They’re Still Together?! 9 Bands You Didn’t Know Are Still Playing

After a big start in the early Eighties, slowing success and interband tension led to some time off for Loverboy late in the decade. Yet to this day, the Canadian rock crew retains all the members from its original hits (with the exception of bassist Scott Smith, who died in 2000). They can probably credit some of their longevity to the Saturday Night Live skit with Patrick Swayze and Chris Farley auditioning as Chippendales dancers, set to the tune of "Working for the Weekend." Fun fact: Loverboy holds the all-time record for Canada's Juno Awards, with nine trophies over the years.

Fastball frontman Tony Scalzo was still making bagels on the graveyard shift when his band's second album, All the Pain Money Can Buy, blew up in 1998, selling over a million copies and earning a couple of Grammy nominations. Though their next record featured guest appearances by Billy Preston and Brian Setzer, the band's profile has declined steadily since, but they're still kicking around. Catch them in Atlantic City this August, when they have a pair of dates scheduled.

Not only are they still touring: this British new-wave band, formed in 1979, is set to release its 10th album, Beautiful Friction, this month. The recent return of bassist Dan K. Brown means the five core members from the group's Eighties heyday are still together, led by frontman Cy Curnin. They recently performed at the Hollywood Bowl with fellow period surivivors the B52s, Berlin and the Human League. One thing does, in fact, lead to another. 

When Craig Kilborn was still hosting The Daily Show, he once spiced up an item about the Village People by stage-whispering to the audience that he had some news they might not know about the group: "They're still together!" Formed in 1977, the group behind the perennial banquet-room hits "Macho Man" and "Y.M.C.A." has seen some lineup changes and the deaths of a couple of founding members, but they're still on the road, spreading the gospel of disco.

The Rolling Stones have nothing on Golden Earring. (Okay, maybe one or two things.) The Dutch band formed as the Golden Earrings in 1961, more than 50 years ago. After a slight name change, they rung up a couple of enduring rock radio hits with "Radar Love" and "Twilight Zone." Incredibly, this journeyman act still features two original founding members and two more whose membership dates to the late Sixties.

The growling voice behind the highway classic "Flirtin' With Disaster," Molly Hatchet frontman Danny Joe Brown left the Southern boogie band in 1980 to form his own offshoot, the Danny Joe Brown Band. He quickly returned to the fold in 1982, helping set off a revolving door of past and future members. Though Brown died in 2005 after a long bout with failing health, Molly Hatchet continues to export the sound of the Florida swamps across the globe.

They opened the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and they’re still knocking around today. The California pop group, members of which played in early bands with Frank Zappa, David Crosby and others, had big hits with "Along Comes Mary," "Windy" and "Never My Love." Their upcoming dates include one in Zanesville, Ohio, and another in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. 

Named for a Dickens character, the British band Uriah Heep were there at the creation of hard rock. By the early Eighties, bad feelings among the group's key members left founder Mick Box with the band name and little else: "I locked myself in my flat and drank myself senseless," he once recalled. But he and the band regrouped, touring with Rush and Def Leppard, among others. Last year they released their 23rd album.

One of the first punk bands from the U.K. to earn recognition in the U.S., the Damned have had more than their share of straight-up rock & roll crossover. First produced by Nick Lowe, the band opened for T. Rex's last tour and once tried to coax Pink Floyd recluse Syd Barrett into producing an album for them. Though they've gone on more than one hiatus and endured plenty of shake-ups over the years, the Damned continue to tour, led by stalwart frontman Dave Vanian and on-again, off-again guitarist Captain Sensible.