So you’ve got your line-up, a few original tunes, a couple of covers to get the crowd on your side, a mini-tour designed to let you live out your RnR dreams… what’s next? Why, it’s the hardest part of all: picking a band name!

As time goes by more and more great band names (and really bad ones) are being snapped up. You’re probably gonna need a little help trying to come up with something short, snappy, memorable and not really awful, offensive and/or opportunistic.

Thanks to the rather helpfully-named Is This Band Name Taken? would-be music merchants can now scan a database that appears to be absolutely stuffed full of bands names from the global megastars to the poor souls currently trapped on their local toilet circuit desperately trying to get that big break. And if a name you already like has been taken by somebody who hasn’t ‘made it’ yet? Well, then the onus is on you to usurp them. There’s a motivation behind everything, you see.

Picking the wrong name, or at least falling foul of acts and labels that have more money and better lawyers than you, can have severe consequences. Audioslave and FKA twigs are just two acts among many that have pushed and pulled in various legal directions to get their name and brand up and running

BONUS ROUND! Can you name all of the music artists and bands denoted in the articles lead picture? Let us know in the comments below!