Which bands have/had women in them, but no female vocalists of any kind? I can think of some with male leads, but most have had (at least one of the) women in the band doing backing vocals.
Robert Plant is right out, I’m assuming.
The Revolution.
The Talking Heads (Tina Weymouth was the bass player) and the Velvet Underground (Moe Tucker was the drummer).
Smashing Pumpkins had D’Arcy on bass, and Silversun Pickups have Nikki Monninger.
This may be stretching the OP, since it involves a touring band member rather than a studio member, but Nirvana had a female on cello during the In Utero tour as well as their taping of MTV’s “Unplugged”
Pat Smear played back-up guitar during both of those, as well, and in a lot of circles he’s considered a “real” member of the band, so I think the cello lady might qualify.
~Blake
Lenny Kravitz has an awesome female drummer.
Michael Jackson had a female guitarist on Dirty Diana.
John Mellencamp had Me’Shell NdegeOcello on bass.
But she sang on a number of their songs
Ruth Underwood was in various incarnations of the Mothers of Invention.
Willie Nelson’s piano player is his sister.
I’ve seen a woman on stage (playing violin) with John Mellencamp. I didn’t catch her name.
There have to be more than this.
in edit: Michael Jackson’s guitarist was named Sherry Batten (not sure of the spelling, or the first name).
The white stipes?
I could swear Weymouth sings backup on some songs, but I may be making that up.
Wish I had Stop Making Sense on DVD.
Mellencamp’s band also has violinist Miriam Sturm
Whoa, *Paper in Fire * is 20 years old!
Cindy Blackmore was lennys drummer. killer chops
Too slow for edit.
That would be Jennifer Batten, not Sherry. (still not sure of the spelling, though)
Prince had Sheila Escobedo as a drummer.
Going way back, the Honeycombs (“Have I The Right?” 1964) had a female drummer. Actually she started the group.
Carol Kay, although not the member of any group per se did a lot of studio session work with the Beach Boys (among many others).
The White Stripes.
JJ72 had a very cute bass player.
Am I missing something? Led Zeppelin didn’t have any female members of any kind, as I recall.
I think he’s saying that Robert Plant looks like a girl.