From David Bowie To Blur’s Alex James, 16 Big-Name Musicians’ Forgotten Side Projects

It’s all about Me Me Me, or at least it was when Blur’s Alex James, the Lilac Time’s Stephen Duffy and Justin Welsh from Elastica, formed the short-lived indie supergroup Me Me Me in 1996.

Peter Hook has had more side projects than you’ve had hot dinners, or side plates at least. The New Order and Joy Division bassist also formed a musical consortium of bass players called Freebass (get it?) in 2005, and his band Monaco even had a no.11 hit with ‘What Do You Want From Me?’ in 1997, with Hooky sporting a Paul Gascoigne bleach job on the cover.

Bloc Party’s Russell Lissack keeps himself busy popping up now and again with Northern Irish indie rockers Ash, and he could even become the new Charlotte Hatherley if his main band remains on hiatus. Russell also played with Pin Me Down between 2007 and 2010 and released one self-titled album.

Billy Corgan’s a man who knows which side his bread is buttered, but for a while he thought he could trade on reputation alone without the Smashing Pumpkins’ good name. With members of Slint and Tortoise he formed Zwan in 2001, which sounds rather like a childish way to insult a swan. Nobody listened and Billy took his ball home and had a rethink.

The Bottletop Band isn’t just a side project for Carl Barat and Babyshambles guitarist Drew McConnell, it seems that hundreds of musicians have passed through its ranks, including Tim Burgess, Gruff Rhys, Eliza Doolittle and Matt Helders. The mastermind is Brazilian musician Mario Caldato Jr, and together they’ve raised a bit of money for charidee.

Chino Moreno was always going to have his feet in different areas what with him being named after a pair of trousers ‘n’ all. The Deftones leader has not one but two side projects, Team Sleep and ††† (Crosses). Unsurprisingly, both bands are really, really atmosy and great.

Jane’s Addiction have split up and got back together again more often than most, and during their first hiatus, lead singer Perry Farrell formed a new project called Porno for Pyros whose song ‘Pets’ was as memorable as anything his other band ever made. Their other songs, whatever they were called, weren’t.

When Red Hot Chili Peppers isn’t keeping Michael Balzary busy, he’s as busy as a bee, or as a Flea if you will, playing with other notable musicians. None more notable than Fela Kuti’s legendary drummer Tony Allen, and a certain Damon Albarn, king of the side project, in the trio’s super band Rocket Juice And The Moon. Their self-titled album, released in 2012, is actually pretty good.

Another supergroup alert, although supergroups vary in their superness. Take Smoke & Jackal for instance, composed of Jared Followill from multi-million selling Nashville indie rockers Kings of Leon, and Nick Brown from Mona – an alternative rock outfit from Ohio who were “famous” for approximately three days in May 2011.

Hanging out with your brothers all the time can become fraught with tensions, so imagine being in a band with them too! In order to get some relief, Ryan Jarman formed Exclamation Pony with Jen Turner of Here We Go Magic. It’s a less pressurised environment than the Cribs, though his voice does get a bit horse.

Tomorrow’s World was a BBC TV programme from the ’60s that would predict the future, but one thing they never predicted was that Jean-Benoît Dunckel of Air and Lou Hayter of New Young Pony Club would form Tomorrow’s World in the ’00s. They did predict a snooker robot would one day win at the Crucible though.

When he’s not playing in Blur he’s organising festivals, writing columns for the Sun, appearing on TV, making cheese and forming side projects that bomb. Clearly Alex James (again) needs Blur, because vanity projects like Wigwam with Betty Boo and the one earlier in the list always seem to peter out with so much as a whimper. Fat Les did okay though.

John Frusciante seemed to spend a lot of time trying to exorcise the ghost of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, playing guitar for indie actor/director Vincent Gallo and forming his own band Ataxia. He’s had three stints with the Chili Peppers, the last one ending in 2009, and he always seems to have something else on the go too.

Few musicians’ wilderness years were weirder than those of Justin Hawkins when he wasn’t in the Darkness. He had a no.6 hit with British Whale covering Sparks (with Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor in the video), bombed at Eurovision, went to rehab and formed a short-lived glam rock outfit called Hot Leg. Thankfully he’s seen sense and returned to The Darkness.

When Johnny Marr brought out his solo album The Messenger in 2013, it was so good that people wondered why he hadn’t done a solo record before. Perhaps it was because he’d been frontman of Johnny Marr and the Healers, which were less Johnny Marr and more Johnny Underpar.

Even unassailable rock gods make mistakes. Few artists can boast as many truly great albums as David Bowie, but out of the 26 studio albums he’s recorded there are bound to be a few stinkers, and the biggest two he recorded with late ’80s noodly rock side project Tin Machine. Ah well, can’t win them all, eh Dave?