Did you know??? That Jack White’s other band The Raconteurs had to be renamed The Saboteurs for the Australian market when it was discovered that a Queensland jazz band was already using the name “The Raconteurs”.
“The Australian Raconteurs” refused to give up their name for the amount they were offered, and instead asked for a higher price from “The American Raconteurs” record company, who refused to pay the greater amount. A member of “The Australian Raconteurs” said that they had not been informed of who was actually trying to buy their name and asked for the larger sum of money to see what would happen.
A statement to the Australian press reads:
“The Raconteurs name was already taken by a jazz band, to make things easier, and in the spirit of espionage and subversion, we have decided to become The Saboteurs in Australia only.”
So White, Brendan Benson, Patrick Keeler and Jack Lawrence are hereby ‘The Saboteurs” in Commonwealth of Australia. All the album artwork and photographs had to be changed. Check out the “Consolers Of The Lonely” album cover with the different band names….
And their debut album “Broken Boy Soldier“….
Here’s the link to The Saboteurs super cheesy Australian website…www.thesaboteurs.com. Nirvana had to strike a similar deal with a band named Nirvana in the UK. Click photo or link below to check out that story…