If you love supergroups, the following three outfits from the 1980s are probably not news to you. For those who didn’t have their thumb on that particular pulse in the 80s, though, these bands might have avoided your radar. And more than a few big names in rock and pop formed their lineups. Let’s dive in!
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New Race
This entry on our list of supergroups from the 1980s was news to me; I’ve personally never heard of them before. However, some big names in proto-punk made up this outfit. Rob Younger, Deniz Tek, and Warwick Gilbert of the punk outfit Radio Birdman were in this band, along with Ron Asheton of The Stooges and Dennis Thompson of MC5.
New Race was quite short-lived. The band was only active in 1981, though quite a few releases came out after the band called it quits. Asheton and Thompson went on to pursue different music ventures after the band dissolved.
KUKL
I’m a massive Björk fan, so I had to include KUKL here. Most know the Icelandic pop star for her solo work and her early years in the alt-rock outfit The Sugarcubes. However, she was also part of a post-punk outfit in Iceland called KUKL. Björk wasn’t the only famous member of the group, either. Sigtryggur Baldursson and Guðlaugur Kristinn Óttarsson of the new wave band Þeyr were also part of the project, plus several other big names in Icelandic music.
This outfit was together from 1983 to 1986, and they released just two studio albums before Björk went on to form The Sugarcubes.
Mike + The Mechanics
Remember Mike + The Mechanics? Unless you were a big Genesis or Roxy Music fan back in the day, you might have totally missed this pop-rock outfit on our list of supergroups from the 1980s. Genesis’ Mike Rutherford was a member, along with Paul Young (Sad Café), Paul Carrack (Roxy Music), Adrian Lee (Red Hot, tons of session musician work), and Peter Van Hooke (famed producer). The lineup looks different nowadays, but Mike + The Mechanics was just as cool back in the 1980s as they are today.
If you want to really get a feel for this band’s best work, check out Living Years from 1988 and their debut self-titled record from 1985.
Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images
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