What’s In A Name?

Events are colourful affairs. Beyond the flashing lights and screens are some equally variegated people. Nowhere else have I found as many interesting characters as in the live scene. Many are known only by their aliases, AKA. Some of these monikers are the stuff of legend. Some just sound cool, funny, or downright surreal.

Trekking around gig to gig, production house to truck and from big event to small, it is easy to meet a lot of people. Nicknames are a great way to stay remembered.

The earlier, wilder, days of road life are partly glorified in mythos. Some characters were allegedly a bit shady or on the wrong side of the taxman and a nickname was enough. As long as you got the band on stage, who cared about your birth details? It was still a little loose in the 90s, when I toured a lot.

In today’s more professional and regulated environment, it may be a little trickier to sail under the radar, cash in hand, sign X and see ya next time round but there is still call for a memorable handle to be known by.

Noms de guerre

Let us look at this nomenclature a bit more scientifically. In taxonomy, the formal binomial, Latin or Greek based, genus and species epithet is different to the common name. Analogically, this is like passport name vs. nickname. So, just as Phascolarctos Cinereus is more widely known as a koala, someone like Grant Jennings became GJ. 

Following my own categorisation, I’ll kick off with some honorifics based on initials, given and surnames usually combined. Initialled gig peeps that I’ve had the pleasure to know include: GJ, MG, JB, CR, CRB, AJ, BJ, and DB. That last one is difficult to categorise because Dirt Box ain’t on Graham’s passport. AFG is in a category all of his own. May his inner strength keep him powering on. I went by J.O.B. for a while there but Johnno suits me better these days. One of my local friends calls me John O’Beard, which would nudge into the next section…

…being that of physical features. In this bracket, I’ve worked and kicked on with: Pineapple, Hairy, Midnight, Bluey and Red (both ginger-tinged), Tiny (x2, neither small), Shades, Fester, 2Cubes and Dread. Less flattering, but worn with pride by all involved, are Tubby, Slim and Big Dave (x2). 

Lofty would normally be for a tall person but this one is surname based. Same for Syko but he was unhinged enough to warrant the alternate meaning. RIP Dave. Further plays on surnames I’ve known in the biz include Weird, Winch, Pav, Kenno, Brains, Millsy, Gibbo, Gouldy, Gildo, Azza, Frecko, Heppy, Risky, Chappo, Holly and Simmo. Given-name-plays start with Aids, Matrix, Wozza and Puke. No doubt there are many more of these.

Some tags have cryptic beginnings, some are a bit descriptive, and many are just odd. For few of the following I know the full backstory, but those that I do are hilarious. For the rest, they are (or were) interesting people with intriguing names: Speedy, Smasher, Slammer, Scooter, $crooge, Squirter, Spike, Sneaky, Swampy, Stig, Scratchy, Spag, Sol, Scary and Sun-sun make up the S’s. Wookie, Motley, Garg, Grungle, Puckoon, Headers, Davros and Duckpond are the odder sounding ones. Multiples include Wal (x3), Doc (x2) and Troggy (x2) but only one worked as a trog. Iggy, Oggy and Plonker did see the LX light. Mumbles, Meltdown, Yahn, Rocket, Grub, Gutter, Banger, Dr Bob, The Funk, Junior, Wrongway and Zed round out the others. Melbourne crew might remember The Whistling Rice Bubble – entirely appropriate if you ever met him. I never met Bloke but I hear he was top notch. Yogi was before my time, as was one of the Bears. 

And there are plenty more animals (by name, if not nature): (the other) Bear, Sheep(ish), Squid (x2, one put me in hospital!), Turtle, Piggy, Weazel, Fish, Cricket, Oysters, and Antman. Like pet owners, some even physically resemble(d) these monikers.

I’ve often wondered if it is the industry that attracts such outsized characters, or that it just makes them weirder. Maybe it is part of the road life that scars our souls, and leaves names inked like a nominal tattoo, as titular legacies for later folklore.

Don’t call me Dave!

For some reason, I know a huge number of people birthed David. There are no less than 40 unique Davids (or Daves) in my phone, and I know many more beyond that. In person, I can tell them apart no worries. But share housing always posed a problem here – messages that “Dave called” were useless without further identifiers. To make it easier for me and everyone else domestically, I started giving them all my own nicknames, ergo: Grumpy, Crazy, Dig, K.I.D.D., Reggy, Dave Mac (now confusingly x2), Vonnies, and Mad-Doc.

We even used to be able to fill the local fire truck with Davids. Now that D. Jammo and D. Thomas have retired from active duty, we now only get Davids Hammo, White, and Joycey.

Sobriquets for immortality

Nicknames happen organically but not so corporate re-brands. It is particularly amusing when some over-coked marketing schmo doesn’t do their research properly and misses the cultural misappropriation, a la Pajero.

Outside the gig scene, I’ve met thousands more people. There have been memorable characters but fewer cool aliases, like: Bernzerk, Pirate, Digger, Slammer, Peppa, G-Dub and Chief. Spud, Ike, Spike, Tige, Shooter and Blaze are locals. Pretty sure that none of them had these titles at birth! Biggsy, Moggsy, Gorba, Shifty, Tojo, Wiggy and Deefer go way back. Trippin’ Phil, Bags, Rex Hardware and Blizz came through a housemate. Booger (x3), Slugger (x2) and Tex (x2) are from everywhere. In my family I count: Boggy, Nobby, Poggle, Tikki and Benny (Hill). Statistically though, the proportions of renamed are far lower in the wider world than those I’ve found hanging around a stage.

As part of event work, you get to cross paths with iconic superstars – many of them also under well-known pseudonyms. These flamboyant folks have duly earned their place in public mythology and their epithets will live on for a long time. With luck, so will those of the often more vivid crew behind them.