For fans of the Daltrey/Townshend Who cover band, a head’s up: they’ve just announced the “Quadrophenia and More” tour, starting up in November. There’s also a Fathom pay-per-view event (documentary on Quad, not a concert) playing at select theaters next Tuesday.
*eta:Pete was in rare form during the press conference, making a soon-to-be-famous quip about Jagger (I think I’ll leave it at that). *
Wasn’t the Archies (Sugar, Sugar) basically a band of one guy?
Phish
The The.
The Traveling Wilburys. 
Found it:
Way to quell those discussions about your sexuality, Pete…oh my.
Sorry for the hijack. As to the OP, it really depends on how you are coming at it. As far as U2 is concerned, they are a family, along with manager Paul McGuinness, and anyone leaving would mean U2 is done. As a listener, I would say that Adam and Larry are serviceable, at best, and could be replaced by talented beginners. Which view of irreplaceability is “more” correct?
If I had to pick irreplaceable bands, I would go with The Who, Zep and Queen in the top-shelf acts. Across musicianship, innovation with their instruments, songwriting, etc., these immediately come to mind as balanced across all members.
They Might Be Giants
I’m trying to think of many bands who lasted any length of time and didn’t replace members. Of the ones mentioned in this thread, U2 and ABBA are the only ones I’m certain of. Led Zeppelin didn’t during their recording career, as far as I can remember, and neither did The Beatles. Of those, only U2 have gone for a truly long time.
Any other suggestions?
Nirvana? Krist Novoselic was the weakest link, but I’m not sure if he was replaceable.
Possibly not, but they went through enough drummers that they can’t be considered a band where no-one was irreplaceable.
Pretenders win this thread. Everyone in the band was replaced, except Chrissy Hynde. And all versions of the band met with success.
Some have claimed that late 80s - early 90s Pretenders was essentially the Chrissy Hynde solo project.
Total agreement on Momentary Lapse of Reason.
But The Final Cut? Oh no you di’nt!! That’s arguably the best Floyd album.
Based on that criteria, another band that probably falls into this category is ZZ Top. They’ve had the same 3 members since 1970; I imagine that if one of them left, the other two would probably hang it up at this point.
I don’t think you understand the premise of the thread.
Rush. They have been the same since album number 2. The band has been together since the mid 70s. If any of the three left there would be no band. There could be no band. Peart writes all the lyrics and half the crowd is there to watch him drum. Geddy’s voice and lifeson’s guitar are the bands sound. And they have stated the band would end if one left. And it almost did when Peart lost his daughter and wife.
That’s lunacy, unless she means that Sting is replaceable. I’d argue he’s the most replaceable of the bunch. That band was made by Stewart Copeland and Gordon Sumner. If it wasn’t for those two, particularly Copeland’s fun drumming, I would never listen to them.
You can get rid of Ringo, but you wouldn’t have the same band. Paul’s drumming, while competent, was usually pretty boring. Just obvious, straight-ahead drumming. Works fine for the song, I guess, but it’s no “Come Together,” or “A Day in the Life,” or “In My Life,” or “Rain,” etc. Ringo’s drums had charm and character. The guy had imagination and musicality in his drums that very few drummers have had since. I would say none have his flair.
There’s few drummers like that. I’d say Keith Moon of the Who is another one. I didn’t like him for the longest time, only to realize that when I heard post-Moon Who tracks, they just sucked. They just didn’t have the power or character. Moon was integral to what I perceive to be the Who sound. Same with Ringo. The Beatles with a Motown-type of session drummer would just not be the Beatles.
As for the Pixies, I love them, but I could do without David Lovering. I’ve always felt like he was the weakest link, though competent, in a great band. The other three players all have character and style to their playing, but I’ve always found Dave’s drum parts to be a bit blah.
I wouldn’t replace anyone in The Smiths. Television, as well. I felt the Pretenders weren’t quite the same band after Honeyman-Scott died. Led Zeppelin must remain intact, too, although if pressed, I might be able to live without Robert Plant, although then we’d have a different band.
It was Saint Cad who said that The Police was Sting, plus his backup band. His wife disagreed. As do I. Sting by himself is Sting. Which means, as I said above, Kenny G with shorter hair. Sting was the singer for Andy and Stewart’s band.
Whoops, my bad. Saint Cad, you’re a lunatic, and your wife is right.
Situations like The Who remind me of a Japanese custom I read about, concerning replacement members in bands. I don’t know how true it is, but it sounded plausible given what I know of Japanese etiquette. Apparently, only the “original” members of a band are ever considered to be actual “members”. If an original member of a group decides to move on, the entire group will often disband. That’s what happened with the hugely-popular band ZONE at the peak of their popularity — the drummer was the oldest member of the group, and when she turned 18 she decided to enroll in college rather than continue her music career. The band decided they wouldn’t be the same without her, and disbanded (the lead singer/guitarist quit playing guitar and launched a solo career singing dance pop; the bassist formed a new rock group, and the rhythm guitarist made a stab at becoming an acoustic singer/songwriter).
In the event that they continue with a replacement, that replacement is considered to be a “side member”, never a “full member”. Making them a “full” member of the band would be considered disrespectful to the departed original member. This also applied to ZONE - the rhythm guitarist they had at the end was a replacement member, and though she was probably just as talented as the girl she replaced, it was pretty clear watching the group perform that she wasn’t truly “one of the band”.
But from what I understand, this “rule” doesn’t just apply to the hugely successful acts, it pretty much applies to any band that has any success.
:smack:
And I just realized…I mean “Andy Summers” where I said “Gordon Sumner.” Yipes.