So Called Supergroups

The Problem With So Called ‘Supergroups’ Is That They Are Very Rarely ‘Super’! How many times over the years has there been a press release for a new ‘Supergroup’ and everyone gets all excited and over estimates the reality of the ‘new’ band. Everything is against the new Supergroup...

They are already successful (no drive), they are bitter after the break-up of their previous successful band (bitter), they have made their name over the years writing ground-breaking classics (all dried up now), they are older and wiser (past it), they all have fantastic egos and will want to dominate proceedings (see break up of their previous bands…), treat the whole thing as a side-project (half-arsed) and so on.

Of course I generalise but this is so often the case. The most successful Supergroups are usually well known bands in the first place, whose frontman or guitarist has kicked everyone else out of the band and replaced them with new and improved models. Whitesnake from the mid 80’s to the present, is indeed a Supergroup and indeed ‘Super’. The only member of the original Whitesnake is Uncle Cov himself and the rest of the contributors are from other successful bands (if not more so). In my book, having members who have played major roles with Ozzy, Quiet Riot, Dio, Thin Lizzy, Dave Lee Roth, Frank Zappa, Alcatraz, Ratt, Winger, Dokken and Heart to name but a few, would suggest the formation of a Supergroup – which is isn’t, it’s just Whitesnake, because almost everything changed but the name.

Many Supergroups are hugely speculated about by the press but never even happen because the new ‘project’ will never take priority over other little things in their lives like Van Halen or Journey for example.

A real Supergroup needs to have a new name and some famous members of which one of them frequently isn’t – examples are Velvet Revolver, Audioslave, Cream, Bad English, Mr.Big, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Blind Faith, Blue Murder, The Mob, Down, Super Super Blues Band, Bad Company, Wings, ELP, Primal Scream, Journey, Oysterhead, Asia, The Firm, Power Station, Damn Yankees, The Highwaymen, Temple Of The Dog, Traveling Wilburys, Neurotic Outsiders, A Perfect Circle, Liquid Tension Experiment, Transatlantic, Zwan and many others.

So how many of the above are really ‘Super’ like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Deep Purple, Metallica etc. Well everyone knows that Velvet Revolver is all hype and their first album was weak at best, the second a flop. Bizarrely the first album also shared the same name with a truly awful Supergroup – ‘Contraband’. Audioslave had their moments but are essentially dull – Revelations exceptionally so. Few dare to mention Wings in the same breath as The Beatles. Many would say that Cream were on the nail. But Cream were probably the pioneers of the term in question anyway, so they bloody well needed to be ‘Super’. Many of the above and others not mentioned, all had varying degrees of success - ELP were huge, Bad Company, Bad English and Power Station were huge for a time, The Mob didn’t even have time for a cup of tea, others just keep on fizzling or fizzled away. We won’t even discuss Supernova.

For me, the band that stood out was Mr. Big. They always sounded like a real band that was very super. The original line-up with the extraordinary Paul Gilbert on guitar, made 4 majestic albums, toured the world, had a US No. 1 and when they got in the zone like a Supergroup should – they were spectacular. My fondest memory of seeing them live, was at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1991. My brother Jon was in A&R and had got us a couple of third row tickets. He was also a hard nut to crack and was not easily impressed by the sort of bands that I liked (in fact the only bands thrust upon him that he did like, were Lynch Mob and Badlands – maybe he did have some taste after all). The show was an absolute master class in ‘How To Be A Fucking Brilliant 4 Piece Rock Band’ and Jon stood there with his arms folded, smoking the odd Camel and grinning a bit. He was also a dedicated Who fan and when they started to play Baba O’ Riley, I think he was ready for the worst. Of course, Mr. Big’s version was exemplary and just near the end I looked at him and he actually harboured a tear in his eye. I have always put that down to the fact that this band could impress musically like no other – there was no monotonous prog so often associated with this calibre of musician, just in your face Hard Rock with stacks of soul and passion. (Or maybe he hadn’t got the hang of smoking yet?).

Their durability was because they had come from an established past, but not a sizable one, so this was really their band. And their most accomplished member was the dream Supergroup component – Billy Sheehan. He had already excelled with Talas, UFO and then Dave Lee Roth before forming Mr. Big – he is the Don when it comes to bass guitar and is rumoured to have played over 6000 live shows! I so wish that The Who would ask him to join, as he is easily the most natural successor to John Entwhistle. He also knows the back catalogue inside out, having just performed a series of tributes to The Who with Paul Gilbert, Mike Portnoy and Gary Cherone – Hmm, talking of Supergroups…