Criminally commercially unsuccessful bands

[SasquatchDude]

Fanny...

I came here looking for that!

Randomly stumbled across the recent YouTube upload of the full '71 Beat Club session last week and their energy totally blew me away. Couldn't believe I'd never even heard the name in all my years of classic rock nerd-dom! I feel like their infectiously groovy cover of Special Care should well have done what Hendrix did for All Along the Watchtower... and that's not even touching the high-octane originals! Blind Alley, anyone? Whew!

 

[LHbassist]

NRBQ!

Apparently, criminally overlooked here, too. Killer, unique... and been around since the 60's. Still are, but it isn't the same band now.
Big Al Anderson, Terry Adams, The great bassist/singer/composer/ vocalist Joey Spampinato, and maybe the best timekeeper in Rock and Roll, The Late Tom Ardolino. Great music, by a long overlooked band.

 

[warwicktor]

How about Faith No More! Amazing band and players.

 

[TheDirtyLowDown]

Ok, here you go. My favorite bar band ever, from San Jose, CA. John Wedemeyer, guitar. Endre Tarczy on bass. Randy Hayes on drums. Incredible talent. Superb band energy and chemistry. Lots of gigs in Bay Area dives, and I tried to be at every one, along with lots of other musicians. Check 'em out on youTube and see if you agree with me...

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

Big Wreck.

A big +1 for Big Wreck. One of my favourite band names too!

 

[SasquatchDude]

Not entirely unsuccessful, but honorable shout-out to Stone the Crows. I'll see your Janis Joplin and raise you a Maggie Bell!

 

[1bassplayinfool]

Bones



later to become the Faragher Bros

 

[Charlzm]

In the hard rock/metal world:

King's X
Fates Warning
Armored Saint
Voivod
Loudness
Overkill
Flotsam and Jetsam
Metal Church
Galactic Cowboys
Gary Moore (solo era before the blues period)
Racer X
TesseracT
Meshuggah
Porcupine Tree
Prong

 

[Gunga Din]

Anvil. "Anvil: The Story of Anvil" is a great movie but very depressing. It is like a real life Spinal Tap.

"In the summer of 1984 Anvil toured the world with the biggest bands of rock. All of them sold millions of records around the world. All of them, but one..."

Back in the day, I thought that they were a genuine Tap piss-take!

 

[laughing house]

Two bands come to mind, Radio Birdman and Paris. Paris had everything in the world going for them.

 

[Rojd]

Anvil. "Anvil: The Story of Anvil" is a great movie but very depressing. It is like a real life Spinal Tap.

"In the summer of 1984 Anvil toured the world with the biggest bands of rock. All of them sold millions of records around the world. All of them, but one..."

In the past year Anvil has played this small club/pub in my city.

 

[Rojd]

Raven is another one. Part of that nwobhm in early 80s. I saw them once back in 87 opening for Slayer & WASP.

 

[Rojd]

Vio-Lence

 

[Fender1980]

Sloan. Never hit it big south of the border.

True. I'm a casual fan of the band that once followed them from Chicago to Grand Rapids (not literally) to see a second show in two days.

They played a good sized venue in Chicago (maybe 800) but Grand Rapids MI was like maybe 75 people the next night.

Great band though!

 

[jerry]

Nice! Things sure turned out ok for Davey Faragher though, great player.

Bones



later to become the Faragher Bros

 

[1bassplayinfool]

Nice! Things sure turned out ok for Davey Faragher though, great player.

You are correct sir. John Hiatt ain't no slouch.

I played a few gigs with these guys many moons ago. Fun band and had that "blue eyed soul" thing going on.

 

[Doctor Intrepid]

Tragically Hip. Huge in Canada, but not elsewhere unfortunately.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

I know everyone is going to go way back and pick some band like Uriah Heep, but just a short decade ago a Portland area band, Viva Voce, made some great music. No real musical pyrotechnics, just well written music.

 

[Pauly 4001]

I don't know how David Bowie 'pioneered' Mott The Hoople; they had recorded four albums from '69 to '71, but, having not gotten very far past a small but loyal audience, decided to call it a day. Bassist Overend Watts inquired to David Bowie about playing in his band, and Bowie, who had been a fan, convinced them not to hang it up. Using his growing clout in the wake of Ziggy, he got them management, a record deal, and gave them one of his songs("...Dudes")for a attention getting single. Aside from Bowie convincing them to cover The Velvet Underground/Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane", everything else was written by the band, primarily Ian Hunter. They became huge stars in the UK and Europe, but had a tougher time in the US beyond a sizable cult following as America didn't take to Glam/Glitter rock(which they were quickly associated with)too well.

I saw Mott on their 1973 tour for $2 at the Paramount in Seattle. They were great and it was the height of glam at the time. Thanks for saving me the time to write up what would have been about the same corrective mini history.

 

[rylie]

re: but there are bands that I just don't get why they never made it big.

history indicates it's delivery of music at the right time when people are listening, open and accepting what's offered. simplified, call it timing. everything is timing!