Which musician, who was part of a great band, has produced the worst solo stuff?

With plenty of bands we only discover they were better than the sum of their parts once they’ve split up, and we are subjected to the horror of their solo stuff.

But who stands out as the worst offender?

My nomination – as he’s on Six Music at the moment – Richard Ashcroft

The Verve produced some fantastic albums. Absolute classic tunes

His solo stuff? Sweet baby Jesus and the Orphans. Its laughably, comically terriblel! It sounds like a sixth former wrote it in their bedroom while stoned. What a load of po-faced, self-indulgent claptrap! Its absolutely bloody awful!

Your nominations please….

speaking of 6th form poetry, imagine there was no John Lennon.

Ha ha binners ,you listening to him whine on R6 🙂

He doesn’t half take himself seriously? its painful!

Eric Clapton

Keith Richards

also Morrissey got substantially worse after the restraining yoke of all the other Smiths was removed. (see also: 6th form poetry)

hmm, there may be a theme here

Obvs…

And of course…

McCartney

Phil Collins (Genesis were shit too though but Phil took it to a whole new level)

Lennon… McCartney… Harrison… Probably Lennon’s the worst offender though.

Andrew Ridgeley 😉

Chris Cornell (Soundgarden) although tbf I’ve not heard everything he’s done, but what I have heard, I didn’t like much.

EDIT: Although I’d be surprised if anyone can top McCartney on this one.

Paul McCartney, though he did redeem himself with his performance in the Goonies 😉

Debbie Harry has to be right up there, and the less said about Dee Dee Ramone the better!!

Perry Farrell (Jane’s Addiction) – from this

to this

Morrisey or Mccartney. I think the only way to decide which is to lock them both in a room and… actually, **** it, job done.

Honourable mention to both Gallagher brothers.

Roger Waters

Sting.

Lou Reed? reminded of a quote from Trainspotting here.

Can I flip the op on it’s head and suggest.. the Doors without Jim Morrison…. ‘in the eye of the sun before the world has begun’

All the Queen solo projects were pretty dire apart from Roger’s band ‘The Cross’ which was just about passable.

All the Queen solo projects were pretty dire apart from Roger’s band ‘The Cross’ which was just about passable.

Just shows the subjectivity of taste, I was considering nominating him for that, and for his earlier, solo thing – “Fun in Space” I think it might have been called?

I’m not a big fan of Brian May’s work outside Queen either, other than the very odd thing he did with Eddie Van Halen in the 1980s. Which isn’t any good, but at least it’s odd.

Sting.

+1

Not sure of Chris Cornell’s solo stuff but the first audioslave album is pretty good.

No mention of Wes Borland from limp bizket or that drummer from foo fighters, Taylor Hawkins?

Perry Farrell (Jane’s Addiction)

Oh my good God, that second solo one is indescribably bad 😯

jekkyl – Member

All the Queen solo projects were pretty dire apart from Roger’s band ‘The Cross’ which was just about passable.

The Brian May Band was my first ever gig 😆 Cozy Powell drumming Resurrection was pretty bloody good tbh.

PrinceJohn – Member

No mention of Wes Borland from limp bizket

Alright but thing is, he’s an awesome musician who when recording for himself, likes making unlistenable noise everyone else hates. He’s actually brilliant at that.

See also: Mike Patton.

Did anyone else experience the indescribable spectacle that was Bob Fairfoull from Idlewild’s solo career? He decided to become a guitarist without ever actually learning how to play anything with more than 4 strings, I genuinely saw him stop a song part way through so he could figure out how to do the next chord. He was one step away from moving his fingers around with the other hand.

Gary Barlow.

John Frusciante has made some lovely music away from his two stints in the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, but the album he made in the mid 1990s, by his own admission to get drug money as he was in the depths of an almost fatal heroin addiction, really isn’t.

My nomination – as he’s on Six Music at the moment – Richard Ashcroft

Mentioned him earlier today on a thread. The fake American accent is horrendous!

I’d go for John Squire. I mean Ian Brown ain’t the best singer in the world, but by jeez his voice has some character. John Squire’s is just crap and unlistenable.

Lou Reed? ? Huh? Are you mental?

Lou Reed? reminded of a quote from Trainspotting here.

You do know that Metal Machine Music was a contractual obligation thing, and he deliberately wanted it to be obnoxiously unlistenable?

Or were you thinking of Lulu?

edlong – Member
Sting.
+1

POSTED 18 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST SHARE

+ another.

Bid of a sad one as it documents the descent of a talented guy into debilitating life-long mental illness: Syd Barrett – his solo stuff is as painful to listen to as it probably was to make.

Rick Wakeman.

Lionel Richie. From Brick House funk to shit house pop.

Rod Stewart. From Maggie May to well, Sailing.

I can’t think of any other question in the world where these two could be both be possible answers:

All of the Spice Girls

and

Sid Vicious

All of the Verve’s best stuff was when the geetarist (McCabe?) was in charge. Like you can sing something over the top of this if you like, Richard, but basically no one’s arsed. Once Ashcroft grabbed the reins you could sense the tedium building.

Can’t be having the Moz in this category. OK the solo stuff’s been up and down, but there’s still quality there and nothing would stand comparison to such a transcendent group.

He never quite managed Frogs Chorus, but shirely Sir Mick of Jaggington needs to be mentioned here?

Peter Gabriel had moments of genius after leaving Genesis but also whole albums of utter tosh as well, I still like the fact he wasn’t afraid to experiment.

Phil Collins in Genesis made them shit, when he left his solo stuff was even worse – almost unbelievably so.

Didn’t really like The Verve much but Richard Ashcroft’s solo stuff is dire, he can sing (we saw him at CarFest South) but why he bothers is beyond me. A total dirge and he realy realy thinks he’s something special!

This guy.

As the guitarist in Dokken, utterly amazeballz.

In his own band Lynch Mob, utter twiddly shite.

Yeah the answer is Sting

Sir Mick of Jaggington needs to be mentioned here

Except he is redeemed by “Memo from Turner”.

Peter Gabriel could indeed be poor at times .