Julian Cope
Super Furry Animals
Damon Albarn

Randy Newman, Billy Bragg and Dido.

Oh..

only joking :)

Primal Scream
Goldfrapp
James Murphy

...Chris Rea (underloved), Yann Tiersen (French, therefore little known fab composer/musician/rockstar), Chris Wood (English Acoustic etc)....erm a future folk Legend...all my 3 artists guaranteed to minimise sales off the shelf...

Bowie, Keith Richards, Johnny Rotten

Richard Thompson
Warren Zevon
Julian Cope

Brian Wilson
Emmylou Harris
Jackson Browne

Seriously. Put an object on there instead. Digital/analogue radio, old mp3 player, a vintage record label, something relevant but offbeat or not usually seen, that you've got a lead story about. There've been some great music industry articles in Word that are infinitely more readable than interviews. (John Martyn excepted).
If your audience is the male music fan, it shouldn't deter them.
A great graphic is as good as a grizzled geezer.
Then, it's not my sales figures that I'm toying with. But you did ask.

Uhm, Bruce Cockburn, Bill Frisell, Billy Bragg.... ah that'd be more old white blokes.

OK, maybe Jonatha Brooke, D'Angelo and John Coltrane.

:)

Sir Peter Gabriel
Dame Katherine Bush
The Right Honourable David Bowie, Prime Minister

Yeah right! I can dream

Ian McNabb
Ronnie van Zandt
Rob Halford (in full leather man stag!)

my three suggestions
Thea Gilmore
Neil Finn
Paul Simon

Jimmy Cliff, El Capitan Beefheart, Steve Earle.

The most interesting thing in the world of music.

Robert Wyatt. With Robyn Hitchcock and Alex Chilton as my other choices.

Stevie Wonder
Kate Bush
Lee Perry

CUD CUD CUD

Kate Bush

Richard Thompson

Cat Stevens

Ron Sexsmith (criminally undervalued)
Sigur Ros (about as good as it gets right now)
Morrissey (think of it as an apology)

And they would all make great interviews as well.

Ray Lamontagne
Steve Earle
Loudon Wainwright III

all beardys at one time I'm afraid.

Non beardys -

Kirsty MacColl
Lucinda Williams
Amy MacDonald

David Gedge please. Satchel-mouthed leeds heartthrob and THE HARDEST WORKING MAN IN INDIE. Plaese, a gedge interview (new album out, touring, come on) would be paradise. He's the unsung Morrissey, the Jarvis less-travelled if you will. The nice-guy Mark E Smith.

out of the Prog Rockers Union if I don't utter these words;

Keith Emerson, Greg Lake & Carl Palmer

There. I'm a big boy. I can take the flak but I heard on the grapevine that there was a big Prog issue planned. Round about the centenary of the release of Brain Salad Surgery. 8>}

Danny Thompson - think of the stories that man could tell.

Marianne Faithful - how is her voice coping with the smoking ban? Seriously, again, what anecdotage possible.

Ryan Stiles - just for me really. Thanks to Five US on freeview I've found the American version of Whose Line Is It Anyway. Why isn't this guy up there with Jim Carrey, Eddie Izzard et al?

obv...

the man is a genius, wonderful diverse music, fascinating lyrics, funny, intelligent, opinionated interviewee.

My second choice is Grant Morrison - comic book writer, magician, ufo abductee, even if one doesn't read comics I feel an interview with him would intrigue and entertain.

Thirdly - Luke Haines, talented, intelligent, bitter, acerbic ....

Solomon Burke
Candi Staton
Aimee Mann
Wreckless Eric
Guy Hands
Jeff Beck
One of Fraser's meals (in the context of Fraser as celebrity chef, with Shakin' Stevens, Vic Reeves and Heather Mills as his dinner guests).

Never was much good at maths.

Think outside the box, people! [/davidbrentvoice]

1. Wendell Pierce
BUNK ROCK! Tie-in op: DVD release of season 5 late summer, and the mother of all boxsets for Christmas.

2. Brian Clough
Tie-in op: release of film of The Damned United.

3. Reginald Bosanquet
Tie-in op: er, this year is the 30th anniversary of his News at Ten partnership with Anna Ford. No? Okay, how about a piece on people with brilliant names?

If most people within the Word massive's demographic saw any of those three mugs staring out at them from a newsagent's rack, I'm confident they'd at least be intrigued.

Betty Boo
Paddy McAloon
Omar (or Bunk)

Paul Westerberg (ain't going to happen, but you did ask)
Bender the robot
and another vote for Aimee Mann.

Jarvis Cocker

Tom Waits

Rich Hall/Otis P Crenshaw

Kathleen Edwards
Aimee Mann
Brandi Carlile

Stevie Wonder

Julian Cope

Donald Fagen & Walter Becker

Randy Newman

Robert Wyatt

No Not Pete Burns - I was thinking .....
Todd Rundgren
Paddy McAloon
Alex Harvey
(yes technically he's dead but would be interested in a "behind the scenes" style feature on the older bands still touring a little down the pecking order and SAHB still tour occasionally albeit with a new singer.)

Save yourself the cost of all that print, paper and distribution. Save having to hitch up your skirts in WH Smiths and just put the whole thing online, financed by advertising and, if necessary, a modest subscription. An online magazine wouldn’t have the same restrictions in terms of space and could offer loads more content. A different type of content too: record reviews with sound clips; interviews and articles which (though still text-based) can accomodate sound and video clips.
That Amazon reader thing may be laughable, but only in the sense that pictures of old mobile phones from the ’80s have us slapping our thighs. I wouldn’t be surprised if before long screen technology will enable us to read a screen as comfortably as we can read a printed page anywhere we want. And Apple will have produced a new type of “i-book”; I envisage it being something along the lines of a slim elegant leather-bound restaurant menu about the size of a hardback book, that opens the same way as a book with two facing screens (pages) one incorporating a small keyboard. We’ll buy books and magazines as downloads from the online bookstore or read stuff online. We’ll take them on the bus (where we can browse the paper if we want before switching back over to the novel we’re in the middle of), take them to the toilet, read them in bed. They’ll be as convenient and as popular as the i-pod. (People will still like books as objects of course, but a high proportion of what we read is throwaway)
And if you think this is far-fetched, just think how you would have reacted if someone had described the i-pod to you ten years ago.

As far as the cover goes I don’t really care who’s on it. Having to define and sell the content of The Word via the device of a single “cover star” doesn’t really make much sense. Nor does a letters page responding to articles published over a month ago when the same organisation has such a fast vibrant line of communication between the magazine and its readers as this blog.

1. Frank Black/Black Francis
2. Michael Jackson (would you dare?)
3. Another vote for Stevie Wonder

The dead issues:

Ivor Cutler
Kevin Coyne
Paul Kossoff

The live issues:

Paul Simon
Chris Spedding
Tom Rush

Robyn Hitchcock
Billy Bragg
Andy Partridge

All of whose talents as songwriters are readily acknowledged by the sort of music-obsessive to whom the The Word magazine appeals, but are pretty much unrecognised by the sort of oik whose record collection fits on one end of their single small bookshelf (how's that for Word-snobbery?). The message would be clear: "If you're the sort of person who recognises these people, then you're the sort of person who'll love this magazine!".

(This post sort of overuses the phrase "sort of", it's true.)

David Bowie
Kate Bush
Shawn Colvin (no chance of that happening, I know, but we can all dream)

Crowded House/ Neil Finn
Matt Johnson
Mark Ellen
British Sea Power all eating a variety of pastry baked items

David Sylvian

Stereolab

Scott Walker

Josh Rouse

The Pernice Brothers

Patty Griffin

Justin Currie

The Innocence Mission

Did I say three? I lied.

Leonard Cohen?

Kevin Rowland,

Brian Wilson

Chuck Berry.

I would have said Randy Newman, but he's been said already.

I'm hoping the question is being thrown open due to good sales of John Martyn?

Anyway, here are three life affirming faces (admittedly all dead) with inspiring stories behind them:
Ronnie Lane
Curtis Mayfield
Kirsty MacColl

(Bubbling under: Nina Simone, Viv Stanshall)

Here's my live three:
Steve Earle
Chuck D/Flavor Flav
Dr John

(Bubbling under: Scott Walker, Joe Brown, Randy Newman)

Actually, forget all the above. I'm now going for:

Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry

Jay-Z? C'mon WORD get with it! ;-)

Call me shallow but my 3;

MGMT
"That Boy Is Good Looking" says David Hepworth.And they've made the song of the year "Time To Pretend"

Flight Of The Conchords
"Beyond Good Looking" says Mrs C. And they've made the dvd of the year (Ok it came out last year but near the end)

Shelby Lynne
Oh she's gorgeous as well. And she's made the album of the year.

Mike Scott
Nigel Blackwell
Howe Gelb

Kevin Ayers, Great unsung hero of English Rock

The Incredible String Band

John Ottaway and Wild Willie Barrett

Ooops, that's five!!!

...doesn't the mag normally feature as an interview with the cover star inside? Ah feck it, here goes with my (never yet on The WORD cover) R.I.P. list:

Sam Cooke,

Elvis Presley,

Hank Williams.

Wow! I can pictures each of my six choices (seven, if you include Randy Newman), with The WORD typography on top, dropping onto my hall mat in the coming months.

BLISS!

Stop slagging; I'm 40 and easily pleased these days.

Guy Garvey - Lots of cred. Seems like a good 'un.
Only name I can think of - I'm buying the bloody thing anyway!

... will our suggestions have any influence on future cover-stars? Or have we typed in vain?

Paul Robeson
Billy Bragg
Tom Petty

I always said Thom Yorke. So, job done! Thanks for that!

So here are some more:

If we're going on people I'd like to read about (that haven't been on the cover yet and nobody else has mentioned yet)

1. Wayne Coyne
2. Lightspeed Champion
3. Kurt Wagner (lead singer of Lambchop)

If we're going on aesthetic grounds as well as being interesting:

1. The Pipettes
2. Cat Power
3. Kate Mossman

Rachel Unthank
Guy Garvey
Eliza Carthy

Coner Oberst (Bright Eyes): A songwriting talent still in the ascension after ten years in the business. Makes consistently great albums. Wrote one of the defining protest songs of our era (When the President talks to God) and an equally passionate call to preserve the status quo - I must belong somewhere.

The Blue Nile: If you have them on the cover you'll have to write an article about them, even if it's 'Cooking with The Blue Nile.'

A Roger Dean painting depicting an alien landscape, which folds out into many panels (one housing a free flexi disc) creating a cover approximately six by eight feet. Like the sleeve for Blue Monday the production costs may not be recoupable.

He's got an interesting sounding new album due out any time now so it would be topical (and Marketing Dept friendly).

My next choice would be Wayne Coyne (although that would go aginst my campaign for "please Word, no more beardy blokes on the cover").

Bowie
Paddy McAloon
Philip Glenister

a 20 small oblongs, with pictures of all the covered individuals within, without writing, apart from the title, thus mixing the known with the obscure, the sublime with the ridiculous.
If it has to be 3, let it be, for services to the interested, a triple mugshot (and interviews with) Bob Harris, Johnny Walker and Mike Harding, even tho' I can't stand Mike Harding personally.
I realise this isn't what was asked for either, it being individual mugshots of hitherto unseen. How about JJ Cale, Jah Wobble and Robert Fripp, interviews inside with each?

Two names that have come up already -

Eliza Carthy
Billy Bragg

and one that hasn't

Martin Carthy

on Ron Sexsmith - new album out this month and yes he is greatly undervalued.
Alison Krauss without that old git Plant - they make good music together but he would spoil the photo.
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Steve Earle

Billy Bragg. And to make up the three, Stereolab and Missy Elliott.

Thinking back to an earlier blog, how about...
i) Phil Collins
ii) Mike Oldfield
iii) Rolf Harris......

But seriously, it has to be Kate Bush. Major icon of British music and judging by the amount of votes here a favourite of the loyal Word readership (yours truly included). About time you did a major article - sure you can think of an excuse without waiting for the next album.

Would also go along with Aimee Mann or Kirsty MacColl.

Sparks - but it might frighten small children
Ian McNabb - mentioned already but I accept it might cause a few puzzled looks in WHSmith
Actually I'm a bit stumped for a 3rd - what about Neil Innes ?

Daft Punk
Kraftwerk
The Trons

for the link Nicodemus.

Flippin eck! Roger Waters, Elvis Costello, Morrisey, Amy Winehouse, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits & Paul Weller have been on the cover twice. Nick Cave & Bruce Springsteen thrice.

Somebody's not doing their job right at Word Mansion. Or else payola is back on the menu. Covers for Dido, Pete Doherty & Travis but none for Elton John, Kate Bush or The Who. Macca but not the Fab Three. Questions need to be raised in Parliament methinks.

Peter Gabriel (or Genesis, don't mind)
David Bowie
Scott Walker

Some good suggestions on this thread.

...apart from Bowie. You could also ask him to get out and tour again, thereby making Mrs I's day after that old lollipop-stick-in-the-eye incident caused the cancellation of his last jaunt to these parts.

Other than him, how about Prince? And Bjork - she's the one major star who's further `out there' than most others.

The run of middle-aged blokes on the cover now has me laughing each month when I enter WH Smith's in search of the new issue. The choice of cover star doesn't determine whether I'll buy the mag or not, but I suspect it does for many potential readers.

Randy Newman
Roy Harper (DH splutters "over my dead body")
Ryan Adams

Assuming that is the one that arrives in September.

but instead of babies, have a selection of cheeses.

Kylie Minogue
Fierce Girl

Jeff Tweedy
Conor Oberst
Josh Rouse

Ben Harper
Steve Earle
Thea Gilmore

I have no idea - anyway I would go with

Willie Nelson (more beards)
Aimee Mann (more girls - another vote)
Roger, Gary or Demi Moore (more Moore)

... PJ Harvey,
Kurt Wagner,
Joanna Newsom.

Feist
Goldfrapp
if beards are essential then benny & bjorn?

Mike Scott

Neil Hannon

Bobby Gillespie

... Bowie (it's been long enough since his last cover), Kate Bush, Julian Cope, Todd Rundgren, Jarvis Cocker, Andy Partridge, Scott Walker & Kraftwerk.

My own suggestions would be:
Edwyn Collins
David Byrne
Robert Smith (The Cure)
Chrissie Hynde (but only if Mark Ellen is forced to interview her)
Debbie Harry
Brian Eno

...Billy Bragg

Also :

Ben Folds - but short on output at the moment, even though he's touring
Neil Tennant and/or Chris Lowe. Surely the PSB revival is just around the corner?

Rich

Bill Hicks
Henry Rollins
Stevie Ray Vaughan

David Sylvian (genius)
Scott Walker (double-genius)
and either Peter Murphy (a long shot, I know, but have always wanted to know what he's got to say for himself) or Leonard Rossiter (again unlikely, because sadly, no new material for some time)

Randy Newman
and
Emmylou Harris ( ooh , the stories she could tell )
Roger Daltrey
Rod Stewart / The Small Faces ( a trip down memory lane )
Mark Ellen & David Hepworth ( a sideways look at the publishing biz )

It is tempting to nominate one's favourite artist for this honour but they do not necessarily merit a cover: the story has to be interesting. So I discount Randy Newman. And maybe all has been written already. So I discount Brian Wilson. Yet I love both these two.
But what about:
Warren Zevon who rarely gets coverage anywhere;
Jimmy Webb whose story is fascinating;
and
David Ford as we need a Brit in this list?
We don't read enough about any of these three.

so Steve Earle and Billy Bragg would be great.

I'd also like to see the underated genius that is Mark Oliver Everett on the cover, complete with interview etc. Very interesting chap is our E.

1. Peter Gabriel - speaks for itself really, he's always doing something interesting involving new technology etc!

2. David Sylvian - just because the guy is in serious need of a re-appraisal in my opinion (why is he still ignored by the serious music press, apart from Wire occasionally), and he doesn't need chart hits to sell out tours either - last years was a sold-out belter in my opinion!

3. Robert Mugabe - go on, I dare you!

Kate Rusby
Rennie Sparks
or
Kristin Hersh

Kevin Rowland
Kate Bush
Jean Louis Murat

Jay Z. A black man. On your cover. Preferably in company of Noel Gallagher.

If, on the other hand, you want to hear some war stories, HORAs, anecdotes and pithy wonderfulness, Danny, Linda and Richard Thompson (note lack of 'or') egotistical Scousemonster Ian McNabb (Hey, he's got a book ahoy) or Blue Oyster Cult. Or Russell Brand - hey we've already bought the subscriptions, how much harm can it do?

do what other inferior mags do and have an issue with 4 different covers; one for each band member.

E.g. U2, Beatles, Take That, etc. Unless there are free fivers taped to each mag. Make that tenners in the case of McFly.

The Godlike Jackie Leven
The weird and wonderful Diamanda Galas
The harmonious Pernice Brothers

Al Green (he's around in November)
Stereolab (new album out soon)
Robert Wyatt (surpasses beard quota)

Norman Blake
Stuart Murdoch
Robyn Hitchcock

Norman Whitfield
Russell Simmons
Kate Bush
Crescent City spesh, with cover stars from the living (Irma Thomas, Dr John) and the dead (Lee Dorsey)

The La's

man or astro-man ?

jandek

Seasick Steve
PJ Harvey
Richard Hawley

1. Julian Cope - Like your tag line - At last a man with something to say
2. David Sylvian - Someone said 'genius' I say 'Pure Genius' - 10 bonus points to anyone who saw what I did there.
3. Matt Johnson (TheThe - not Rufus' drummer) - What's he doing, please find out.

While I would dearly love to see Peter Gabriel on the cover (meaning he's out and about again!), I would like to see some attention paid to reggae and ska names. It's really not getting enough attention as far as I'm concerned.

I'm not going to give you a list, just have a whacking great collage - that'd be good.

I'd like to see,
The Late Great Eddie Lang,
With out whom there would be a
lot less guitar players in this world
(Banjo would have been tool of choice before him. Don't believe me, do your research)
Leo Fender and Les Paul,
We can't afford the interest on the debt
we owe to these two pioneers. Giants.

using your finest photoshopper skills, how about JUST the beard and we have to guess the rockstar by the shape and hue of his (or possibly her) face fuzz?

it's got winner written all over it!

Ian McNabb (autobiography out soon)
Andy Partridge (always good for penis jokes)
Danny George Wilson (now with beard)
Mark Kozelek (So I can see what he looks like)

. . . that featured how we got from nowhere to here, then your cover would display:
Muddy Waters
Little Richard
Chuck Berry
Aretha Franklin
John Lee Hooker
Robert Johnson
Otis Redding
Lee Dorsey
Al Green
The Jackson Five
The Supremes
Smokey Robinson
Ike Turner
BB King
Buddy Guy
. . . and more - you probably get the drift

John Tams
Ben Folds
The Wainwright Family ( as many as it would be possible to keep in one space without war breaking out. Think of the subsequent songs!)

Christy Moore
Billy Joel
Spoon

Amongst the "and more" of the post above, I wish I had specified:
Bob Marley
Arthur Alexander
Sam Cooke
Big Bill Broonzy
Arthur Crudup
Jimi Hendrix
Staple Singers
Miles Davis
and Billie Holiday

Come on The Word, do an edition that gives thanks to the roots of rock n roll

The finest chap on the planet - Mr John Prine

The honourable Smokey Robinson

and of course - Declan Patrick Costello

preferably all talking about songwriters and songwriting.

A pic of Orange Juice in their pomp (original line-up).

Conor Oberst - Backwards7 had it spot-on.

Paul Heaton.

Charlie Rich

Rory Gallagher

Kevin Rowland

Squeeze
Jack White
Graham Coxon

Steve Winwood (total ledge and national treasure since the age of about 15)
Billy Connelly (talking about his favourite music and his early musical experiences as a Humblebum)
Stevie Wonder (where DOES this man's talent and aptitude come from?)

1. David Gedge
2. David Gedge
3. David Gedge

Someone needs to have the bollocks to stand up for one of the finest songwriters this country has ever produced. When I see the likes of Paul Weller being championed on the culture show; Morrissey having his scrotum licked everywhere he goes in spite of having been a crap buffoon for two decades; and the latest generic, bland inipid crap on the front of the NME - it is excruciating to know that Gedge is storming his way through a barnstormingly-good setlist at a tiny venue somewhere.

Todd Rundgren
Bruce Cockburn
Richard Thompson

Cowboy Junkies

Godspeed You Black Emperor (not sure where the ! is these days...)

Donald Fagen

Almost eight months between the most recent post on a topic and the one before!

Ian McNabb
(seems a popular choice...but can appreciate that McNabb on the cover next to Lily Allen on Q isn't gonna shift copies on the WHSmith shelf to the casual buyer!)

Bjork

Ian Hunter

Can't recall ever seeing The Dame or Broooooooce adorn the cover either?

Strikes me as incredible that the Prof has NEVER been on the cover of a pop-culture magazine (especially one with more 'cultured' leanings like Word!).

Think about it: an individual who has a TRULY COLOSSAL following, a huge impact on popular culture (think about how much fun the boys in the office/we in the forum could have with a sidebar just listing all the songs etc with Middle-Earth references), a fathomless intellect with an awe-inspiring personal story taking in WW1, work on the esoterica of the OED's 'W' words in 1920-21, key academic contributions to Beowulf studies (more pop culture tie-ins...), the creation of a world which is still at the centre of vast pond-rippling taking in not only endless books about him/his own work but arguably has created the whole modern fantasy genre inc. the world of computer gaming (hey, it's hardly his fault, though!) and - dare one suggest topical advertising-revenue possibilities - he has a 'new' book out in May, being an unpublished reconstruction of a missing section from a Norse myth manuscript - mirroring the original's form/structure. He did this kind of thing just for fun, in between lectures at Oxford and ale-quaffing with Lewis and the boys down the Eagle & Child...

Personally, I love to read about Tolkien. His enduring popularity would suggest I'm not alone among the Word-demographic.

Put any of these three on the cover please ...

1. John Foxx
2. Klaus Schulze
3. Hans Joachim Roedelius

... and watch sales plummet.

Richard & Linda Thompson
Don Partridge

Kim Deal
Thomas Dolby
Dave Grohl

1. Mott
2. The
3. Hoople

1: Scott Walker - this will have to wait until the big freak actually does something, but untill then...

2: Super Furry Animals

3: Kevin Rowland

First the Randomiser, now this. You used to have to pay for reader profiling of this quality.

Is the Media Pack being updated, or what?

...without actually having something to plug. I'd like a 'state of the industry' issue featuring contributions from:

George Michael

Green Gartside

Geoff Travis

(don't have to start with a 'G')

Philip Oakey

Boy George

Tom Paton

...people who'd give a good view of life from the inside (Boy George can give his view from the inside, from inside).