Does every band have to do this? Paul Rodgers will stop dick-slapping what little legacy Queen has left just long enough to perform with Bad Company for an Aug. 8 show at the Seminole Hard Rock & Casino. While the band and slot machine enthusiasts are sure to have a great time, the main reason for this get-together isn’t necessarily festive in nature. Rodgers and company will go once more through “Simple Man,” “Can’t Get Enough” and all that crap so that they can preserve their touring trademark in America and keep fake Bad Companies from touring in their place. Does this mean I could get some friends together and perform as Husker Du?
“What I’m doing is protecting the legacy that we have built … cementing the rights to the trademark Bad Company for touring,” explains Rodgers, acknowledging that the group has learned of plans for at least one bogus Bad Company planning to hit the road. “I can’t really go into that because it’s kind of in the hands of our lawyers at the moment. But there are a lot of things that make it necessary to reinforce our rights here.
He continues, “By doing this one-night stand with Bad Company, we will be cementing our right to the trademark ‘Bad Company’ for touring, and anyone who attempts to challenge us and tour misusing our trademark and mislead the fans will be liable to legal action.”
If large amounts of money can’t get groups to reunite for festivals next year, maybe they can grab what hesitant dinosaurs remain unreformed with this legal logic.
Bad Company Plots One-Off Reunion [Billboard]
Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman and David Crosby used to have to do this from time to time to keep other ex-members from using the Byrds name. The law sure is funny.
Ah, finally, my two careers converge. (My day job involves some amount of brand consulting.)
Long story short, as crass as this sounds, they’re smart to do this. Trademarks are pretty much enforced largely through usage — especially if they’re not formally registered (it’s the difference between Name™ and Name® — the latter is stronger and easier to defend, even if the entity behind it is long defunct). And a name as generic as “Bad Company” is ripe for mischief.
None of this is to excuse, on artistic grounds, the 1,000,000th run-through of “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” mind you…
There’s a couple of Bad Company vocalists out there (Brian Howe and one other) that I think were touring under the Bad Company name, so it makes sense that they would do this.
Props to them for not pretending it was all about the music.
Fahkin boomers.
Let me rephrase that…Fahkin boomers…I’m not mad at them, tho.
How’s Rodgers’ voice lately? Anyone?
@Oldboy: He sounded fine in the clips from the Mandela Concert from last weekend - those Queen songs are probably a good way to keep your vocal chords in top shape…
Bad Co. fans have always known, for it is foretold on the cover of Straight Shooter: we will play at a casino on 8/8/8.
Sadly, this is for real. Brian Howe, the Rodgers replacement from the hair-metal Bad Company of the late ’80s, has toured under the Bad Company name (I believe he has quasi-legal rights to it because he wrote or co-wrote all the songs on those late ’80s albums; you know, classics like “Holy Water” and “If You Needed Somebody.”)
A buddy of mine was in a band that got an opportunity to open up for Bad Company in Lawton, OK (that should have been red flag #1) as a make-good from a club owner who wasn’t able to pay them their guarantee from a show a few months prior (that should have been red flag #2). It turned out to be the Brian Howe BadCo, the promoter had booked seven other regional bands of wildly varying styles (all of which, I assume, he’d been unable to pay as well), and in between bands, these juggalo wannabes had wrestling exhibitions where they hit each other with folding chairs. Then “Bad Company” only played two songs off 10 from 6.