Top 5 NW bands that got screwed by history

[deevo0]

How about The Sound.

From allmusic: "An assured, relatively loose follow-up to the fraught and frayed Jeopardy, From the Lion's Mouth entrenched the Sound's stature as no mere flash in the pan. It should have shot them directly between spots occupied by the like-minded Joy Division and Echo & the Bunnymen as post-punk legends, but the Fates had something else in mind, and so the quartet took their place right next to touring mates the Comsat Angels in the section marked 'Deserved Better.'"

Here are some random songs ...

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Think about the medicore or downright crap acts that became household names in the states, yet nobody has heard of these guys.

[korova1]

Chameleons and the Sound are two of the biggest bands to get "screwed". Makes you wonder about Statik record's promotion department.

But in reality neither band was a bunch of "pretty boys". They had dark introspective lyrics about deep subject matter (wars, suicide, morality, humanity) and their words actually meant something.

Generally speaking this formula doesn't work for mass pop consumption.

Although with fair success in UK, Teardrop Explodes gets no true BIG commercial or critical recognition in the USA IMHO, along with Mr. Cope for that matter, although he did get a brief bit of recognition in the late 80's with Jehovakill and Peggy Suicide. I think he only had one hit with "World Shut Your Mouth" way back. I love that band.

Polyrock is a greaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat example of a phenomenal band who got absolutely nowhere.

[korova1]

Oh,I forgot one

Pylon

and this is debatable but I would also say Wire. Wire is the most criminally neglected band on the face of the earth. Four geniuses in one band they consistently put out the greatest shit time and time again and usually get the obligatory 3 star reviews and then everyone moves on. But they are the band the TRUE artists have been striving to be for years. At least everyone knows of Mark E. Smith and The Fall but nobody ever thinks of Wire.

[budaniel]

Pseudo Echo's first two albums should have scored loads of airplay on new wave radio. And in terms of late 80s synthpop--Book of Love got royally screwed, with only "Boy" getting much recognition.

[Barmy]

Johnny Hates Jazz

[deevo0]

Good call on Wire, and Polyrock! Wire really never got the recognition they deserved.

[djcraig]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Barmy[/i]
<br>Johnny Hates Jazz
[/quote]

Yeah... and Rick Astley too!



<a href="http://www.djcraig.net/los_angeles_dj">DJ Craig</a>

[thegoldenyear]

[quote]Originally posted by deevo0
[br]By "screwed" I mean they never got the recognition and success they deserved. Or got critical praise but no sales.

I'm thinking comsat angels has to be #1.
[/quote]

The Blue Nile.

Buchanan's my favourite new wave singer. TBN's career is a masterclass in head-in-sand career suicide. The five, six and eight-year waits between albums only served to intensify the critical hosannas, and although some of the albums flirted with the UK top ten, there was no sustainability. Rampant praise got them a Warners contract in the early '90s, but they screwed that up.


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http://thegoldenyear.wordpress.com/

[Seona85]

Too many to mention. The Venetians should have been huge along with The Expression (Aussie NW bands seemed to have a tougher time cracking the top 100)
White Door got rave reviews but not even a music video.
Cetu Javu deserved a lot more success than they got.
ZERRA ONE AND SILENT RUNNING! Both exception post-punk new waveish bands that in my opinion, make U2 look cruddy within the genre.Should have made it.
Good call on Trees.
Fiction Factory. Didn't even get reviews past Feels Like Heaven, but they definitely deserved to be much more than a one hit wonder.
Ce Soir and Academy - two of the best Duran Duran ripoffs around and they don't have any shitty attempts at 'house' music either.

And lastly, if I may be so bold, Seona Dancing. Only two goddamn singles! COME ON!

Special mention to Fiat Lux, Box Of Toys and Images In Vogue.

[roc51]

Here are 10 I feel never got their due. Key starting point (compilation primarily) in brackets:

The Chameleons (Return Of The Roughnecks)
The Sound (From The Lion's Mouth)
Comsat Angels (Time Considered...)

Sad Lovers and Giants (Email From Eternity)
Still active, epitome of cult band, big in Europe

For Against (December)
America's greatest post-punk/indie band, still going after 25 years

The Monochrome Set (Independent Singles Collection)
Big influence on Morrissey, one of his faves

XTC (Fossil Fuel)
Sales never materialised despite strong critical acclaim

The Go-Betweens (1977-1990)
What happened? They should have been huge...

Orange Juice (Coals to Newcastle)
Genius, never got just rewards during their active career

Felt (Absolute Classic Masterpieces)
Genius part 2, major influence on many modern UK indie bands

Happy listening!

[WoodlandParkPunk]

The Plimsouls
The Replacements
45 grave
X

"You just pick a chord, go twang, and you've got music." ~ Sid Vicious

[Frank_Chickens]

Music for Pleasure - Joined the label the same time as The Jam disbanded which meant the label was pushing The Jam's back catalogue for all its worth and all the new signings were left by the wayside.

Scary Thieves - Having your lead singer shag the girlfriend of one of the executives is never a good idea..

Power - Signed up by management who were on the way out and the new lot weren't interesting in pushing anyone signed by the old lot, despite 'Work Hard' being on the Radio 1 playlist and getting rave reviews everywhere.

3D - Released brilliant singles like 'The Club', 'Break the Fix(Ation)' and yet nothing.

The reason why Seona Dancing never got the recognition they deserve was because they were shite, though good call on Academy and Fiction Factory.

The main reason why White Door did nothing was at the time the label was financially struggling and they only got in someone to do any promotional work when it was too late. Mind you, their early record covers didn't do much to help their cause..

[InvisibleMan]

something tells me a lot of the above picks are here only because of die hard NW/Alternative fans...but I doubt there will be a whole lot of profound tunes like for example RIO or If You Leave or I Ran or Forever Young among the bunch.. tunes that could have successfully competed commercially and appealed to a wider audience beyond hardcore NW fans..

My guess is a lot of bands didn't get screwed, they just didn't have strong enough engaging song(s) or were just too derivative of another more successful band, or in many cases both of those apply. Seems many bands that were mentioned above didn't have major hits anywhere, US nor in Europe...

I'm not saying there weren't some exceptions, but certainly not all those mentioned above...I myself think Pseudo Echo should have been more successful... also Device, not sure how they didn't have more hits. A-Ha, Alphaville, and Camouflage also could have had a bit more success in US...

of course it's all subjective, but I think one needs to consider some other reasons for lack of success other than the one this topic provides..

[deevo0]

[quote][i]Originally posted by InvisibleMan[/i]
<br>something tells me a lot of the above picks are here only because of die hard NW/Alternative fans...
[/quote]

I hear what you're saying and i don't think anybody is questioning the fact that some unknown bands are unknown 'cause they just weren't that good. But, man, Rio ... a "profound tune"? What's profound about "Her name is Rio and she dances in the sand"?

I don't think of "screwed" mainly in terms of the mainstream ... say I round up 10 people who came up in the 80s (let's say in the states) and had a least some NW records back in the day. They weren't obsessive fans, but they listened to non-mainstream music, had some Cure records, whatever. If I said, "Have you heard of the Ramones?" They'd all say yes. If I said, "Have you heard of Echo and the Bunnymen?" They'd all say yes. If I said, "Have you heard of either Comsat Angels, or The Sound," they'd probably all say no (in America anyway). If I said, "Have you heard of the Chameleons," maybe 4 would say yes. If I said, "Have you heard of Wire?" maybe 3 would say yes. (BTW, Wire Train was another band that deserved more success.)

These bands I mentioned are great ... and great has nothing to do with mainstream success. The music's just fucking good. The bands got screwed by history because they should get 9 out of 10 people recognizing them, but they got good press and no sales, or no press and no sales (or mistaken press--that Trouser Press guide is wrong about 80% of the time in my opinion).

[InvisibleMan]

[quote][i]Originally posted by deevo0[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by InvisibleMan[/i]
<br>something tells me a lot of the above picks are here only because of die hard NW/Alternative fans...
[/quote]

I hear what you're saying and i don't think anybody is questioning the fact that some unknown bands are unknown 'cause they just weren't that good. But, man, Rio ... a "profound tune"? What's profound about "Her name is Rio and she dances in the sand"?

I don't think of "screwed" mainly in terms of the mainstream ... say I round up 10 people who came up in the 80s (let's say in the states) and had a least some NW records back in the day. They weren't obsessive fans, but they listened to non-mainstream music, had some Cure records, whatever. If I said, "Have you heard of the Ramones?" They'd all say yes. If I said, "Have you heard of Echo and the Bunnymen?" They'd all say yes. If I said, "Have you heard of either Comsat Angels, or The Sound," they'd probably all say no (in America anyway). If I said, "Have you heard of the Chameleons," maybe 4 would say yes. If I said, "Have you heard of Wire?" maybe 3 would say yes. (BTW, Wire Train was another band that deserved more success.)

These bands I mentioned are great ... and great has nothing to do with mainstream success. The music's just fucking good. The bands got screwed by history because they should get 9 out of 10 people recognizing them, but they got good press and no sales, or no press and no sales (or mistaken press--that Trouser Press guide is wrong about 80% of the time in my opinion).
[/quote]
I understand your point too, and I agree I did put a lot of emphasis on mainstream success and mass appeal, as opposed to the artsy side of it...

I'm pretty sure Cure had a few mainstream hits that most casual 80's music listeners would know and recognize very well.... they had their best shot, got some exposure and had some hits, so I don't think they got screwed...

I never really cared about critical acclaim... all it is is just an opinion of a handful of people....it's nothing when compared to millions of listeners including myself who hear a song and buy or don't buy it, request or don't request it...

whether you like RIO's lyrics or not (that's why I said "tune"), that was a memorable hit that related to a wide range of people, and is still remembered and recognized by many.