Marathon to Snickers, Opal Fruits to Starbursts, Treets to M&Ms, Oil of Ulay to Oil of Olay… plenty of great brands have done it with varying degrees of success.

 

Then of course there are the bands… The Metropolitan Blues Quartet to The Yardbirds, The Detours to The Who to The High Numbers and back to The Who(!), Mookie Blaylock to Pearl Jam, The Meggadeaths to the T-Set to the Screaming Abdabs to The Pink Floyd Sound to Pink Floyd, The New Yardbirds to Led Zeppelin, On a Friday to Radiohead, Pixies in Panoply to Pixies, Smile to Queen, Betty Blue to Manic Street Preachers, Pud to The Doobie Brothers, Navy Blue to Bag of Blues to Jethro Tull, Sparrow to Steppenwolf, Noble Five to One Percent to Lynyrd Skynyrd, and not forgetting the undisputed champion of the name change… Prince to The Artist Formerly Known As…, to whatever that symbol was!

 

Some changed their names completely, some just dropped a word or two here and there to reach dizzying heights and achieve notoriety - and we cover one or two of them!

 

We too, the artists collectively and formerly known as the Maniac Street Cleaners, have decided to change our moniker.  “Why?!!” we hear you cry, “When Maniac Street Cleaners rolls so effortlessly off the tongue?!?!?” 

 

Well, firstly, nobody ever got it right - from, Maniac Street Preachers, where people expected a decidedly more Celtic playlist with a gravellier lead vocal, to Manic Street Cleaners, where people expected an entirely different service when we turned up!  Secondly, the name was created as a bit of a gimmick in the very, very, very early years of the band’s existence (see How It All Began for more detail, if you have the time and inclination) and we hope we’ve progressed since then.  And lastly, joking aside, it’s a bit of a mouthful!

 

We have therefore decided to drop the Street Cleaners aspect of the name and will now make noise together under the new guise of The Maniacs - far simpler to say, write on a pub chalkboard and remember, and less expensive at the printers!

 

We’re taking this opportunity to relaunch our website and MySpace sites and those of you who’ve been following our recent news (don’t you have a life?! - Ed) will be aware that we’ve been polishing off some brand new recordings for the launch - you'll find seven tracks to choose from on the Playlist page.

 

This is also the perfect time to introduce our newest and shiniest full time Maniac, Paul Barretta, on drums – see Paul’s bio page for more details of his dizzying talent and worrying penchant for nudity.

 

And finally, to Roger of The Jam Band for reigniting the ‘to rename or not to rename’ debate; from those of us in The Maniacs who’ve been dying to change the name for ages, we thank you!

 

(Should’ve stuck to the confectionery comparisons! - Ed)