hello-smlChristine Lovatt

Names of well-known music bands and singers often crop up in crosswords, and the origins of some names are quite interesting.

Uriah Heep is named after an insincere fawning character in Charles Dickens’ novel David Copperfield and the rock band Utopia is named after Thomas More’s 1516 novel, his view of an ideal world.

60s band Procul Harum named themselves after a friend’s cat – and spelled it wrong.

British 60s singer Engelbert Humperdinck was really Arnold Dorsey but adopted the stage name after the German classical composer who died in 1921.

Jerry Garcia, of  The Grateful Dead, opened a dictionary and read that ‘the grateful dead’ is the soul of a dead person, or his angel, showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial and chose it as the name of their band.

Record producer Jonathan King came up with the name Genesis for the British band. Genesis being the first book of the Bible, King thought it suggested the beginning of a new sound and a new feeling.

In 1967, The Blades had trouble getting repeat bookings so changed their name frequently to continue playing the London club circuit. The first time a club manager liked their show enough to invite them back, they happened to be calling themselves Jethro Tull, so the name stuck. Jethro Tull was an 18th Century agricultural pioneer, who invented a new type of seed drill.
 
When guitarist Brian Jones phoned to place an advertisement for his unnamed band, he was asked for the name – he glanced at a Muddy Waters LP lying on the floor, one of the tracks of which was Rollin’ Stone, so the Rolling Stones were born. The term comes from the proverb ‘A rolling stone gathers no moss’, referring to a person who is always on the move, without responsibilities.

Happy Puzzling!

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