Namesakes #97: The Scooters

For those of you who missed this picture when it opened John's Photo Challenge in June, this is me on my first (and only) scooter. I loved that little two wheeled contraption far more than any bike I ever owned. Anyway, quite a few bands took their name from Scooters, it turns out... although I suspect they may have been inspired the motorised vehicle of choice for Mods rather than the simple kid's toy. And, because scooters were very big across Europe, this is probably the most international edition of Namesakes yet.

Before we start though, I want to thank all the gods that this guy didn't qualify today. I can guarantee that if you click this link, it'll be the worst thing you hear all week.

Scooter - The Logical Song

Jesus, you hear something like that, with 118 million youtube views), and you wonder whether the apocalypse can't come soon enough. I can only imagine that it was 118 million people listening to it once for novelty value and then vowing never to listen to it again. Or some kind of cult of sadomasochists playing it for "fun". Or Scooter's mum has a lot of youtube accounts, and runs it on loop (with the sound off) to get his hits up. 

Anyway, after that, this lot sound like classics...

THE SCOOTERS #1

Let's start in 1957 with these New York doo wop dudes who were also known as The Royal Jokers.

The Scooters - Someday We'll Meet Again

THE SCOOTERS #2

One year later, here's a rock 'n' roll band who were possibly from the Chicago area as they also supported Kid Guitar Thompson, aka Wiley Terry. Beyond that, the Web of Lies has very little to go on.

The Scooters - Everybody's Got A Girl

GLI SCOOTERS #3

Gli, in case you're wondering, is Italian for The. Or it is "when used before masculine plural nouns that start with a vowel or special consonants or letter groups (s + consonants, x, y or z, etc.)". And you thought English was a difficult language to get your head around.

Gli Scooters were an Italian rock 'n' roll group formed in 1959 in by drummer, accordionist and latter-day TV personality Dino Crocco.

Gli Scooters - Le Pigne in Testa

(That title translates, according to google, as "the pine cones on the head".)

THE SCOOTERS #4

Japanese Motown revival band who formed in 1978 just "to perform at parties", until they started to build a fanbase and release records. They broke up in 1982 but got back together thirty years later and appear to still be doing their thing today...

The Scooters - Like A Heatwave

LES SCOOTERS #5

Punky French Scooters (who had much more success using the name Starshooter) from 1978. This was their Lou Reed moment...

Les Scooters - Hygiène

THE SCOOTERS #6

LA power pop band who released a couple of albums in 1981 & 82, including the one pictured above, which would probably get Operation Yewtree knocking nowadays.

Songwriter Larry Lee went on to play bass with a past-their-prime Badfinger.

The Scooters - Young Girls / Big Brother 

SCOOTERS #7

Spanish power-poppers who arrived on the scene in 1982 and have been on-again, off-again ever since. They've also gone by the names Frenéticos and Los Nerviosos, but Scooters is the one they keep coming back to.

Scooters - Tiempos Lejanos

LOS SCOOTERS #8

One of the reasons the previous Scooters dabbled with name-changes is because of these Basque Scooters who were scooting around Spain between 1984 and 1989...

Los Scooters - Los Chicos de la Calle

(ROBERTO JACKETTI &) THE SCOOTERS #9

The interesting thing about Dutch pop/ska band Roberto Jacketti & the Scooters, who had a run of European hits in the 80s, is that keyboard player Robbert Jak (whose name was Italianised because... "he often visited Italy") left the band to study Biochemistry before they recorded their first single. And yet, for some unknown, they kept his name. Even though their lead singer was actually called Erik van der Hoff.

Which is my long-winded way of explaining why I shoe-horned them onto this list.

Roberto Jacketti & the Scooters - I Save The Day

THE SCOOTERS #10

Danish Rockabilly Scooters, formed in the late 80s, who would later go on to become... uh oh... The Cartoons. (If you click that link, you only have yourself to blame. Although it's still not as bad as the first link on this page.)

The Scooters - Birthday Ball

THE SCOOTERS #11

Welsh band from the turn of the Millennium - i.e. a quarter of a century ago, give or take - who spent a fair bit of time in California, but never achieved their dream of becoming the next Stereophonics.

The Scooters - Peepshow

Eleven different Scooters to choose from, but which Scooters could take you for a ride... and which Scooters would you happily see chucked on the scrap heap?