Opera IX has never had more than five members.
While ABBA’s name is from the initials of the four leading members (Anni-Frid, Benny, Bjorn, and Agnetha), they always had seven or more backing musicians
I think the name refers to five minutes for fighting. A hockey penalty.
You do know that they record at least one song on every album while naked?
How about British punk band Gang of Four who started (obviously) as a four piece but (ignoring session musicians) over time became a trio, a duo and (arguably) a solo artist?
TCMF-2L
Speaking of modern prog, there’s 4/3 DE TRIO.
A friend and I did the local coffee houses as a duo. We called ourselves Rocco and the Four Speed Dual Quad Posi-Traction 409s". I don’t know if that counts or not. The last band I was in, 4 of us, we were Four Jacks and a Jill for a week. Oh, no women in the group either.
Two Nice Girls. Depending on the time, either 3 or 4 women.
These aren’t numeric, but both are STILL a good examples of a successful group that held on to an outdated name long after an important member had quit.
- The pop trio Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds had two #1 hits in the Seventies. Pianist Tom Reynolds left early and was replaced by Alan Dennison. But even with Dennison on keyboards, they continued using the name Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds!
- Fast Eddie Clarke of Motorhead formed a new band with bassist Pete Way of UFO. They called the band Fastway, which combined both their names. But… Pete Way had a fight with Clarke and left before recording a note. Fastway continued with that name… but without Way.
Since the Monkees resurgence in the 80’s they’ve mostly been down a member or two. (Usually Mike, too busy with his business interests, then Davy died, RIP)
Not a big band or anything, but the Brett Domino Trio has only had two members for most of its existence.
I think AKB48 was originally intended to have only 48 members, but it currently has over 120 members, and is the largest pop group in the world. Its sister acts, such as HKT48, JKT48 and NMB48, don’t necessarily have 48 members either.
The wiki on AKB48 has got to be one of the most confusing things I’ve ever read.
Spoilered because pictures of 120 japanese girls might raise eyebrows: AKB48
China’s Twelve Girls Band has thirteen girls.
UB40 has never had more than eight members. (They’re currently down to six.)
Run-DMC is a trio and not, lets see, 500 from a thousand plus one hundred … ??? Not again.:dubious:
A double inconsistency: the Korean girl group 4Ten currently has 3 members. It has had 4 and 5 members in the past. However, the “TEN” in the name doesn’t really mean the number 10, except as a pun. The group has the alternate name POTEN, which is short for the English word “potential”.