Bands that never *Quite* made it.

dmpoole said:
These are one of the best bands EVER.
Old style rock with old style riffs and a proper singer where you can hear the words.
Their new album Simple Mind Condition is awesome and I'm playing it just as much as the new Wildhearts album.
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They still tour mainly Europe, I'd probably give both arms to see them live...
Still I never thought I'd see Annihilator either and ended up seeing them this year, bring on the Trouble!

Manic Frustration is quite possibly my favorite. Need to check out the new album, I don't have it yet.
 
Apes, Pigs and Spacemen... Shot themselves in the foot by putting out the first great post-grunge rock album before everyone else was quite finished with grunge :)

And, for that matter, Dub War and Skindred. Despite huge critical acclaim, excellent albums, endless first-class tours, they just go nowhere. Still waiting for that second Skindred album in fact. No doubt when it comes out they'll play another tour of the exact same venues, and possibly play the exact same slot on the bill at the festivals, as they did before they'd even got the first one out. It vexes me...

And Hundred Reasons. Very brief moderate success, but despite getting better and better, and musical trends actually moving in their general direction, they've gone from the edge of a runaway success to, well, not very much at all.

The Wildhearts... Well, not convinced by that one. Yep, they're one of my favourite bands, but they've been pretty succesful for a british rock band- top 20 singles, selling out big venues, etc. They never went massive but I'd not agree they didn't make it. Despite their best efforts :D
 
GuruJockStrap said:
Sonic Youth - Thought they would be massive.
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Sonic Youth are pretty big - one of my favourite bands anyway - but they were always room to be bigger.

In my opinion I prefered them in the time to Nirvana, much better sound.

Rich
 
penski said:
it was one of the best gigs I've been to in years. they were as tight as ever and the current lineup is sublime.
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You just made me think of Sublime. Not too hot on their history but they really could have been massive for their 'scene' had things not gone wrong. But then again i class them as pretty iconic anyway!
 
For me it was a band called Edison. They were so so so so close to making it to the 'big time'. But they didn't like how the label was telling them to write their music (or something along those lines). So they left it all and came back here. Really a fantastic band, and I'm friends with all the former members. :p
 
senser are great, saw them the other week.

reef also great, sure they still tour occasionally...I am not too sure though

i think there are too many to list :)
 
Phalanx said:
65daysofstatic

all those albums and nobody even cares :(
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I saw them live at Koko the other week and they were fantastic. Some of the drumming is absolutely insane.

They'll never be a mainstream band though. Most people wants lyrics with their music.


I always thought that Idlewild would be bigger than they are. They've written some great music and I think they deserve to be as big as U2 or Oasis.
 
lozza23_uk said:
reef also great, sure they still tour occasionally...I am not too sure though
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I have a great story about Reef. We were staying in LA in some apartments for the summer and there was a rumour that a band was staying near us (Reef may have been mentioned, i cant remember). Anyway, one day we were pulling into the underground car park and saw them getting into a minivan. We werent sure though, and we'd just pulled in as they were leaving so couldnt stop them then. So next time we saw that van in the car park we left a note on it saying something along the lines of "Are you Reef? If you are, can we get your autographs? If you're not, sorry" (:p) and left our apartment number. A day or so later, we had 4 polaroids stuck to a bit of card pushed under our door - all signed :cool:

I've still got it framed!
 
shocking said:
They would get my vote - so diverse, brilliant lyrically and Ginger has genuine stage presence. Shame they have a very large self-destruct button. I can't believe they couldn't sell out Newcastle Carling Academy in what was a home town gig!

Ocean Colour Scene are another band that I always say should have been massive. If you're lucky you might have heard "Day We Caught The Train" on the radio, but that's the only airplay they got, with the exception of "The Riverboat Song" (TFI Friday theme tune). Still have a large and loyal fanbase and some outstanding albums, anybody wanting to check them out should look into Mosely Shoals and North Atlantic Drift.

There are some bands that my circle of friends consider to be triple-A style massive that some people just haven't heard of too - so perhaps my perception of a "big" band is a bit off.
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I thought that Ocean Colour Scene were pretty big back in the mid to late 90s....You missed off 'You've Got It Bad' too which was a good OCS single, I'm sure people must have heard that too?
 
Scam said:
I have a great story about Reef. We were staying in LA in some apartments for the summer and there was a rumour that a band was staying near us (Reef may have been mentioned, i cant remember). Anyway, one day we were pulling into the underground car park and saw them getting into a minivan. We werent sure though, and we'd just pulled in as they were leaving so couldnt stop them then. So next time we saw that van in the car park we left a note on it saying something along the lines of "Are you Reef? If you are, can we get your autographs? If you're not, sorry" (:p) and left our apartment number. A day or so later, we had 4 polaroids stuck to a bit of card pushed under our door - all signed :cool:

I've still got it framed!
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that is a cool story :)
 
Tunney said:
I always thought that Idlewild would be bigger than they are. They've written some great music and I think they deserve to be as big as U2 or Oasis.
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I think Idlewild sabotged themselves a bit by honking off so many of their old fans. In a pretty contemptuous way too IMO, last time I saw them there was a hefty shout on for Captain, and they played El Capitan instead, Roddy making a feeble attempt to pretend he'd misheard. At least have the nuts to stand up and say "Nah, that's not us any more" They also played a horrible acoustic version of Self Healer "For the old fans"- the original was 2 minutes of ramshackle noisemaking, the acoustic version was 5 minutes of dismal shoegazing . But despite not wanting to play their own punkier songs, they still covered I Wanna Be Sedated in the encore. Bands move on, obviously, but I thought that was pretty shoddy, lot of unhappy faces in that crowd.

Then, I'm officially old guard now, think there were only 10 paying customers first time I saw Idlewild... And I never thought they'd ever be bigger than oh, maybe headlining the Barrowlands but not quite selling out, or playing halfway up the bill at Reading, in the Ash slot.
 
I remember seeing a band called Electrasy in a Firkin pub in Exeter back when I was a fresher(1998). I liked what I heard and so I kept an ear out for them.
They got a deal and released an album which had probably 6 catchy, radio-friendly singles on it, an anthemic singalong love song which could also be played accoustically and butchered by buskers and the token white noise and weird samples album track to keep the NME types happy. Hell 'Morning Afterglow' was even Jo Whileys record of the week.

Sunk without a trace. :rolleyes:
 
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