Is being a married couple in a band a good idea? Does it help with creativity, or lead to creative tension?
Here are ten bands that featured a married couple at some stage in their existence. Sometimes they are couples that got married as a result of being in the band, sometimes they were already married when the band started, and sometimes they got divorced whilst being in the band.
1. Chris Frantz & Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads): Burning Down The House
Kentucky born Chris Frantz met Californian daughter of a Vice-Admiral, Tina Weymouth, at the Rhode Island School of Design (and also David Byrne). Weymouth started out driving for Frantz and Byrne's band, The Artistics, which became Talking Heads in 1973. She ended up joining the band on bass in 1975, the same year that she and Frantz got married. They would also form a side project, The Tom Tom Club, in 1980. Burning Down The House, from 1983s Speaking In Tongues, was inspired by Frantz seeing Parliament Funkadelic in concert and would become the band's only US Top10 single.
Burning Down The House - here
(Live at the Hall of Fame Induction, 2002)
2. Ricky Ross & Lorraine McIntosh (Deacon Blue): Real Gone Kid
Deacon Blue formed in Glasgow in 1985, went on hiatus between 1995 and 1999, and continue to this day as a part-time band. Through the break and since, the band have worked on other projects; Ricky Ross has released solo records and presents on BBC Radio Scotland, and Lorraine McIntosh was in BBC Scotland soap River City from 2002-10. Ross and McIntosh would get married in 1990 and have four children. Real Gone Kid was interestingly written by Ross about another woman - Maria McKee. Deacon Blue had supported her band, Lone Justice, and he was captivated by her wild stage presence.
Real Gone Kid - here
(Live version - date unknown)
3. Alan Sparhawk & Mimi Parker (Low): California
Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker had met at Grade School, got married and moved to Duluth, Minnesota, where they would form Low in 1993. The band were noted for their vocal harmonies and melodic indie vibes, presenting a consciously quiet reaction to the noise of the growing grunge scene. The band, and the marriage, would continue through to November 2022, when Parker sadly passed from cancer. California comes from their seventh album, The Great Destroyer.
California - here
(Official music video)
4. Kim Gordon & Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth): Teen Age Riot
Kim Gordon first met Thurston Moore in 1980 at his last ever gig with The Coachmen. The new band they formed went through a host of names, before finally becoming Sonic Youth in 1981. They were at the forefront of the experimental scene that was known as 'no wave', influenced by the likes of the Velvet Underground, The Stooges, Patti Smith and Wire. Gordon and Moore got married in 1984, but when they separated in 2011, the band went with it. Teen Age Riot, from 1988s Daydream Nation, is about an alternative reality in which J. Mascis (Dinosaur Jr) becomes the President.
Teen Age Riot - here
(Live, Rock en Seine, August 2004)
5. Mike Watt & Kira Roessler (Dos): Number Eight
Mike Watt and Kira Roessler became something of a golden couple of 1980s US post-punk. Watt had been in the little known but influential Minutemen, while Roessler had spent a few years with Black Flag. The musical interest comes from the fact that they are both bass players. They had been jamming a bit in 1985, but when Watt's bandmate D Boone died late that year, Watt was on the verge of quitting music. Roessler had moved to Connecticut, to study at Yale, but the two corresponded by sending 4-tracks of musical ideas to each other. They married in 1987, and their band Dos ran in tandem with Watt's other new outfit, Firehose. A lot of Dos's work over the years has been a mix of instrumentals and cover versions, all arranged for two basses. And while the two split amicably in 1994, Dos has continued on an occasional basis, fitting around Watt's varied musical projects and Roessler's work as a dialogue editor.
Number Eight - here
(Official video - if you think the idea of music for two basses is a bit strange, it
is - but it kind of works!)
6. Mark E. Smith & Brix Smith (The Fall): Victoria
The Fall were one of an apparent deluge of bands who all formed having seen the Sex Pistols legendary 1976 Lesser Free Trade Hall gig in Manchester (where it seems the crowd must have been in the thousands, given the number of people who claim to have been there). Mark E. Smith was well known for his cantankerous and curmudgeonly nature, reflected in the 60 plus band members that he rotated through the line-up in the 42 years up to his death (there would also be 32 studio albums). Laura Salanger was from LA but had moved to Chicago. She apparently got the Brix moniker from the Clash song Guns Of Brixton. She saw The Fall in Chicago in early 1983, met Smith and by the summer they were married and living in Bury. She would join the band until their divorce in 1989, but then re-join briefly from 1994-96. Brix would be credited with adding a little bit of pop sensibility to his more acerbic, deadpan output. In fact, this Kinks cover and a cover of R. Dean Taylor's There's A Ghost In My House, would provide them with their biggest hits, both scraping into the Top40.
Victoria - here
(Official music video)
7. Jack White & Meg White (The White Stripes): Blue Orchid
John Gillis married Megan White in 1996, and took her last name. They formed The White Stripes as a duo in 1997, peculiarly trying to make out that they were brother and sister, the two youngest of ten children (Jack claimed this was to prevent distraction from the music). The couple divorced in 2000, but the band played on. Interestingly, Meg White would be maid of honour at Jack White's second wedding - to model, Karen Elson, whom he had met on the set of the music video for Blue Orchid. For another musical connection, Meg would later spend four years married to Jackson Smith, son of Patti and Fred 'Sonic' Smith.
Blue Orchid - here
(Official music video)
8. Harriet Wheeler & David Gavurin (The Sundays): Can't Be Sure
Harriet Wheeler and David Gavurin may well be the most frustrating duo in pop music. They met at Bristol University in the mid-1980s, fell in love, moved to London, started The Sundays and got married. They produced two fantastically crafted indie pop gems in Reading, Writing & Arithmetic (1990) and Blind (1992) - took a hiatus around the birth of their child - came back with one more shimmering pop record in 1997 (Static and Silence) - and then just disappeared. They say always leave your audience wanting more - but this is ridiculous. Their friend, comedian David Baddiel, revealed in a 2014 interview that "they are doing music, but whether they ever put that out there, I've no idea. They're the most paranoid people about actually putting stuff out there."
Can't Be Sure - here
(Official music video)
9. Dave Vanian & Patricia Morrison (The Damned): Democracy?
David Lett became Vanian as a reference to Transylvania (he is noted as one of the key influencers of goth fashions) and formed The Damned in 1976. Their rambunctious take on punk made them one of the key bands in the first wave of British punk in the late 70s. Californian, Patricia Morrison, had played bass with swamp blues legends The Gun Club and Brit goth pioneers the Sisters of Mercy, before she replaced Paul Grey in The Damned in 1996. She married Vanian in Las Vegas that same year, and played and toured with the band until 2004, when their child was born (although she did continue as band manager). In that time she played on one album, Grave Disorder (2001) from which Democracy? is taken.
Democracy? - here
(Live in 2002 - featuring Mr & Mrs Vanian)
10. Jason Isbell & Shonna Tucker (Drive-By Truckers): Never Gonna Change
Jason Isbell would play with Drive By Truckers for six years and three albums, starting with
Decoration Day. In 2002, a year after joining the band, he married Shona Tucker, who would then join the band on bass in 2003 (staying through to 2011). He left in 2007, the same year they split up, going on to form his own band, the 400 Unit and marrying country musician Amanda Shires. Tucker would go on to put out instructional cooking videos and start another band, Eye Candy. The Truckers music is a bluesy southern rock, with often dark lyrics that explore southern folklore. Never Gonna Change was an Isbell penned tune from The Dirty South about a stubborn Alabaman.
Never Gonna Change - here
(Live on Conan O'Brien, 2004)