The two worst ever band changes that affected me were Focus and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Focus were/are my favourite ever band and when Jan Akkerman left (1976), I was devastated! I remember reading the news in the NME with shock and going around in a daze for ages. It was the worst thing ever, to me then. I eventually recovered when my sensible elder brother made me realise that although they'd never be the same, I now had two separate artistes to enjoy.

The second was was more tragic and permanent. Seeing that Ronnie and several of the Lynyrd boys were killed in a plane crash in 1977, was just unbelievable. Never quite got over that.

I am not sure that Waters quite ever got to grips with Gilmour replacing Barrett.

As for Genesis they left me behind when Hackett left rather than Gabriel.

Queen. And they can never replace Freddie - good effort by Paul Rodgers, but mostly a failure.



I think the original poster was talking about Mark I Purple getting rid of all their dead wood (Evans/Simper or whatever they were called) and bringing in Gillan and Glover to make them the best version of Purple ever.

But to add in Mark II is really overplayed stuff and I find Mark III and IV more interesting preferring Burn to any other Purple album, Stormbringer being one hell of a song (shame the album carrying it was then weak) and Bolin's last burn out with the Purps is a cracking album as well.

Agreed






Oh. I wasn't aware of any of that. Waaay before my time. Fair enough


I'll leave you & Deep Purple to fight that one out between you

I was a huge Roxy Music fan back in the '70s. They never had a permanent bass player & nobody minded. When Eno left, I & most Roxy fans were saddened but they replaced him with Eddie Jobson & came back with a storming album, Stranded & carried on. However, had Ferry left instead, Roxy would have been dead in the water.

And before any Eno fanboys land on me...he agrees

Not if you like the Sugababes, like I do.

It didn't do too much harm to Kiss either, though admittedly I prefer their earlier years.

It always makes me laugh when you see adverts for 70's nostalgia nights and they will advertise the likes of the drifters and then you the photo of 1 original member and 3 twenty-somethings

Post Siren, they were pretty well creatively dead in the water anyway...and that's from Ferry!

Yes, I was rather underwhelmed by Manifesto & then their sound continued to smooth out too much for my (then) tastes. Their hiatus did them no favours at all.

The New Mamas and The Papas featuring Mackenzie Phillips and Spanky McFarlane instead of Cass Elliot and Michelle Phillips. Awful.

Tbh, you can't really tell who it is under the makeup anyway.

I think if you lose the chief song writer or the vocalist it's hard retain the same sound. A change of instrumentalist can sometimes invigorate the band, without losing their essense.

Interesting reading guys

I misread it as well I thought they meant a change from the classic line up, which isn't what they said.

As for MkIII and IV being better than MkII No, no, no (as the classic MkII song says)

A lot of the classic rock from that era has been played too much to make listening to it again as wonderful as it was in the day, but it is still pure quality.

Machine Head, Fireball, In Rock, and Made In Japan is as good as rock music gets.

Pink Floyd undertook two major changes, Firstly when Syd departed, and it took them some years to develop into the huge force they became. I often wonder what would have happened had Syd not become ill.

When Waters left, the remaining members were still a great live act, but the albums were lightweight compared to what went before.

I discovered all this stuff in the summer of 1988 and onwards. I enjoyed the Mark II Purple, especially the just then released live album - Nobody's Perfect. Had it on original tape - a format I can't access now, so probably not heard that album in nearly 22-23 years (DOH!!)

However........when I went back to the studio albums of Mark II - I found them pretty dated, and they were really only 14-16ish years old at that time. Whereas Burn seemed to leap out of the speakers. So it always edged it for me. Plus I think I discovered Rainbow (with Dio) before Purple and they're just Blackmore's best work.

What hadn't dated in the same way for me was the Sabbath albums, so that became my prime focus - and still is. So I'd replace Machine Head, Fireball, In Rock, and Made In Japan is as good as rock music gets with Master Of Reality, Volume 4, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Sabotage

Alice in Chains just aren't the same without Layne.

I love Sabbath too, and I'm off to see them next month for the first time since 1974!!

However, Purple edge it, and for me Gillan has to be with them. Purple without him, and Rainbow have their moments, but I cant get anywhere near as close to them as I have to Purple.

They have actually aged well too, and the latest album is a brilliant album of their current sound.

Destiny's Child line-up was awful once Latoya and the other one got kicked out of the group.

I was thinking Gillan better than Evans.

The In Rock lineup is the classic line up.

Gillan is better than anyone who sings with Deep Purple.

The only time I was baffled by him was when he joined Black Sabbath. Now that was weird.

Gillan singing Paranoid, and Sabbath playing Smoke On The Water.

I'd actually forgotten that he joined Sabbath

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Iron Maiden yet


Current Members
Steve Harris – bass, backing vocals (1975–present), keyboards (1988, 1998–present)
Dave Murray – guitars (1976–1977, 1978–present)
Adrian Smith – guitars, backing vocals (1980–1990, 1999–present), keyboards (1988)
Bruce Dickinson – lead vocals (1981–1993, 1999–present)
Nicko McBrain – drums, percussion (1982–present)
Janick Gers – guitars (1990–present)
Live members
Michael Kenney – keyboards (1988–present)

Former Members
Paul Day – lead vocals (1975–1976)
Ron "Rebel" Matthews – drums (1975–1977)
Terry Rance – guitars (1975–1976)
Dave Sullivan – guitars (1975–1976)
Dennis Wilcock – lead vocals (1976–1978)
Bob Sawyer – guitars (1977)
Terry Wapram – guitars (1977–1978)
Tony Moore – keyboards (1977)
Thunderstick – drums, percussion (1977)
Doug Sampson – drums, percussion (1977–1979)
Paul Di'Anno – lead vocals (1978–1981)
Paul Cairns – guitars (1978–1979)
Paul Todd – guitars (1979)
Tony Parsons – guitars (1979)
Dennis Stratton – guitars, backing vocals (1979–1980)
Clive Burr – drums, percussion (1979–1982)
Blaze Bayley – lead vocals (1994–1999)

FIVE different singers over the years

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Maiden

I actually liked Paul Di'Anno's singing style but don't think he would have suited their later songs

Rainbow was at their best with Ronnie Dio on vocals. the other 3 singers (Ritchie wanted ) did ok but were nowhere near the standard of Ronnie.