What bands 'should' have been bigger?

What bands 'should' have been bigger?

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Discussion

Sebastian Tombs

2,044 posts

191 months

Friday 2nd October 2020
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Mr Tidy said:
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)! laugh
The Divine Comedy were *so* much better than The National Express.
Liberation, Promenade and Casanova were incredibly creative musically and lyrically, intelligent and witty, perfectly produced and unlike anything else of their era. A Short Album About Love is grandiose and beautiful, and Fin de Siècle contains Commuter Love which is one of the most perfect songs ever.
I'm not convinced the later albums are as good musically, and I think he peaked with Regeneration, which is a masterpiece.

Pit Pony

8,268 posts

120 months

Saturday 3rd October 2020
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Has anyone mentioned Half man half biscuit.

Brilliant

K12beano

20,854 posts

274 months

Saturday 3rd October 2020
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Sebastian Tombs said:
The Divine Comedy were *so* much better than The National Express.
Liberation, Promenade and Casanova were incredibly creative musically and lyrically, intelligent and witty, perfectly produced and unlike anything else of their era. A Short Album About Love is grandiose and beautiful, and Fin de Siècle contains Commuter Love which is one of the most perfect songs ever.
I'm not convinced the later albums are as good musically, and I think he peaked with Regeneration, which is a masterpiece.
I'm with you there.

"Whimsical"

Trophy Husband

3,924 posts

106 months

Saturday 3rd October 2020
quotequote all
K12beano said:
Sebastian Tombs said:
The Divine Comedy were *so* much better than The National Express.
Liberation, Promenade and Casanova were incredibly creative musically and lyrically, intelligent and witty, perfectly produced and unlike anything else of their era. A Short Album About Love is grandiose and beautiful, and Fin de Siècle contains Commuter Love which is one of the most perfect songs ever.
I'm not convinced the later albums are as good musically, and I think he peaked with Regeneration, which is a masterpiece.
I'm with you there.

"Whimsical"
Neil Hannon is a laureate the likes of which Noel Gallagher and that geezer from Pulp whose name ironically eludes me could only ever have a wish to be.
Same for Badly Drawn Boy in my estimation, absolute laureate.

blue_haddock

3,143 posts

66 months

Saturday 3rd October 2020
quotequote all
Sebastian Tombs said:
The Divine Comedy were *so* much better than The National Express.
Liberation, Promenade and Casanova were incredibly creative musically and lyrically, intelligent and witty, perfectly produced and unlike anything else of their era. A Short Album About Love is grandiose and beautiful, and Fin de Siècle contains Commuter Love which is one of the most perfect songs ever.
I'm not convinced the later albums are as good musically, and I think he peaked with Regeneration, which is a masterpiece.
I did quite like Divine comedy, definitely more than just national express.

An excerpt of one of their songs was also used as the father Ted theme

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 5th October 2020
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Speaking of the 90s. Credit to the Nation were right on the cusp of blowing up and for some reason died a death.

coppice

8,564 posts

143 months

Sunday 11th October 2020
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The Bible - a wonderful songsmith in Boo Hewerdine , wonderful live but , cruelly , never quite made it. See also Danny Wilson - terrific band,

Still, nobody ever got ever rich by underestimating the record buying public's execrable taste - Jive Bunny anyone? Or would Sir prefer some Jason Donovan ....

McGee_22

6,655 posts

178 months

Sunday 11th October 2020
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Turin Brakes for me; beautiful but biting soulful songs with great guitar play over smooth melodies.

rowley birkin

485 posts

99 months

Sunday 11th October 2020
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I'm not sure why YouTube suggested that I might be interested in a 1970's female rock group named Fanny but they were quite good:-

https://youtu.be/bE3uwtegPEY

Animal

5,246 posts

267 months

Sunday 11th October 2020
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McGee_22 said:
Turin Brakes for me; beautiful but biting soulful songs with great guitar play over smooth melodies.
Great shout!

Gecko1978

9,603 posts

156 months

Monday 12th October 2020
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Fittster said:
bigandclever said:
spikeyhead said:
Kenickie
Enjoy! (or don’t smile )

https://youtu.be/XFqzOXFEhkM
They were relatively big, apparently a top ten album. Not sure quite how much more success you'd expect from them.

If they get on the list, then I'll add Pop Will Eat Itself, who had less chart success but I think are fairly well known (At least they sold a lot of T-shirts to student in the 90s, even if they didn't sell many records).
Saw them in 97 and also when I discovered prime music a few years ago it was the first album I searched for.

Second album was not that good and their sound just kind of aged. Lauren Lavern became a sometime tv presenter

wisbech

2,939 posts

120 months

Tuesday 13th October 2020
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D'Influence. 90's jazz funk group - (think Soul2Soul) Great live, very respected (did lots of remixing/ production work for other groups, opened for Micheal Jackson) but never had that one break through hit.

AdeTuono

7,240 posts

226 months

Tuesday 13th October 2020
quotequote all
Gecko1978 said:
Fittster said:
bigandclever said:
spikeyhead said:
Kenickie
Enjoy! (or don’t smile )

https://youtu.be/XFqzOXFEhkM
They were relatively big, apparently a top ten album. Not sure quite how much more success you'd expect from them.

If they get on the list, then I'll add Pop Will Eat Itself, who had less chart success but I think are fairly well known (At least they sold a lot of T-shirts to student in the 90s, even if they didn't sell many records).
Saw them in 97 and also when I discovered prime music a few years ago it was the first album I searched for.

Second album was not that good and their sound just kind of aged. Lauren Lavern became a sometime tv presenter host of BBC 6 Music Breakfast Show, 6 Music Recommends, Radio 4's Desert Island Discs and Mercury Music Prize is now in the top ten BBC earners.
FTFY wink

Fittster

20,120 posts

212 months

Tuesday 13th October 2020
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wisbech said:
D'Influence. 90's jazz funk group - (think Soul2Soul) Great live, very respected (did lots of remixing/ production work for other groups, opened for Micheal Jackson) but never had that one break through hit.
I've got the first album and it's OK but the weren't doing anything particularly new (they came a fair while after Soul II Soul) and by the time of the second album Acid Jazz had declined into a fairly small scene. At the time I preferred Qui 3, who were similar but I struggle to think either could have been huge.


HappySilver

319 posts

163 months

Tuesday 13th October 2020
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Big Audio Dynamite. Such an influential band, so many bands of the next 20 or so years owed a lot to their sound. They kicked the sampling trend off, others had done it in bits before but their first album was full of samples. Jones and Strummer working together, and playing nicely, post Clash. They pushed so many technology, video and music boundaries.

Winterway

1,570 posts

184 months

Wednesday 14th October 2020
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Could name a lot more metal bands for this, but one I just listened to for the first time;

Tarot (eg. Marko Hietala of Nightwish)

Its obviously mid-tier and not going to come near Iron Maiden and suchlike/seminal stuff, this is so overlooked. In terms of straight heavy/power metal the two 80s records should be in any 80s top 100 but generally aren't. Great songs, vocals and nothing much wrong with the guitar work.

Edited by Winterway on Wednesday 14th October 13:16

notslopes

50 posts

41 months

Sunday 18th October 2020
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Dan Reed Network, they were at the start of the allged Funk Rock genre but never seemed to take off like Faith No More. Maybe because they were a bit more melodic than others and less in your face.
Saw them years ago supporting Bon Jovi and they were great.

Japveesix

4,477 posts

167 months

Monday 2nd November 2020
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Japveesix said:
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
Thought I'd update this rather than start a new thread but the lead singer of Silver Sun, James Broad, sadly died of cancer a couple of days ago. He was still singing and releasing music as Silver Sun at the start of this year and was only 50, leaving behind a wife and young daughter.

Really sad as their first album was one of the main soundtracks to my teenage years.

For those who haven't heard them now's the time to go listen to any one of the following tracks on YouTube:

I'll see you around:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-nLWLxHYYyw

Lava:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UVja3OCbXs8

Last day:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FYtbr86cjaM

Too much, too little, too late:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wDBncxWtLd8

New song Big Wheel from April this year:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GAhpwzJT0l4

RIP James Broad, seemed like a nice dude and knew how to write a catchy tune!

Edited by Japveesix on Tuesday 3rd November 20:28

Sebastian Tombs

2,044 posts

191 months

Monday 2nd November 2020
quotequote all
Damn, I had no idea. I thought the first Silver Sun album was ace. I was a radio DJ at the time and I played the hell out of it, so I hope I generated him some airplay royalties, and maybe persuaded some people to buy their albums.

Hub

6,413 posts

197 months

Monday 2nd November 2020
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Sebastian Tombs said:
Damn, I had no idea. I thought the first Silver Sun album was ace.
Ditto. Very sad. It was a good fun album, proper power pop - like a rock Beach Boys!