How to add releases by two factions of the same band

MusicBrainz
1

I’m hoping to get some guidance about adding new releases by a British group called the Quireboys.

The Quireboys, a British band, have released several albums between 1990 and 2021. Vocalist ‘Spike’ has always been the lead singer, up until 2022 when he was “fired” from the band over reported disagreements. As the only original member, he’s reformed the band with members who played on their debut record.

So, there are now two bands trading under the same name; ‘The Quireboys’, and ‘Quireboys’. Both have new albums on the way:

There were threats of legal action from both parties, but my guess is that neither can afford to follow through, so we’re left with two bands claiming to be the “real” one.

How can we best handle adding releases by both iterations of the band in the interim? Should they be grouped separately or together? Both have separate streaming profiles, websites and social media.

Wikipedia is currently documenting both band’s activities in the same article, which makes sense for their platform. I’m leaning towards creating a totally new MusicBrainz artist for “Quireboys” (fronted by Spike) as they’ve got their own unique online profile.

Keen to hear thoughts from others.

Thanks!

6 Likes
2

I believe this would be best handled by two or three groups, one for each current group, and possibly one for the pre-2022 group

also make a note in the annotation of all groups, similar to Sweet, which is a similar result of a (possibly) different situation. note there would be no “renamed into” relationship, as that’s only used for one-to-one renames, not one-to-multiple

5 Likes
3

I agree that splitting into separate entities makes sense. Just get the disambig clear with maybe the new lead singers.

The advantage of splitting into three entities is it is easier to remerge them later if some kind of agreement actually occurs.

I would use the renamed in to relationship. As they have split and renamed into new entities… just with the same names. There should be a clear link \ relationship as no doubt both bands will be playing their old tracks.

Also put a nice note into the annotations explaining the links for people who don’t understand what is going on.

5 Likes