Sunday, August 21, 2005

Another reason to hate lawyers

Just kidding, of course. As a member of the bar myself, I don't blame the lawyers. I blame the descendants of Fred Astaire (there's something I don't write everyday). I just thought this was kind of a weird story. A few months ago I wrote about seeing Ivy at the Double Door with a band called Astaire. Well, tonight I was messing around with Rhapsody a little bit and noticed a band in my library that I'd never heard of. Some band called Blondfire. This isn't completely off the wall, as there are a number of bands in my library that I've probably listened to maybe once (like some crazy assed band called Ken Layne and the Corvids). But I had no memory of adding this band at any time, and I'm usually not listening to Rhapsody when I'm drunk, which would have been the most logical explanation.

So I clicked on their EP, and turns out that Astaire was short-lived, as brother and sister team Bruce and Erica Driscoll had to change their name due to legal threats from the estate of the late Fred Astaire. Apparently huge throngs of people were showing up at their concerts expecting to see the corpse of the late dancer magically go into the old soft shoe. Alright, that's obviously a lie, but seriously, this is pretty stupid. What if their last names were Astaire? Or what if they had just changed their name to "A Stair"?

Anyway, not that this is a big deal or anything, and I know this happens with some regularity, but this is the first time I've ever seen a band play under one name, only to have them be forced to change to something else.

6 comments:

Scott & Alex said...

Christ on a bike, that's even worse than Handsoem Dick suing Manitoba.

Scott & Alex said...

By which I mean "Handsome."

Seitz said...

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Scott & Alex said...

That's different.

Handsome Dick Manitoba is/was the frontman for the Dictators, a near-defunct punk band. He recently sued the band Manitoba, forcing them to change their name to Caribou.

I don't why I thought you'd've heard of a band from outside of Manchester.

Seitz said...

I don't why I thought you'd've heard of a band from outside of Manchester.

That would sting a little bit if weren't written on a site that has a sidebar with links to 18 different bands, only two of which are from Manchester, and only of seven of which are even from Europe.

You're free to click on my Audioscrobbler user page and check my out the library of stuff I've been listening to lately.

Anonymous said...

the band said at their last show that they actually tried "a stair", "astair", "astare", "a stare", on and on - all of which were shot down by the widow astaire and her army of overpriced lawyers. even though they may have been able to win in court, she apparently has unlimited time and money on her hands and was prepared to make their life hell til they caved. so they went for something completely different, but 'blondfire' seem to be going full steam under the new name.