Sometimes an awful lotsometimes nothing at all. Should you chance upon the band Cradle of Filth, for instance, you will find it to be an all-encompassing moniker.

The name spills all the gen!

What they sound like, look like, what albums they own, the colour they painted their bedrooms during a spell of teenage belligerence you really don't need to go beyond that name at all. On the other hand, some names do tell a lie. And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, for example, manage to completely wrong-foot the casual listener with that extraordinary name.

All of which comes to mind because the Northwich/Warrington band to whom I have grown fond in recent weeks, Bangkok, have decided to jump free from that splendid moniker and re-name themselvesExile Parade! Well, I don't know.

I rather liked Bangkok. For reasons that aren't immediately clear, it presented me with an image of some hairdresser trash band from Michigan, clad in scarlet spandex and wielding Flying Vs while girls dressed as policewomen in fishnet tights would dance around a neon backdrop.

Nothing whatsoever to do with a gutsy rock band from Cheshire but I enjoyed the vision nonetheless.

As for Exile Paradewell, it will become OK as they slowly grow into it. Six gigs down the line and Bangkok will be a memory that, hopefully as some kind of success dawns, will attain a mythical status.

I wish them well and, if their new recordings are any indication, then they are moving rapidly along the right musical track. However, it just reminds me of a time, way back, when the greatest Manchester pop band of the eighties, The Distractions, lost their inspirational leader Steve Perrin due to an outbreak of typical internal bickering. This split, taking place at precisely the moment when Island Records were and this is true, by the way deciding which of their two recent signings they should drop. A meeting was called by legendary Island boss Chris Blackwellthe choice was simple. Either they would drop the pop of The Distractions or the rock band they had hurriedly signed from IrelandU2. As The Distractions has just lost their principal songwriterout they went. Perhaps the company made the right decision. Steve Perrin, however, excitedly told me that his new band would be called, Escape Committee. Indeed, he did escapestraight out of the Manchester history books.

To be honest, as someone who has hovered around embryonic bands for 30 years, I concede that I am absolutely useless in the art of discovering embryonic talent. I have a theory, actually, that everyone is similarly clueless.

When something happensit happens. Now that might not be the most encouraging statement for the young bands of the area but it does carry some hope. I speak as the man who failed to recognise the potential within Joy Division, Smiths, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, Echo and the Bunnymen, Red Hot Chilli Peppers or U2. None of whom I thought stood a chance in hell of ever getting anywhere when I caught them in small clubs. By contrast, my earnest predictions of global domination for Easterhouse, Glee Company, Secret Seven and The Bodines all failed to materialise. Perhaps I am merely the worst A&R man in the world. Mind you, a certain Mr Wilson fares little better.

Turning down Oasis, The Fall, Soft Cell, The Smiths, Stone Roses and snapping up Thick Pigeon, Crispy Ambulance, Hopper and Raw T suggests he owns a similar ear to mine.

I speak at a unique time. I genuinely can't recall when the north west held such a sparkling array of talentdisparate, intelligent and well developed talent toocomplete with an extraordinary level of musicality not always a good thing (musical naivet is a powerful force) and an eye for technology that, frankly, is way beyond me.

Within the space of seven days, two bands have unwisely asked me to manage them. No fear! To accept such a role, as I have in the past, is to immediately become responsible for all the failings of a bunch of egotistical, self-centred, bickering, juvenile ingrates who have no concept of reality whatsoever.

The message is simple: stay true to your talent and don't expect the world to take notice.

Maybe it will, maybe notand often regardless of a dodgy name or, alas, talent.