Entertainment For Lively Minds
We Are Ugly But We Have The Music
Posted by David Perry on 16 December 2008 - 8:45pm.
I'm sticking this up
partly for a chuckle at the sartorial nadir that was 1985 (the sunglasses! the sleeveless t-shirts! the mullets!) but mainly to hymn the delights of Clive Gregson. Great voice, great songs, great band. And yet he's not particularly well known. Could it be - sorry to be blunt, and harsh - because he's not just challenged sartorially but aesthetically also? Can anyone proffer examples of ugly but successful frontmen?
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no shortage of those
let's see now (apologies to any of these gents still living...)
Meat Loaf
Joey Ramone
Walter Trout
Feargal Sharkey
Tom "Thom" Yorke
Ah yes...
Richard Thompson - the man from C&A years. For further examples of mid-80s clothing disasters, check out RT's video 'Across A Crowded Room'... a little bit scary.
Clive Gregson? I'm not that familiar with his work, to be honest, but on the strength of that clip I'd say 'great song, bit of a shame about the voice'.
Successful frontmen who are no oil paintings? Well, a certain podgy Northern Irishman given to 40 year long bouts of ill-temper springs to mind...
Ahead of her time
Those shiny leggings are back in now. They're in Top Shop.
I believe
you're referring to the lovely Christine Collister. If I held the rights to Halleluiah She outside of L. Cohen would be the one allowed to sing it!
She also does a mean job of Tom Waits' songs!!
But her version is shite!
Like Willie Nelson, she over eggs it a mile and a half. (And I'm a big fan of hers, too, from CG and CC onwards.
What Retropath said!
Christine Collister is my favourite singer, full stop. However, I don't like her version of Hallelujah either. She does have an occasional tendency to over-emote, a practice I believe she has partly developed as she almost always performs solo these days, and obviously likes to do something where the instrumental solo might go if she had Clive Gregson or Howard Lees on lead guitar. Instead, she often does a little humming or variations on a theme. This can work beautifully, as on her version of God Bless The Child. On Hallelujah, she kinda wrecks the song, to be blunt.
I wish I could find her version of Jackson Browne's lovely song For A Dancer on youtube. That is a real beaut.
Sorry, David Hepworth
but who dressed you?
Christ!
I had completely forgotten about that. We must have been doing some Beach Boys or Jimmy Buffet theme. Never joke on telly. It comes back to haunt you.
Joe Strummer
..and he was probably the best looking member of the Clash too
Sorry, but even I can tell that...
Paul Simonon was a very handome man.
Rob Halford
Judas Priest.
Must remember to order my turkey...
never loved Heavy metal
but that is possibly one of the saddest things I've seen for years!!
ugly and grumpy front man
Van would be the man
Priest...
rock. What I have always loved about metal bands is that they recognize that they're in the entertainment business... ludicrous stage costumes, dry ice, lasers, lightshow, drum solo, inflatable monsters, denim and / or leather... you want 'em? You got 'em.
Genius.
Always thought
that Joe Cocker had been given a sound thrashing with the ugly stick.
I thought of a Flock of Seagulls
but then I read the entirety of the title......
Ugly isn't necessarily the problem...
...there's been a lot of ugly pop/rock/whatever stars.
What they do have to have, regardless of looks, are the following two things going on:
People want to shag them.
People want to be them.
If they don't have that then they're never going to be really successful.
Er
Can it be any 1 out of the 2?
I just don't want to BE Tori Amos...
Definitely!!
Although I'm sure her little red beret would look good on all of us.
(That wasn't intended as some surreal double entendre, but I think I'll just leave it there....and leave.)
Clive and Christine
Used to be "an item" I believe. This caused much envy (and bafflement)among male folk fans. I remember reading a letter (I think in Folk Roots, as it was then) along the lines "I have the paunch and the receding hair. Can I have Christine Collister too?"
They were never quite as good apart as they were together. I used to have some of their stuff on tape but would love to have it again. Has anybody found anywhere they can be downloaded from?
Yup
It has all been re-released on a german label, Gott. Possibly even on e-music for cheap downloads? (No, just checked) Neither on amazon mp3 or i-tunes, but some are available on Play.com, co I just looked.
Surely the winner is...
...Shane MacGowan...?
ooh, what about Gainsbourg?
Interesting
that no-one's mentioned any ugly women yet. Are we being PC, or is it even harder for an ugly woman to be successful?
Of course, Cohen put the words of the thread title in the mouth of Janis Joplin. Not the only thing he put in her mouth, if the song is to to be believed. Anyway, I don't think she was that bad looking. Now, Joni Mitchell...
This is probably against the rules
but I just want to see if it's possible to push one's own blog into the hot topics list by the simple expedient of adding a comment.