Bands you thought would hit the mainstream but…

Guided by voices

Not really hear much by them, but liked what I have heard.

BUT nominated here because I’ve read they are on their FORTIETH album. The deserve more success, but clearly don’t need it.

BUT nominated here because I’ve read they are on their FORTIETH album. The deserve more success, but clearly don’t need it.

Bob Pollard is a prolific writer. Whether or not it’s all worth putting on a record is open to opinion. I like a lot of GBV, but I think one release a year with the best tunes would be better than three releases a year with a lot of average tunes. YMMV.

This is a cracking tune though.

Edited for stupidity.

I’ve got 1 of those 40. Quite understandable that they haven’t hit the big time, but its no bad thing.

I think the Gaslight Anthem could legitimately be bigger than they are.

then they ended up on Conan O’Brian and stuff like that, number 2 in the album chart, headlining Wembley Arena and stuff like that.

Honestly did not know that but it makes me happy to read it. Fantastic live band and always thought Dub War were way ahead of their time. Skindred’s last album is great, not a bad track on it and just plain fun.

We Were Promised Jetpacks  – Some cracking tracks and brilliant live. Thought they might get nearer the Biffy level of success

Screaming Trees are another one who, after Dust, I thought would be massive. The fact that the members hated each other and Mark Lanegan was one of them put paid to that. Still think it is one of the best albums of the 90’s.

I’m amazed Joe Cocker never made it big. He’s not released an album in a couple of years; I’m sure next one will see him go mainstream and he’ll be on Graham Norton.

“The Wonder stuff. “Once upon a time we could have been a stadium band, you know that right””

I saw them headline a stadium!    admittedly it was Bescott Stadium in Walsall but still……

CUD – blimey there is a band that I’d totally forgotten existed. Wanders off to put his Rich and Strange CD on…..

Frightened Rabbit

The Woodpile got played on Radio 1 when it came out and I thought they would blow up then but it just never happened.

If I ever mention them to anyone they haven’t heard of them. At their gigs though it was like every single person was their biggest fan and knew all the lyrics. I remember once they finished with The Loneliness and The Scream and left the stage with everyone singing the “Oooooh ooooh” bit and everyone kept singing for a good couple of minutes before the came back for the encore!

Frightened Rabbit were fantastic. I think the singers mental struggles that sadly led to his suicide will have played a part.

Weird seeing CUD mentioned, only the other day I was surprised to see they are playing a gig near Birmingham in the summer.

I had a CUD single as a teen, didn’t the drummer change career into a movie reviewer?

Big fan of …trail of the dead too.

Pre ‘Place your hands’ fame Reef was my first ever gig at Derby Assembly Rooms, supporting was Cable who all came out in Halfords overalls and were really really good, in a these guys will do well kind of way. 2rd support was Travis who pretty much got boo’d off then for being dull as dish water.

Current bets are on Cardiff band Half Happy for 6 Music level game at least.

scratchFree Member
I had a CUD single as a teen, didn’t the drummer change career into a movie reviewer

no idea, but for several years in the late 80’s / early 90’s “and I bumped into the drummer from CUD” was a euphemism in NME for getting truly smashed on a night out. I once had a post gig session with the band, and I can testify the drummer did indeed challenge my resolution to pushing the envelope

House of Love should have been one of the biggest indie bands from the pre-britpop era but blew it due to internal wranglings and record company inertia

Yes, they were so good. Shame they got derailed. Their stuff holds up so well still.

I’d put Felt in the same bracket, made some incredibly good songs but Lawrence was obviously a difficult character.

And in a similar vein to them, there was a US band called Beulah who made one of the best indie pop albums I’ve ever heard – but it never really got any traction.

Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOJWuc3CN301oDYUasrgCuv5Dujj5YbFC

Killing Joke? were more like an unexpected mainstram hit to me! So dark and weird – Love Like Blood and Eighties were huge hits. Totally unexpected for one of the weirder post-punk bands.

But in terms of ‘mainstream’ that’s pretty much it. Outside of those hits, how many non Killing Joke fans could name another track?

Another band that hit mainstream too briefly for me are Garbage. They’ve done some amazing stuff but always seem to fly under the radar.

“Their stuff holds up so well still”

It does, except I did notice that when streaming Shine On the other day they had changed the lyric ‘so young, just 16’ on my original CD to ‘just 18!’

Felt were pretty good and I have most of their stuff on vinyl but to me they lacked focus and didn’t really have a signature sound to define them above the many other similar bands around at the time.

Its like Kitchens of Distinction and Ultra Vivid Scene – they were good but ultimately JAMC took the crown and rightly so because they were that bit more focused.

It does, except I did notice that when streaming Shine On the other day they had changed the lyric ‘so young, just 16’ on my original CD to ‘just 18!’

Oh dear, heading off a visit from the Yewtree squad perhaps?

Christine and Destroy the Heart sound even better now than they did at the time, to me.

Yes, you’re right about Felt’s lack of focus. A bit like one of my personal favourites, The Jazz Butcher (RIP). In an alternate universe his “Angels” would be the one everyone knows.

The Struts.

Massive in the USA, still playing small gigs when they come back to the UK where they are from (Bristol, Wales, and a bit of Nottingham IIRC). Criminally underplayed.

OTOH, every time I see them I’m kinda glad, because I much prefer small venues to massive ones, so a selfish/guilty pleasure.

Cancer Bats. Bloody great band, never understood why they never got bigger.

@sadexpunk As tremendous as Trail of Dead were, they were never going to go mainstream.

@funkmasterp Dust is great, isn’t it? Still one I listen to regularly.

Much as though I like GbV they’re another one that was never going to happen. And do you really need more than Mag Earwhig! and Under the Bushes?

Anyone for some GVSB? House Of was great then they sort of petered out.

Oh yes, and Chavez. Chavez were ace and I loved them. But no-one else had ever heard of them.

The Music +1

Harry the Spider

The Chameleons.

This in bucket loads but we are talking the early 80’s where there was a lot of stuff around. Still listening to them now.

The Only Ones, much better than a lot of their post-punk/new wave contemporaries but never broke through, gave up disillusioned

Couple of bands I saw back in the 70’s should have come to something, but it never really happened for them, trying to remember what they were called, let me see… oh yeah, Led Zeppelin, and the other was Pink something or other, yeah Pink Floyd. What ever happened to them?

House of Love should have been one of the biggest indie bands from the pre-britpop era but blew it due to internal wranglings and record company inertia

+1, should have taken over the world. I count this as my first ‘proper’ gig – Newcastle Riverside 1987. Earsplitting volume, strobes almost continuous, sweat dripping off the ceiling.

I’d seen plenty of bands by then but mainly in concert halls (Siouxsie at the RAH) and repurposed sports venues (Depeche Mode, Whitley Bay Ice rink!) as example but from that point on it’s been small independent venues for me as much as possible.

My current ‘why doesn’t everyone like this band?’ band are The Bug Club. A few on 6 music play them, and they’re slowly moving up the bill on other stages at festivals but IDK why they aren’t ‘huge’ (OK not huge, never going to be a stadium filling band but at least someone most people with interest in music have heard of)

Cud tour pretty regularly, they’ve currently got a bunch of dates lined up. Got a box in the loft full of their albums and 12″singles. Last band tshirt I bought was… a Cud one. Great gigs back in the day, always went when they were in town, the obligatory stage invasion while the band somehow managed to keep on playing while gradually falling off

Always thought the Wildhearts should have been huge but never quite made it big. The Young Knives were another band I saw a couple of times and really liked but never got the recognition they deserved.

Been wracking my brain for days trying to remember a band from the late 80s that were fairly impressive but sadly never went anywhere. Finally came to me, Rouen. Birmingham band I think, or nearby. The track Young for a day is superb