Opeth is a strange one and I don't think it really counts. The band was still forming when the current leader of the band joined. Yeah if you're super technical then the band that formed didn't include him, but it seems like the "original" group hadn't even played any showed before Akerfelt joined.
In a bio that Akerfelt wrote he says that basically the band died the day he showed up to a rehearsal and later he and the original founder "reformed" Opeth, so it's debatable if it's a ship of thesius situation or a new ship with the same name.
Some of these are real stretches involving band names getting swapped around.
The original band called "Judas Priest" broke up entirely. KK Downing, and Ian Hill were in a band called Freight together. Al Atkins of the now-defunct Judas Priest joined Freight, and they decided the now-available name of Judas Priest was cooler. It was not the same band. Furthermore, before their first album was recorded Atkins was replaced with Halford, and Tipton also joined. So I would count Ian Hill, Rob Halford, and Glenn Tipton all as founding members.
Opeth is similar. The first Opeth before Ackerfeldt broke up without recording any albums.
I don't know about other bands but the bit about iron maiden is really stretched.
I guess if you consider the first lineup to be the one for their first concert in a bar's basement, alright. But if you take the first album, Dave Murray was already in the band and still is.
Napalm Death were formed in 1981, and were still developing their proper sound when drummer Mick Harris joined in late '85 and pushed their limits into what is now known as grindcore. That lineup recorded what became the side A of the first album, ‘Scum’. The last remaining original member, vocalist Nic Bullen, left after that, and the band cycled through several more changes, such that Harris is the only one present on the sides A and B of the album.
Harris was in the band for two more albums, leaving in '91 to form jazzcore band Painkiller with John Zorn and Bill Laswell. Napalm Death's lineup stabilized by that time and continues with the new drummer Danny Herrera to this day, with the exception of ditching the second guitarist and later adding another one.
Funny enough, Harris started a side-project Scorn with Nic Bullen right after leaving Napalm Death, and they originally played sort of industrial metal. Bullen again bailed in '95, whereupon Harris changed to industrial illbient, before releasing ‘Greetings from Birmingham’ in 2000, the sound of which might be familiar to everyone here. Except Londoners somehow reinvented basically the same sound a bit later, turning it into a genre of its own.
The same year '91, Harris was also a touring drummer for Godflesh, a project of Justin Broadrick who was the guitarist on the side A of ‘Scum’.
Could add Steely Dan to the “one member remaining” list. Donald Fagen is the only original member left and still tours with a backing band as Steely Dan.
Of the bands listed I've only ever listened to In Flames, and it makes a lot of sense. I liked Come Clarity and A Sense of Purpose, but the newer stuff is just mediocre.
The Ink Spots are an interesting case. They're a vocal group from the 30s. Not only did that group Theseus itself and then dissolve by the 50s, but afterward there were legal disputes. A bunch of the past members claimed rights to the name. Courts ultimately said 'nobody owns the name, you can all use it'. So anybody with any connection was going around performing as The Ink Spots, and those groups were also changing members. Over the decades there were probably multiple fully Theseus'd versions of the group going at the same time.
The women that left after the first album has been back in the band for over a decade and I had no idea. That's more time than she'd left for.
In 2012, Donaghy and her former colleagues Mutya Buena and Keisha Buchanan confirmed their reunion.
But they only got rights to the original band name in 2019
The original trio were not able to release music under the name Sugababes as it was still owned by the management company. They instead released music under the new name Mutya Keisha Siobhan, until they secured the legal rights to the Sugababes name again in 2019.
Complicated question. They rotate OG, later members. Sometimes it's all nonOG members. I think Gwar is meant to be an ensemble performance art experience rather than, say, Foreigner.
NotCSB I played a show with Gwar in 2000. Didn't wear a costume, just lame very 90s appropriate attire. We were HAMMERED. And no one took anything seriously.
Tangerine Dream, but that's kind of their whole thing to be a ship of theseus, always changing. None of the original members are still around. The current members were all born decades after the band was started.
Yes for a couple of decades was like the anti-Ship of Theseus. They would go on tour with everybody who had ever been in the band at any point. They even had Peter Banks (guitarist on their first two largely unknown albums) and The Buggles with them.
Actually kind of a cool concept as their studio albums used a lot of overdubbing which was impossible for single musicians on stage to reproduce. Having 17 guitarists means you can do it all.
ELO is an interesting case. Pinning down the original members is already a bit tricky, because the first album was really just a side project of The Move, before Roy Wood left to start Wizzard in the middle of doing their second album. If we're generous and say their third album was really their first as a seperate band, we end up with a group that's fairly static throughout the 70s and that most fans would call the classic lineup. the only two truly original members, though, were Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan, and everyone else in the and was technically considered an employee, which you can imagine led to all sorts of legal chaos
in the late 80s Jeff decided to shutter the band. Bev Bevan wanted to continue but Jeff considered himself synonymous with ELO being their writer, so eventually the two of them agreed to let Bev tour under the name ELO Part II with a lot of the members of the classic lineup. In the early 2000s, Jeff wanted in again but the "employees" thing and some legal trouble between him and Part II left him wanting to start fresh. No one knows the full story, but Bev, who was seemingly still enthusiastic about touring, suddenly decided to retire. Part II had to rebrand to The Orchestra, no longer having a The Move representative, but kept touring. Meanwhile Jeff did an album and a short tour with his new ELO, which had their classic keyboard player but The Orchestra had basically everyone else from the classic lineup. Jeff's ELO went dormant until 2015 where it went by the literal name of Jeff Lynne's ELO. Keyboard player Richard Tandy recently passed away, and with violinist Mik Kaminski retiring this year from the Orchestra, ELO has not one but two ships, one of which has been completely and thoroughly Theseused and the other just one plank away.
The Puerto Rican boy band Menudo from the 80s. Members are replaced once they hit puberty, Ricky Martin was one of its members. The group had 50 members in it's lifetime.
Kraftwerk has at one point or another not had each of its core members. The only original member now is Hütter, but he left the band briefly in the early 70s (when they were still doing psychedelic rock) so nobody has been in the band continuously. And even though they typically have 4 members, a total of 21 musicians has rotated through the group.
Idk if that quite counts, but it's close at least.
They did sing "wir sind die Roboter", and robots are replaceable, so I guess it's an appropriate band history. But, the output has still declined...
While Hütter was absent (to study architecture), Kraftwerk's lineup was basically Neu with Florian Schneider. There are a couple bootleg recordings of this lineup: ‘Ruck Zuck’ and ‘K4’, offering some Kraftwerk tunes being played by Neu.
Upon his return, Hütter promptly kicked out Rother and Dinger, and they formed Neu proper.
TBF, though, Kraftwerk is pretty much Ralf und Florian (hue hue) — starting way back with their proto-krautrock band Organisation.
That makes sense, I suppose the bootleg song Heavy Metal Kids was also from that proto-Neu period? Because as great as it is it's such a different aesthetic...
Btw what are your thoughts on early Kraftwerk/Organisation in general? Do you enjoy those albums? I found them wildly varying in quality, ranging from incredible to unlistenable...
Yeah, ‘Heavy Metal Kids’ was on ‘K4’, which is a recording from a Radio Bremen concert (with pretty good quality). The track names there are unofficial, afaik. Some of them could be variations on properly released tracks or those recorded on other bootlegs.
Frankly I myself amn't a fan of some early Hütter-led experiments, like the incredibly drawn out ‘Ruck Zuck’, which sounds interesting a couple times and is kinda meh after that. This particular track was reinterpreted by the different lineups, and Organisation's version is groovy, while Neu-Schneider's one is more hypnotic and at the same time raw in comparison.
It's very obvious that Kraftwerk were still looking for their proper sound back then. I'm due for a relisten of the first albums, but also am in no hurry to do that, as I never could find anything quite catching the ear. But completely dismissing them like Kraftwerk did is imo unwarranted, it's a document of the era. Also Dinger was bringing some energy to the music that they couldn't properly realize until Hütter was gone.
I’d say Kraftwerk was Ralf und Florian initially, but I’d suggest Karl became an essential member from The Man Machine onwards.
Ralf and Florian weren’t ones to give any credit unless credit is due, and Karl’s name is all over many of their best songs and composed many of their most famous melodies.
I find Kraftwerk post-Karl way too sterile and Karl post-Kraftwerk too unrefined. I think Ralf and Karl really complemented each other in terms of composition and production.
The allegations are literally the only reason I had any idea that the band is still ongoing (and that all the members has swapped out, several times apparently).
Apparently many versions of the songs exist (or have existed) as parts of songs were also re-recorded as members joined and left over the many years it took to finish the album. In itself a ship of theseus album.
The Drifters ("Under the Boardwalk," "Save the Last Dance for Me," "This Magic Moment") have been more of a product than a band since the mid-1950s, when manager George Treadwell bought the name. Since then, there have been several incarnations of the Drifters with different lineups, and at times, different lineups have toured under the name at the same time.
The Drifters had three "golden" periods: the early 1950s, the 1960s, and the early 1970s (after the Atlantic label period).
The lineup included more than 60 musicians in total. Nevertheless, the band is in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame - with different lineups:
The first lineup (founded by Clyde McPhatter) and the second lineup (with Ben E. King) were inducted separately into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame - once as "The Drifters" and once as "Ben E. King and the Drifters."
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee package includes members from several incarnations: four from the first lineup (Clyde McPhatter, Bill Pinkney, Gerhart Thrasher, Johnny Moore), two from the second (Ben E. King, Charlie Thomas), and one from the post-Atlantic phase (Rudy Lewis).
Glenn Miller Orchestra was formed a while after Glenn Miller (of "Glenn Miller and his orchestra"-fame) disappeared in 1942. The new band was more or less a continuation of the old band, with some overlap in members. They're still active today.
IIRC, the intention was for Deep Purple to continuously have members come and go, effectively making them a Band of Theseus. However, there was one lineup that was a lot more successful and famous, so changing the lineup would be detrimental to success.
Same thing happened to Save Ferris and the Mad Caddies. The singers turned out to be massive douchebags (Monique Powell is incredibly egotistical and controlling, meanwhile Chuck Robertson went full MAGA) and all the members got sick of them, quit, and were replaced with sessionists.
Velvet Underground's last album Sqeeze is basically a Doug Yule solo album and made without any original members. Yule joined the band about halfway through its existence. For that reason many don't consider it part of the band's catalog. Personally, I think the album gets unfairly judged. It's pretty good, just not on par with Lou Reed's work, but what is?
Biritish girlgroup the Sugababes from the 2000s were replaced one by one. And in a Thomas Hobbes Ship of Theseus expansion pack twist, the original three members got back together again.
Tangential, but I this made me realize I honestly don't know the member names of most of the bands I listen to. I kinda know their faces if they have videos.
Tull comes close. Anderson at one point said the band was over without barre but he reformed the band this millenia without him so at this point he is the only one who has always been with the band and indeed many people think his name is jethro tull. The band has had a crazy amount of turnover even early in its career and a crazy amount of ex members in other well known bands. Heck in the first or second studio album there is a song about members that left the band before its success. The 20 year album had a little flow chart of band members who ended up in other groups.
I'd bet a bunch of vocal groups from the early days of vinyl would fall into this group. They're probably mostly in Las Vegas and Branson these days.
As a personal memory, I played a few gigs with The Diamonds(most known for their hit 1957 record "Little Darlin'") back in the early 2000s. They were having a bit of a resurgence after a PBS series aired.
At one point the original bass singer was back, but he wasn't long for this earth and somebody else was in his place by the second tour I did.
Blood Sweat & Tears had like 200 members, my dad knew one of the founding members and went to one of their concerts a couple years back. Got to talk to them after the show and not one of them had even heard of the guy. Feels like the ultimate example of this
There is a local band called "Bläck Fööss" who were founded in 1970. They made the complete rebuild about one and a half times, and are still successful.
Does Skid Row count? The original band saw people come and go all the time, to the point that nobody really knew who was a member at that point. In 1987, Gary Moore, who hadn't been a member anymore, actually "sold" the name to a US band. The last original member still disputes the sale. So, you have two bands with the same name, with the original band had members replaced multiple times, with even the last remaining original member leaving and rejoining twice.
Going off first recordings/releases, Scottish hardcore punks 'The Exploited' only remaining member is Wattie (singer). Going by initial formation and first live shows, none of the 'first' members remain.
Neal Schon, the guitarist, is the only one who's been in the band constantly since the start. Until very recently they still had a couple (Ross Valory & Jonathan Cain) who played in the heyday.
Gong also weirdly started some spinoff projects that had nothing to do with the original band except for some involvement of Daevid Allen in their formation. In particular, the ‘Zu Band’ organized by Giorgio Gomelsky became New York Gong for a performance at Zu Manifestival, joined by Allen and his colleague Chris Cutler. Allen went back to Europe soon after, while the band toured North America playing Gong's stuff, and then were on tour in France for two months, discovering that “they couldn't stand the European way of life” and parting ways with Allen.
The band then became Material, members of which were involved in NYC's 'downtown scene', and which launched decades-long and very productive careers of producers Bill Laswell and Michael Beinhorn, musicians Fred Maher and Mark Kramer, and engineer Martin Bisi. Particularly, Laswell and Beinhorn are known for producing Herbie Hancock's ‘Future Shock’ album and ‘Rockit’ single (the latter almost entirely made by them), Timezone's ‘World Destruction’, Public Image Ltd.'s ‘Album’, and Material's own ‘Seven Souls’ with William S. Burroughs — aside from Laswell's over two hundred releases centered on his bass guitar.
The Swingin’ Medallions have had a rotating group for most of their career, but Wikipedia does say that the drummer, Joe Morris, has been consistently with them since ’62. So I guess they’ve only had one. And they were still performing last year.
Pretty sure the Village People are not the original crew. Also it would be surprising if it were, considering their participation at Trump inauguration.
The guy who wrote YMCA & still performs as the cop in the VP is a HUGE trump fan and maga assholes. Also claims the band/song is not a gay anthem. I'm not fucking kidding. They're all fucking delusional.
The Hype Williams duo made some great hypnagogic pop in 2010-12, and then stopped. Then in 2016 it turned out that they handed the project over to some completely different people, who released two or three more albums since then. These new releases suck in comparison.
None of the current lineup of The Ventures is original, kinda far from it at this point. And Pretenders only has Chrissie Hynde remaining at this point
The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra
Any Orchestra then really (of any substantial age).
If we are going that route:
Royal Danish Orchestra: The orchestra traces its origins back to 1448
Naw, I think a few of the original members are still there
Lynyrd Skynyrd's last original member died in 2023 and they're still touring.
And half that band half already died almost 50 years ago.
Saddest one, imo.
Skynyrd ain't been Skynyrd since the plane crash.
The search results are interesting, but I haven't heard of half the bands:
Bands with No Original Members
Bands with Only One Original Member Left (Often Considered "One-Member" Bands)
Is this AI slop? Because it's certainly wrong.
Rob Halfords left in the late 90s but returned in the 00s and is still the frontman.
According to Wikipedia, the band formed in 69 and the earliest a current member joined was 70 (Ian Hill). Halfords didn't join until 73.
TIL. That all happened before their first album though. Not sure I'd count that.
Yeah, same for Opeth, Mikael is Opeth for all intents and purposes, him joining a few months after the band's inception is irrelevant.
I'm so glad to find other people (besides at an Opeth show) who know Opeth.
Founding members are those who founded the band, who are (potentially) different from anyone on any record.
Although Judas Priest's case is special, according to a comment below.
Opeth is a strange one and I don't think it really counts. The band was still forming when the current leader of the band joined. Yeah if you're super technical then the band that formed didn't include him, but it seems like the "original" group hadn't even played any showed before Akerfelt joined.
In a bio that Akerfelt wrote he says that basically the band died the day he showed up to a rehearsal and later he and the original founder "reformed" Opeth, so it's debatable if it's a ship of thesius situation or a new ship with the same name.
Some of these are real stretches involving band names getting swapped around.
The original band called "Judas Priest" broke up entirely. KK Downing, and Ian Hill were in a band called Freight together. Al Atkins of the now-defunct Judas Priest joined Freight, and they decided the now-available name of Judas Priest was cooler. It was not the same band. Furthermore, before their first album was recorded Atkins was replaced with Halford, and Tipton also joined. So I would count Ian Hill, Rob Halford, and Glenn Tipton all as founding members.
Opeth is similar. The first Opeth before Ackerfeldt broke up without recording any albums.
This is technically true, but Yes does still have Steve Howe who was the guitarist on their first hit album ("The Yes Album" in 1971).
I don't know about other bands but the bit about iron maiden is really stretched.
I guess if you consider the first lineup to be the one for their first concert in a bar's basement, alright. But if you take the first album, Dave Murray was already in the band and still is.
Napalm Death were formed in 1981, and were still developing their proper sound when drummer Mick Harris joined in late '85 and pushed their limits into what is now known as grindcore. That lineup recorded what became the side A of the first album, ‘Scum’. The last remaining original member, vocalist Nic Bullen, left after that, and the band cycled through several more changes, such that Harris is the only one present on the sides A and B of the album.
Harris was in the band for two more albums, leaving in '91 to form jazzcore band Painkiller with John Zorn and Bill Laswell. Napalm Death's lineup stabilized by that time and continues with the new drummer Danny Herrera to this day, with the exception of ditching the second guitarist and later adding another one.
Funny enough, Harris started a side-project Scorn with Nic Bullen right after leaving Napalm Death, and they originally played sort of industrial metal. Bullen again bailed in '95, whereupon Harris changed to industrial illbient, before releasing ‘Greetings from Birmingham’ in 2000, the sound of which might be familiar to everyone here. Except Londoners somehow reinvented basically the same sound a bit later, turning it into a genre of its own.
The same year '91, Harris was also a touring drummer for Godflesh, a project of Justin Broadrick who was the guitarist on the side A of ‘Scum’.
Napalm Death was what popped up first in my mind. I remember it being a bit weird at the time with a band that swapped every single member.
Could add Steely Dan to the “one member remaining” list. Donald Fagen is the only original member left and still tours with a backing band as Steely Dan.
Of the bands listed I've only ever listened to In Flames, and it makes a lot of sense. I liked Come Clarity and A Sense of Purpose, but the newer stuff is just mediocre.
Wait. Judas Priest for sure has at least Raford
Oh, man. I've totally heard of over half of these bands.
Jinjer is still awesome!
The Ink Spots are an interesting case. They're a vocal group from the 30s. Not only did that group Theseus itself and then dissolve by the 50s, but afterward there were legal disputes. A bunch of the past members claimed rights to the name. Courts ultimately said 'nobody owns the name, you can all use it'. So anybody with any connection was going around performing as The Ink Spots, and those groups were also changing members. Over the decades there were probably multiple fully Theseus'd versions of the group going at the same time.
Andrew Hickey has a good podcast episode on it that you can listen to/read. https://500songs.com/podcast/the-ink-spots-thats-when-your-heartaches-begin/
I never knew bands could reproduce by mitosis.
I don't want to set the world on fiiiire.
Sugababes in the UK.
At one point all the original members were replaced.
Then in 2011 the new members were replaced by the originals again.
The women that left after the first album has been back in the band for over a decade and I had no idea. That's more time than she'd left for.
But they only got rights to the original band name in 2019
Are any original Gwar members still there?
Balsac has been consistent. Debatable depending on your definition of original but it's been the same guy for a long time.
Complicated question. They rotate OG, later members. Sometimes it's all nonOG members. I think Gwar is meant to be an ensemble performance art experience rather than, say, Foreigner. NotCSB I played a show with Gwar in 2000. Didn't wear a costume, just lame very 90s appropriate attire. We were HAMMERED. And no one took anything seriously.
Tangerine Dream, but that's kind of their whole thing to be a ship of theseus, always changing. None of the original members are still around. The current members were all born decades after the band was started.
Yes for a couple of decades was like the anti-Ship of Theseus. They would go on tour with everybody who had ever been in the band at any point. They even had Peter Banks (guitarist on their first two largely unknown albums) and The Buggles with them.
Actually kind of a cool concept as their studio albums used a lot of overdubbing which was impossible for single musicians on stage to reproduce. Having 17 guitarists means you can do it all.
there's a metal band called Zao that's been around for ages and have had all members replaced. they wrote a song (called ship of Theseus) about it.
I just listened to them for the first time in like a decade this past weekend, great band in the aughts but I haven't heard any newer stuff
ELO is an interesting case. Pinning down the original members is already a bit tricky, because the first album was really just a side project of The Move, before Roy Wood left to start Wizzard in the middle of doing their second album. If we're generous and say their third album was really their first as a seperate band, we end up with a group that's fairly static throughout the 70s and that most fans would call the classic lineup. the only two truly original members, though, were Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan, and everyone else in the and was technically considered an employee, which you can imagine led to all sorts of legal chaos
in the late 80s Jeff decided to shutter the band. Bev Bevan wanted to continue but Jeff considered himself synonymous with ELO being their writer, so eventually the two of them agreed to let Bev tour under the name ELO Part II with a lot of the members of the classic lineup. In the early 2000s, Jeff wanted in again but the "employees" thing and some legal trouble between him and Part II left him wanting to start fresh. No one knows the full story, but Bev, who was seemingly still enthusiastic about touring, suddenly decided to retire. Part II had to rebrand to The Orchestra, no longer having a The Move representative, but kept touring. Meanwhile Jeff did an album and a short tour with his new ELO, which had their classic keyboard player but The Orchestra had basically everyone else from the classic lineup. Jeff's ELO went dormant until 2015 where it went by the literal name of Jeff Lynne's ELO. Keyboard player Richard Tandy recently passed away, and with violinist Mik Kaminski retiring this year from the Orchestra, ELO has not one but two ships, one of which has been completely and thoroughly Theseused and the other just one plank away.
Are there any original members of Ghost?
Iirc the nameless ghouls wear masks for this exact purpose
And the singer is a big douchebag.
it’s always been the same frontman so yea
:3
Lol this is a good one
The Puerto Rican boy band Menudo from the 80s. Members are replaced once they hit puberty, Ricky Martin was one of its members. The group had 50 members in it's lifetime.
Kraftwerk has at one point or another not had each of its core members. The only original member now is Hütter, but he left the band briefly in the early 70s (when they were still doing psychedelic rock) so nobody has been in the band continuously. And even though they typically have 4 members, a total of 21 musicians has rotated through the group.
Idk if that quite counts, but it's close at least.
They did sing "wir sind die Roboter", and robots are replaceable, so I guess it's an appropriate band history. But, the output has still declined...
While Hütter was absent (to study architecture), Kraftwerk's lineup was basically Neu with Florian Schneider. There are a couple bootleg recordings of this lineup: ‘Ruck Zuck’ and ‘K4’, offering some Kraftwerk tunes being played by Neu.
Upon his return, Hütter promptly kicked out Rother and Dinger, and they formed Neu proper.
TBF, though, Kraftwerk is pretty much Ralf und Florian (hue hue) — starting way back with their proto-krautrock band Organisation.
That makes sense, I suppose the bootleg song Heavy Metal Kids was also from that proto-Neu period? Because as great as it is it's such a different aesthetic...
Btw what are your thoughts on early Kraftwerk/Organisation in general? Do you enjoy those albums? I found them wildly varying in quality, ranging from incredible to unlistenable...
Yeah, ‘Heavy Metal Kids’ was on ‘K4’, which is a recording from a Radio Bremen concert (with pretty good quality). The track names there are unofficial, afaik. Some of them could be variations on properly released tracks or those recorded on other bootlegs.
Frankly I myself amn't a fan of some early Hütter-led experiments, like the incredibly drawn out ‘Ruck Zuck’, which sounds interesting a couple times and is kinda meh after that. This particular track was reinterpreted by the different lineups, and Organisation's version is groovy, while Neu-Schneider's one is more hypnotic and at the same time raw in comparison.
It's very obvious that Kraftwerk were still looking for their proper sound back then. I'm due for a relisten of the first albums, but also am in no hurry to do that, as I never could find anything quite catching the ear. But completely dismissing them like Kraftwerk did is imo unwarranted, it's a document of the era. Also Dinger was bringing some energy to the music that they couldn't properly realize until Hütter was gone.
I’d say Kraftwerk was Ralf und Florian initially, but I’d suggest Karl became an essential member from The Man Machine onwards.
Ralf and Florian weren’t ones to give any credit unless credit is due, and Karl’s name is all over many of their best songs and composed many of their most famous melodies.
I find Kraftwerk post-Karl way too sterile and Karl post-Kraftwerk too unrefined. I think Ralf and Karl really complemented each other in terms of composition and production.
Hmmm, interesting, I need to check out the credits.
Newsboys, a major Christian rock band founded in 1985. All original members have been replaced.
Their most-recent lead singer, formerly of DC Talk, turned out to be a super rapey POS.
I just read up on it, and wow, yeah, the stories about Tait are pretty repey. It's pitiful in several ways.
The allegations are literally the only reason I had any idea that the band is still ongoing (and that all the members has swapped out, several times apparently).
I used to follow them back in the 90s. The lead singer then left due to drug and alcohol problems.
Menudo? Journey?
Journey was the one that prompted this question 😆
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Journey_band_members
Neal Schon has been around through their history no?
I think they still have one member who's been there from the beginning (Neal Schon). But they are getting really close to meeting OP's criteria.
EVERY Japanese girl band... Morning Musume, AKB48, etc...
Babymetal?
IIRC that was the plan, but it turns out worldwide metal audiences don't really work that way.
Not up to date personally, but I feel like at one point Guns n' Roses was just Axl and all different musicians
Yes, that's because it was. The album Chinese Democracy was basically a solo project by Axl.
Apparently many versions of the songs exist (or have existed) as parts of songs were also re-recorded as members joined and left over the many years it took to finish the album. In itself a ship of theseus album.
Certain irony in that, given Matthew Sorum's involvement successfully lobbying Beijing for animal rights reforms.
The Drifters ("Under the Boardwalk," "Save the Last Dance for Me," "This Magic Moment") have been more of a product than a band since the mid-1950s, when manager George Treadwell bought the name. Since then, there have been several incarnations of the Drifters with different lineups, and at times, different lineups have toured under the name at the same time.
The Drifters had three "golden" periods: the early 1950s, the 1960s, and the early 1970s (after the Atlantic label period).
The lineup included more than 60 musicians in total. Nevertheless, the band is in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame - with different lineups:
The first lineup (founded by Clyde McPhatter) and the second lineup (with Ben E. King) were inducted separately into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame - once as "The Drifters" and once as "Ben E. King and the Drifters."
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee package includes members from several incarnations: four from the first lineup (Clyde McPhatter, Bill Pinkney, Gerhart Thrasher, Johnny Moore), two from the second (Ben E. King, Charlie Thomas), and one from the post-Atlantic phase (Rudy Lewis).
Glenn Miller Orchestra was formed a while after Glenn Miller (of "Glenn Miller and his orchestra"-fame) disappeared in 1942. The new band was more or less a continuation of the old band, with some overlap in members. They're still active today.
IIRC, the intention was for Deep Purple to continuously have members come and go, effectively making them a Band of Theseus. However, there was one lineup that was a lot more successful and famous, so changing the lineup would be detrimental to success.
Technically "Panic! at the Disco", if you can count every band member except the singer leaving, and being replaced by sessionists
you must have different definition of "all" than I
EDIT: I cannot read
I fully misread 😭
It turns out it was I who misread
😲
Same thing happened to Save Ferris and the Mad Caddies. The singers turned out to be massive douchebags (Monique Powell is incredibly egotistical and controlling, meanwhile Chuck Robertson went full MAGA) and all the members got sick of them, quit, and were replaced with sessionists.
From what I've heard this was amicable, and also the bassist did a career change, and he's now the manager
So, not "technically" at all (see my user name)
Richmond, VA has a few of these. the most famous one is GWAR
Velvet Underground's last album Sqeeze is basically a Doug Yule solo album and made without any original members. Yule joined the band about halfway through its existence. For that reason many don't consider it part of the band's catalog. Personally, I think the album gets unfairly judged. It's pretty good, just not on par with Lou Reed's work, but what is?
I'm outing myself, but La Bottine Souriante is a Quebec/French Canadian folk band who's founding member are all no longer current members.
A quick web search revealed there are far more than I imagined.
The Cat Empire, but they still rock.
I don’t know if all are replaced but a lot. And it’s fine, they make new music which is still fun.
With days like these, I need to start listening to them again
Biritish girlgroup the Sugababes from the 2000s were replaced one by one. And in a Thomas Hobbes Ship of Theseus expansion pack twist, the original three members got back together again.
Then the original trio regained the name!
Tangential, but I this made me realize I honestly don't know the member names of most of the bands I listen to. I kinda know their faces if they have videos.
Whats the one where they are blue, wasn't the point so that members can change with little notice?
Blue Man Group?
yeah, never remember names of bands. Youd think that one would be easy to remember....
I feel like it’s less of a band and more of a performance group, though
fair enough they aren't known for any particular song more so then thier art performances.
Tull comes close. Anderson at one point said the band was over without barre but he reformed the band this millenia without him so at this point he is the only one who has always been with the band and indeed many people think his name is jethro tull. The band has had a crazy amount of turnover even early in its career and a crazy amount of ex members in other well known bands. Heck in the first or second studio album there is a song about members that left the band before its success. The 20 year album had a little flow chart of band members who ended up in other groups.
I'd bet a bunch of vocal groups from the early days of vinyl would fall into this group. They're probably mostly in Las Vegas and Branson these days.
As a personal memory, I played a few gigs with The Diamonds(most known for their hit 1957 record "Little Darlin'") back in the early 2000s. They were having a bit of a resurgence after a PBS series aired. At one point the original bass singer was back, but he wasn't long for this earth and somebody else was in his place by the second tour I did.
Blood Sweat & Tears had like 200 members, my dad knew one of the founding members and went to one of their concerts a couple years back. Got to talk to them after the show and not one of them had even heard of the guy. Feels like the ultimate example of this
A lot of k-pop boy/girl bands have rotating members that can age out and be replaced.
I don't think Chicago has anyone original left...?
There is a local band called "Bläck Fööss" who were founded in 1970. They made the complete rebuild about one and a half times, and are still successful.
The Wiggles only have Anthony as an original member.
That cant go on much longer, dudes sounding rough these days...
Spooky Tooth’s 1970 album “The Last Puff” has no performers in common with their 1974 album “The Mirror”.
The band Foreigner’s only constant member is Mick Jones (incidentally also from Spooky Tooth), but he was absent from some modern tours.
I think Yes also had a period in which there were no commonalities with the original lineup.
Does Skid Row count? The original band saw people come and go all the time, to the point that nobody really knew who was a member at that point. In 1987, Gary Moore, who hadn't been a member anymore, actually "sold" the name to a US band. The last original member still disputes the sale. So, you have two bands with the same name, with the original band had members replaced multiple times, with even the last remaining original member leaving and rejoining twice.
Napalm Death though the current line-up has been the same since their third album with sad exemption of Jesse Pintado who passed away in 2006.
I think "The Skatalites" qualify, simply out of the age of the band.
Hawkwind has been going so long it's basically an institution. Fuck knows how Dave Brock is still going
Going off first recordings/releases, Scottish hardcore punks 'The Exploited' only remaining member is Wattie (singer). Going by initial formation and first live shows, none of the 'first' members remain.
I like to joke that Equilibrium had more member changes than the contestant field of a casting show.
napalm death had this happen on their debut album. first side is one group of guys, second side is a completely different group, except the drummer
Yes
Surely The Wiggles have done it by now.
Journey apparently only has one original member left. I mention them because I remember them having a lot of turnover.
And they still sound as awesome now as they originally did.
Neal Schon, the guitarist, is the only one who's been in the band constantly since the start. Until very recently they still had a couple (Ross Valory & Jonathan Cain) who played in the heyday.
Dr Feelgood was a band where this happened
Little River Band
It's a tragedy really
Well, not completely Theseus'd, but Andrew Stockdale is the only continuous member of Wolfmother!
Journey?
Any originals left in that band?
Steve Perry wasn't even the first vocalist.
Sugar Babes, but somehow they are back to the original trio :)
I wanna say Lorna Shore? It's been a hot minute, but I'm pretty sure all of the original members of the band have left.
I used to play with them back in the firehouse/basement show days when they were doing songs about world of Warcraft and shit lol
Is anyone left from original Deep Purple?
Looks like Ian Paice has been consistent
Asking Alexandria, now that Ben Bruce has finally pulled the pin.
Gong
Gong also weirdly started some spinoff projects that had nothing to do with the original band except for some involvement of Daevid Allen in their formation. In particular, the ‘Zu Band’ organized by Giorgio Gomelsky became New York Gong for a performance at Zu Manifestival, joined by Allen and his colleague Chris Cutler. Allen went back to Europe soon after, while the band toured North America playing Gong's stuff, and then were on tour in France for two months, discovering that “they couldn't stand the European way of life” and parting ways with Allen.
The band then became Material, members of which were involved in NYC's 'downtown scene', and which launched decades-long and very productive careers of producers Bill Laswell and Michael Beinhorn, musicians Fred Maher and Mark Kramer, and engineer Martin Bisi. Particularly, Laswell and Beinhorn are known for producing Herbie Hancock's ‘Future Shock’ album and ‘Rockit’ single (the latter almost entirely made by them), Timezone's ‘World Destruction’, Public Image Ltd.'s ‘Album’, and Material's own ‘Seven Souls’ with William S. Burroughs — aside from Laswell's over two hundred releases centered on his bass guitar.
Foreigner
Queens of the Stone Age would count except for Josh Homme
so no
3 doors down if they replace the lead
so no
The Swingin’ Medallions have had a rotating group for most of their career, but Wikipedia does say that the drummer, Joe Morris, has been consistently with them since ’62. So I guess they’ve only had one. And they were still performing last year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidevolk, damn shame tho, I liked their pre 2013 work better
Pretty sure the Village People are not the original crew. Also it would be surprising if it were, considering their participation at Trump inauguration.
The guy who wrote YMCA & still performs as the cop in the VP is a HUGE trump fan and maga assholes. Also claims the band/song is not a gay anthem. I'm not fucking kidding. They're all fucking delusional.
Oof, ty for the info
The Hype Williams duo made some great hypnagogic pop in 2010-12, and then stopped. Then in 2016 it turned out that they handed the project over to some completely different people, who released two or three more albums since then. These new releases suck in comparison.
None of the current lineup of The Ventures is original, kinda far from it at this point. And Pretenders only has Chrissie Hynde remaining at this point
Gong: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gong_%28band%29?wprov=sfla1