Entertainment For Lively Minds
So who's the Theo Walcott of rock and roll?
Posted by David Hepworth on 1 June 2010 - 1:41pm.
According to "sources" Theo Walcott isn't going to be picked for the England World Cup squad. If this is true that means he's gone from "next big thing" to "has-been" without the period of stardom inbetween. Football's a cruel mistress. Anyone else whose career has followed a similar trajectory? Apart from George Lamb, of course.
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What about this lot?
I quite like the song. Mind you, I rate Theo.
Me too
I loved this when it came out - and another one by them which I have forgotten.
Theo - he is a really excellent impact substitute (not a starter, ask any other Arsenal fan). That Don Fabio hasn't tried him as that worries me, ditto his arrogant blind spot concerning Gerrard and Lampard.
Theo, AJ and Benty
were surely the three 'impact subs' that should have took the trip. Fact is Fabio is a play-safetype of guy. We'll just have to see what happens. Only seven strikers scored more goals than Darren Bent this season worldwide. Needless to say those seven will all be in South Africa. Goal poachers can come in handy when you need to, ahem, poach a goal. Ask Linekar.
ooh - probably loads
I remember the following being hyped to all get out but damp squibbing pretty soon after take off:
Sigue Sique Sputnik
Roaring Boys
The Truth
Birdland
Spelt Like This
I'd imagine the January issue of every music mag for the last few decades features Walcotts aplenty.
ooh - snap, Mr Fade!
Wasn't Kirsty Macoll's brother one of the Boring Roys? (swidt?)
How about
Steve Brookstein
Josh Dubovie
What do you mean, who?
In recent years
Gay Dad
Kubb
Little Boots
VV Brown
Um... Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong?
Aaaaah Kubb
Saw this band go from industry showcase to £1 in the sale at HMV - where nothing is ever £1. I think someone told them they would be huge and then they forgot to do anything about it.
One from the past
Terry Reid. Up and coming glamour boy in 60s, considered for job as singer of Led Zeppelin, doesn't happen, spends rest of career trying to explain what went wrong.
Paul Weller
Less of the schadenfreude Mr Hepworth, I guess you Spurs fans have to take your victories over Arsenal when you can get them - roughly once a decade :)
I'd prefer to see Theo's musical equivalent as Paul Weller immediately post Style Council split, a couple of years in the wilderness before making a storming comeback.
He's still only 21.
Not sure about the Paul Weller parallel
Must have missed the Jam period of Theo Walcott's career.
Album last around 45 minutes
A bit like Walcott's "Jam" period. We call it "One Night in Zagreb"
Not an exact analogy but...
Theo Walcott as The Jam:
Theo Walcott as The Style Council:
What was that awful racket
Accompanying the Croatia goals?
Theo's "Modern World" period
Maybe Theo's rock equivalent is The Jam in their Modern World period: a disappointing setback after a promising start at a very young age; with a glorious future ahead.
He's young. He's no has-been. And he seems like a decent sort - came out straight away with a dignified "disappointed but wish the team well" statement. And let's not forget his hat trick in one of the most important qualifiers: it set the confident mood of the whole campaign.
The House of Love
were bloody everywhere and bloody marvelous during 88 and 89. Then came 1990, signing to a major label, Madchester and adios career. Shame.
The Farmer's Boys
sadly.
Really?
I seem to recall they were Peel favourites, which pretty much condemned them to obscurity.
This list made me laugh
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/dec/23/mcgee-music-tips-2...
Only heard of one of them, Avi Buffalo (who are pretty good) but coming up to the half-year mark for the others and its not looking so good.
Steve Forbert
was The Next Bob Dylan for a while. It's a ridiculous and impossible-to-live-up-to tag that tends to over-shadow all the good work the recipient does. Mind you, I bet Steve didn't rake in £50k per week while going from "next big thing" to "has-been." If, indeed, either is really a has-been...
George Lazenby
was plucked from obscurity a la Walcott / 2006 WC, put into a Bond movie, saw stardom beckon... and didn't become a superstar.
Chesney
Hawkes
Richard Blackwood
Last seen receiving a 'celebrity enema'
His moment of greatness
He had Melanie Chisholm on the show. He'd been asked in advance not to ask her about her sexuality or her fluctuations in weight. On camera, he reiterated this strictures, and then said something like "we should just talk about the music, right?" Oh yes, responds Mel C. "So, what do you think of Fat Les?"
Well I laughed.
Hopefully - Bruce Springsteen
Yes really!
To date :
Promising debut ... over hyped ... fantastic performance ... disappointment/frustrations.
The future :
Critical acclaim (if he learns to cross/pass) ... massive worldwide success (we can dream)
And "no", I'm not a Gooner!
I dunno much about fitbaw
but I do know The Chameleons should've been bigger than U2
No one ever saw them though.
No one could.
I saw the Chameleons in 1984
... in a pub in Manchester called the Gallery. They were pretty good. Talked to Mark Burgess afterwards. He seemed a nice enough chap.
thank you
you lucky, lucky bastard! :D
great band, still play them
Quireboys
All looking good - great early singles, fantastic live. Then signed to EMI, released album that was OK, but could've been better. Then gradual (or fairly quick actually) downhill descent.
Ordinary Boys - Good first LP, then Preston goes tonto.
The Only Ones
An impeccable single to present them to the world. A front man who brilliantly managed to fuse the androgyno-decadent chic of Marc Bolan with the smacko-degenerate cool of Keith Richards. A deal with the then-and-happening major, CBS, followed by an album with four quite tasty tunes on it (i.e. twice the going rate at the time). Followed by....
Hello?
I was a huge Only Ones fan and played...
...their three albums regularly for decades. Finally got to meet them at a record store signing session in 2009 in Stockholm. Peter Perret seemed a small, shrivelled-up creature, barely alive, making bizarre croaking noises. Mind you, he signed my wife's copy of "Even Serpents Shine" with a nice dedication, so he can't have been all bad.
The Twang/ The Killers
Remember The Twang? "Either Way" and all that. At least NME thought they were the next big thing, but it turned out to be all hype.
Even The Killers. They looked set to be a great pop act, but got really bad really fast. Has any band ever got badder faster? But that first album had some great tunes.
Travis
They really should have progressed onto really really big things, but have just faded away after just one great album and a few mediocre follow-ups. Coldplay, The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs and others are headlining festivals that they should be doing.
Nope!
Travis are my bette noir of hometown bands, I'm constantly apologising for their lameness.
Now anyone remember ZTT's much hyped but died like a damp squib Das Psycho Rangers?
Gomez
Youngsters with great promise. Then nothing.
Lone Justice...
Oodles of talent, lots of money invested, surrounded by hype and then... er,
Supergrass
One moment they're all over the media with their:
...then it's a decade or more of relative obscurity and, dare I say it, mediocrity?
They were only
In It For The Money :-)
the road
to ruin and all that
Oh! Bloody Hell
Yes of course. 'The Road to Rouen' Rouen/Ruin.
Penny has dropped now after owning the album for about 5 years.
I now have a face the colour of a smacked arse.
see me
after class ;)
Mediocrity?
Their debut album is their weakest by far. It's sad that these guys were making great albums for over a decade while almost no one noticed.
All Saints?
One great single then nothing.
And I've been watching the boy Theo since his debut for Southampton. He's only 21. He'll be back.
Kevin
Keegan
Mood Six - Remember them?
A "Sounds" front cover and (with hindsight) a belief that members from Mod revival bands could elicit a 1980s version of the psychedelic movement of 1967.
No.
X Factor finalists...
Steve Brookstein
Tabby Callaghan
Shayne Ward
Andy Abraham
Journey South
Ray Quinn
Ben Mills
Leon Jackson
Rhydian Roberts
Same Difference
Eoghan Quigg
Olly Murs
Stacy Solomon
What a bunch of successes! Coming to an Aldi's near you...
Oasis
Oasis.
And, no, not the short-lived Mary Hopkin outfit.
Every one (NME, Mojo, Uncut) told you they were good and well, erm, they aren't/weren't at all good.
Walcott should have stayed, albeit with a view to moving to Arsenal, with Southampton.
He could have been a real hero there by now, just like Laurie Cunningham was at Orient, but he and Arsenal cashed the cheque in too early, and I doubt, with just 21 appearances, that he'd get in a Top 50 list of Saints' players.
Still, he and his club will finish exactly third (not 2nd, not 4th, but 3rd) in the Premiership next season, the growing excitement at the Emirates must be too much to bear!
That whole Billy Idol/Theo Walcott connection there
As a youngster, he was in a fair-to-middling punk band, certainly had presence, and a bit of success. After punk flickered out, he was consigned to the dumper in his early 20s and then everyone forgot about the King Rocker.
But then - blow me - he decamps to the States for a few years and produces some very good polished pop music, while keeping the punk image going. So in his mid-twenties, he becomes massiver than ever. Perhaps Theo will do the same?
There's been enough politicians who fit the criteria
but Gordon Brown probably tops the lot; from morally centred true socialist saviour to slightly bonkers chap who insults harmless old ladies.
Anyone remember that no-mark member of Thatcher's cabinet who was minister for paperclips and was regarded as the next big thing and then disappered - John Moore ?
Or...
Michael 'Planet' Portillo?
don'tcha mean
Denzel?
Not forgetting
Xavier, of course
I did
forget :I
The Frank and Walters
Over hyped by NME but very good...
"The Next U2"
Remember that time when every A&R decamped to Dublin after "The Joshua Tree" desperately flinging cash at any rabble of a band that looked a little bit worthy? A hat wearing singer was a bonus.
I'm thinking here of Hothouse Flowers in particular but there were other lesser known lights who took the shilling and spectacularly went downhill.
Walcott is nothing more than a latter day Peter Marinello
The Scissor Sisters.
New album ahoy - so we'll see. Fortunately, they have remained on the tip of everyone's tongue as being the only band you can confidently request by name at a wedding reception after an afternoon on the buck's fizz. Which, ironically, you can't also do with Buck's Fizz.