Biography
Until the middle of the 1980s, Hornets Attack Victor Mature ranked among the most influential American bands that had never actually formed. In the late 1970s, as new wave gained traction, countless young musicians sporting narrow neckties and an overabundance of safety pins adopted deliberately odd monikers that rejected the swagger and glamour associated with prior generations such as the Searchers, the Telstars, the Temptations, and the Kinks. These invented titles drew from sources ranging from anatomical references like the Brains to political allusions like Gang Of Four. Two neighboring rock journalists who wrote competing columns for rival music weeklies spotted an ideal band name inside a Los Angeles Times headline announcing that hornets had attacked Victor Mature; the actor was rushed to the Encino burn centre. It remains unclear whether he was still being monitored when both writers confronted their Wednesday deadlines for nearly identical pieces on Hollywood music developments. Each faced the familiar dilemma of excess assigned space and insufficient fresh material, so both applied the same workaround: rather than stating a falsehood outright, they posed it interrogatively. Their respective columns therefore asked whether Hornets Attack Victor Mature would become the next L.A. power pop act to secure a lucrative recording contract. The next week, a pair of prominent trade publications echoed the inquiry to their readers. Seven days later, a rock-radio newsletter known for relaxed verification standards repeated the claim without the qualifying question mark. Hornets Attack Victor Mature thereby embarked on an extended though largely unproductive existence, sustained entirely by accumulating press mentions and never by the release of a single, an album, a video, a tour, or a lawsuit. In 1980, Musician magazine awarded the nonexistent group first place in both its Best Name For A New Band and Worst Name For A New Band categories. Early in the decade, a buxom centrefold in Oui magazine professed enthusiasm for new wave and punk, listing Hornets Attack Victor Mature alongside the Clash among her preferred acts, possibly after one of the original columnists supplied the text. The phantom career might have persisted indefinitely had the members of R.E.M. not performed at an Athens venue under that precise name in the mid-1980s.
Singles