I’m watching a documentary on Mick Jagger, and some “expert” talks about Anita Pallengberg, and then throws out how many bands have broken up because members of a band were fighting over her, but I can’t think of any.
Can you?
Spinal Tap. The trope has remarkably few examples in real life.
ETA - Oh! You mean a love triangle. nm.
Rumor has it Yoko Ono was a factor in the Beatles break up. She was only with Lennon.
Mamas and Papas had conflicts over Michelle Philips which helped them break up. Before the breakup she was fired from the group for a short time but later rejoined.
Flight of the Conchords.
The Rutles also suffered when Ron Nasty began a relationship with Chastity.
Yep, as you say, it all seems to happen in fiction.
I can think of several examples of conflicts among band members over a romantic rivalry (like Dennis Wilson poaching almost every woman Mike Love ever slept with - and even one he sired), but like the Stones, most A-list bands put business ahead of personal animosity. It’s usually creative differences that break up a band.
…or money.
Uh, what?
A couple of near misses:
Roxy Music: I’ve heard Eno talk in interview about how pissed off Ferry would get because he “got more girls than Ferry”. I can’t remember if he was inferring that was one of the reasons behind him being invited to leave the band.
and a better near miss:
Dr Feelgood: If I remember correctly, the tensions that led to Wilko leaving stem from the song Paradise, which Wilko wrote and the band refused to record. What was so unacceptable seems to be that the song (which was intensely personal anyway) was about Wilko cheating on his wife:
Lyric
Contemporaneous recording - @ ~2.45
In fact, I’ve just found this account - my memory is pretty accurate.
So Wilko left following a fight with the band concerning a song about two women. I would argue that Wilko leaving the Feelgoods = breakup, because they were a shadow of their former selves without him.
In any case, that’s as close as I can get.
j
This has been debunked many, many times, especially by Paul.
But Crosby, Stills and Nash fought with each other over pretty much everything, so it’s difficult to judge how much - if anything - fighting over women contributed to any of their several breakups.
Apparently in the middle of a Dirty Rotten Imbeciles gig, the drummer attacked one of his bandmates, and it later came out they were seeing the same gal. They (the band) broke up soon after that.
It wasn’t a love triangle situation but romantic issues were a factor in Fleetwood Mac breaking up. The two couples in the band, John McVie and Christine Perfect and Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, all broke up in 1977.
In the short term, this worked out great for the band. The turmoil inspired their biggest success, the album Rumours. And that success kept the band together for a few years.
Dennis Wilson supposedly shacked up with a 16 year old girl whose mother claimed was fathered by Mike Love (a defendant in numerous paternity suits). What makes it really yucky is that that would make her Dennis’ second cousin.
First cousin once removed.
That still pales in comparison to whom Papa John Phillips supposedly shagged.
The Ramones. Took a while, but I think it was a major factor.
N/m
Not only shacked up with - Dennis also fathered a son (Gage) and married Shawn Love, Mike’s alleged daughter.
I knew he was a nut, but didn’t know he was skeezy as well.
I’m kind of sorry I asked :eek: