Name the Unidentified Live Band and Year - #4

[XNASA]

Haven't posted one of these in a while. Though the name of the band is rather obscure, two of the band members are quite well known. Well at least one of them for sure.

[mr_hat]

1. Mike and the Mechanics? 84-ish?

[XNASA]

3. Sorry.

You got the nationality of the band correct, but that's about it.

[GOPisEvil]

2. Is that Phil Collins?

Looks like him.

[XNASA]

4. It is not.

Although he does look like him a bit, I'll agree.

[BigBigBear]

5. Yikes

You give music critics like me jolts of staggering self-doubt and existential despair.

How about Orleans, circa 1979.

I know that's wrong.

[BigBigBear]

6. Or Level 42

circa 1985?

[XNASA]

7. Wow. You're way off.

Hint: The key lies with identifying the two gentlemen at the right-side of the picture. Especially the one on the far-right.

I doubt that anybody would recognize the guys on the left.

[shadu]

8. Looks kinda like that creepy Kenny Boy Loggins

[XNASA]

10. I would never do that to my friends on DU.

Nope, they're British. Very British. So British that most Americans would find them very obscure indeed.

[shadu]

12. I think another hint might help:)

[shadu]

32. Little Timmy Toodwell and the Mountain Muffins!

[Screaming Lord Byron]

9. Is their regular singer in the picture? Or is he offstage?

[XNASA]

11. In the picture.

Though I believe that the lead singing duties were shared. If I had to identifying one band member as the lead singer, it would be the chap all the way on the right.

[BurtWorm]

13. Scintillating stage presence!

NOT!

Who are the famous ones? The drummer and the keyboard player?

[XNASA]

14. The very famous one is the keyboard player far right.

The next most famous one is the gent dressed in all white, playing guitar. Though most might not know the guitarist by name, almost everyone is familiar with the band that he is 'most' associated with.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

15. I'm pretty sure of who the guitarist is, but that doesn't help me much.

[XNASA]

16. Tell me what you think his initials are, and I'll tell you if you're right

Finally, after years of posting 'Indentify this band or that', I've stumped you guys.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

19. PM.

He also looks like Carlos Alomar, but it ain't Carlos.

[XNASA]

21. Yes. That's Phil alright.

Now you should be able to identify the mystery keyboard player to his right through association.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

22. Roxy Music?

Is that Bryan Ferry at right?

[BurtWorm]

23. It looks more like Brian Eno.

He looks bald-ish.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

24. You're right....

too little hair for Ferry.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

25. Man, I was looking at the wrong keyboards. That looks like Brian to me.

I was looking at the guy on the left.

[XNASA]

27. Yes! Yes! It is Brian Eno.

So now that Manzanera and Eno have been identified correctly, that leaves only one possibility.......

The name of the band is.......????????????????

[XNASA]

26. It's not Roxy Music, but you're oh so close.

The band in the picture might be considered a 'splinter band' of Roxy Music.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

29. I think I got it...

but I had to cheat (it was driving me nuts!). I'll keep the answer to myself and give the honest folks a shot.

[jdsmith]

17. Thunderclap Newman?

1971 or so?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

20. The outfits look pretty much late seventies, very early eighties.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

18. C'mon, one more clue....

I don't want to cheat. The guitar player on the right could be anybody and the right-most keyboard player kinda looks like Ray Manzarek, but the photo is unclear. Is it some Doors reform or tribute act?

[BigBigBear]

28. If it's Manzanera

then it's 801. With Brian Eno.

[XNASA]

30. WINNER!!!!

It's 801.

--On Thursday September 3rd 1976 a group called THE 801 played their third and last gig at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall to a packed house. One warm-up gig at in Norfolk and a Saturday evening appearance at the Reading Festival completed the band's performing pedigree - and although some of the material they played on those three occasions may have sounded familiar to fans of the Roxy fringe, to most it was totally new.

THE 801, a project master-minded by Roxy's PHIL MANZANERA to fill the vacation that group is currently taking, began rehearsing at Island Studios, Hammersmith, about three weeks before their first gig. The musicians included ENO (on keyboards, synthesise, guitar, and vocals), LLOYD WATSON (slide-guitar and vocals), FRANCIS MONKMAN (Fender Rhodes and clavinet), BILL MacCORMICK (bass and vocals), and SIMON PHILLIPS (drums and rhythm generator). The music consisted of more or less mutated selections from albums by Manzanera, Eno, and Phil's pre-Roxy group QUIET SUN, plus a full-scale rearrangement of Lennon-McCartney's "Tomorrow Never Knows" and an off-the-wall excursion into The Kinks' 1964 hit "You Really Got Me".--

[BigBigBear]

31. They also release precisely 1 album, I believe

801 Live - it was a staple on the college station where I jocked in the late seventies.

No big victory for me - that picture of Phil threw me off, and it wasn't until I saw Manzanera's name that I knew it was 801. My initial guesses were atrocious.

That was a good one, XNASA. :)

[XNASA]

33. There was a studio album named "Listen Now"

Eno didn't participate in the studio album though. I remember playing the hell out of it just after I got back home from the Navy in '77.

[Blue-Jay]

34. Crap.

I was gonna guess Vendooza.

:P

[XNASA]

35. Vendooza conjures up a much better visual image....

Especially in the hair department.

[Blue-Jay]

36. Speaking of which...

Vendooza, not hair, that is. Are you going to be playing the first weekend of April? I might be in the neighborhood again. It'll be my first weekend off this year, and I'd like to get out of town.

[XNASA]

37. Don't think so.

We don't have another show until May.

However, we've been asked to come down and play in Champaign at some point.

We're still taking baby steps, as far as bookings are concerned.

[Blue-Jay]

38. Too bad.

I'll have to find another way to keep myself occupied, I guess. Maybe I'll get out to hear you soon.