Posted on 04/06/2009 1:24:01 PM PDT by JoeProBono
I make it 21 - but it's not a record. That, I think, goes to one man and his revolving door of backing musicians.
I was wondering the other day which band boasts the highest numbers of past and present members. Who can rival Spinal Tap, from that bit in the film where David St Hubbins said he wouldn't miss Nigel Tufnell any more than any of the other "37, 38" members of the band.
The first suggestion from the floor was UFO, the British heavy rock band who've been banging away for nearly 40 years now. The band that launched the career of guitar god Michael Schenker, who went on to form The Scorpions. And for a while 21 members looked like a winning total.
Bad Company, now without any original members, couldn't beat it (with 19 members), nor could Yes (16) or Deep Purple (14). The Yardbirds aren't even close with 17, nor Manfred Mann with 11.
But then UFO got blown out of the sky. Firstly by news of Guns N' Roses new axeman, DJ Ashba, which incredibly takes the rockers' roll call to 22 (with Axl Rose as the only constant) and then John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, who weighed in with 30, including luminaries such as Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce.
But I think we have a winner. It looked like David Coverdale might have sneaked it, with the 36 "friends" he has shared the stage with in almost as many years in Whitesnake. The same number of band members as Spinal Tap, would you believe!? Another similarity.
But edging it is indie veterans The Fall who, to my calculations, have racked up 38 band members, coming and going around the irrepressible main man Mark E Smith. Is it he who doesn't like his bandmates, or the other way round, I wonder? I could take a guess.
So is that really a record? Can anyone do better?
The record has to be either Savoy Brown or John MAyall’s Bluesbreakers.
How many have been aboard Madonna?
What?
One likely candidate is Procol Harum. I believe the wiki on them only lists people who have actually appeared on an album, which is 21. However, there are many more, including a drunk the band picked up in a bar who stuck with them as the lead singer for about a month in the early 'seventies. I don't know if the official total is even known.
UFO was a club in London in the 1960s. It was pronounced You-Foe. The Pink Floyd were the house band.
JESUS omg its Easter already
Blackmores Rainbow has to be up there
Some fans tried to put a family tree together a few years ago and came up with 120 total members. Given the size of their horn section, along with their relative obscurity, it probably isn't all that surprising. That a band could make so many albums over that time period, without much national recognition, is amazing.
I was on UFO-their tour bus after a concert in Vegas-had a few beers with the lead singer (Mogg).
Wasn’t probed, but saw a few groupies I wouldn’t mind probing.
Rainbow with 24 members
“Hey, boys, I’m baaack”. I love that movie.
Me too it was filmed at Howard Hugh’s old airport in Culver city about a mile from my house we would sit on the bluff and watch the action
That must have been something to see.
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