Biography
They came from the four corners of the known universe… Scotscalder, Hull , Forres and Skegness, looking for a champion with whom they could unleash the unholy power of a back-catalogue spanning 20 years of pent-up, vinyl-trousered rock.
They found him…
He was from Musselburgh,
And he supported Hibs…
The beginnings of Bad Name came about in 2002 when Gav (Guitars/talk-box/vocals) placed an advert on a University notice board advertising for, well… the rest of a Jovi tribute band really. News of the ad soon spread to Wayne, (Keyboards/backing vocals) a fan who had been attempting to set up a Jovi tribute act since 1998 with no success. It prompted him to make perhaps the only sojourn out of the Student Union café in all his time at University. Taking down the contact details and rushing home, Wayne gave Gav a bell, who was delighted to tell him to go outside and play hide-and-go-****-himself as they already had a keyboard player.
Two weeks and a suspicious looking accident later had things back on track as Gav reconsidered, calling Wayne to set-up the first meeting along with Andrew, a Ceidilh drummer, who was never seen again afterwards. This set the precedent for the standard of reliability in a drummer the band have come to expect… Oh how we laugh, let me tell you.
Phil joined shortly afterwards on the Bass and a young Rob, complete with authentic Jon tattoos took the mic. Sadly there followed a succession of comedy drummers, the likes of which will surely pass into folklore, immortalised in some twisted band-related urban myth. To prevent being sued for defamation of character Due to our strict moral ethos we won’t share the specifics of the many colourful characters we’ve had behind the kit… but let’s just say that the phrase “drummer audition” elicits nervous twitching / parasuicidal activity from all.
Gav then used underhand tactics to recruit his brother Nick, an exceptionally talented drummer who was on the run from a sniper and seeking refuge (no, I’m not joking, there’s a story). Things were going well for a while but the demands of regular long-haul trips from hull in his last uni year soon took their toll and we sadly had to start looking closer to home for a mighty stick-monkey.
We owe the arrival of Ross behind the mic to a mystery music journalist, who obviously having nothing salient to write about took pity on our plethora of internet ads and included the details of them in his column. We were most spooked out when Ross produced the ad at our first meeting, but rallied well, nodding sagely and pretending we had the forethought to place details in the paper .
Anyway, whoever the mystery X-files style informant was then we owe him much thanks and many drinks.
Ross, also a fanatical fan, brought with him a wealth of vocal talent the like of which the band had never encountered. His vocal range stood him head and shoulders above the many that had previously auditioned , nailing song after song that had previously proved insurmountable.
Things were starting to look bleak, with yet more comedy drummer auditions; people turning up without learning stuff...people just plain not turning up.... certain people turning up in bright pink shirts and sandals demanding that we change to a rush tribute, all that kind of bag.
Nick has been more than happy to help us out with gigs until we can find a reliable stick-monkey... there has to be one out there!!
A full band once again, the gigs have started... and we are finally ready to put on a show!
The only saga that has run on longer than trying to appoint a drummer is that of the band name… it’s taken 4 years to settle on “Bad Name”, and the topic has resulted in many, many lost hours of thought/arguments/puns that deserved to die.
Some of the worst of the suggestions included:
69 in the shade --- vetoed by Gav in case his parents came to see us… somewhat hypocritically since he wears a copy of Richie’s jeans featuring a girl eating a lolly in a highly questionable fashion and “F*** Me” written in huge red letters on them.
Slippery Quintet: (Thanks to Iain for this one) Vetoed on the grounds that it sounded too clever… we can’t be having that now, can we?
Always Ultra: (courtesy of Charlene) This is what happens when you ask women for band name suggestions… classy.
Livin’ on a prairie (Chris) It was at this point we decided to start beating people.
Who Said You Can’t Go Home? --- A moniker that served the purpose of pre-empting hecklers… but also wouldn’t fit onto a flyer too easily.
You Give Us a Band Name --- Yes, we seriously had sunk that far for a while, it may have stuck… but knowing Edinburgh audiences they would have risen to the challenge… and it might not have been complimentary.