It was definitely initially Stewart’s band. He recruited Sting and the original guitarist Henri Padovani. Andy essentially told Sting and Stewart that Henri was crap and they needed him. The breakdown occurred around the third and fourth albums - Sting came to the studio with fully completed demos, which destroyed the band dynamic.
Rod Torfulson.
And you were supposed to arrive having already eaten.
Wow, Euronymous looks like Mr Boogie from Sinister.
The way Stewart put it, the original Police were a real band, but over time, they became the equivalent of The Jimi Hendrix Experience- one genius giving the orders to two sidemen.
The La’s have a really fragmented history.
They broke up while recording their only studio album, and the producer made do with the leftover material. They’re essentially a 3-piece band with 21 rotating members.
ABBA was made up of two couples who both got married and then divorced, mostly because both of the men found other women they would later marry.
I image there caused some bitter hatred.
I bought the first The La’s album and loved it. Great music and very well done. I expected a lot from them, but as it turned out Lee Mavers was so hyper-critical about everything and nigh-impossible to work with that the band basically fell apart. As with so many bands, one person became overbearing and demanding, yet he has been unable to achieve much of anything on his own.
This thread has made me think about all of the great bands, and how almost all of my favorite musical artists are bands, not solo performers. I can’t think of many instances where solo performers came out of bands and made better music, and that includes great musicians from The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, etc. Band dynamics may be hard to deal with from within, but it seems to me the collaborations and tensions create the best music.
Can you give reference to this, or more info? I always thought that he was a jerk, even though I thought that he was great.
I recall an interview with the drummer of the late 80s/early 90s alternative band 10,000 Maniacs shortly after front-woman Natalie Merchant left to go solo. The interviewer asked (paraphrasing) “Are there any hard feelings? Do you still speak to her now that she’s gone her own way?” To which the drummer replied (NOT paraphrasing): “I didn’t speak to her the last ten years she was in the band. I have nothing to say to her now.”
I’m surprised this thread could make it to three pages with no one mentioning Ike and Tina Turner. That was an acrimonious act to say the least.
Surprised no-one has mentioned “The Band”. There were a lot of hard feelings about Robbie Roberston talking full composer credit for songs that were collaborative studio efforts.
Also, there were accusations that Martin Scoerses (Robbie’s friend) film “The Last Waltz” put Robbie in the spotlight and portrayed him as the band’s leader much to the fury of the others.
Levon Helm wrote a biography criticizing Robbie’s behavior and blames him for breaking up the band (The Band) 
:smack:
I was familiar with their history, and still didn’t think to mention them. You left out the best part, though:
Dead killed himself by slitting his wrists and throat, then shotgunned himself in the head. Euro took pictures, and one of them was used as the cover to Dawn of the Black Hearts. The following picture is spoilered due to gore:
…and the old guy chimes in with: The Byrds.
Most of the acrimony revolves around David Crosby, an immensely talented harmony singer (and a bit later, songwriter) whose ego managed to infuriate all of the other four original members of the band at one time or another.
The Byrds’ story as a whole (it continued for another six years after Crosby was fired) has enough drama to fill up the single thickest book in my quite extensive rock ‘n’ roll library, Requiem for the Timeless by Johnny Rogan.
Today, even Crosby himself will readily admit he was to blame for most of the acrimony in the original Byrds.
He also admits that, after he was initially booted from the band, he told anyone and everyone falsely that Roger McGuinn was a prude who’d fired him over the song “Triad.”
The Velvet Underground’s Lou Reed and John Cale had what might be termed a “difficult” relationship.
After being ousted from VU in 1967, Cale rarely worked with Reed until they collaborated on the Andy Warhol tribute album Songs for 'Drella.
In 1993, the original Velvet Underground reformed and played a number of dates in Europe. Plans were afoot for an American tour, but old animosities between Cale and Reed resurfaced. I remember at the time reading that they got into the habit of communicating solely by fax, with each successive missive becoming more acrimonious.
According to Greg Allman’s autobiography (and some lawsuits, apparently), there is no love lost between the remaining original Allman Brothers and erstwhile singer/lead guitarist Dickie Betts. Which is too bad, because I always preferred Betts’ more country-tinged Allman Brothers tunes.
I’m pretty sure the band members - or at least one of them - has denied that the divorces led to “bitter hatred.” Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, of course, but the dude was all like “meh, it was just a divorce, we remain the best of friends, no biggie, shit happens, this is Scandinavia, man, chill the fuck out.”
… And the fact that Euronymous took those pictures in the first place royally pissed off Necrobutcher, the band’s bass player at the time, who told Euronymous not to contact him (Necrobutcher) so long as those pictures remained in his (Euronymous’) possession.
The Dawn of the Black Hearts album was a bootleg pressed after Euronymous’ death, so hardly Euronymous’ fault. Necrobutcher later attempted to get a hold of the bootlegger responsible - one Mauricio “Bull Metal” Montoya - but by then, Mr. Montoya had supposedly moved into the Colombian jungle and been killed by drug smugglers.
Mayhem lives on, though - a new album was released just a few weeks ago.