The Ramones

The Ramones were all from the Queens district of New York. Tommy Erdelyi (Tommy Ramone) and John Cummings (Johnny) met in high school in the 60's and formed a band together called the Tangerine Puppets. 

A few years after that broke up Johnny met Douglas Colvin (Dee Dee) as they worked near each other and after many lunch break discussions the two decided to form a band. Johnny's old friend Tommy was enthusiatic about this and became their manager and advisor. The group started practising with Jeff Hyman (Joey) on drums (as he had recently been fired from a band called Sniper) until it was decided Dee Dee's vocals weren't strong enough and Joey was moved to lead vocals. 

The group auditioned many drummers but couldn't find one who played with the simplicity they required. Eventually Tommy, tired of trying to coach new drummers, decided to teach himself to play instead. 

That stayed the same until 1978 when Tommy became weary of the constant touring in unpleasant conditions and retired from the group to concentrate on studio work and was replaced with Voidoids drummer Marc Bell (Marky).