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You have listened to music for a long time – name your favourite band(s) here and help me understand why you like them

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I have two bands that I will always go back to for comfort and joy – The Waterboys and UFO.

UFO – A great heavy rock band that I discovered aged 14 in 1980 via Strangers In The Night.

The Waterboys – A discovery whilst a student at University in 1984 and Mike Scott is the greatest living songwriter IMHO.

And yours?

2

Comments

  1. Depeche Mode – first gig at an impressionable age in early 1982. Was an established fan of Numan, Bowie and Kraftwerk by then. I could relate to Depeche Mode – they seemed to be a band into the same kind of music but with with simple, joyful melodies. As they progressed, it became clear that they had an independent spirit – but it’s the quality of the music that has kept me going.

    The Smiths/Morrissey – Funniky enough there was no Big Bang impact here. My brother bought the first album and I liked it, even though the sound seemed terrible. It was the progression of wonderful singles and Morrissey’s enormously funny performances and interviews that got me into them. I’m a sucker for an intellectual pop star and Morrissey was 100 times sharper as a lyric writer than just about anyone. Meat is Murder was an astonishing record and from that point onwards I think I bought everything available.

  2. Buzzcocks. As a hormone ridden 14 year old I got to hear my mate’s copy of What Do I Get?/Oh Shit! Straight to the point with those buzzsaw guitars, what was not to love? 38 years later I plan to see them again in October (two nights!). They will always be “my” band. I have flirted with others but always go back to the love-lorn Pete Shelley, and the harmony in Steve Diggle’s head. Get a buzz, cock.

  3. The Silencers. I had been following frontman Jimme O Neills career since the long forgotten but pure pop outfit Fingerprintz and then the electro outfit Intro. After a period of, err silence, my local record shop bod waved the 12″ of Painted Moon by new band The Silencers headed by the aforemention Mr O Neill. The sound was now Caledonian big music with a blues edge but still poppy. Not as bombastic as Simple Minds or as MOR as Deacon Blue, I was delighted to have him back on my turntable, but despite RCA`s best attempts, the big hit single would not come. This appealed to my championing of the underdog and the bands eight albums were released to complete indifference from the general public. The Silencers didn`t reinvent the wheel or offer great insights to the human condition, just enjoyable and powerful songs with great tunes just seemingly for me. Entry point would be “Seconds Of Pleasure” or “A Blues For Buddha” albums. Unexplainably huge in France and with a guitarist called Cha Burnz, whats not to like!

  4. Well, my longest term favourite band is New Model Army, but you’ve already done a thread about them. So I’ll suggest The Weakerthans, an achingly literate band from Winnipeg who played country and folk influenced rock (but definitely not country-rock or folk-rock) that was by turns delicate, noisy, melancholic and uplifting. In a just world, their “Left And Leaving” album would have been a success of Thrilleresque proportions.

  6. Boards Of Canada – because they seem to fit almost every state of mind I possess. And because they remind me of home.

    The Beach Boys – Because I got into them at the height of my heavy metal years despite their naff reputation, teaching me that, nomatter what a band “looks” like, it’s what they sound like that counts.

    Sly & The Family Stone- because they never sounded anything other than revolutionary.

    • The Beach Boys out of all the big 60s bands had the biggest image problem – it took some convincing when I was in my late teens that the guys in ill-fitting shorts goofing around with The Fat Boys or singing Kokomo could have made any decent records. If anything, the incredibly naff image of of the Beach Boys in the 80s made hearing Pet Sounds, Smiley Smile, Friends, Holland, Surfs Up, Sunflower etc all the more startling when I starting buying those Twofer CDs….

      Have you heard Solar Bears btw ? They’re a bit derivative of Boards but an excellent way to fill time in those long gaps between BoC releases.

      • The Beach Boys were visually a disaster not even matching striped shirts could rescue. Apart from Dennis, they looked uncool, overweight and prematurely middle-aged in their teens. Later beardy makeovers helped Carl, but Mike Love was always going to look like a leering gym coach, and Al (famously) a Man Waiting For A Bus. Bri looks better as the silver-haired patriarch than he ever did as a young man. But it was embarrassing being a Beach Boys fan in the sixties. And seventies. And eighties. And nineties. And noughties.

  7. It ages me, but, much as the brand(s) have diluted with time, when it all comes to pass, it really has to be Fairport and the Burritos. Mid-teens I launched on them both, my portals to folk and country, then with a necessary tagged hyphen-rock. I’m reading Mick Houghtons Denny biography I’ve Always Kept a Unicorn at present, it reminding me how strong the love for a everything flying around the Pete Frame family tree was. As for the Burritos, yes, I hit the Byrds first, but fell more for the Gram pitch on exposure. To this day they remain proud heads of state.

  8. Roy Harper. I ‘discovered’ him in 1973.
    I’d heard bits and pieces by him but it wasn’t until I heard Lifemask that I really connected with him. That was the start of a musical relationship that has now lasted over 40 years.
    I’ve seen him more than anyone else and return to his music fairly regularly.
    I was relieved when he was acquitted of charges of sexual impropriety last year. The case has almost bankrupted him.

    • Harper for me too. First saw him in 1980 and have probably been to 30 gigs since. Whether he’ll ever tour again is possibly unlikely given he is in his mid 70s now. It’s a shame his later resurgence was halted by the accusations against him.

      For a teenager trying to work out what the world was all about, discovering Harper at the age of 17 was a revelation. Also being a teenager with a love of literature and poetry, the combination of the music and the lyrics was the complete package for me.

      As for a second artist…well over the past 3 or 4 years I have acquired an obsession with Calexico. It might be something to do with the mariachi trumpets and latin rhythms that infuse much of their music, but it is probably because, as a band, they have absorbed so many influences from such a wide range of musical styles that it’s like listening to several bands!

  9. I was going to say The Smiths or REM and that’s close but not quite true.

    The Byrds. Too tired to write more, but ….the twelve string, the harmonies.

    I first heard ‘Eight Miles High’ at a club (!)* in Leeds in the 80s and it caused a huge shift in my muscial listening and led to almost everything else.

    *Also played Neu and Can. And ‘Good Vibrations’; yes, it’s impossible to dance to.

    • The Byrds’ combination of 12-string and vocal harmony is like nothing else. They’re the reason I own a 12 string. They’re the reason my bandmate and I sit around for hours using two phones to multitrack harmonies in the rehearsal studio. Bless the Byrds.

      • Yes, like absolutely nothing else.

        Because of The Byrds I often daydream of being able to play a 12-string , although it is beyond my aged brain and slab hands. But it’s a lovely thought.

          • Ah and both great, great records. I really like the Bluetones! heh.

            Re: later line-ups; I like them all, for different reasons but I am too knackered to say why.

            I am v much a latecomer to solo Gene stuff but there is a new compilation out on Sierra Records which looks pricey but interesting.

            Burble away at length, please do. 🙂

            Anyway night all. Have had Turn! Turn! Turn! going round my head for about a week.

            • What else would Turn! Turn! Turn! do?

              With Gene get Dillard & Clarke, Echoes, White Light, Roadmaster and about seven copies of No Other in case by a terrible coincidence six of them don’t play.

              But if nothing else, No Other. Itsh a monshter.

            • The Byrds do the job for me too. I’ve seen Roger McGuinn live several times in recent years and was quite overcome with awe to be feet away from someone who has done so much to influence music, yet who remains relatively unfeted, and who now plays folk music in small venues with a minimum of fuss.

              Regarding Gene Clark, I have a soft spot for Two Sides To Every Story, and With Tne Gosdin Brothers is a glorious slice of sixties pop.

    • This seems to relate to the classic Gene-Jim/Rog-Chris-Croz-Michael line-up of the first two albums. Fair enough. Where do youse guys stand on the later line-ups? I think they’re all brilliant for different reasons, and when @h-p-saucecraft wakes up I’m sure the two of us could burble on once again about the greatness of Byrdmaniax, to the growing incomprehension of everyone else.

          • There’s not a Byrds album I don’t enjoy. “Sweetheart” took the longest – I had to overcome an ingrained antipathy towards both country and western. Byrdmaniax is a great late sixties pop album, unfortunately recorded in 1971, and at the time possibly not a great idea. As with the Beach Boys (another lifelong pash) there’s something in the sound. A lot of that something is in the unique mix of the vocals. I’ve never much cared for UK vocals, and it’s impossible to believe the harmonies of either band coming from anywhere else but the left coast. But it’s not just the vox, there’s a mood carried through all Byrds records like a thread, even to the end, those last two albums that hardly ever get mentioned, Farther Along, and Byrds. If they’d made only those two albums they’d still be rated as an outstanding band. The indefinable magic – that Rickenbacker rush – was long gone, but that was a reflection of the times, which those albums represented as faithfully as all their others.

              • The usual response from beatleboiz is that McGuinn and Crosby were inspired to form a band on watching A Hard Day’s Night, as if that makes The Byrds inferior in some way. As if The Beatles sprang fully-formed from the void. The Byrds, right from the start, had a maturity that escaped the Fabs throughout their career.

                  • All of which gives me the perfect opportunity to post (again) what must be the most obvious photo opportunity ever.

                    This is from the Byrds’ first UK tour in 1966. What a bunch of cool dudes! Great haircuts, tight pants and Cuban heels all round. Except Crosby who is wearing his cape.

                    But look at Michael Clarke! He’s got the full Brian Jones happening there. Fantastic!

                    http://i.imgur.com/g467nzp.jpg

                    • Damn! A Byrds mini thread and I’ve missed it. For me all incarnations of the band are valid, all bring something new, but all are recognisably The Byrds. Sweetheart is one of my favourite albums that I never grow tired of, although I have to admit to struggling a little with Byrdmaniax which lacks both decent songs and the Rickenbacker jingle. Without The Byrds there would have been no REM, who are another band that I constantly go back to.

                    • Speaking as someone who has worked in music retail for 40 years man and boy, I’m here to tell you that Byrdmaniax is the hardest of their albums to shift, even on vinyl.

                    • Remember when those odd-shaped sunglasses became available at affordable prices around 67-68? We all wanted the rectangular ones like McGuinn. Or the round Lennon ones.

                    • Byrdmaniax lacks decent songs????

                      Not my copy. Pale Blue, I Trust (<especially), Kathleen’s Song, Jamaica say You Will … these are great songs. It’s let down by a couple of throwaways, but Byrds albums always tended to be a little inconsistent. There’s material here that would have been praised on other albums, but at the time of its release the move had been away from LA “over”production values for some time, and Melcher got blamed for the lovely arrangements he made here, instead of being praised. There’s a version with a slew of extry tracks, which are well worth having. It’s one of those “critically tainted” albums where the consensus of opinion is ill-informed. Listened to without worrying about any of the issues surrounding it, it stands up as a fine pop album.

                    • In a very kaisfatdadian sense of conversing with myself, it’s worth noting that the Great Song count on Byrdmaniax is as high, if not higher, than Dr. Byrds, and Easy Rider. Also that this is possibly their Self Portrait, released within a few months, both on CBS, both dismissed at the time as unrepresentative and inferior works, both eclectic, both having tracks that would work better in the context of other albums. Self Portrait has had its long-overdue reassessment, Byrdmaniax still resides in the where-are-they-now file.

      • “ . . . the two of us could burble on once again about the greatness of Byrdmaniax . . . “

        That’s interesting. I‘m old enough to have grown up with The Byrds, album by album (although pocket money didn’t stretch to me being able to buy them), and Byrdmaniax was the first one to disappoint me. I’m listening to it now and tracks like Tunnel of Love, Citizen Kane and Green Apple Quickstep are not what I want from The Byrds although I can understand why others may enjoy them.

        However, and it’s a big however, the last track on the album made a big impression on me and I noted the name of the then unknown songwriter. It’s the first time I heard Jamaica Say You Will. Not a great performance or production but the song shone through. A little while later I was browsing through the albums in Durrants in Shrewsbury and came across, unexpectedly, the newly released debut by Jackson Browne. It was a nice looking, interesting looking album and I bought it . . . it was the beginning of my ongoing love for Jackson Browne’s music.

        To go back to the OP, my other long standing “comfort and joy” album is The Train and The River by the Jimmy Giuffre Trio. I first heard it when I was eighteen and have loved every note of it ever since. It’s chamber jazz based on folk melodies played by just three musicians, including the wonderful guitarist Jim Hall, who are clearly listening to each other; it swings, it’s melancholic and it’s uplifting and yet I’ve never found a single soul who understands why I love it so much never mind shares my enthusiasm. Nevertheless, if my wife remembers, all my friends and family will be listening to My All (side 2, track1) at my funeral! Along with That Lonesome Road by James Taylor. I wish I could be there.

        https://youtu.be/6NV-Tj5uhQ4

          • A contrarian writes…… I accept unequivocally the place the Byrds have at the top table. (My view is that all popular post 60s whiteboy music emerged from the 4 Bs: Beatles, Byrds, Beach Boys and Bob.) But the Byrds were my entry level to the more ragged purity of early Burritos. I don’t, btw, subscribe necessarily to the church of Gram, as the other post Byrds had as much to give, if not more, with Chris Hillman the great unsung master. And non-Byrd Rick Roberts held a very decent baton whilst they gradually decayed, with the odd burst still of greatness, courtesy the other Parsons from the Byrds, Gene. Love the Byrds, adore the Burritos.

  10. R.E.M. Because the combination of Buck’s slightly hamfisted jangle and Stipe’s early mumble, over the top of the greatest rhythm section ever to play together in the last 37 years, is the world’s most compelling sound to me. I was talking to @dogfacedboy about this yesterday on our way to see a mate of ours play a gig, and was saying that every time I hear Buck play I realise how much a part of my own musician DNA he is. I’m a weird product of Buck, Izzy Stradlin, Kurt and Jonny Greenwood: they’re all entirely baked into how I play guitar. And Buck is the daddy.

    Pixies. Because SCREAM. And YOWL. And twisty nasty guitar. And again, one of the greatest rhythm sections ever to draw breath.

    But most of my favourite bands aren’t “bands”. Wu-Tang and Robyn and Beastie Boys just make (or have made) incredibly thrilling tunes which nobody else could ever, ever do.

    • Another up for REM. For me it’s the jangle sound and Michael Stipe’s unmistakeable nasal vocal that does the job, one of the truly great voices. It’s the nasal sound of Dylan, Tom Petty, Mc Guinn, that attracts me, possibly because of its slightly sneering detachment, and had all four of them been in the Traveling Wilburys we may have had the world’s greatest band never to have been sponsored by Vicks Sinex.

      • I could listen to Stipe’s voice all day. It starts mumbly and cryptic and buried, gets gradually stronger towards Pageant and Document, is at its most clearly reedy on Out Of Time and then his billion fags a day start to smudge and roughen it by Monster. For someone with a reputation for a thin or nasal voice, it’s very loud and full and really quite “rock” for many of the records. I love that man’s voice.

        • Great observation… what a great voice, and a master of melody too.

          Since you posted about REM, I’ve listened to nothing else. I’d forgotten how great they were, and am almost tempted to go out and buy a 12-string right now.

      • I like the W, but for me only the solo albums have equalled 36 Chambers for sheer quality. And I can’t love even those as much as I love that monstrously brilliant debut.

  11. Lau. Musicianship. Tick. Originality. Ditto. Folk? Undoubtedly. Creativity, joy in the playing, audience rapport – you can guess the rest. But all that would mean diddlysquat if they hadn’t also written the most beautiful piece of music I know.

  12. David Sylvian
    1. He has made albums that are among my favourites in three seperate genres of music (pop/rock, ambient instrumental, experimental).
    2. He is the only artist of my youth whose music still intrigues me.
    3. He has stayed uncomprimisingly true to his artistic vision, pursuing a very distinct and individual path with apparent total disregard for commercial success.
    4. Blemish and Manafon are unlike anything I’ve ever heard. The missing link between Tom Waits and Scott Walker. A beatiful and deeply personal collection of songs that will never, ever, EVER be performed by a contestant on X-Factor.

    Pink Floyd
    From the moment I first heard the intro to Dark Side (Speak To Me) as a 14 year old I was hooked. I love how their best albums work as whole pieces. Obvs I love Gilmour’s guitar sound and Waters’ lyrics and concepts. I especially love their prettier, more melodic and pastoral songs). I love how they sound modern yet very analogue and organic. And I love that it’s all so musically simple that even a talentless eejit like me can strum so many of their songs on an acoustic.

  13. Eels.
    Frustrates the hell out of me when I’m told they’re ‘depressing’ because I find their music so uplifting, exciting and diverse.
    As far as I’m concerned E is a creative genius and every album offers something new and refreshing. His songs have made me cry, and made me laugh out loud.
    When they tour the older songs are given a new lease of life with different arrangements and every show is a proper performance and never, ever half-arsed.
    The DVD of the Royal Albert Hall gig has the happiest moment of my life in it, showing my mile-wide grin as E gives me a hug.

    And that voice. That VOICE.
    I’ve always been a sucker for a bit of a gravelly rasp (hello Tom and hello Leonard) but E’s voice really makes me feel all funny inside.

    • Eels for me too. I’m jealous of your hug with Mr E! So many of their gigs have been highlights for me, from the first album as a trio to the With Strings tour, and the shows with just E and the Chet. Haven’t been blown away by the last few albums but it’s a pretty rich discography up to then!

  14. This is a great thread. It’s interesting to see who people plump for as a favourite. Some surprising choices already. Hard to pick one band as I love so many and my listening choices fluctuate
    but there are some constants I keep going back to.

    I’m torn between Cardiacs, Stereolab, Autechre, XTC, My Bloody Valentine and loads more but I’m going with Wire.
    Their 3 1970s LPs for Harvest (Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, 154) are immaculate post-punk with a big element of Art school oddness and on 154 – just a hint of prog.
    They also did some spectacularly off-beam pop records in the 80s and then re-emerged in the 00s just in time for me to get properly into them and be blown away by their live shows – which seem to get louder and more intense over time.

    They’ve made a brace of excellent contemporary records, and I admire their wilful bloody minded refusal to jump on the ‘classic albums’ route or do the nostalgia thing. They maintain that they are not there to provide entertainment – but it is bloody entertaining watching a band who are not trying to be entertaining!
    They have the ability to surprise which you wouldn’t expect of a band approaching their 40th anniversary. It helps that their appeal remains somewhat selective (not least because of their refusal to lean on their back catalogue at gigs) so their shows remain in smallish venues which is probably for the best – this is music best heard at close quarters at full tilt.

    This is a good an introduction as any- it’s basically a New Wave-ish pop song but something isn’t quite right…

  15. That would be Black Sabbath. When I was 10 or so I “borrowed” my brother’s copy of “We sold Our Souls to Rock & Roll” and played the thing to death. I filled the back catalogue buying the cheap-as-chips NEMs reissues, ordering them from my local record shop in the Highlands. “Sabotage” took 7 months to arrive. 7 months! Those were the days.

    It’s that gonzoid guitar sound, I like, as well as the simplicity of the riffs. But I also like the fact that there is light and shade there: you can’t imagine Iron Maiden or Metallica coming up with something like “Laguna Sunrise” or “Planet Caravan”, which is a shame as I think I’d like them a lot more if they tried.

    Oddly enough, despite the size of the back catalogue, they’re very easy to explore: just buy anything released up to 1975 or with Dio as the singer.

    • Agree, agree, agree, except that Never Say Die has got some really great stuff on it. Some unusual synth work, lots of passion, some stunning (no surprise there) guitar solos (check out the solo on Junior’s Eyes!) and Ozzy’s crazy high pitched vocals. I prefer it to their first 2 albums. Or at least I play it more. Lots more.
      Just don’t listen to the track the drummer sings on is all.

      • Fair point, Rec. I don’t think that Technical Ecstasy or Never Say Die are particularly bad albums to be honest. It’s just that they don’t sound like Sabbath. The title track of Never Say die sounds like The Boys are Back in town sped up, which is not bad, but there are other bands who are better at doing that sort of thing. Thin Lizzy, for one.

  17. Oooo, loads. Here’s twenty: The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Temptations/The Funk Brothers, Booker T & The MGs, The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground, CAN, Sly & The Family Stone, Steely Dan, Bob Marley And The Wailers, Little Feat, Earth, Wind & Fire, Kraftwerk, Chic, Talking Heads, Massive Attack, Pixies, Sigur Rós, The White Stripes and Spoon.

    However, for the purposes of this thread, I’m saying Roxy Music. They were colourful, exotic, experimental, dissident, dynamic and thrilling. They sounded like impossibly romantic aliens visiting earth wanting to have a go at rock & roll. I love all of their albums, which fall into three phases; the nitrate startling innovation, then, an incredibly tight unit packed with characterful individuals and, finally, smooth shimmering class. They are at their best when they bring contrasting elements that rattle and clash together into a four minute ‘pop’ song. Phil Manzanera is my favourite guitarist and Andy Mackay my favourite horn player. They did more than play weird and wonderful songs. On their first album, they credited their make up artist. They cared about their wardrobe and the LP covers. They understood the art in pop. Yes, over eight albums, Ferry gradually imposed himself, removing the quirks and the strangeness, but those last two albums of wistful perfection are gorgeous to listen to. Great live too. And, I haven’t even mentioned Eno.

  19. The Beatles- obviously. I’ve got 6 copies of the White Album but it doesn’t matter how many times I play it I still can’t remember the running order and am constantly surprised by which song comes up. Controversially, I think the best song on the album is ‘Martha My Dear’.

    Caravan- First heard them in session on pre-punk Peelie when I was barely into my teens. It was the ‘Blind Dog at St Dunstans’ period and so, as I’ve discovered since, many hard-core Caravan purists would claim that they were past their prime. But I loved them. Bought the album. Bought the others. Even moved to Canterbury. (True).

    Mott the Hoople- I am an only child and Ian Hunter was my imaginary big brother. The guy who would beat off the bullies and tell me it was ok to be a bit weird and to have my own make-believe cinema in my bedroom and my own make-believe band called The Doorknobs (who later became the equally imaginary Grundy who signed to EMI at the beginning of the 70s only to split and morph into the mighty Pilgrim. They were equally imaginary although they were so huge in my universe you probably heard of them too..particularly their ground-breaking third album ‘Phenomenon’. Pilgrim). Ian Hunter smiled knowingly and said all that was fine. I sometimes wore glasses.

    David Bowie- See Mott the Hoople.

    Bob Dylan- Simply the finest songwriter of the ‘rock’ era. His worst song is better than many people’s masterpieces.

    Yes from ‘Yes’ to ‘Close to the Edge’- I wanted to be Chris Squire. I was learning bass at the time and was a bit useless (in my defence I was left-handed playing a right-handed instrument). A friend at school one told me I looked like Squire and I felt like the coolest dude on the planet. Until someone beat me up because they’d heard I had an imaginary band called Grundy.

    Howlin Wolf- No one can sing like him. He has a voice like a buzzsaw from Hell.

    The Turtles- Only the band the Mothers of Invention coulda been. The true American Beatles (you can keep yer Byrds and Beach Boys- they weren’t in the same league).

    Paul McCartney- I always go back to ‘Ram’. I like ‘Band on the Run’ and ‘Venus and Mars’ too. A (different) friend at school told me I looked a bit like Macca. (See Yes).

    XTC- Haven’t listened to them for a while but I used to be obsessive. Went to see them at the Canterbury Odeon just before ‘English Settlement’ and thought they were great (even though I never really liked going to gigs that much). Bought up every album. Later, as a BBC journo, I met Andy Partridge a couple of times. Helped him repair a curtain rail his daughter had ripped from the wall. He signed all my albums (took him almost half an hour) and gave me a plectrum and an advance cassette copy of ‘Psonic Psunsport’. They say you should never meet your heroes. That’s probably true. Unless it;s Andy Partridge. Because he’s a brilliant bloke.

    Syd Barrett- Loved him since I was at school. Loved his apparent (though subsequently false) poshness. His voice. His look. His hair (while he had it). His songs. I always liked the Floyd but I always felt they lost something when Syd went bonkers. I think even they agree.

    The Waterboys- I don’t think (unlike the OP) that Mike Scott is the greatest living songwriter (see Bob Dylan) and neither does Scott himself I reckon. But he has been a soundtrack to my life ever since I heard ‘A Girl Called Johnny’ whilst a student. My favourite era, predictably, was the ‘This Is the Sea/Fisherman’s Blues’ period but Iiked the much-maligned ‘Room to Roam’ too. Met him once. Weird fella. Couldn’t remember a song of his called ‘Saints and Angels’ which he’d just played onstage a mere hour earlier. Shorter than I imagined. Great hair. Finally beginning to show his age.

    The Ramones- They were like the Shirelles with electric guitars and I loved any band that could seriously entertain the idea of taking a surfboard to a disco.

  20. My Desert Island Discs I suppose.

    – AC/DC – The best hard blues, by far. I got the bug at high school in the late 70s and haven’t been close to shaking it since (much to the disgust of the FPO). It’s a joke, they know it’s a joke, I know it’s a joke and it’s a joke they tell really, really well. The appeal to a spotty teenager hasn’t waned at all, unlike nearly all the other enthusiasms of youth. Like Kiss, Quo and Custom Car Magazine to name a few…

    – Chris Whitley – The most emotional, convincing, taut blues I’ve ever heard. Even live on an out of tune Dobro (or maybe it was a National Steel), he still made it work and bent it into shape. Completely wrought, just this side of overwrought. Check out ‘Dust Radio’ or ‘Phone Call From Levenworth’. Kills me every time.

    – Odds – Supreme pop jangle, lyrical themes all over the bloody map, plus killer bass lines – I love ’em to death. And humour (e.g. ‘Cloud Full Of Rocks’, ‘Eat My Brain’, ‘Someone Who’s Cool’, ‘The Little Death’), even when they’re being heart-felt (e.g. ‘The Last Drink’ or ‘Wendy Under The Stars’ – but don’t play that last one in front of the kids). One of many reasons I would live in Canada in a heartbeat if it wasn’t so bloody cold.

    – Del Amitri – fantastic song writing, beautiful production, thought provoking, emotional. Or maybe he’s hitting my guilt buttons on the drinking, infidelity and selfishness. With more great bass lines. Having said that, for my money it seems like Justin Currie needs Iain Harvie around to pick out the good stuff (or filter out the weaker stuff), ‘cos when they’re together it’s absolute magic, and when Justin’s off on his own…well, it isn’t. So ‘Waking Hours’-‘Change Everything’-‘Twisted’ is as good a run of 3 albums I can point at. Either side of that though, not so much.

    – Toad The Wet Sprocket. Brilliant song writing, classic 90s LA rock. Their best album is their B sides compilation (‘In Light Syrup’). More great bass lines (if it hasn’t already become apparent, I’m a complete sucker for tasteful, melodic, harmonic bass). ‘Amnesia’ (on ‘Coil’) is a killer.

    – David Baerwald/David & David – more lyrical themes all over the shop with spite and anger thrown in. And LA sleaze (‘Secret Silken World’ on ‘Triage”).

  21. Good question and to opt for just one band it would be New Order.

    Like the REM discussion (another close favourite), it would be imperfections as much as strengths. Barney’s *ahem* unique singing style and their somewhat fisher-price early approach to electronics, underpinned by – a theme developing here, one of the greatest rhythm sections ever (though that is of course Sly and Robbie). Their live shows have been variable (another loveable feature) but they get that moment of ‘lift-off’ in their work more than any other band. And we can all stop with Crystal, everything after is a coda.

    • Recently discovered this gem, which I think I saw as a short film at the cinema – probably just before Gremlins or something. That moment of lift off is certainly evident in this. Basically the last 4 minutes. Love the unmistakable silhouette of Arthur Baker in the control room and the Joy Division poster.

  22. Joni Mitchell. The first album I bought was Court & Spark. I’ve always been a tunes person – it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing – but with this album, I found her lyrics painted pictures so vivid that even a philistine like me couldn’t help but notice.
    The clincher was Hejira – songs about flight, getting out, travelling. I was nineteen, suffocating in a small town, knowing that there had to be more to life, wanting to travel but lacking the courage and nous to make the break. I have so many albums nowadays that I woudn’t miss if they were nicked but I’d replace Blue, Court & Spark, The Hissing of Summer Lawns and Hejira sraight away (and Surf’s Up & Holland).

    • I can still remember the feeling that Joni Mitchell was soooo exotic and sophisticated….the first album I ever heard by her was Hejira….and I was proved correct…The love affair commenced….

  23. Passing over the obvious: Beatles, Dylan, Stones etc I’m going to say Frank Zappa.

    I’ve been with Frank since 1966 debut Mothers album Freak Out which I bought, knowing nothing about him, on the strength of the cover design alone in 1967.

    Since then I’ve bought all the records more or less on release and we’re now well past Album #100 (I know that because all the CDs are now numbered in release order on the spine, starting with Freak Out as Album #1).

    So, why Zappa? His music is the gift that keeps on giving, containing a bit of everything and covering all musical bases.

    Comedy is next to impossible to carry off successfully in a rock music context, but Frank does it better than anyone. He is/was one funny Mother and this is evident in a huge percentage of his body of work

    But that’s only the start. Unbelievable guitar playing, Mahavishnu-rivalling jazz/rock ensemble playing and modern classical music of the highest order.

    Frank did all of this and more.

  26. Got to be The Beatles.

    The perfect body of work: “1, 2, 3, 4!” to “The love you make is equal to the love you take” (or is it the other way round? Make? Take? Whatever).

    They constantly got better.
    And when they weren’t getting better they were getting weirder (White Album), which is fine.
    And when they weren’t getting weirder or better they were getting more polished (Abbey Road). Which is also fine.

    The Byrds? Could never get into them. They’re not bad, but in my heirarchy of great 60s acts they’re somewhere just above The Lovin Spoonful and just below The Animals. I think what people seem to hear in The Byrds, I hear in CSNY.

  27. We are in psychic accordance here, Arthurdude. Totally agree about The Beatles (as any, well, sane person would 😉 , and although I like The Byrds, they’re second division. CSN (Y) on the other hand a superb.

  28. Although I’m not quite as big on the Byrds as some others here, I do like them.

    And anyway you have to respect them for marrying the Beatles and Dylan into one glorious, jangly cohesive sound that changed American music for the better.

  29. Jeff Mills.

    Back when I was little, only Jeff Mills, Robert Hood, Dave Clarke and (Tresor-era) Joey Beltram proposed a version of techno that agreed with my own. I was thrilled by the breakbeat-led styles of Rising High and XL, and I was suitably chin-strokey about the first-wave of Detroit producers, but it was the kickdrums and sci-fi conceptualism of the second wave that really did it for me. From that came Underground Resistance, and from that came Jeff Mills.

    Mills is the one I’ve grown up with and who has grown with me. His early dancefloor-led productions haven’t dated – you can drop ‘The Bells’ into any techno set and it stills tears the roof off – while his later, more ruminative material is cerebral and baffling but quite beautiful. I don’t share his obsession with sci-fi and space travel but I sure love his meditations on the subject, and I groove on his approach to telling stories through music: have a listen to his ‘Sleeper Wakes’ series of albums for an example of how you can use narrative in music.

    I love the contradictions in him: fastidious music (but badly worded CD booklets); a preoccupation with futurism (but rushing to work with orchestras and human drummers); an obsession with communication (but a shite website). I like the fact that he’s always trying something new regarding formats and concepts, even if it does mean I get stuck with USB sticks and DVDs instead of proper albums.

    I just love him, in other words. I love him like you love a mad best friend you’ve been stuck with since school, for better or worse.

  30. Good question and one that I could provide many different answers to – from the Stax house band (backing Albert King), XTC and through to my (probably) current favourite “bands,” Sigur Ros and Steven Wilson. But the two that I probably always come back to are…

    Genesis – after being a Queen fan in my early years (starting with Don’t Stop Me Now) I stumbled across Genesis by the way of Duke just after it came out (I still remember buying the album at WH Smiths in Sheffield). The self titled “Genesis” album was the big one for me though and resulted in my first major concert (at NEC Birmingham). From there I worked my way back and now “Selling England By The Pound” is probably my most played album and the one that always gets played when I can’t think what else to put on (especially in high resolution audio).

    Kate Bush – remember enjoying her early appearances on TOTP with Wuthering Heights etc, but it was “The Dreaming” that really got me hooked as a teenager of 15 finding his way in my musical tastes. Following that with the masterpiece that is the “Hounds Of Love” just as I went to Uni and I was a fan for life. Albums that I still listen to on a regular basis and the only artist I’ve travelled half way across the world to see live.

  31. Difficult to rationalise, my favourite bands just “are mt favourites because they are”.
    However …
    Stiff Little Fingers – the year is 1987, there is an awful lot of tosh flying about and I’m completely bored with Thrash Metal, Hair Metal, Heavy Metal, and other variants of Metal.
    I own Never Mind The Bollocks, The Clash and The Damned debut albums (the un-holy trinity of Punk) – time to explore more.
    Two Punk compilations later, there is a track nestling the middle of Side 2 by a band I’ve never heard of. It is an aggressive, nasty, snarling sounding track, but at the same time totally accessible. And this is no one-off, every track has the same effect on me. Why? Who knows, but I now spend the next 30 years buying, re-buying, consuming, watching live, amassing TV footage and memorabilia, and writing about it on the internet.

    Iron Maiden – the one constant exception to the “bored with Metal” syndrome’
    “Run To The Hills” was quite simply the greatest record I’d ever heard at the age of 11. Number Of The Beast was the first album I ever bought with my own money, and apart from a brief parting (OK, not that brief – 16 years (1994 to 2010)) every album has been bought on day one and if they turn up at a venue in Britain, chances are I’ll be in the audience (unless it’s Castle Donnington – too old and flabby for that now)

    Other comfort bands mentioned in dispatches: Beatles, Jam, The Who, The Ramones, The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Damned, AC/DC, Paul Weller and T.Rex

  33. Eric Matthews, for his albums on Sub-Pop in the nineties, particularly The Lateness of the Hour, for his earlier work with Richard Davies in Cardinal, and for his current work as a member of SheLoom.

  34. Van der Graaf Generator – discovered them at 14, at a time when I was ready for them. I had never heard of them, read an interview with Hammill & Banton in Sounds, and thought “I’ve got to hear this”…..SOLD! More than 40 years later, they still speak to me like no other band.

    Yes – in the period from The Yes Album to GFTO – first album I heard by them was Close to the Edge….smitten! Saved up for 10 years & got a Rickenbacker 4001, idolised Chis Squire and CTTE in particular…..progressive music to lift the spirit….

  35. The Pogues haven’t been mentioned. Their story is really astonishing. A man knows that the unfashionable music that he grew up with has a future in a completely different world in a hostile environment. It is so alien that he singlehandedly has to teach all his band mates how to play their instruments in the way that he sees it. Meanwhile he writes brilliant songs while killing himself with his destructive lifestyle. In the process he also changes the original unfashionable music style for ever.

  36. The Beatles, and then The Kinks, and then, most of all, The Stones (Brian Jones, NO other era need apply).

    When I was a kid, black music was absolutely and completely shite (see repeats of TOTP on BBC Four), those groups showed me that it hadn’t always been that way.

  37. Thought long and hard about this. Went through my teenage angst (The Smiths), late teenage cool period (The Stone Roses) and the Britpop 60’s revivalist niche (Ocean Colour Scene), the absorption of the greats who came a bit before my time ( Pistols, Clash, Jam, Specials etc) and the last band I ever really cared about ( The Libertines) but I kept coming back to the one I always get tickets for when they tour, always pre order the latest gumph and bumf released and still seek interviews and commentary from them:-

    Manic Street Preachers

    They turned up slap bang in the middle of grunge in stencilled boiler suits talking about manifesto’s, mission statements, Lenin, Plath and Axl Rose. They looked fan-bloody-tastic and sounded like nothing around them. Motown Junk was where I got on. 2nd single talking about class betrayal, slavery, Lennon and slut heroes, with the kiss off line ‘We live in urban hell, we destroy rock and roll.’ All this delivered and spat through vaguely metal-ish sound crashes, make up and feather boa’s.

    In the middle of whining grunge this, accompanied by Wire and Edwards phenomenally incendiary interviews was hugely exciting. The disappearance of Richey ( their version of the Minister of Information) should have finished them. It didn’t, they ploughed on. A few missteps on the way but they remain always worth listening to and never, ever dull. They have a canon of work up there with the best of them and in James Dean Bradfield a bona fide musical genius. How he ever married music and melody to Edward’s lyrics around The Holy Bible will remain utterly outstanding and confounding.

    JDB and Sean Moore have just completed treks around Patagonia for local charities too. Nice guys win sometimes.

    And they still look cool.

    God bless the Manics.

  39. Lots of bands have come an gone but in the spirit of the OP and despite my Monkee love and latterly the Dels writing a moribund script to a failed life that now on the up leaves them somewhat redundant I have to go with a band that I can’t believe haven’t been mentioned yet. The Jam. Everything a 14 year old could want from a band, a look, an attitude and tunes by the bucket load. They took me through to 17 in a breathless, exciting run of singles and albums that still make me grin like a fool almost 40 years on. You can say The Beatles were the best, you can argue for REM and The Byrds but if you were a teenage boy in the late 70’s the chances are you loved The Jam and still love them today. They were MY band and yet I know I am not alone in that and if any song has made you feel how Going Underground made me feel when I first heard it then you know that it set a bar so high as to have never been matched. Yes, when all is said and done The Jam are my favourite band

    • One of my top choices too (just couldn’t push them above SLF or Iron Maiden).
      My difficulty (if that is the right word?) wih The Jam was I never really picked up on them until 1981 – the attitude, the look and the tunes won me over, especially Thats Entertainment and Absolute Beginners (I remember Going Underground, but it wasn’t until a year later that the lightbulb switched on).
      “This is my new favourite band” said an 11 year old wanna-be Mod.
      Little did I know that they only had a year left before it was all over (and try borrowing the money to get down to Brighton for the final shows when you’re 12 – not happening).

      They are another one of those bands where I can say I own everything they released and hold them in the highest esteem (problem was I was about 5 years too young)

      • I thank my older brother for bringing home In the City from his mates house and being able to say I was there from the start. It makes a huge difference, they were the first band that made me feel like a grown up, even though I wasn’t even close. Some mates of mine did “In The City” and “Art School” at an end of year school thing, I was one of the few in my class who knew what the songs were, only time I was even close to being cool…..

        • Agree with everything you say there about The Jam. At the time there were clear loyalties between (roughly) punk and (roughly) mod but everyone liked The Jam – they were an amazing irresistible force. And they were local heroes too! I was just a few years too young to have gone to see them. One of my first music purchases with my own money was Setting Sons on cassette – without its box – for 25p at Woking Library. Bargain!

  40. The Jam
    The Clash
    The Beatles
    David Bowie
    The Smiths

    There are others I also choose for comfort but they’re the main ones
    Why cos they looked great and were jaggedy and buoyant and upfront

  41. Two who haven’t been mentioned (I think)

    Creedence Clearwater Revival
    The Rolling Stones

    At their best, both the epitome of rock and roll economy; thrilling, physical, intelligent. Listen to Bad Moon Rising or Get Off My Cloud and it’s all there in less than three minutes, and it still lifts my spirits every time.

  42. Given that most of my more obvious bases seem to have been covered, I’m gonna plump for Gilbert O Sullivan.

    No, hear me out…

    He has a gift for melody that stands worthy comparison with Mc Cartney’s.

    His lyrics are reliably naff; they’re often like a , Good essay .’

    Of course they were also sometimes sublime,

    But somehow these clumsy lyrics and lovely tunes- delivered in that angelic whine – just get to me and deliver me great happiness.

    I also like the fact that he is often sullen, taciturn and embittered.

    I LOVE the fact that he still spends eight hours a day, every day, in his garden shed, toiling to pick out the next Nothing Rhymed on his upright piano with his cassette recorder whirring obsolescently, perhaps hopefully.

    Respect.

  43. So many favourites: Hendrix, Traffic, King Crimson, Pentangle, Steely Dan, Zappa, Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Talking Heads, Tom Waits, Kronus Quartet, Massive Attack, White Stripes..

    Let me mention a couple of astonishing things though. The Art Ensemble of Chicago – wonderful swirling intense improvised Black music, been doing it now for 50-ish years and still going despite losing 2 members.

    Also the Cowboy Junkies, cottage-industry Canadian family band specialised in quietness, been releasing a string of high-quality albums for the past 30 years. Actually improving with age.

    Finally John Zorn. Renaissance man, genuine musical genius, everything but rock’n’roll in fact. But humour! Even pop sensibility. Probably trying to outdo all the stuff he heard on Sgt Pepper, in his own way,

    • Re: John Zorn.

      Yes, that guy is simply incredible. There seems to be no sub-genre, no sound across the jazz/modern classical spectrum that he can’t turn his hand to. And his productivity is astonishing. Literally hundreds or original studio albums. What a composer – what a player!

    • Have to offer an Up for the endorsement of The Art Ensemble.
      I feel privileged to have seen them twice with Lester Bowie & they literally changed the way I think & feel about what music is & can do. Fearless, loose & thrillingly accomplished in equal measure.

      • Declan, JungleJim

        I don’t have any albums by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, but I’ve often thought of getting one.

        The album I’ve had my eye on most is “Urban Bushmen”. Is that what you’d recommend to a Art Ensemble of Chicago neophyte? If not, what would you go for instead?

        • Hi duc,
          My first exposure was to Full Force and The Third Decade so there’s always that bond that imprints on one as you realise you’re becoming a fan. Urban Bushmen is an excellent place to start, though it has to said that the cognisecenti ( I can’t class myself as one) tend to rate Les Stances A Sophie as their most essential piece. That said, if you like AEC, there is nothing that is really substandard.
          You may enjoy Lester Bowie’s The Great Pretender album as well. Great fun.

          • Oh, there’s so much to explore, Duco, and nothing’s gonna come cheap (they were never big sellers) but those ECMs Jim mentions are fine and available with Nice Guys (also ECM) probably the pick of the bunch. Of the French recordings they did in the 60s, when they were young and radical, (including Sophie), People in Sorrow is definitely a standout. Live at Mandel Hall from the 70s is a double and worth hearing. Hell, even their noughties output, when they were old and passing on, like Sirius or Non-Cognitive Aspects Of The City, are still fantastically atmospheric. Jim’s characterisation of their live shows is spot on, I got to see them twice as well, privileged is the right word.

  44. Comfort and joy? Well, it has to be Wilco.
    They’ve never made a bad album, and there’s one for every mood.
    I grin from ear to ear when I listen to their music, and I think that Jeff Tweedy is an allround genius (OK, I have a bit of a crush on him as well…however unlikely as a sex symbol as he might be)!

  45. Jethro Tull. Am I really the first to say this? Twang where are you? Restless, relentlessly inventive, abrasive, and comforting. Their acknowledged prime ended around 1980, but I love all of it. The albums Living In The Past and Minstrel In The Gallery probably being my favorites. In the last 20 years or so Ian Anderson’s been known to explore the hinterlands of crap. God bless him for it and long may he continue. I have the same love and admiration for a few other bands, but none bring out the gushing fan boy in me like Tull.

  47. The Beatles in 1967. Pop music in colour. Every trick in the book, applied to songs that were strong enough to survive without those tricks. Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane – the Mount Everest of pop. Never bettered, but great that it inspires people to try.

    Frank Sinatra’s torch songs. Just because.

    Miles Davis. Every note is identifiably *his*.

  48. The Beatles, not in those best of that takes the songs out of their position in the album. Every morning I listen to one album at a time and I found out that a Beatles album never force me to change track or record as I do with many others. No song is like the other nearly no album is a pale copy of the other. Four individualities or more are at work, different voices differents lyricists and compositors. All of this is not that common, nowadays.

    That’s everything the crapberries don’t have.

  49. I’m very late to this party. And like Tigger, I find it very difficult to name one favourite band or artist. But as I’ve spent all weekend exploring cover versions of Morrissey covers, I’m going to put in a vote for The Smiths.

    I can predict the counter-arguments. Too much a band of their time. Too full of teenage angst and misery that any sensible person would grow out of.

    But what’s impressed me is that their witty, intelligent, tuneful pop songs live on today and continue to inspire. From Toronto to Stockholm, from Paris to Mexico City.

    Few I hope would question Johny Marr’s ability as a guitarist.

    But that the songs of a gloomy, self-obsessed, gay, Mancunian militant vegetarian should strike such a chord in 2016 with the people of Mexico is rather astounding.

    Another of my musical heroes who I’d like to give a vote to is Ry Cooder. A technically gifted guitarist who is not only deeply rooted in the musical history of his own country but also has the flexibility, empathy and insight to play together very successfully with musicians from very different cultures. A remarkable man.

    • Morrissey and Cooder? Two musicians with no point of contact at all you think. Wrong! They’ve both worked with These Boots are Made for Walking Hitmaker, Nancy Sinatra.

      Here she is having a cuddle with Mozza.

  50. Well I need to go back to 1973 to my first gig. Uriah Heep at the Empire in Edinburgh (their set that evening is mostly the same as on their classic 1973 album ‘Uriah Heep Live’). For a young lad at his first gig, I was awestruck. So much hair, so much noise, so much great rock music, and a packed crowd out to party. Ken Hensley’s Hammond (and he played electric guitar too!). Mick Box mugging with the punters and having a laugh (he’s still doing it). Lee Kerslake building a shed at the back of the stage and Gary Thain at the top of his game on bass. Then there was the wonderfully flamboyant Dave Byron who prowled the stage giving it loads, chatting to the crowd and with the most amazing range for a vocalist.

    I’ve followed Heep ever since. There have been lots of changes over the years, but they’re still out there rocking the joint every night and the crowds lap them up. Their back catalogue is a bit of a mixed bag, but there’s a lot of great stuff there. So I’ve always had a soft spot for the Heep. I’ve seen them around a half dozen times and they always deliver. They’re still rock ‘n’ roll and they’re still worth going to see. There are loads of clips on You Tube, but you need to see them live at least once in your life. Then you’ll understand. The passion. For the Heep.

  51. It’s got to be AC/DC. No other band has been such a soundtrack to my life since 1979/80. It all started with the “If You want Blood” live album and specifically “Whole Lotta Rosie” which was the most exciting visceral piece of rock’n’roll I’d heard up to that time.

    I’ve since seen them a dozen times live in various arenas around London and at Donington and followed all the albums including the duffers in the mid 80s and 90s. Little Angus is like a sort of mystical god-like figure to me. I will just hate the day that I hear on the news about his demise more than any other rock star (even though Bowie’s and Lemmy’s death saddened me).

    AC/DC taps into that schoolboy devil may care instinct that all men possess, well into late middle age and beyond. I never play an AC/DC record to listen to the lyrics (though Bon Scott was a master of the tongue-in-cheek singalong rock anthem) but to hear filthy guitar riffs and licks, rhythm bass and drums locked tighter than any other band on the planet.

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