5 European bands that (fortunately) changed their names
January 23, 2018
In 1956, no one knew yet who John Lennon was. But he had high ambitions. At the tender age of 16, Lennon gave up studying guitar because it was too theoretical, and let his mother show him how to play the banjo instead. That same year, with only a few chords in his repertoire, Lennon founded the band The Quarrymen with friends who were musically even more inexperienced than him.
The name The Quarrymen was a tribute to the school song that celebrated hard working local laborers. They performed as a skiffle band, playing on washboards or bowls with thimbles, and appeared at music contests, school balls, or in jazz dive bars where they did Elvis Presley covers.
The first turning point for The Quarrymen was in 1957, when the band got to know a young musician after a concert, Paul McCartney. He was only 15 years old, but the son of a trumpeter and pianist was insanely musical. He impressed John Lennon. The two were on the same wavelength.
Name changes come with success
When 15-year-old George Harrison, a friend of McCartney, joined the band in 1958, the fate of the group was sealed. But the better they got, the less they liked their name. In 1960 the "Quarrymen" became the "Beatles," a name which soon was known to the whole world.
Which other famous bands were named differently in their early years? You can find out in our High Five above.