

From the same neck of the woods, Big In Japan - who at some stage featured Bill Drummond (later, The KLF and various); Jayne Casey (Pink Military); Ian Broudie (The Lightning Seeds and various); Holly Johnson (FGTH); Budgie (Siouxsie & The Banshees/The Creatures); David Balfe (Teardrop Explodes) and Ambrose Reynolds (Pink Industry and various). Also involved were later producer Clive Langer and sleeve designer Kev Ward.

[treibeis]

Early versions of bands

I think a couple of members of the original The Wurzels line-up used to muck about with Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Band before they teamed up with Adge Cutler and hit the big time.

[WOM]

Early versions of bands

The Mynah Birds: an R&B band from Toronto's coffee house scene in the 1960s. Members included Rick James (Superfreak), Neil Young (yes, that one), Goldy McJohn and Nick St. Nicholas (Steppenwolf) and Bruce Palmer (Buffalo Springfield) and a bunch of other decent sidemen.

[Jah Womble]

Early versions of bands

The Mugwumps, of course: Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty went on to form The Mamas & Papas, while John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky morphed into The Lovin' Spoonful.

(The fifth member, guitarist Jim Hendricks - who cut three forgotten singles for Dunhill - presumably wasn't helped much by the monumental success of his namesake...)

[WOM]

Early versions of bands

You've just cribbed all that from Creeque Alley....

[Jah Womble]

Early versions of bands

What, you mean it didn't really happen?

[MsD]

Early versions of bands

The Moors Murderers.

Steve Strange, Chrissie Hynde, Topper Headon, and a few people who claimed to be in the band but didn't actually do anything.

[hawkvshandsaw]

Early versions of bands

The False Startic Monkeys

[hawkvshandsaw]

Early versions of bands

The Gloomy Sundays
Westconception
Neil Younger
Foetii Aloud

[Bored Of Education]

Early versions of bands

The Yardbirds were a bit like that. They were, of course, a very good band in themselves but when you consider they had Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page one after another, that is pretty good going for one band.

[Jah Womble]

Early versions of bands

Ah, okay...

Evening Oil
The Black & White Field
Black Rebel Penny-Farthing Club
The Screaming Acorns
Peter & The Traditionally Conceived Babies

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Early versions of bands

Nine Years After.

[Sam]

Early versions of bands

The BC-52s (I am aware they already did this joke themselves in the Flintstones film).

[Beatle Simon]

Early versions of bands

The Quarrymen; Three of the original members went on to bigger success with The Plastic Ono Band, Wings and The Travelling Wilburys.

[Various Artist]

Early versions of bands

9,999 Maniacs
Wirelesshead
The Stationary Stones
Brand New Order
Crossbows n' Roses
Quite Spacious House
Orchestral Manoeuvres At Lunchtime

Seriously, though, I was going to mention Big In Japan, but Jah got in there first. Haussman has a thing for this kind of game, I seem to remember from another thread, though for the life of me can't remember what right now.

Edit: ^ Heh, I had to look at Serge's post twice before the subtlety of that particular joke hit me...

[My Name Is Ian]

Early versions of bands

Well, there's the New Yardbirds, who rotated through members before morphing into Led Zeppelin. Somebody's probably already written a book about that period, but the near-incarnation that played on "Beck's Bolero" for Jeff Beck - it's on his solo abum Truth and was, of all things, the B-side to Hi-Ho Silver Lining - was Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page on the guitar, with John Paul Jones, Keith Moon and Nicky Hopkins (who played for/produced just about everybody for about 20 years from the mid-60s) on the piano.

[MsD]

Early versions of bands

The first incarnation of Siouxsie and the Banshees included Sid Vicious on drums and Marco Pirroni on guitar.

They only played together once, though, and Siouxsie was spelt Suzie or Susie.

Magazine featured musicians who would go on to be in Visage, the Banshees, and ... I can't remember what band Martin went on to.

I must know loads of these from the punk era. Boy George was in Bow Wow Wow before Culture Club.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Early versions of bands

Bollocks, I knew I'd get that mixed up. Oh well.