I’m going to leave the band name out of this story. I’m 99% sure I remember it correctly, but
since I can’t find the original source, I don’t want to risk the error.
Probably close to 20 years ago, I saw a story about some of
the old vocal groups from the 50s and 60s who have had their names taken from
them and given to other people. The
story focused on one band in particular who actually sued in order to be able
to perform under the name that they had created decades before, and they
lost. See, at the time, copyrights and
trademarks were owned by the management companies or record companies, and the
bands themselves didn’t always (or even usually) own their own songs and
name. So when they broke up, the
trademark was eventually sold to someone else, and that person put together a
group of completely different people and toured them as though they were the
original group.
My understanding is that things have improved for artists
greatly since then, but then again, it wasn’t too long ago when Prince had to
forgo using his birth name (his actual name is Prince – that’s not a stage name)
and had to use a symbol because his record company “owned” the name his mother
gave him. So maybe we still have a
little ways to go.
Song: “Love was Stronger”
