What's in a name?

It's been a hectic couple of months with lots loads of teaching, rehearsals, a few gigs and a trip on the ferry across the North Sea. All of which has left little time to focus on writting for the new band but now with the Easter holidays upon us I hope to put this right!

The band is going well - we have a couple of tunes finished, a couple in development and last night I think I had a revelation on how to re-write one of them that has been bothering me for a while! The only thing we don't have yet is a name. Which leads me to this post. Why is it so hard to come up with a decent name for an originals instrumental jazz group that doesn't include my name? All though it's a tried and tested method (leaders name + number of people in the band) or if you're feeling really hip you could just use the initials of this result (JTQ) it's a bit 'hey I wonder what standards these cats are gona play' if you know what I mean. The other option is to go down the 'named after the first thing you see' route. Although this instantly offers up hundreds of ideas (unless you are sat in an empty room by yourself) it can also lead to many hours debating wether or not you can sell a band called 'bookcase' or put the name 'curtain rail' on a poster. This is probably why we musicians are best left writing the tunes and marketing people still have a job!

So unless inspiration hits me look out for some new tunes coming out under the name JTG or Draining Board?!!