They can range from the sublime – Damon Albarn’s Gorillaz quickly evolved from fun cartoon caper to an A-List collaborative project boasting some of the greatest musicians on the planet – to the ridiculous  – take your pick, but SuperHeavy: Mick Jagger’s cringe-inducing supergroup with Dave Stewart, Joss Stone and Damian Marley springs to mind.

Ever since John Lennon shuffled off to form the Plastic Ono Band while still nominally a Beatle, musicians have strayed from the mother ship to launch their own passion projects, but – excluding solo careers and groups formed after a band have split up – MOJO here goes through the extra-curricular activities of those bands who spawned more sidelines than other groups have had hot, motorway service station dinners…

We could fill another list feature entirely with the various projects Damon Albarn has embarked on when he wasn’t working on Blur records, but while Damon busied himself with the likes of Gorillaz, The Good The Bad & The Queen and Africa Express, his bandmates weren’t just twiddling their thumbs or making cheese.

Alex James had a one-off hit single in 1996 as a member of Me Me Me alongside ‘80s pop Zelig Stephen ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy and Elastica’s Justin Welch, with the jaunty, Blur-like Hanging Around. Then, alongside fellow Groucho Club barflies Keith Allen and Damien Hurst, he distilled all that was regrettable about 90s lad culture into novelty act Fat Les, who bagged a UK #2 in 1998 with World Cup song Vindaloo. While it failed to replicate the success, 2002 effort Who Invented Fish And Chips? is notable for featuring the first credited vocal by Allen’s then-teenage daughter, Lily. WigWam, James’ blink-and-you’ll-miss-them collaboration with former 90s pop star Betty Boo, however, managed just one self-titled single which scraped into the charts at #60 in 2006.

Alongside a successful solo career while in and out of Blur (2004’s Happiness In Magazines is a particular highlight) Graham Coxon has put out two albums since 2023 with his partner Rose Elinor Dougal as The Waeve. While he’s added pilot, solicitor, animator and Labour councillor to his C.V., drummer Dave Rowntree has kept up his musical activities outside of Blur with soundtrack work, one solitary solo LP (2023’s Radio Songs) and in 2006 an EP as part of The Ailerons. However, whether or not Blur were a going concern at this point is unclear.

The members of New Order clearly enjoy a busman’s holiday. Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert’s drolly-named The Other Two released two LPs in the gaps between NO records, and while he was still a member, Peter Hook concurrently plied his low-slung four-string trade in Revenge, Monaco and short-lived bass player supergroup Freebass alongside The Stone Roses’s Mani and The Smith’s Andy Rourke.

However, with three albums and six top twenty singles to their name, top billing surely goes Electronic, Bernard Sumner’s dance-pop project with ex-Smith Johnny Marr. In fact, early Electronic singles Get The Message and Getting Away With It (also featuring a moonlighting Neil Tennant) were of such glistening magnificence that they threatened to disrupt the long-established band/side project power dynamic by almost eclipsing both New Order and The Smiths. We’re ruling out Bad Lieutenant, the group Sumner formed with additional New Order guitarist Phil Cunningham in 2008, on a technicality though, as New Order had officially split up during their brief, three-year existence.

With a lineup history as complex as their time signatures, King Crimson were always an outfit primed for extra-curricular excursions. While former bandmembers often found success outside of Crimson’s court, most notably bassist Greg Lake who left the band before second LP In The Wake Of Poseidon to form Emerson, Lake And Palmer, those still within the ranks also sought out other outlets to scratch their various itches.

Drummer Bill Bruford co-founded prog supergroup U.K. alongside fellow ex-Crim John Wetton during the period of inactivity that followed 1974’s Red (a group who would themselves spawn their own spin-offs), and when back in the KC fold in the 80s he formed a duo with fellow ex-Yes member Patrick Moraz. Earthworks and another supergroup with former Yes men, Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, were formed during a second hiatus before Robert Fripp assembled King Crimson’s ‘double trio’ configuration in the ’90s.

Then, of course, there’s Robert Fripp himself. Not content with lending his cerebral guitar skills to records by David Bowie, Blondie, The Roches, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel and countless others (at a conservative estimate, Fripp has appeared on over 700 records), he’s played with multiple bands including Centipede and Van Der Graaf Generator.

In 1973 he formed Fripp & Eno with fellow studio boffin Brian Eno, the pair releasing four albums over three decades, and from 1997 he launched ProjeKcts, a succession of experimental King Crimson spin-off groups featuring various band members designed to prototype new ideas for future King Crimson music. To date, almost 30 releases have been put out under the ProjeKct umbrella.

For anyone wanting *even more* shades of Crimson, there’s long-serving drummer Pat Mastelotto’s two outfits, Tuner and Stick Men; ex-drummer Ian Wallace’s Crimson Jazz Trio, offering jazz interpretations of the band’s work; and the 21st Century Schizoid Band a short-lived OG reconfiguration that featured founding King Crimson members Michael Giles and Ian McDonald.

Not content with conquering the pop charts and being Princess Diana’s favourite band, by the mid-80s the members of Duran Duran felt they needed extra space outside of the group to indulge more expansive artistic urges.

After the release of third LP Seven And The Ragged Tiger, Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, and Roger Taylor broke away to form Arcadia, producing a more arty/pretentious take on Duran Duran’s synth-pop sound. Their sole album, 1985’s So Red The Rose, featured an impressive roll call of guests including Sting, Grace Jones, Herbie Hancock and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour.

Not to be outdone, the remaining Taylors, John and Andy, hooked up with Chic drummer Tony Thompson and chain-smoking blue-eyed soul smoothie Robert Palmer to form the more hard-rocking The Power Station. Taking their name from the New York hit-making studio, the band’s Bernard Edwards-produced debut was an international success and might also be one of the most 1980s-sounding records ever made.

Palmer quit not long after the album’s release, but the four unexpectedly reunited for a less successful follow-up in 1996, Living In Fear. Around the same time, John Taylor joined former Sex Pistol Steve Jones and Guns N’Roses members Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum in Neurotic Outsiders, releasing one self-titled album in 1996.

Nick Rhodes, meanwhile, formed a long-running side-project with Duran Duran’s US-born ‘90s guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, TV Mania, recording one largely forgotten album Bored With Prozac And The Internet? in 2013 and reunited with Duran Duran’s original singer Stephen ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy (him again) as one half of The Devils in 2002.

In keeping with their origins in New York’s art-punk No Wave scene, Sonic Youth’s members frequently dipped their toes into side projects that further explored the band’s experimental M.O.

In an effort to raise the spirits of Minutemen’s Mike Watt following the death of bandmate D. Boon, Sonic Youth’s members pulled together a hybrid covers band Ciccone Youth. Their moniker inspired Madonna’s surname, they released covers of Madge hits Into The Groove and Burning Up in 1986, and in 1989 released The Whitey Album, featuring Dinosaur Jr’s J. Mascis and an inspired cover of Robert Palmer’s post-Power Station smash Addicted To Love. More than just a bit of fun, Thurston Moore is on record saying it’s his favourite SY album.

Moore and drummer Steve Shelly joined punk hero Richard Hell in short-lived NYC punk supergroup Sim Stars, who released three EPs in 1992. Moore and Lee Ranaldo also collaborated with Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and Jim O’Rourke (by this point a fully-fledged Sonic Youth member) in the Diskaholics Anonymous Trio, who over three albums in the 200s delivered a pleasingly skronky mix of free jazz and noise rock.

Kim Gordon, meanwhile, co-founded Free Kitten in the early ‘90s with Julie Cafritz of Pussy Galore, later adding Yoshimi P-We from Boredoms and Mark Ibold from Pavement. They released several EPs and three albums, Nice Ass (1995), Seminal Education (1997) and Inherit (2008).

In addition, the band set up Sonic Youth Recordings (SYR) in 1996 as an outlet for more experimental collaborations, where each release in the series featured song titles in different languages (SYR5 in Japanese, SY6 in Lithuanian for example).

Faith No More frontman Mike Patton is a musician for whom having just one band was never going to satiate his creative desires. During the band’s original run, Patton concurrently fronted experimental Californian absurdists Mr. Bungle, who often provided a petri dish for ideas explored in FNM.

After Faith No More split up in 1998, the singer expanded the rock multiverse with a succession of supergroups. That same year he formed Fantômas with The Melvins’ Buzz Osbourne, Slayer’s Dave Lombardo and Mr. Bungle bassist Trevor Dunn, quickly followed by Tomahawk – featuring Dunn, The Jesus Lizard’s Duane Denison and drummer John Stanier from alt-metallers Helmet.

In 2001, Patton teamed up with hip hop producer Dan The Automator and Elysian Fields’ Jennifer Charles on the tongue-in-cheek Nathaniel Merriweather Presents… Lovage: Music to Make Love To Your Old Lady By; fronted an album with New York turntablists The X-Executioners, General Patton Vs. The X-Executioners; and contributed to avant-garde saxophonist John Zorn’s Moonchild: Songs Without Words.

Even after Faith No More’s reunion in 2009, Patton kept up the side hustling.
Featuring a forty-piece orchestra and fifteen-strong backing band, his Mondo Cane project put out an album of cover versions of ‘50s and ‘60s Italian pop hits in 2010. Dead Cross followed in 2015, a hardcore/thrash crossover outfit featuring Lombardo and Justin Pearson from San Diego punks Retox.

Not to be outdone, FNM keyboardist Roddy Bottum formed indie pop outfit Imperial Teen in 1996, who had a minor hit in 1998 with Yoo Hoo, which featured in the film Jawbreaker. Bassist Billy Gould, meanwhile, performed in faux Mexican drug cartel grindcore mob Brujeria, under the alias Güero Sin Fe, and joined ex-Dead Kennedy frontman Jello Biafra in Jello Biafra And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine for their 2009 debut album.

The collectivist hippie spirit personified, within leader Jerry Garcia’s lifetime, the various members of the Grateful Dead jammed, boogied and choogled their way through a swathe of side-projects, exploring everything from bluegrass, jazz, funk, country, experimental rock and disco, while still remaining committed to the Dead.

New Riders Of The Purple Sage grew out of the same fertile San Francisco scene as the Grateful Dead themselves and their initial, somewhat fluid, lineup included Jerry Garcia alongside Dead members Phil Lesh and Robert Hunter. Although only Garcia appeared on the band’s 1971 self-titled debut.

Not long after, during a break between Dead tours, Garcia formed Old & In The Way as an outlet for his passion for bluegrass (he played banjo in the band) alongside bluegrass players David Grisman, Peter Roan and Vassar Clements. The group played a handful of gigs in 1973, recordings from which were collected as 1975’s Old & In The Way, which – unusually for a short-lived side-jolly – would go on to become the best-selling bluegrass album of all time, until the release of the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack in 2000.

In another Dead fallow period between 1974 and 1975, Garcia and organist Merle Saunders formed Legion Of Mary, who played over 60 shows performing an eclectic mix of rock, jazz, funk and soul. In 1979 Garcia officially became a member of bassist and long-time collaborator John Kahn’s outfit Reconstruction, further exploring a jazz fusion and even disco-influenced angle. Although neither band recorded a studio album with Garcia, you can find their work on various live compilations and bootlegs.

Garcia’s main outlet outside of the Grateful Dead, however, was the more groove-based jams of the Jerry Garcia Band. Kahn and Garcia were the only two constants in an ever-evolving/revolving lineup and despite playing together and gigging for over twenty years, they only released one live and one studio album. However, posthumously, there has been an avalanche of live recordings to explore, including the 21-volume and counting Garcia Live series.

Around the time Garcia was kicking back with Legion Of Mary, guitarist Bob Weir joined San Francisco compadre Matthew Kelly’s Kingfish alongside ex-New Riders Of The Purple Sage bassist Dave Torbert. Although by 1977’s Live ‘N’ Kickin’, Weir was back playing full-time with the Dead and most of his songs and parts were removed from the record. Featuring jazz aces Billy Cobham on drums and, briefly, Weather Report bassist Alphonso Johnson, Weir’s Bobby And The Midnites mainly focused on live performing rather than studio work and only recorded two LPs in the early 80s, 1981’s self-titled debut and 1984’s Where The Beat Meets The Street.

After Garcia’s death in 1995, Weir focused on Ratdog while he and Dead bassist Phil Lesh formed Further in 2009, who mainly performed Grateful Dead material.  Since 2015, Weir has performed Dead songs as part of Dead & Company alongside singer/guitarist John Mayer and ex-Grateful Dead drummers Mickey Hart and – prior to 2022 Bill Kreutzmann. Lesh pays similar homage to his old band in Phil Lesh & Friends.
Hart and Kreutzman, meanwhile, had an informal side project within actual Grateful Dead concerts, performing improv sets together during gigs as The Rhythms Devil from the ‘70s through to the ‘90s. The pair were formally recruited by Francis Ford Coppola to record the soundtrack for 1979’s Apocalypse Now. Music from the recordings were also released in 1980 under The Rhythms Devils banner as The Apocalypse Now Sessions.