What bands 'should' have been bigger?

[Kingdom35]

The Rifles - Unbelievable Band
Ash - Also great live

So many Milburn also great shout

[lauda]

AdeTuono said:

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Longpigs, The Sun Is Often Out was one of my favourite albums of the 90s.

At least Richard Hawley went on to become more successful. Not generally my C of T, but we saw him on tour last year and he was phenomenally good. Probably in my Top 10 gigs...

I really like Richard Hawley's solo stuff and knew he had been in Pulp but hadn't realised he'd also been a member of Longpigs. Had a look at his Wikipedia page and discovered he also co-wrote The Fix which is one of my favourite Elbow tracks.

[hepy]

lauda said:

AdeTuono said:

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Longpigs, The Sun Is Often Out was one of my favourite albums of the 90s.

At least Richard Hawley went on to become more successful. Not generally my C of T, but we saw him on tour last year and he was phenomenally good. Probably in my Top 10 gigs...

I really like Richard Hawley's solo stuff and knew he had been in Pulp but hadn't realised he'd also been a member of Longpigs. Had a look at his Wikipedia page and discovered he also co-wrote The Fix which is one of my favourite Elbow tracks.

He's a national treasure.

[Mr Tidy]

I'd also agree with Ash!

I can't help thinking Supergrass deserved more recognition than they got as well.

[K12beano]

Mr Tidy said:

I can't help thinking Supergrass deserved more recognition than they got as well.

I'd agree - I vaguely remember about that time thinking they were one of the best things to have happened in a decade or so

(but then I grew up with 60s music and all through the 70s which had all seemed pretty exciting)

But going back to Supergrass era - a couple of honourable mentions that maybe should have been even bigger:

Jayhawks
Beautiful South
Divine Comedy

Yes, they were all big...ish... but could really have been massive, I think

[Leithen]

The Bathers - just reissued three albums on vinyl.

Kelvingrove Baby
Lagoon Blues
Sunpowder

The best kept secret in Scottish Music - really shouldn't be though.

[Mr Tidy]

K12beano said:

'd agree - I vaguely remember about that time thinking they were one of the best things to have happened in a decade or so

(but then I grew up with 60s music and all through the 70s which had all seemed pretty exciting)

But going back to Supergrass era - a couple of honourable mentions that maybe should have been even bigger:

Jayhawks
Beautiful South
Divine Comedy

Yes, they were all big...ish... but could really have been massive, I think

I don't know anything about the Jayhawks, but the Beautiful South seemed pretty MOR to me and Divine Comedy were just cr*p - they should have taken a National Express out of the UK. (I would have chipped in towards the fare)!

[lauda]

K12beano said:

Beautiful South

Carry On Up The Charts went 5x platinum. Not sure you get much bigger than that.

[zygalski]

Black Box Recorder.
One top 20 hit, several great albums.

[young_bairn]

Some great shouts here.

Rifles were brilliant but around when the indie scene was main stream.

The Beta Bands music was almost ahead of it's time.

Can I throw in Doves? Id say they are borderline for this thread. Always felt their talent has never been appreciated critically.

[tuscan_raider]

young_bairn said:

Some great shouts here.

Rifles were brilliant but around when the indie scene was main stream.

The Beta Bands music was almost ahead of it's time.

Can I throw in Doves? Id say they are borderline for this thread. Always felt their talent has never been appreciated critically.

I loved Doves (or was it THE Doves?)- caught them at the Astoria and became a fan instantly

I would offer:
- A House
- Sunscream
- One 2 Many
- Northside
- Transglobal Underground (my all time favorite)
- Kid Loco
- Fila Brisilia

[Driver101]

tuscan_raider said:

young_bairn said:

Some great shouts here.

Rifles were brilliant but around when the indie scene was main stream.

The Beta Bands music was almost ahead of it's time.

Can I throw in Doves? Id say they are borderline for this thread. Always felt their talent has never been appreciated critically.

I loved Doves (or was it THE Doves?)- caught them at the Astoria and became a fan instantly

I would offer:
- A House
- Sunscream
- One 2 Many
- Northside
- Transglobal Underground (my all time favorite)
- Kid Loco
- Fila Brisilia

Doves. They still exist and are touring from March 2021.

I'd go for Turin Brakes. Lots of praise, but not so much records sales. Still sound great, but playing small venues.

[popeyewhite]

tuscan_raider said:

I loved Doves (or was it THE Doves?)- caught them at the Astoria and became a fan instantly

I would offer:
- A House
- Sunscream
- One 2 Many
- Northside
- Transglobal Underground (my all time favorite)
- Kid Loco
- Fila Brisilia

The above mentioned bands weren't bigger because they weren't popular in the first place. And the reason they weren't popular?
Yep, that's right.

The OP makes it clear we're considering First Division bands that for some reason didn't make it to the Premier League, not everyone's favourite pub band.

[Toma500]

The Outlaws every bit as good as Lynyrd skynyrd and the Allman bros , still going but with only 2 members of original band check out green grass and high tides , hurry sundown .

[Japveesix]

Animal said:

Silver Sun.

The first Silver Sun album is one of the catchiest and best poprock records ever. It's got some absolute gems on it.

For me The Wildhearts should have been far bigger, I'd genuinely rate Ginger as one of the best songwriters of our time. He's prolific and can write stomping riff laden rock monsters, alongside 3 minute pop songs, meandering ballad style stuff and folk numbers. And his lyrics are regularly great, witty and relevant.

Edited by Japveesix on Thursday 3rd September 20:28

[malks222]

Driver101 said:

SaintsPaul said:

PurpleTurtle said:

Frightened Rabbit.

Scott Hutchison was a brilliant songwriter alas unable to shake off his mental health issues, culminating in his suicide as foretold on ‘Floating In The Forth’ on their magnificent Midnight Organ Fight album.

I saw Frightened Rabbit at a small intimate gig in Southampton a few years back and they were brilliant. Shame he couldn't deal with his mental health issues.

A massively underrated band.

Scott was a great guy.

I still remember the day and reading the comments about the last sighting of him was nearby the forth bridge. We all knew what was coming.

absolutely agree. ‘midnight organ fight’ is a wonderful album, it’s an album I just keep returning to.

I feel very sad about how it all ended, now a lot of musicians have fallen that way. but something about scott has really stuck with me. I really hope he found his peace.

[Animal]

Not a band, but Tom McRae should be more widely known, I think. A great singer and a fantastic songwriter and so, so entertaining live. His first album came out 20 years ago, and despite a reasonable amount of support for his first 2-3 albums (including a Mercury award nomination), he hasn't had any real mainstream success.

[toon10]

Animal said:

Not a band, but Tom McRae should be more widely known, I think. A great singer and a fantastic songwriter and so, so entertaining live. His first album came out 20 years ago, and despite a reasonable amount of support for his first 2-3 albums (including a Mercury award nomination), he hasn't had any real mainstream success.

Good friends of mine opened for Tom and his band at the Union Chapel London back in 2017.

[spikeyhead]

toon10 said:

Good friends of mine opened for Tom and his band at the Union Chapel London back in 2017.

That's a venue I really like.

[Animal]

toon10 said:

Good friends of mine opened for Tom and his band at the Union Chapel London back in 2017.

Who was that?