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In fact, they gave the best of the night because the Puddle of Mudd singer, Wes, pulled his same shit, different day. Well where do I start? First the opening bands were great. Expect a no-frills show if you do manage to catch them, with the setlist flitting between the angst-ridden - ‘She Hates Me’ - and rough-around-the-edges balladry, like ‘Drift and Die’. He continues to tour with the band over a decade on, and whilst their commercial fortunes have certainly dwindled, there’s obviously a big enough audience for early-noughties post-grunge to make the band’s frequent worldwide jaunts a viable proposition. The end result, Come Clean, went three times platinum, with lead single ‘Blurry’ - a track based on Scantlin’s custody troubles - a major alternative radio hit in the States. Despite the disbanding, he’d go on to hand a demo tape to Fred Durst at a Limp Bizkit show liking what he heard, Durst got back in touch with Scantlin, and helped him put together a new Puddle lineup, as well as bag himself a major label deal. After nine years of toil for Wes Scantlin, who’d been playing with some form of Puddle of Mudd since the early nineties, he eventually split the band, after one EP and an album, Abrasive. If you take nothing else away from the story of Puddle of Mudd’s big break, you can surely at least appreciate that one of the oldest tricks in the rock and roll book apparently remains alive and well.
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The band have had several line up changes throughout their career, with Wes Scantlin remaining the only original member. The band have also released a covers album, titled "Re:(disc)overed" on the 30th August, 2011, which featured songs originally by The Rolling Stones, Bad Company, AC/DC amongst others. Their following album releases did not achieve the same heights as "Come Clean" but they have still garnered moderate success, with 2003's "Life on Display" being certified Gold and 2006's "Famous" having a number of tracks featured on various video games and television series. The album was certified triple Platinum in the US and went on to sell over five million copies. The album's success led to many high profile tours with the likes of Godsmack, Deftones, Stone Temple Pilots and Staind. "Drift and Die" spent six weeks at number one on the Mainstream Rock Chart and fourth single "She Hates Me" peaking at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, winning the ASCAP title for ',most played rock song of the year.' Their second single, "Blurry" reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and number eight in the UK Singles Charts. In 2001, with the new members settled in, the band released their major debut album "Come Clean" on Durst's Flawless Records, featuring a number of successful singles that broke into the top ten. The long-running project of guitarist/vocalist Wes Scantln began life in 1991, releasing two albums, 1994's "Stuck" and 1997's "Abrasive" on independent labels before gaining the attention of Limp Bizkit's frontman, Fred Durst, who offered Scantlin his break in the music business.By then, bar Scantlin, the original members of Puddle of Mudd had left the band but through Durst's help, replacements were found.
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