Did you even know about these supergroups?

So last night I shared the news that the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is going to be more easily available to the public in coming months.  One of the highlights from that one off tv show was the supergroup that appeared on it.  It was their only appearance and they called themselves The Dirty Mac.    The Dirty Mac was probably one of the best line ups ever in the world of supergroups : John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Mitch Mitchell. They performed the Beatles’ “Yer Blues” and backed Yoko Ono on a free-form piece called “Whole Lotta Yoko.”

There are so many forgotten, flash in the pan super groups that it is kind of fun to go back and revisit a few.  Bands like … Big Dirty Band.  This was tied into a Canadian TV show called Trailer Park Boys.   Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson led an all-Canadian supergroup comprised of members of Big Wreck, Three Days Grace, Die Mannequin and the Tea Party. They recorded a cover of Bobby Fuller Four’s “I Fought the Law.”

Back in the US do you remember when Sebastian Bach participated in a one-off supergroup called the Gak with three members of Guns N’ Roses — Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan — and three members of Metallica: James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Lars Ulrich. The occasion was a party thrown by ‘RIP’ magazine in Los Angeles.

This next one is a favorite of mine.  I actually downloaded the album which was fab.  During a break from the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger created SuperHeavy with Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), singer Joss Stone, reggae star Damian Marley and Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman. They reportedly cut 29 songs in only 10 days, and 12 were released on the album I have which came out in 2011.  It is such a blending of styles and sounds and quite frankly I love anything Dave Stewart touches.

Of course reality television has tried to profit from the supergroup craze.  The two bands that I remember are  Damnocracy which was created in 2006 for a VH1 reality program called ‘Supergroup,’ in which a bunch of rockers had to live together and collaborate on putting on a show. The group consisted of former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach, Ted Nugent, Jason Bonham, Scott Ian (from Anthrax) and Evan Seinfeld (Biohazard).   Then there was Rock Star Supernova which came about after INXS found a new lead singer on the reality TV show ‘Rock Star,’ the second season featured a supergroup consisting of Tommy Lee, Jason Newsted and Gilby Clarke holding a competition to find a new singer. After 15 episodes, Lukas Rossi was crowned the winner. An album was released in late 2006, and they went on tour to promote it.

Lastly I wanted to see if you remembered this band.  Truly a unique combination of people.  The band formed in 2009 and was called Tinted Windows.  It was started by former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha who assembled a group of power-pop stalwarts.   Iha was accompanied by Tyler Hanson (from the brothers group Hanson), Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos and Fountains of Wayne bassist Adam Schlesinger, the group released a sole self-titled studio album in 2009.

So those are some I remember – how about you – what forgotten supergroup was your favorite?