Entertainment For Lively Minds
Biggest band in the country
Just read an article on Dr Feelgood in a rival publication and the old chestnut of them being the "biggest band in England for 18 months" popped up. This is the opinion of Julien Temple anyway.
It seems to me that journalists often resort to this cliche. For example, I have read in recent times the opinion that The Jam/The Police/Adam & The Ants/The Specials/The Human League and countless more were the biggest band in the country/world in the late 70's/early 80's. Well they can't all have been!
Whilst my knowledge of Dr Feelgood is lacking (I remember buying Milk and Alcohol as a kid, but that's about it), but I'm pretty darned sure they could never have been classed as the biggest band in England at any time in their career. Which got me thinking, who were really the biggest band in the country since pop music really took off in the UK?
How about this for a timeline? I've based it on bands from the British Isles and their success/popularity in the UK only, rather than their influence or the quality of their work, and discounting bands that had split up. Please feel free to disagree. It's difficult to do, because the likes of us that read magazines like The Word tend to place bands such as The Clash, The Smiths and The Stone Roses in much higher regard than the general population would!
1963-1970 - The Beatles (The Stones pushed them on occasions though)
1970-1971 - The Rolling Stones (edging out Led Zeppelin)
1971-1972 - T.Rex
1972-1973 - Slade
1973-1975 - Pink Floyd
1975 - Bay City Rollers
1975-1976 - Queen
1977 - Sex Pistols
1977-1979 - The Bee Gees
1979-1981 - The Police (pushed closely by The Jam)
1981 - Adam & The Ants
1982 - The Jam
1983-1984 - Frankie Goes To Hollywood
1985-1986 - Wham! (or Dire Straits, I can't decide!)
1987-1992 - U2
1992-1995 - Take That
1995-1996 - Oasis
1996-1998 - The Spice Girls
1998-2000 - U2 (A bit of a black hole this period though)
2000-date - Coldplay
We can have a bit of fun with this, doing similar timelines for solo artists, including foreign acts, or making it the biggest band/act in the world. I'll leave that to someone else though.
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Not sure I understand the concept of 'biggest' in this sense
Is it record sales? Concert grosses? Magazine covers? These are all quantitative measures.
What's the criteria?
1975 ...
...was clearly a very bad year.
77 - 79 I'd say
Abba
Where's REM?
I think I would merge REM in between U2 and Take That. Also, although they're big/huge now, Coldplay weren't that big in 2000. I think that honour might go the equally dreadful Westlife.
Boyzone must have had a year as well
What about Busted and/or McFly?
Where are Girls Aloud - none more biggerer at the moment
"I've based it on bands from the British Isles "
might be your answer...
Now we get the rules!
Ahh! You should have told us the rules before we started! Seems a bit random though.
it's all nonsense
where's duranies or the spands, or the eagles , queen were massively popular well into the 80's and ABBA would be nowhere without support in Britain. Also no SAW and OASIS have sprawled further . Oh Osmonds.
luckily I was living overseas in 1996-1998
surely someone beat the Spice Girls in terms of live shows and critical acclaim. was it really that bad?
The Spice Girls
were brilliant live. Seriously.
Yup...
I took the Stimpettes to seem them and was blown away by the show.
I suspect the modern equivalent is a Girls Aloud show but the daughters aren't interested in taking me to see them.
Hang on a minute!
With regard to criteria, as I said in the original post, it's success by way of popularity/record sales/concert ticket sales/fame/press coverage...hey, feel free to use your own criteria! I'm also basing it over periods of time, otherwise it will change on a weekly basis as artists brought new albums out and that would be a bit silly.
As for Abba, REM, Eagles, Osmonds, etc, they're not actually from the British Isles.
I think U2 might have something to say about being
categorised as British.
well at least 2 of them were born in england (?)
and one of them has a uk passport!
Well there's a thing...
The Hedge is London Welsh and Adam Clayton is from Oxfordshire. Who'd have thought it!
In the light of that, I'll revise my statement to "Bonio wouldn't appreciate being called British"
I think Mr Clayton
is Irish now but T'Edge still holds a british passport holder. I think it adds another level to them myself in fact most of us on these fleetingly sunny islands are a mad mix of nationalities (anglo/polish/germano/yorkshire/Irish londoner myself)
I thought they were Dutch....
Paul van Heusen
Edam Claayton
Larry Mjullen Jr
and David van der Hedge
It's in the cloakroom, I'll find the ticket in a mo....
Who wasn't listening in Geography?
That's why I said from the British Isles, which Ireland is. It doesn't make them British.
Ireland would argue with you there
as, along with many newspapers, media organisations and international governemental and non-governmental organisations, they prefer 'British & Irish Isles'
It seems only to be the English who cling to the usage 'British Isles'
Geography Report
Mine said 'Lucky if he finds his way home'!
Were Snow Patrol not giant for five minutes?
The list looks pretty bang on the nose, though. Nice one! Interesting topic, too.
Also why can't the eagles
be the biggest band in Britain it's nonsense not to include the foreign legion.
so let's have the Cast of grease for 1978
Jeysus you're hard work!
They're just the parameters I chose to use!
But, go on then, extend it to include bands from all around the world and see how it matches up with just bands from the British Isles. I'd be interested to see when you consider the Eagles to have been the biggest band in the eyes of the British public though.
I agree
I agree with you, before I knew you were restricting us I only slipped in one US band.
US bands
Thinking about it, US bands wouldn't, on the whole, make that big a dent in the list, if we are basing it on their hugeness on these shores. The Osmonds may squeeze in for a while and REM would certainly be included, but I think even acts like Nirvana would struggle to get in, because again, their importance in the eyes of critics and certain sections of the record buying public obscures the fact that, like it or not, Simply Red were a bigger appeal to the public in large.
Abba would certainly have had a say in it though if we were to stretch it to worldwide bands.
It's worse than I thought
I don't pay much attention to the realtive hugeness of bands, but can it really be true the Coldplay have been the most successful British Isles act for nearly the whol eof this decade, longer than any other band, and including years when they didn't release anything? I don't particularly object to them but that's because I can't work up sufficient enthusiasm to do so. Biggest act? For 9 years running? Really? No wonder I stopped paying attention to public taste.
It's a diverse market
Is it that the 00's have produced a more fragmented audience and that if you slipped Coldplay into any other decade they would be a long way below the surface. Also, looking at the singles chart there seem to be a lot of solo artists and they don't appear in this list. Of course this year the dominating artist is probably Michael Jackson. He seems to have sold loads of albums recently, never seems to be out of the news and what about all those gigs at the O2? ... sorry... have I missed something?!
Fleetwood Mac 69-70
They were a huge band during that period, and still a UK band. I would argue they were bigger than the Beatles at that point. The Hey Jude Hitmakers even had a soundalike track on their last LP.
In the dark pre-millennium days it might have been Radiohead for a while. Actually, no, it was Travis wasn't it?
weren't they even bigger
when rumours out?
yes but...
Not a UK band any more.
The Shadows 60-61
The Cricket Bat Boogie Hitmakers were huge in their original lineup.
(Cricket Bat Boogie is from a 70s LP called Tasty. It's very good)
Duran Duran in the mid 80s?
They seemed to be everywhere
What about Culture Club?
1983 was their year
Is There Something I Should Know was the peak of their fame.
On a 1983 note
were FGTH even around then? I thought Relax was 84?
it took about 18 months
to hit big a mixture of some re-producing from Trevor Horn, some spin from Paul Morley, Some filming by the Tube and a foot in mouth from Mike Read (the one that wasn't married to Pat Butcher that is!)
1980-1982...
Shakin' Stevens would have to be right up there. He sold bucketloads of records...
So did Bucks Fizz
Making Your Mind Up, My Camera Never Lies, Land of Make Believe - million sellers?
Ah, but if it were just
Ah, but if it were just based on record sales we'd have The Wombles in for a year too. Plus, Shakey's not a band. I limited it to bands to keep Cliff out of it!
Limited sample size
I grant you - to wit a boy's only school mid 70s through early 80s - but the order ran roughly
pre '78 - Zep
77 - 81 - Jam
post'81 - Smiths
(Smiths debut
single wasn't until May 83, album the following year)
Ah the rule
of Paul of Woking was longer than I remember it.
Now you mention it I do recall there were a spate of uprisings in the Northern Lands prior to the arrival of Morrisey the Miserable.
It was a troubled time, a row going on down near Slough and tribes of Teardrops and Bunnymen doing battle. While Wylie led an anti-Rockist Wah tendency.
Forgive the faulty time addled, drink befuddled memory of an old man
1986 The Waterboys
Best live band I saw that year, or since, by a long long way
but oh, they went on. and on. and on....
I saw them at the Barrowlands in Glasgow in 86 - they had been fabulous on The Tube, and the whole crowd was up for it. They opened in storming form, and after the third song when they had the first pause, Mike Scott said "How are you Glasgow ? It's going to be a long night!". My heart sank, despite the whoops all around me.
They were inspired, and then turgid, then inspired again. How many separate fiddle solos were there in the trudge through "Knockin' On Heaven's Door"? More than two, I'm sure. I realised they had lost me when I found myself gazing at the stars in the Barrowland ceiling.
I left about 2 hours in, and they were still raggle-taggling away. If they had condensed the great stuff in the set, it would have been an hour or so of brilliance, and a top 5 gig.
Interesting Barrowlan blog entry
http://dearscotland.com/2009/08/26/barrowlands/
1977 - Sex Pistols? No way!
It has to be Macca. He had the biggest selling single of all time (up until then) that year.
Woops - didn't read that we aren't counting solo artists.
Wings?
A difficult one...
Paul McCartney & Wings?
Wings?
Wings featuring Paul McCartney?
Macca ?!?
1977 for Mull of Kintyre ?!? Lets have him down for 1984 for the genius that was The Frog Chorus and be done with it.
Even in terms of sales and impact that year, MoK came out late, in time for Christmas. Let's just say there A LOT of of competition in 77/78.
If you talking sales and Brits then it was Fleetwood Mac (in the same way that the greatest Scottish band is AC/DC).
The band the Beatles could have been
I did toy with Wings.
I'm still waiting for someone to do an alternative, or a worldwide one. Or one including solo artists. Trying to split the mid-80's between Jacko, Springsteen, Prince and Madonna won't be easy though.
77-79
ELO were huge
great band
But not as big as you might think. They had a good run of singles but no chart-toppers until Xanadu, the lowest-selling #1 ever at the time. The albums certainly scored big orders thanks no doubt to the hussling of Don Arden, but they were also excessively remaindered. Even Jeff Lynne is on record as saying that Out Of The Blue sold gold, but returned platinum. A few of their singles did not chart (10cc were similar in this respect).
I put it to you that their success was modest, but that the hype was huge and entirely down to their very showbiz-oriented management. The records remain brilliant and the golden period of hit singles from 75-79 was a great run.
1996 - or since the Blur v Oasis shin kicking contest.......
Radiohead...
Shirley?
Got to be
Number one albums both sides of the pond, critical acclaim, new industry model, successful tours, and jolly good music. And a reggae covers band. What more do you need to be the biggest band in the world?
biggest band
Culture Club where a worldwide sensation for one year