There’s a fragile alchemy to a band – a blend of musical affinity, shared ambition, friendship and rivalry – that often transforms the project into something greater than the sum of its parts. But that mix is inherently unstable – the magic doesn’t usually last for long, and things hardly ever end well: eventually somebody gets kicked out. Being in a band is all about trust, until it’s all about betrayal.
The Rejects offers a new history of pop told from the perspective of the ones who got left behind, often on the very brink of the big time. Those early sackings are sometimes equivalent to the jettisoning of ballast – getting rid of a member who might otherwise hold you back. “Musical relationships are often forged in youth,” writes Jamie Collinson, “and a breaking of them appears emblematic of a terrible, adult hardening.”
Some of the stories are familiar: many people will have a passing knowledge of what the Beatles did to Pete Best or how Brian Jones ended up outside the Rolling Stones. Others feature people and bands you may never have heard of, depending on your musical tastes. Collinson, who worked in the music industry for 20 years, has an expert’s understanding of the hair-splitting that divides one subgenre from another, and he’s good at making these distinctions accessible to the untutored reader. We need to know, because creative differences – often petty ones – are at the root of many abrupt personnel changes.
If there is a single lesson to be drawn from this catalogue of sackings, it’s that no one is safe. Florence Ballard was the teenage founder of the Supremes, recruiting two friends to join her: Mary Wilson, from school, and Diane Ross, from church. By the time of their first No 1 single Diane had changed her name to Diana. By the time of their 10th, the group’s name had been changed to Diana Ross & the Supremes. In 1967, Ballard, who struggled with drinking and her weight, was fired, paid off, forced to relinquish royalty rights and banned from referring to herself as a former Supreme. The Supremes, with Cindy Birdsong in Ballard’s place, continued to thrive. Ballard died at the age of 32.
The roster of Rejects includes everyone ever sacked from Fleetwood Mac (five in all, counting Lindsey Buckingham in 2018) and a few repeat offenders – Jason Everman, for example, got himself kicked out of both Nirvana and Soundgarden. Many but not all of the rejects offer cautionary tales of addiction. A depressing number are no longer with us.
The bitterest breaks are usually about money, but sometimes they’re just the result of an awkward fit or the wrong look. Pavement, 1990s purveyors of saw-toothed indie rock, started out with a 40-year-old drummer called Gary Young, a former hippy with prog-rock sensibilities who was fond of doing handstands on stage while the rest of the band – boys in their 20s – stared at their shoes. The mix was ultimately unsustainable. It’s usually about more than one thing, though. Young, in addition to being out of step, was also out of control, an alcoholic who required a backup percussionist in case he was unable to keep time. Bands don’t have HR departments, and they tend to be more tolerant of substance abuse than they should be. It’s difficult to get fired from a band such as Guns N’ Roses for doing too many drugs (though Steven Adler managed it). As Collinson points out, you’re more likely to get kicked out for doing the wrong kind of drugs – ie different ones to everyone else.
While most of these tales have darkly funny moments, none of them are funny all the way through. Taken as a whole, the litany of wrecked lives and shattered dreams can be a little relentless, and Collinson wisely devotes extra attention to those rare reject stories that feature happy endings: Everman, the ex-Nirvana guy, had an unlikely second career in the US special forces, and today sounds like the closest thing to a fulfilled human being the music industry ever produced.
On this showing, band bust-ups seem to be an overwhelmingly male pursuit (apart from Ballard, the list of female rejects includes two members of Destiny’s Child, one Sugababe and Kim Shattuck, briefly of Pixies, fired for performing a stage dive on tour). But there remains something universal in these stories of rejection. You don’t have to be in a band to feel the cold hand of fear on your shoulder. Everyone, after all, is replaceable.
• The Rejects by Jamie Collinson is published by Constable (£25). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
