DAVID ESSEX: "Rock On" was perfect pop, several million Jackie readers had frequent fantasies about him offering to dab on their Clearasil, his acting in That'll Be The Day and Stardust easily out-thesped Jagger, Bowie and Daltrey's fair-to-pitiful celluloid outings. . . yet his rep came in for a clobbering just because he said "Okay, put him through" when Andrew Lloyd-Webber called, and into the Forever Uncool bin he went. Very unfair.

(He's even managed to age very well, now looking a bit like an Alien-era Ian Holm.)

Big hair, had carnal knowledge of an Eastender, played Live Aid AND the roof of Buck House.
Also has a brain the size of a small Welsh village.

a fireplace? or an asteroid?

His guitar was fashioned out of an old fire surround by...

a plank in the argument against him! sorry

I've just installed a clip of him and Ringo in Stardust in the Beatles Story - it features Billy Fury too!

Made the humongous Tubular Bells and the 2nd and 3rd (Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn but not sure which way round) were pretty decent too. Ever since he has been bashed from pillar to post for his music and some of his slightly right wing comments - I think his new cd is pretty good. Responsible above anyone else for making Richard Branson a wealthy geezer so indirectly he has helped us with cheap travel. Whats not to like about him?

why not let Richard Branson himself back in? If it weren't for his first shops, how the hell was a young man supposed to have satisfied his craving for The Faust Tapes and Amon Düül II imports?

...what about Ronnie Corbett?
For years he laboured in the shadows of the evidently edgier Ronnie Barker and all the jokes seemed to be about his stature.
But then he made that cameo appearance in the BAFTAS episode of "Extras" - for that alone he should be carried around in a sedan chair.

How about MJ? Yes he's a royalty sniffing posing dirty old man with ridiculous vari-accents etc etc - but my oh my is he a rock star! The recent 'cast discussion got me thinking about this. I defy anyone to watch even recent footage without a sneaking feeling that this is probably one of the most charismatic human beings on the planet. Who else would you have fronting your band?

Only kidding.

Capable of being cool and uncool all at the same time!!

It seems OK in rock’n’roll circles to like Sinatra, Dean Martin and Tony Bennet, but Perry Como’s still beyond the pale. Sold millions of records and was America’s biggest TV star for years. Married his childhood sweetheart and they stayed together until she died in her ’80s. Was recording songs by contemporary writers like Don Maclean (And I Love You So) and Kris Kristofferson (For The Good Times) in his ’60s; and his versions of those songs are brilliant. That’s cool in my book.

About 10 years ago I was given complimentary tickets to a charity cartoon auction in Knightsbridge. I took the GLW and we enjoyed a good deal of free champagne and had an excellent evening.
There was an exhibition of cartoons by probably every cartoonist you can think of. A selection went up for auction. The biggest earning lot under the hammer that evening was one of Rolf's. I can't remember how many thousand it went for, but I know it was more than I could have contemplated paying and a big surprise to us that he earned the most for whichever charity it was.

Pre 1976 Elton John. I still really like his stuff from that era.

I think they've been branded as uncool unfairly. Sure they released Tales from Topographic Oceans, but they also recorded some really terrific stuff like Roundabout, Going for the One, and Yours Is No Disgrace.

Great live band, could all play their instruments (to say the least) and Squire and Wakeman always seemed to have a decent sense of humour about the whole thing.

...and I thoroughly agree with Mark Ellen on Phil Collins. I have a massive amount of respect for Phil; the Genesis albums from 1971-80 are all personal favourites and there's not many duff tracks on them. Although much patchier, I have time for the later ones too. Love Phil's solo debut 'Face Value' and 'I Wish It Would Rain Down' is one hell of a song- coaxed out of Eric Clapton a performance he hadn't given on his own albums for some time! Despite the fax divorce issues and the controversy over his alleged political persuasions (something he has always denied), he comes off as a decent bloke too and not at all deserving of the flak he gets from the likes of Noel Gallagher. And I'd be here all week if I was going to run down all the great albums he's played on as a drummer.

Yes are more favourites of mine; I'll even defend 'Tales From Topographic Oceans'. Not all of it comes off but there's some amazing music on there. 'Close To The Edge' is one of my desert island discs, but I like most everything they put out in the 70s (save 'Tormato'!). '90125' is still a great album too, I think.

Elton John was great from about 1970-5; 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight' is just a work of genius. Yes, his 80s and 90s output is generally dire (to say the least) but am I alone in thinking he's turned it around recently? 'Songs From The West Coast' and 'The Captain And The Kid' I tend to play as much as the classic 70s albums.

David Essex; I loved 'Rock On', and always thought 'Gonna Make You A Star' was way above the novelty trash in the charts at the time as well.

Paul McCartney is another musical hero and I am always disappointed by the flak he gets when he's put out some damned good solo albums- more than Lennon managed, in my opinion.

Mike Oldfield seems to be a bit of a grumpy old man to say the least but I liked some of his albums, particularly 'Ommadawn' and the barking mad 'Amarok'.

I have to nominate Marillion; too often castigated for being Genesis clones but save the overegged 'Grendel' which knocked off 'Supper's Ready' (and badly, too!) there's not too much in common between them. Since Steve Hogarth took over they've arguably become a much more diverse beast; I nominate 'Afraid Of Sunlight' which is a truly brilliant, emotionally powerful album.

Friends of mine won't even listen to him. I blame the fact that he had his chart heyday at the same time as Chris de Burgh and they get bracketed together solely by virtue of having the same Christian name!! Also his first few albums, before he got into his stride, weren't great.

I love his voice, his slide playing, and he's written some great songs. Try the Water Sign album if you're a newcomer.

Surely its time Val Doonican graced our screens one final time, for a one off Christmas Special on Christmas Eve.

For many youngsters, parents and old folk, Val's Seventies Show was the start of the excitment on cold Christmas Eves (when it used to be proper cold for weeks on end, with snow drifts and all manner of degrees minus) as we sat by the roaring fire, nibbling on steaming ,crisp mince pies, as we took precious sips from a glass of ice chilled babychampers (with cherries in) as a special one off Christmas treat.
Val's cutting edge show, always begged important questions such as 1)How many jumpers would dishy Doonican wear in one evening? 2)Would he fall off his rocking chair? 3) Would he sit in with the audience on a dangerous looking high seat? and 4) What would his Christmas girls look like that year?
Val is an entertainer, we must see again. Rumours are that Doonican will be playing Dr Who's long lost father in this years Christmas Special. Please can this happen, is it just possible for this Star Of Wonder to make a return to our homes this year.For many of us, Val is Father Christmas.

...he'll never ever be reappraised for his later sins (not to mention going around claiming 'I'm probably the most radical rock star there's ever been'!) but Cliff Richard did some great records early on. John Lennon even attested to 'Move It's brilliance. I love 'Dynamite' and 'Nine Times Out Of Ten' and have a fair bit of time for later tunes like 'Devil Woman' and 'Wired For Sound'.

Made some truly great albums, full of whiskey remorse and barfly tales of love and disappointment on frozen northern city streets. And, seriously, who ever wrote a better couplet than: "Don't get so distressed if the good life won't arrive, you've been seeing SOS when it's just your clock reading 5:05"?

Also:
Marillion - dreadful, windy 80s prog monsters reinvented as sleek, 90s/Noughties art rockers under the expert stewardship of soulful, floppy-fringed singer-songwriter Steve Hogarth. Now sit at the intersection where Talk Talk meet the Blue Nile and Radiohead (as opposed to where Rush meet Genesis, which sounds like a very tight spot indeed). Oh, and they invented putting music on the internet (or something).

...how about...

Shakin' Stevens - when he covered that P!nk tune

Pink Floyd - the perennial schoolboy favourite (we don't need no education...)

The Osmonds - Crazy Horses
Donny Osmond these days in particular seems to be looking pretty good for his age and is apparently on permanent standby to rip the piss out of himself. Have a look at this clip of him with Weird Al Yankovich... (it's green screen because they only used part of this for the final video)

Actually a hep cat, wise to the crazy new sounds of Jazz music long before Frank (immortalised in "High Society"'s "Well did you evah")
(watch about 2'13" in)
and possibly the cooler party in the Bowie n' Bing Xmas perennial

As for Phil Collins, putting aside his contributions to great albums by Martyn, Eno and Wyatt, surely his stinking turd of a "social awareness" song "Another day in paradise" (While simultaneously lionising Thatcher Phil? the irony is so rich it makes me want to puke) should torpedo his credentials as someone to admire, well below the waterline...

until I read that interview with him in The Times a few weeks ago, in which he basically said that punk rock should have been banned as it was the cause of today's malaise in our young.

The emphasis is on the "young" Mike, you dick. Today's 16 year olds were born in 1992. Punk was pretty much over by 1979. So it's not the fault of our rampant consumerism, the sexualisation of children by our media,the obsession with size, weight and looks, the longest working hours in Europe with families spending more and more time apart and the biggest gap between the rich and poor since Dickens' time.

No, it's none of that. Let's blame it on the Anti Nowhere League instead.

Reminds me of why I despise these mansion dwelling middle aged tossers so much. When was the last time they looked out of their windows?

Agree with you on Phil Collins, though. Great musician and songwriter who also seems to know what's going on in the world. Also has an almost pathological hatred of American television evangelists, so he'd get the thumbs up from me on that alone.

...Mike Oldfield's endless carping on about punk IS tedious. I remember reading a bit of his autobiography where he disdainfully said he could see how punk bands would find rock stars who played with orchestras 'annoying'...what was 'The Orchestral Tubular Bells' then??

...an outstanding run of stupendous hit singles that have stood the test of time.

...........And of course Level 42, Deacon Blue and Dire Straits. The latter loved by Razorlight,Kaiser Chiefs and The Killers covered "Romeo & Juliet" in their honour.

Billy Joel. He holds a special place in my heart as he was my first proper album when I was 9, but I revisited his catalogue 2 summers ago and it's fantastic. Laura, Scandinavian Skies, Vienna, All for Leyna, Miami 2017 (especially the live version on Songs in the Attic), all great songs. Nylon Curtain is a great record, the kind of album Lennon should have been making if he'd made it through the eighties. Respect to the Piano Man.

Some kind soul has made their own video for Scandinavian Skies using footage of Scandinavian skies...

Don't forget the Monkees!!! Headquarters and (especially) Pisces Aquarius Capricorn and Jones Ltd are fine albums. Pleasant Valley Sunday, She Hangs Out, You Just May Be the One and Randy Scouse Git stand up as good as anything from 40 years ago.

....Des O'Connor ? .....Peters & Lee ?

I'm so tired of this guilty pleasures rubbish, ABC were mint! Also agree Darcy's Marillion post Fish and Del Amitri post. I remember the Q headline for the review of the second Del Amitri album: 'Hotel Caledonia' !

This is the problem with guilty pleasures ... some of them are guilty for a reason. I bow to no man in my enjoyment of verboten 90s cheese, though. You could make a case for selected singles (singles, mind!!) by just about all the 80s artists named above and append works of semi-genius by Curiosity Killed The Cat, Haircut 100, Alexander O'Neal, yada yada....

It wasn't all Smiths, Costello and Public Enemy, you know.

isn't about guilty pleasures, it's about who has been unfairly tarred with the uncool stick. A few of the artists may be the same, but there is a difference.

Bass on Walk on the Wild Side (invented that famous bass line, got paid 25 quid or something ridiculous by tight old Uncle Lou) but then wrote "Grandad" by Clive Dunn which went to number one. Now which one of those is cool? Both of course

Fully agree with you on Phil Collins. With the comments on Hogweed / Nursery Cryme, does this mean that the forthcoming 70 - 75 boxset reissue will get an unbiased / positive review from the good people at Word rather than the usual "its Genesis, it must be crap" from other magazines......

I bought the recent Genesis Live Over Europe CD, recorded on their 2007 tour, and it's bloody marvelous. As much as I like Muse, the Genesis Live album urinates all over their recent Live At Wembly cd/dvd the music press were salivating over.

I'd like to think that someone who knows Phil reads these messages of support and passes them onto him. If I ever bumped into him at an airport or something, I think I'd feel compelled to shake him by the hand and tell him that there are a lot of people in Britain who actually think he's pretty cool.

You just can't get any un-cooler.

Hey! I voted for her on three occasions. I'd do it again! What do you think of that?

Please post all spiteful and nasty comments below...

During my university days, I had inadvertently packed my Dad´s Perry Como Greatest Hits LP into my luggage ( yeah, right ) It soon became legendary on campus as the ultimate mood-setting ( ahem ! )music and was in constant demand. I kid you not

Fully agree with Messrs Collins, Essex and Oldfield. Why do we prefer to remember the clunkers they all made and overlook the great stuff? Odd...

Mick Hucknall. I'm probably the only Word reader to think he's a great singer surrounded by great musicians; he writes bloody good pop / rock / soul songs and his only crime seems to be being popular. Good luck to the bloke.

Stevie Wonder: derided for some dreadful overly-saccharined balads in the 80's and does seem like a bit of a cabaret turn sometimes, but what a back catalogue! And what a cultural and musical giant.

I don't care but can The Word please stop standing up for Phil Collins.

His music is dull and his threat to live overseas if Labour won the election was just repulsive.

Mark, I really don't care about your rock star mates but please stop embarrassing an otherwise fine music mag with your Phil Collins bleating.

Trust me - if the Word gets a reputation for being Pro-Collins then you're, quite rightly, finished.

Younger readers would probably never believe that Simple Minds were an uber-cool band when they first arrived. Their early albums - up to and including New Gold Dream - are really excellent.

China Crisis are now bottom-of-the-bill 'Here & Now' end-of-pier 80s tokenists, but their first two albums were fantastic and were John Peel-lauded early indie classics.

Can we just pretend that the American Songbook series just didn't happen and that the real Rod went back to his home planet in 1974?

Phil Collins gets no reprieve in these quarters. Easy Lover and A Groovy Kind of Love revoke any bail conditions

I have never understood why the Eurythmics have never been held up as musical pioneers in the same way that, say, Human League or Depeche Mode are. They are surely the WEIRDEST of all 80s mega-bands, starting their recording history collaborating with Conny Plank and other Krautrock freaks, inventing acid house on a b-side in 1983, and even at the absolute pinnacle of their mega-super-duper-wooper-fame going completely batshit and releasing the absolutely incredible 'Savage' and accompanying "video album". A great, great band - pity Dave Stewart is a twit and Annie Lennox candidate for the most po-faced therapy victim in the western hemisphere, mind.

fuck...if so many word readers actually like Phil Collins then I'm getting the wrong magazine.

Maybe it's time to switch.

Went to see Alabama 3 last night - they played Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall which is next to Wolverhampton Civic where David Essex was playing.
The leader of Alabama 3 said that he went and had a look at the queue of people waiting to get in to see David Essex and proclaimed that there was not one 'shaggable person' in the whole line. He then went on to make some rather more rude comments that cannot be repeated here but it somehow sums up why David Essex should not be rehabilitated into the canon of cool people.
Anyone seriously suggesting that we should re-evaluate Margaret Thatcher shouldnt even be allowed on the site. Can we have some quality control around these parts please!!!
Also, have to agree that as good as Genesis were as a band Mr Collins as a person and as a solo artist is something of a plonker.

Time to post this one again, then.

I've never understood why it is somehow becoming okay to own up to a shadowy fondness for the likes of Yes (all brown rice and goblin-hugging, with the exception of R Wakeman, who was more a jobbing keyboardist in a cape who could play a bit), Jethro Tull, Genesis, and even the deadly-dull Camel, while mentioning the three letters E, L and P still prompts snorts of derisory laughter.

Anyone who approaches the band with unprejudiced ears and eyes will find three talented musicians at the top of their game, taking chances, melding influences from jazz to Bach with a balls-out rock sensibility and sense of showmanship that was sometimes, perhaps even often, overblown, but never less than fun. No-one could ever accuse Keith Emerson of taking himself too seriously, then or now (read his autobiography, 'Pictures of an Exhibitionist', and delve back to The Nice).

Perhaps, with a new CD due from him this summer, Word might even offer a new perspective on this much-maligned musician beyond the knee-jerk ridicule based on decades of post-punk posturing that seems to be the norm.

Sits back and waits for the usual deluge of derision.

...the early ELP albums from the debut through to and including 'Brain Salad Surgery'. They are far, far better than the punk 'year zero' music journalist orthodoxy would imply, as you say. Edward Macan wrote a terrific tome on the band called 'The Endless Enigma' and he basically showed up a great deal of prejudice in the bad reviews they got.

I'm not too fond of much they did from 'Works Volume 1' onwards though. That album marks the point where the mega-bloat sets in.

THE THOMPSON TWINS: Some great singles - what's the difference between them and any other band of their ilk?

DOLLAR: Not quite there yet with the revival, but some great songs. If only Davd Van Day wasn't such a twat.

HAIRCUT 100: If only for the arran jumpers.

JON AND VANGELIS: The revival starts here. Friends of Mr Cairo is oft overlooked.

MIDDLE OF THE ROAD: Big in Germany

BA ROBERTSON: What's not to like?

DONOVAN: Inexplicably still the object of ridicule

BLANCMANGE: Why did they ever fall out of favour?

JETHRO TULL - Aqualung, a serioulsy great record

RUSH

ELO - come on, its all serioyusly great pop music....

Never mind Phil Colins, what about GENESIS? Never considered cool, but they should be. Series of great records once that loser Gabriel had been dumped.

...but I'll concede that subtlety isn't a strong point. Still, they haven't done anything remotely sci-fi related for about 30 years; there are some fantastic songs like 'Distant Early Warning', 'The Big Money', 'Subdivisions', 'Limelight' and 'Red Sector A' that they did in the 80s.

ELO; I must be honest, I've never been a huge fan. 'Mr Blue Sky' is a classic, though, whilst the out-and-out soppiness of 'Telephone Line' and the plain daft '...Horace Wimp' are enjoyable.

There was a thread about The 'Tull recently and there are quite a few fans from this parish.

Long associated with such incisive critical observations as, "long, meandering" and "jam" and "old hippies" etc etc but fronted by a genius guitar player (J. Garcia) + a Spinal Tap-esque but tragically real problem with deceased keyboard players + a poet / lyricist / part-time member + some truly magnificent music through the years. Anyone who hasn't got "American Beauty" and "Workingman's Dead" in their collection really needs to visit HMV this weekend.

I agree with a few of the posters - why all this Collins love ?

IMHO he's not that good - average drummer(lets hear it for Chester!!) ok singer and only reason he is the frontman is down to the fact that the rest of the band have even less stage presence than he has. Oh and he looks like Bob Hoskins - not a good look....ever

I do think Marillion both pre and post Fish have a bad deal they are a decent band, some great songs (lets forget Lavender!) and really do get the "uncool" badge far to often.

Fish as a solo artist is pretty decent as well but not sure he's uncool or just unsupported!

I am going to stick up for Goth. I refer of course to the 80s / early 90s vintage, not the shrieking metal guff in a leather trenchcoat that seems to pass as goth these days. The Sisters Of Mercy made some absolutely superhuman records between 1983 and 1985, and more than a few worthwhile ones afterwards, but how often do you ever see a Sisters retrospective in the monthly press? Similiarly, Fields Of The Nephilim may have been saddled with a ludicrous quasi-western image, and went on entirely too much about some mystical bollocks or other, but they did make at least two classic albums, of which "Elizium" comes heartily recommended to everyone above me who has mentioned Yes, Genesis, etc. Goth-prog, if you can imagine such a thing, and bloody marvellous it is too - check out the "Wail Of Sumer / And There Will Your Heart Be Also" pairing at the end of the album for proof (there is only a dodgy live rendition by the imposters currently passing themselves off as the Neph on Youtube and I'm not going to link to it)

...ABBA must qualify? Quickly dismissed after Waterloo as Europop trash, their sterling efforts and output saw them mature into one classy act complete with Fleetwood Mac-style inter-marital shennanigans for tabloid cred. And, of course, Dancing Queen goes down as one of the quintesssential disco records of all time.

No really I'm serious. I know that that "Nine million bicycles in Beijing" line is awfully clunky and Radio 2 are a bit too fond of her and indeed the Mike Batt connection is a bit dodgy, but she's a damn fine singer, extremely lovely looking in a safe Clare Grogan-y way, has a wonderful sense of humor when she is on the telly and even sung a factually accurate version of that bicycles song once which really made me laugh. Maybe not a Winehouse but she's miles better than Eva Cassidy.

Can I also nominate Slayer? Motorhead have been co-opted by the tedious ironists of this world and are now acceptable to be name dropped in mixed company but Slayer are as uncompromising as ever. As a teenage boy I nearly played South Of Heaven to death and even now, as a terribly intelligent thirty something media twat, the opening chords to that tune has the ability to turn me back to the Beavis-y teenage neanderthal that I was when I first heard it. Reign In Blood is still brilliant as well.

And Gary Glitter? I used to go and see him every Christmas Eve at the SEC in Glasgow and it was great, what would Goldfrapp have done without that glitter stomp?. Actually forget that suggestion, but Michael Jackson? I recently DJed at a wedding and Billie Jean still works you know...Thank goodness I only ever post under a stupid name...

Maggieloveshopey hit the nail on the head - when I was young back in the dim and distant 80s, goth was THE genre, with the charts full of the mighty Neph, the Mission, Sisters, cheerful old scamps Bauhaus, etc. Giddy days, indeed.

Since then, every mention of goth in the media (and there's not that many) talks solely about gloomy, lonely youths feeling miserable, or that poor girl being kicked to death, and hardly ever about the music, which was (generally) a thing of majesty and awe. Soak up the atmosphere of the Sisters' Marian, particularly when Eldritch goes all German, or watch the Nephs' concert DVD - great stuff.

Goth is still around, mostly in Europe and the USA - the Cruxshadows recently had a Top 10 US single, for instance, and groups like The House of Usher, Blutengel and more do good business in Germany - but as for Britain, home of the Slimelight and Batcave? Nothing but snide comments.

Goth? More power to its black-clad elbow, I say. Now, back to my coffin...

If prog and fusion are cool again, when is blues rock going to get its turn? Spurning it is a peculiarly British thing, too, because it's never been uncool in America - cf. the whole SRV phenomenon, which largely passed us by, or Back Door Slam's current success in the States compared with the indifference they're met with in the UK.

If you're not convinced it's ever been an uncool genre, just type "Humble Pie" or "Ten Years After" in the Search box up on the right there and see how many hits you get. Now do the same with "Marillion" or "ELP". See my point?