Suddenly, a new name appears on The New Power Generation's website: The Band Formerly Known as New Power Generation. Does anyone know more details or reasons for the name change? Here is the link: https://thebandformerlykn...g.com/home

Issues witht he estate I would imagine.. Would want the guys to license the name so the Estate can mak money off everything they do. Just guessing

belief345 said:

Issues witht he estate I would imagine.. Would want the guys to license the name so the Estate can mak money off everything they do. Just guessing

Guess again. There is no licensing of a band name. They're not loaning out "New Power Generation" to whoever pays enough money.

There aren't other configurations of Led Zeppelin or The Beatles touring because they paid a fee to use the name.

Interesting

[Edited 5/17/24 9:53am]

TrivialPursuit said:

belief345 said:

Issues witht he estate I would imagine.. Would want the guys to license the name so the Estate can mak money off everything they do. Just guessing

Guess again. There is no licensing of a band name. They're not loaning out "New Power Generation" to whoever pays enough money.

There aren't other configurations of Led Zeppelin or The Beatles touring because they paid a fee to use the name.

Still it could be the estate impeding their use of the name. Usually money is the major factor. Why else would they change it?

NPG was never a hip name for a band.

TrivialPursuit said:

belief345 said:

Issues witht he estate I would imagine.. Would want the guys to license the name so the Estate can mak money off everything they do. Just guessing

Guess again. There is no licensing of a band name. They're not loaning out "New Power Generation" to whoever pays enough money.

There aren't other configurations of Led Zeppelin or The Beatles touring because they paid a fee to use the name.

I'm pretty sure whomever owns a trademark of any kind (thus including band names) is free to licence it to whomever they want for (or even without) a fee.

When "TBFMATMPG" first posted, I asked if that was theirnew name.
I was told "no".

It's an oblique way of referring to Prince without referring to Prince, which I assumed as to avoid problems with the estate.

RobotFix said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

RobotFix said:

NPG was never a hip name for a band.

Agreed. Should have been dumped after 95. The fact it just trundled on for years just made it lose all meaning, or any meaning it had in the first place. New power generation would be a good name for an electrician school however.

It's never too late

.

[Edited 5/17/24 15:39pm]

whodknee said:

Still it could be the estate impeding their use of the name. Usually money is the major factor. Why else would they change it?

Well that's a whole other conversation. And yes, it probably is the estate stepping in.

Everything is money. So be more specific, the major factor is trademark infringement.

Which begs the question how The Revolution uses their name.

My guess is it nothing more than a reflection that membership of NPG was a revolving door after it ceased to be side project away from Prince's contractual obligations and studio battles. The blurb on the website has a selective history to imply that there was a core membership despite the revolving door. And that their line up (Mackenzie (lead vocals), Morris Hayes (MD/keys/vocals), Tony M. (rap vocals/2nd guitar), Sonny T. (bass/vocals ), Mike Scott (lead guitar), Keith Anderson (sax), Brandon Commodore (drums)) with Prince related guests, represents the band formerly known as NPG - as emphasised by the obvious Prince reference in FKA.

I suspect that this just for their current round of tours and, if this works, they may seek to continue under a new name with a byline of the band formerly known as NPG.

https://prince.org/msg/15/470849

databank said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Well that's a whole other conversation. And yes, it probably is the estate stepping in.

Everything is money. So be more specific, the major factor is trademark infringement.

Which begs the question how The Revolution uses their name.

They always were The Revolution, who were sometimes co-writers with Prince.

Germanegro said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Well that's a whole other conversation. And yes, it probably is the estate stepping in.

Everything is money. So be more specific, the major factor is trademark infringement.

Which begs the question how The Revolution uses their name.

They always were The Revolution, who were sometimes co-writers with Prince.

That doesn't mean Prince didn't own a trademark on it. (Same with Warner in the movie.)

dreamfirstborn said:

https://prince.org/msg/15/470849

LOL ain't no one going thru all that. TL;DR

Honestly, it always felt a bit strange that former Prince backing musicians were allowed to actively tour under the name "NPG", a bit off-brand or something. It feels appropriate to put an end to that, hopefully they'll continue under a new name.

I daresay if the Revolution had been as active as the NPG in terms of touring etc, they'd eventually have run into similar problems with the estate. Also I think at one point the NPG were trying to record some new material so yeah it is obvious they cannot continue as "The New Power Generation" in that csase.

One case I felt was a bit more questionable was The Original 7ven. I'm no legal expert but it would have been lovely if Prince could have allowed them to tour as The Time, work out a deal.

Personally I've really enjoyed seeing all these musicians, and I hope they continue in some form. I do object to NPG using the original band name though, because they're not as tight or as well-presented as they would have been when Prince was around. It's got more of a sloppy covers band vibe about it.

[Edited 5/20/24 0:31am]

This band is NOTHING without Prince. Prince made them and they died with Prince. I agree with the name change.

[Edited 5/20/24 0:57am]

MsNia said:

One case I felt was a bit more questionable was The Original 7ven. I'm no legal expert but it would have been lovely if Prince could have allowed them to tour as The Time, work out a deal.

[Edited 5/20/24 0:31am]

Prince did work out a deal that allowed them to tour as The Time, but he drew a line at allowing them to record and release new material as The Time.

Morris expressed confusion at why Prince would make this distinction, but I can see where he's coming from. On the one hand, Prince wanted to let Morris and the boys make a living by touring. But on the other hand, Prince wanted to maintain control over the catalogue of commericially available music marketed as The Time.

lurker316 said:

MsNia said:

One case I felt was a bit more questionable was The Original 7ven. I'm no legal expert but it would have been lovely if Prince could have allowed them to tour as The Time, work out a deal.

[Edited 5/20/24 0:31am]

Prince did work out a deal that allowed them to tour as The Time, but he drew a line at allowing them to record and release new material as The Time.

Morris expressed confusion at why Prince would make this distinction, but I can see where he's coming from. On the one hand, Prince wanted to let Morris and the boys make a living by touring. But on the other hand, Prince wanted to maintain control over the catalogue of commericially available music marketed as The Time.

Ah that's right, thanks for refreshing my memory.

Yeah personally I think it would have been cool to trust them with the name for the purposes of recording Condens8. Or Prince could have contributed to the project or taken an exec producer credit or something.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

For me, the way the revolution ended in 86, the npg should've ended around 95. If i was the original npg, id prob be annoyed prince kept the name going without them. Makes it less of a band, just an anonymous banner.

Sometimes it felt like New Power Generation as an actual band name came too early. It was actually ripe for 1996. He should've saved any sobriquets for after his release from WB. That was a new era, he had new power an an independent artist. New Power Generation would've landed on the ear much better.

Pay attention, they have been referring to themselves for several months now as

'We WERE the NPG'

Mr Hayes mentioned in several interviews they had 'an arrangement' with the estate to use the name, obviously that agreement was up and was not renewed.

[Edited 5/20/24 20:43pm]

TrivialPursuit said:

RobotFix said:

NPG was never a hip name for a band.

I thought it was a cool name for a song title, and didn't "mind" it for that original lineup built around Sonny, Michael B., Tommy, etc. But I agree it should have been retired after a few albums, especially when almost the entire band changed over again.

RobotFix said:

NPG was never a hip name for a band.

I hated the name from the first moment i heard it.

Could not meassure up to 'The Revolution.'

Same with 'Prince and The Band.'

I would've chosen 'Prince & (The) Future Revolution'

or 'Prince & (The) Cosmic Solution.'

Vannormal said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Vannormal said:

I hated the name from the first moment i heard it.

Could not meassure up to 'The Revolution.'

Same with 'Prince and The Band.'

I would've chosen 'Prince & (The) Future Revolution'

or 'Prince & (The) Cosmic Solution.'

no prince band needs to sound like 'the revolution' Basically any other name than the npg, as its so clunky, but if it was the npg, just give it a cut off point The npg idea sounded cool on lovesexy as something to be welcomed to, less as a band name

OF course not, I simply said this was my (humble) idea.

Indeed, I also remeber how cool it sounded as a message on 'Lovesexy.'

If he dropped the word 'power', it would've been much cooler imo.

The song "New Power Generation Pt II," also never did it for me, with that 'pumpin' the big noise into the 90s.'