Ming Tea
Or how to take a break from your career and accidentally start a film franchise
One piece of advice I always give people is that if you are feeling stuck, go do something else. Try something new, start back on something you’ve stopped doing, play with new ideas, just let yourself wander and see what happens. Taking a break to do something else, even if it is still work related, will allow you to come back with a fresh perspective. Or, possibly even lead you to something new, and then back to where you started with a new energy. As an example, let’s talk about Ming Tea. And to get to Ming Tea, we need to start with Susanna Hoffs.
Susanna Hoffs graduated from University of California, Berkeley with an arts degree and ideas of being a painter or dancer. Instead she fell into some punk rock, met up with some like minded women and in 1981 formed a band, The Bangs. The Bangs released a single in 1981 which caught the attention of music executive Miles Copeland. They were signed and they released an EP in 1982. This is when they found out that another band owned the name The Bangs. So they decided to change it to Bangles (and eventually The Bangles). The first album wasn’t a great seller,, but it did catch some attention in the industry including from Prince, who gave them a song he had written.
That song, “Manic Monday”, led off their second album and made it all the way to number 2 in the US. Their third single, “Walk Like An Egyptian”, made it to number 1 in multiple countries and made The Bangles superstars. It also started the downfall of the band.
The video intersperses the band singing, the band dressed in Egyptian looking clothes dancing and various people doing the hand movements. And then at 2:47 in the video, the camera closes up on Hoffs face, the music mostly stops, her eyes go from one side to the other and she sings the chorus. And in that moment, Hoffs became a superstar and seen as the face of The Bangles. This didn’t sit well with the other women in the band and it started causing friction.
In between the second and third albums, Hoffs starred in a movie, The Allnighter, which was written, directed and produced by her mother, Tamar Simon Hoffs. The movie bombed, but that couldn’t stop the growing popularity of Hoffs.
For The Bangles third album, Hoffs brought in a song, “Eternal Flame”, which she had co-written. The rest of the band decided against the song, but the producer decided he liked it and pushed, with Hoffs’ help, for its inclusion. The song became The Bangles biggest hit.
But this was the final straw. The band tensions blew up and they broke up a few months later. Hoffs released a solo album a couple years later that did decently, but nothing like The Bangles. Her second album was never released. Newly married and dissatisfied with her career, Hoffs decided to put her career on hold. But still wanting a creative outlet, she found common musical ideas with musician Matthew Sweet and actor Mike Myers and Ming Tea was formed.
Mike Myers grew up in Ontario to English parents doing various acting roles since he was a small child. After graduating college, Myers went to England and helped found an improv group and star in a British kids show. Returning to Canada, Myers joined legendary improv group Second City. He also made several appearances on MuchMusic, Canada’s version of MTV, as Wayne Campbell, a character which would later lead him to stardom. After a short stay in Second City Chicago, Myers joined Saturday Night Live in 1989 and quickly became one of the more popular actors.
Some of his most popular characters were Linda Richman in Coffee Talk, Dieter in Sprockets and, of course, Wayne Campbell. Wayne, along with buddy Garth (Dana Carvey) was one of the most popular characters in SNL at that time. So it was to no one’s surprise that a movie was quickly spun off, Wayne’s World came out in 1992 and was critically praised as well as being very successful. A sequel came out a year later, to lower box office and middling reviews. Myers then starred in So I Married An Axe Murderer to even lower box office and middling reviews.
Myers then spent one more year in SNL before leaving in January 1995. He had left his most well known show and had a mostly mediocre record with movies. Myers decided he needed to take some time off.
During his time off, he bonded with Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet on their love of British TV, movies and music from the 1960s and 1970s. They decided to form a faux retro 1960s British band called Ming Tea. To complete the band’s look and ethos, they all decided to use pseudonyms. Sweet became Sid Belvedere, Hoffs became Gillian Shagwell and Myers became Austin Powers.
Myers wife thought the whole concept was amazing and urged Myers to write a movie based on his character. And Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery was created. To make sure that the movie kept to its 1960s/1970s British influence, Myers decided to use a director who would be familiar with what he was looking for. So fellow Ming Tea performer Susanna Hoff’s husband Jay Roach was brought in to direct his first movie. Ming Tea did songs for each Austin Powers movie. And, in addition, Hoffs was able to reform The Bangles to do a song for the second Austin Powers movie. They’ve since continued to record and tour.
Both Hoffs and Myers were taking a break from their careers and decided to do something fun and different. Neither anticipated what would come from their fun little pseudo band. Getting outside our daily grind for a little while can lead you to get refreshed and come back with a new zeal. Or it could lead to you to getting a fresh perspective on what you’re doing. Or, just maybe, it could lead to a popular film franchise.