A growing music debate: Band vs. brand. Here’s what that means – National

Come next May 26 in Moncton, N.B., Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman will kick off a national tour under the name The Guess Who. The last time they played a show like this was July 30, 2003 for SARSfest in Toronto.

Why so long? Because each of them left The Guess Who before it was done.

Randy exited in 1970 and Burton in 1975, and the group carried on with bass player Jim Kale and drummer Garry Peterson. It was Kale who realized that there was no clear ownership of the name “The Guess Who,” so he filed for its trademark in the U.S. in 1986 without telling Burton or Randy. The group continued without its two main players and songwriters.

And it got weirder. Kale stopped appearing with The Guess Who in 2016 and Peterson was semi-retired, appearing with the band only once in a while. Fans turning up to see the band saw and heard a performance from musicians who had no connection to the original group. The name was the same. The songs were the same. The members of the band were not.

In 2023, both Cummings and Bachman sued to get the name back, saying that this version of The Guess Who was “nothing more than a cover band,” and did nothing to disabuse audiences of the fact that Cummings and Bachman were no longer with the group. Kale and Peterson fought back, arguing a form of “you snooze, you lose,” saying that the statute of limitations on trademark disputes had long passed.

The good news is that everything was settled in September 2024. The trademark is now owned jointly by Cummings and Bachman, enabling them to embark on this 2026 tour officially as The Guess Who.

This is an example of the “band vs. brand” debate that’s only getting louder, something that I first starting writing about in 2022. How many original members does a band need in order for it to legitimately market itself as that group? Two? One? None?

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Musical nostalgia continues to be a major moneymaker, and artists are still touring into their 70s and even 80s. However, members of those acts are being claimed by the calamities of old age, if not the Grim Reaper.

The Rolling Stones will continue to be The Rolling Stones as long as Mick and Keef are there. Fleetwood Mac without Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham? That’s cutting it close. ZZ Top with just Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard? They’ve been able to pull it off.

And I have no doubt that Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson will be just fine as a reunited Rush, although it will be tough for many fans to see the band onstage without Neil Peart. Was it tough watching The Who with just Pete and Roger? For me it was.

There are dozens of bands with only one original member remaining: Bush (frontman and leader Gavin Rossdale), Danzig (Glenn Danzig), Everclear (Art Alexakis), Jethro Tull (Ian Anderson), Megadeth (Dave Mustaine), Ministry (Al Jourgensen), Queens of the Stone Age (Josh Homme), Soul Asylum (Dave Pirner), The Cure (Robert Smith), The Beach Boys (Mike Love), Boston (Tom Scholz), Emerson Lake and Palmer (drummer Carl Palmer), and Deep Purple (drummer Ian Paice) are just a few examples.

Then we have what can charitably be called “successor bands.” Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have said many times that the KISS experience is so big that it doesn’t matter who’s onstage in the costumes. There’s a version of The Allman Brothers band that’s still playing gigs but doesn’t include a single member of the original group formed by Duane and Gregg back in 1969. This current iteration is being promoted an entity that’s keeping the spirit of the Allman Brothers alive, something that has the full endorsement of the Allman families.

Next will bring a double-headliner road trip featuring Foreigner and Lynyrd Skynyrd, two bands that have been inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Double Trouble Double Vision tour will feature some version of Foreigner that might not include guitarist Mick Jones, the last remaining original member. He hasn’t toured with the group since 2022 because of health reasons related to Parkinson’s.

Meanwhile, there are zero original members left in Skynyrd following the death of Gary Rossington in 2023. Everyone else in the lineup joined later, although John Van Zant, brother of Ronnie who died in that 1977 plane crash, at least keeps a familial connection going.

This, however, is not going down well. Paste calls this a “rock and roll con job” that “promises all the hits, all the nostalgia, and none of the original members.” It’s akin to an old airliner that has gone through so many D checks, the most exhaustive maintenance procedure needed every six to 10 years. Eventually, so many of the plane’s original parts are replaced, it stops being the plane it was when it left the factory. (For more of this philosophy, read up on the Ship of Theseus problem.)

There’s a certain level of ick here that also applies to Blood, Sweat & Tears, Quiet Riot, Ratt, GWAR (but who would notice with all that costuming?), Iron Butterfly, Canned Heat, Little River Band, Molly Hatchet, Sepultura, and the Spinners. There’s even a version of The Glenn Miller Orchestra (est. 1938) still playing gigs. All that we’re really left with are the logos and related IP.

Which brings me back to this “band vs. brand” debate. How long will fans continue to buy in? I predict it’ll get worse with AI, holograms, and avatars. T-shirts will still be sold, and there will be the usual meet n’ greets, special ticket packages, and all the other sundry offerings. There’s money to be made. Who cares if it’s the same band you grew up with?

Today, the band never has to break up, and no matter how many members leave or die, we’ll probably always be able to buy a ticket to the show.

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