When Quincy Sued The Pants Off Quincy!

The year 1980 should have been a year of celebration for the New Jersey rock band Quincy.

Formed in 1976 by two sets of brothers (Stephen & Brian Butler and Gerald & Alex Takach) whose use of lush four-part harmonies found itself decidedly out-of-step with a musical landscape that favored hard rock and disco, the band eventually retooled their sound and, by 1978, emerged as a lean, mean new wave machine with fifth member Wally "Metro" Smith on synths.

By the end of the decade, four years of hard work and the sort of trials & tribulations that would have derailed a lesser band (the fatal stabbing of Alex Takach during a break in sets at a club in Philadelphia that remains unsolved) had made the band more determined than ever to succeed.

A fateful gig at New York's now-legendary CBGB's changed their trajectory overnight when CBGB's founder Hilly Kristal took them under his wing and began shopping their demo to major labels.

The band was signed to Columbia Records by former Zombies guitarist Paul Atkinson, who, along with Colin Blunstone, sang backing vocals on the album (billed as The Zombie Choir).

Indeed, everything was finally looking up for the band.

And then one day Quincy Jones caught wind of the band's existence and immediately filed suit against the band for theft of trademark. Seems there was only room in the music business for one Quincy. Sadly, CBS Records executives, eager to stay on the good side of the producer of Michael Jackson's latest smash album Off The Wall, refused to back the band.

After a protracted legal battle, the details of which have never been publicly divulged, the band changed their name to Lulu Temple - a name so awful that even Quincy Jones must have winced when he heard it - and released one ill-fated EP for Columbia Records before disbanding.

The Butler brothers soon resurfaced on Epic Records under the name Smash Palace, releasing one ill-fated album in 1985 before leaving the label.