[Music] Most underated band ever?

[DFL JCL]

The lone bellow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CKS7qWayDk

 

[DFL JCL]

This guy is decent too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Snh2NZHhk

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Yes. Yes it is.

A singer from the 80s who should have been much better known - Pete Wylie.

To be fair, Wah! had some big hits. Who could forget the magnificent 'Story of the Blues' or 'Come Back'?

Pete Wylie was great, and wonderful live.

Wah! (or Wah Heat! or Shambeka Say Wah!) emerged from Liverpool at the same sort of time as Echo and the Bunnymen (also underrated) and The Teardrop Explodes, who had much more commercial success. They were all mates - Wylie, Julian Cope and Ian McCulloch were originally in a band together (The Crucial Three) - but all had massive egos that demanded frontman status - I think they got back together, though, from time to time.

But Wylie, for whatever reason, didn't last. So yes, hugely underrated, especially now.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

That's the fella. His backing vocals on The Farm's 'All Together Now' are sublime.

A bit of Bros trivia for you. Their haircuts from that time were modelled on Kirk Douglas' haircut in the film Spartacus.

And if you're gonna get all 80s pop, I give you the magnificent...Haircut 100.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Dexys Midnight Runners are often written off as dungaree wearing simpletons who sung 'Come on Eileen', and Kevin Rowland is sneered at for his various idiosyncrasies over the years.

People should listen to Searching For The Young Soul Rebels and, especially, Don't Stand Me Down.

They were a magnificent band.

 

[Buzzer]

And if you're gonna get all 80s pop, I give you the magnificent...Haircut 100.

What a fantastic band they were. I always thought The Belle Stars had the talent to go further but they never stood a chance with the way their record company Stiff Records managed their female artists. At the very height of their success they were on a fixed wage of about £50 a week I seem to remember reading. No wonder Kirsty MacColl fell out with Stiff.

 

[boik]

Got another - Budgie, which probably may be a bit heavy, great three piece from Wales saw them at the Brighton Top Rank. Another from that time Nazareth who I also saw there. Be-Bop Deluxe a few years later at the Brighton Centre, Axe Victim a great album, especially the track No trains to Heaven.

Wow, loved Budgie when I was a young an impressionable teenager. Titles like "Hot as a dockers armpit" and "In the grip of a tyre fitters hand". Here is my bedroom door from that time.....

 

[boik]

Assuming we means bands that weren't unheard of or never charted, I give you XTC. Had a few minor hits, but influenced so many future bands. I'm sure anyone who saw them live would put them right up there with the best. They changed songs almost every time they played them live, adding bits, re-ordering them, and merging them into other songs. A truly fabulous thing to experience.

 

[Buzzer]

Assuming we means bands that weren't unheard of or never charted, I give you XTC. Had a few minor hits, but influenced so many future bands. I'm sure anyone who saw them live would put them right up there with the best. They changed songs almost every time they played them live, adding bits, re-ordering them, and merging them into other songs. A truly fabulous thing to experience.

Definitely a band who in an ideal world should've, could've, would've....

Wasn't stage fright a major factor in them splitting up?

 

[boik]

Definitely a band who in an ideal world should've, could've, would've....

Wasn't stage fright a major factor in them splitting up?

Andy P had mental health issues which manifested itself in a fear of going on stage.. His (then) wife threw away his medication before a gig and told him he didn't need it. Bit of a breakdown and no more live shows. Funnily enough, he always seemed to excel when they played live. I have a few live bootleg recordings to remind me just how good they were. Remember them playing the Top Rank when there was a power failure and they came on and played "unplugged".

 

[The Sock of Poskett]

It's difficult to say who is the most under-rated ever. I don't think I could even define under-rated but if pushed I'd start off with:

The Wave Pictures
Asobi Seksu
JJ (A Swedish dream-pop band that I still adore)
Everything But The Girl (they had success and still enjoy it as solo artists/DJ/record label owner but I still think they should have got more recognition)
The Godfathers

...a couple of Brighton bands:
Frazier Chorus
Fujiya and Miyagi

A German band: 'Hundreds'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZqCI7FlyvA


but I'll say the pick of the bunch is Canadian singer Frazey Ford. If you're a fan of Beth Orton then you NEED to get into Frazey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXRrySTujn8


Seriously - how good is that song? On a scale of 10-11 - it's a 12, right?

Hugely agree re The Wave Pictures - we popped along to see them at Bar 42 in Worthing last Friday and they were SU-perb. Been around for around 20 years, should be huge.

Here's one of my favourites of theirs:

 

[pearl]

Andy P had mental health issues which manifested itself in a fear of going on stage.. His (then) wife threw away his medication before a gig and told him he didn't need it. Bit of a breakdown and no more live shows. Funnily enough, he always seemed to excel when they played live. I have a few live bootleg recordings to remind me just how good they were. Remember them playing the Top Rank when there was a power failure and they came on and played "unplugged".

I was at that!

 

[Worried Man Blues]

Are you referring to the guys who did one album on Elton Johns label?? If yes, they were bloody brilliant!

Yup, that's them heard them on radio 1 in the 70s Great tunes good songs had a couple of tracks on cassette and it took years to identify them. Difficult to find CDs as the boy band keeps getting in the way! Glad you have heard of them

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

The Go-Betweens - pop’s best kept secret.

My Grandparents lived in a little town called Hopetoun in the north of Victoria. I was about 14 or 15 and up there on holidays when a film crew arrived shooting some scenes for a film clip.

Turns out it was for Streets Of Your Town. There's a shot of a few buildings and one in the Bon Bon Cafe sign flashes past. If they'd panned down we were standing on the footpath in front of it.

Almost famous!

 

[Wozza]

Duran Duran. Dismissed as a pop band for kids, but actually decent songwriters/musicians (with a questionable singer).

Brilliant breakdown of Rio right here: https://soundcloud.com/theklossessions/fhf-rio

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

OK I follow, now.

The first music I heard that excited me was Telstar by the Tornados. I was three. It is still an amazing track. So, I saw the Beatles emerge as a thing. As a 4 year old, I remember the TV programme saying 'coming up later the Beatles'. I was so excited. Then, guess what, it was string puppet Beatles singing in pinky and perky voices. I felt so let down. But still, there were the songs. Love you yeah yeah yeah. As I got older I slowly forgot them. Late 60s brough in real cutting edge rock music. There was other pop music. Somehow the Beatles, who never toured any more, seemed a bit old fashioned. The long hair and moustaches all looked manufactured. And I still remembered them in the suits. When I was five, I had bedroom wallpaper with them in their suits. I was expected to like them.....

Many years later I met my best buddy who, in the 60s, saw the Beatles more than 20 times at the Cavern, with Cilla taking the hats and coats. He saw their last ever gig there....

So I bought some stuff and put it on the iPOD. I gave it a fair hearing. But....a few months later I took it all off my iPOD. They and the Arctic Monkeys are the only two bands I have ever taken off my iPOD. I have more than 16,000 tracks on the iPOD......

So for me the Beatles are easily the most overrated band in the history of music. Them and britain's biggest selling solo artist (Cliff Richard) can do one as far as I am concerned. Sorry!

Well said. The Kinks are imo the most underrated band because Ray Davies is a musical/rock genius and yet he and The Kinks aren't mentioned anywhere near enough for a band who trail blazed so many concepts in music and influenced actual genres of new music.

 

[Betfair Bozo]

Fugazi.

New Fast Automatic Daffodils.

 

[Perry Milkins]

The Flying Burrito Brothers.

Poco.

Kursaal Flyers.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

What a fantastic band they were. I always thought The Belle Stars had the talent to go further but they never stood a chance with the way their record company Stiff Records managed their female artists. At the very height of their success they were on a fixed wage of about £50 a week I seem to remember reading. No wonder Kirsty MacColl fell out with Stiff.

1000 x Yes.

Belle Stars should have gone so much further than they did.

Great musos, good singer and plenty of looks and personality among them.

 

[DavidRyder]

About 20 odd years ago, my colleague was in a band called 'Lose The Mood'. They basically did pubs in East Grinstead sort of area, and I thought they were great. Should've gone on to better things, but didn't get the big break. Not expecting anyone to have heard of them!