Phil Gill… At the time, Mahavishnu Orchestra. But I get ’em now.
Tony Davis… No sorry. Still don’t get them
Alan Esdaile… Steve used to try and get me into them but couldn’t get into them at all.
Peter Fairless… Yes, a lot!
Leigh Wieland Boys… Too scared to mention who I think are over-rated…..
Tony Davis… Most of the glam rock crew I’m afraid
Darren Johnson… Beatles.
Terry Pack… Queen, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Yes. Just about everyone
Steve Reents… New York Dolls
Patrick Lewis… Elvis P,Beatles,Bowie, Queen, post 1974 Fleetwood Mac, a whole host of ‘commercial’ heavy metal bands
Shane Wright… U2
Ann Gill… What about the bands that people did not rave about publicly but listened to in private
Phil Gill… I listen to anything and everything and couldn’t give a toss about who knows what I like, or what anyone thinks of my choices.
Sometimes I’ll rave publicly about a non-mainstream artist I really like – examples would be A Girl Called Eddy, Kevin Gilbert, Aimee Mann, Shawn Lane…but just to give people the opportunity to hear them, I don’t particularly care if they like them or not.
Jennie Tocock… Aimee Mann is excellent!!!
David Miller… Kevin Gilbert – a fine choice and talent. I am particularly taken with this version of The Lamb that he did with Giraffe, especially the beginning bit before the music begins. Obviously loves the music, right from the heart….
Colin Fox… Many, many years ago when I first heard a rap song, I said, that won’t last. I like the comment Chris from Eggheads says when he gets questions on music. He says, “as long as I don’t get questions on Rap, that’s with a capital C”.
Sarah Harvey… Gene Simmons the Kiss singer probably summed up rap pretty well. “I am looking forward to the death of rap,I’m looking forward to music coming back to lyrics and melody, instead of just talking. A song, as far as I’m concerned, is by definition lyric and melody … or just melody.” I suppose I had better add my two pennuf’ …… The Doors, Neil Young (Depressing), The Beatles, post-Gabriel Genesis, Elvis P, any Punk!
Nigel Sherwood… Hard as I tried , Neil Young
Paul Huggett… Led Zeppelin I’m sorry to say…
Mike Curtis… Be Bop DeLuxe, and Tony Williams Lifetime.
Chris Cozens… Sunburst Finish was lovely though.
Terry Pack… The nature of pop music is to rave about the acts, few of whom are more than mediocre in terms of singing and playing ability, and weak in terms of song writing. I really liked my choices above, and still enjoy hearing an occasional track by them and others, but none of them were as good as they were heralded to be at the time.
Len Smith… Gorillaz, Primal Scream, Black Sabbath and all rap. Can’t believe any of you musicians include Beatles, if it wasn’t for them you probably would never have picked up an instrument and if you had would have ended up sitting on a chair at the back of the stage backing a crooner!
Liz Dees Dianto… Duran duran , pet shop boys
Trisha Ann… Neil Young too I’m afraid – too depressing
Sarah Harvey… I recall that when his Harvest album came out…after listening to it someone actually committed suicide. Not sure how true that is but at least it does rather reinforce the general view that his music is depressing
Peter Thomson… Yes, but who the hell am I to judge others’ taste in art?
Spanna Mo… Grateful Dead… I also saw Neil Young as an over rated whiner.
Colin Bell… Depeche Mode, Level 42, Sade, Lighthouse Family and anything solo by Phil Collins……..!
Sarah Harvey… Ah, the Lighthouse Family…. forgot about them …… yuk!
Alan Pepper… I agree with Terry Pack after all it’s all a question of choice . We all like different tastes of rock and pop ! But all I think is that many acts should have stopped long ago ! You know who I’m talking about …..
Pete Fisher… interesting thread Sarah. All a matter of taste in the end, and trying not to believe the hype…might be even more interesting to check out bands and artists who DIDN’T impress at first, but with time revealed themselves to be utterly brilliant, or even records you didn’t like on first hearing, but then grew to become staunch favourites…happened to me over and over again…
Terry Pack… That’s a really good observation, Pete. Almost all the music that I still value after 40 years was the stuff I either didn’t get at first, or was considered unimportant at the time.
Pete Fisher… thanks Terry, remember a mate at school who I had a brief guitar duo thing with proudly carrying a copy of Led Zep 1 under the arm of his greatcoat (as you did back then), and swearing that this was the best band on the planet, and that they were going to change the face of rock/progressive music…I hated it on first hearing, thought the guitar work was incredibly sloppy (compared to Alvin Lee for example), and the vocals sounded like a cat being castrated…that would have been early 1969, but I was blown away by Led Zep 2 late ’69/early ’70, and that remains a benchmark album for me, also partly due to Eddie Kramer’s contribution…then again, seeing them live at Earl’s Court (two nights in a row!) in 1975 was a big occasion, but they were really rough, and Page seemed to be bluffing most of the time…
Mike Curtis… I’m almost ashamed to admit that I didn’t get Steely Dan at first, and thought Aja was dreary. I now listen to them a lot, and even more so over the last couple of days or so.
Phil Thornton… its all rather subjective …. in recent times I’ve had interesting debates ( as part of my recent job as Music tech Lecturer !) regarding the nature of musicianship ( or otherwise !) and why some groups command legions of loyal followers and other bands just as talented do not ! – Muse are an interesting example – it was suggested that if you took away the technology – FX pedals etc. they would be rather ordinary !!!!!! really ????
Terry Pack… Two bands I didn’t get at all at first, but kept going back to were Steely Dan and Weather Report. A group that had a loyal following, but not great popular success was Gentle Giant, whose musicianship and composition was greater than any of its contemporaries.
Phil Thornton… I agree regarding Gentle Giant in particular – there was a lot of negativity towards them at the time ! – of course that made the ‘fans’ even more fanatical – haha ! I would like to nominate almost all super fast ‘widdly’ guitarists – starting with Alvin Lee of Ten Years After fame – I would not dream of suggesting he was not a very good guitarist but to say he and his ilk are ‘great’ just because they are able to play lots of notes from a bog standard scale in a short space of time really grinds my gears.
Chris Meachen… Oasis, R.E.M., Neil Young, although I have great respect for him as a songwriter, I can’t bear his voice.. Leonard Cohen (music to slit your own throat to).. Amy Winehouse..
Jo Turner… Oasis defo and I never ever got why people liked the Smiths
Pete Fairless… Try ‘Hand In Glove’ with Sandie Shaw!
Clive Richardson… Can’t think of anyone who is overrated but UNDERRATED were Incredible String Band and Pentangle.
Jennie Tocock… Muse!! Just couldn’t get along with Matt Bellamy’s voice!
Clifford Rose… AC/DC apart from the odd good riff, most of their songs seemed a bit samey.
Sarah Harvey… Still going strong today…. Metallica and Megadeath…. pretty tuneless stuff with guitars so distorted you can hardly hear the riff.
Dave Nattress… A really interesting forum this one. A good few I’d agree with and some I wouldn’t! Great question Sarah. I saw the Mahavishnu Orchestra in Hyde Park many years ago and didn’t get them but then they grew on me. Aimee Mann – Phil Gill. mentioned, deffo not overrated. I have most of her stuff. The album “Whatever” is wonderful. Back to another Hyde Park concert I went to, don’t think it was the same, saw Grand Funk Railroad – hyped to hell at the time – and surely overrated.
Glenn Piper… Sex Pistols
Depeche Mode, Level 42, Sade, Lighthouse Family and anything solo by Phil Collins……..!
I agree with Terry Pack after all it’s all a question of choice . We all like different tastes of rock and pop ! But all I think is that many acts should have stopped long ago ! You know who I’m talking about …..
A really interesting forum this one. A good few I’d agree with and some I wouldn’t! Great question Sarah. I saw the Mahavishnu Orchestra in Hyde Park many years ago and didn’t get them but then they grew on me. Aimee Mann – Phil Gill. mentioned, deffo not overrated. I have most of her stuff. The album “Whatever” is wonderful. Back to another Hyde Park concert I went to, don’t think it was the same, saw Grand Funk Railroad – hyped to hell at the time – and surely overrated.
OK another question, from me this time, I don’t think it’s been done already, but apologies if it has. What about the best rated debut album? I think of a few that really blew me away. For instance Black Sabbath’s first, Scouting for Girls – wonderful songs all of them and brilliant arrangements, Hopes and Fears – Keane.