WHAT’S WITH THE BAND NAME?

Ace of Base named after the band’s first studio, located in the basement of a car repair shop. They considered themselves the ‘aces’ of the studio …

The Beautiful South the name sarcastically expressed singer Paul Heaton’s dislike of southern England, and was also a cheeky way to force macho men to say the word ‘beautiful’.

Bee Gees often said (falsely) to be a contraction of ‘Brothers Gibb’, the name is actually a reference to the initials of Bill Goode and disc jockey Bill Gates, who helped the group in their early days.

Coldplay originally called Starfish, the band asked to use the name when another band – named Coldplay – disbanded.

The Cure called Easy Cure at first (the name of an early song), then changed to The Cure because Robert Smith felt it sounded less American and ‘hippyish’.

Duran Duran after playing at Barbarella’s nightclub in Birmingham, the band named themselves after Dr Durand-Durand, villain of sci-fi film Barbarella.

Green Day originally called Sweet Children, the band changed its name to avoid confusion with another band named Sweet Children. The band got their new name from a song by Billie Joe Armstrong entitled ‘Green Day’, a slang term for a day spent smoking marijuana.

Joy Division originally Warsaw but, worried about being confused with punk band Warsaw Pakt, renamed as Joy Division in reference to the prostitution wing of a Nazi concentration camp in 1955 novel The House of Dolls.

Kaiser Chiefs after the South African Kaizer Chiefs Football Club.

Marillion originally Silmarillion, after the J. R. R. Tolkien novel of the same name, but soon shortened to avoid possible legal issues.

Oasis originally The Rain, but renamed when Liam Gallagher joined the band. Inspired by an Inspiral Carpets tour poster – one of the venues listed was the Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon.

Pink Floyd Syd Barrett devised the name, which refers to two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

Radiohead the band’s label did not like their first name – On A Friday – and gave them two weeks to come up with something better. The result is a reference to ‘Radio Head’, the 1986 Talking Heads song from the album True Stories.

Steely Dan named after a dildo in William S. Burroughs’ novel Naked Lunch.