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Acts who were tipped for success but never made it

Started by George White, April 30, 2018, 01:20:19 PM

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George White

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ1NGOiCWiQ Watching this Man Alive ep from 1973, about the packaging of British child acts to create a British Osmonds. All of them flopped, Darren Burn (who died of an overdose aage 30), Ricky Wilde (son of Marty, brother of Kim, and mentored by Jonathan King), and the James Boys. King, despite his unfortunate appearance is actually right that EMI shouldn't have pumped so much money into Burn, as he wasn't a natural star.

Reminded me of all the flop boybands post-Take That and especially post-Boyzone. Louis Walsh may have hit the paydirt with Boyzone and Westlife, but there's dozens of acts he had who never made it. Girlbands Bellefire and Wonderland, Six, Michael English (a protege of Daniel O'Donnell who came to Walsh's attention via Ma Walsh being a fan, who while has had success in Ireland as a chicken in a basket act, never broke past the light entertainment country scene), and then theproto-Jedward Carter Twins, Who's Eddie - a family band who had some success in cabaret...

Shit Good Nose

The Oil Experts - highlights of the Bristol music scene in the mid-to-late 90s, got massive acclaim locally and in the more knowing national music press, appeared on Later With Jools Holland to much fanfare, before mysteriously breaking up a few years later.  Their DJ worked in the post room in my old workplace and, despite being a smart uni grad, stayed in there because he was basically counting the days until they landed a major record contract (which was all but guaranteed).  I'd long left that office when they split so I never found out what happened, but all that remains of them is a short clip on YouTube from their very last gig.

Oops! Wrong Planet

♫ We are The Pipettes and we've got no regrets

Are you sure?

DrGreggles

Quote from: Oops! Wrong Planet on April 30, 2018, 01:56:42 PM
♫ We are The Pipettes and we've got no regrets

Are you sure?

The Pipettes should have been HUGE!

'Your Kisses...' and 'Pull Shapes' were tremendous pop songs.
Add to that the fact that they were pretty girls in polka dots doing silly dances, how could it fail!?

BlodwynPig


Icehaven

About three-quarters of bands the NME breathlessly raved about in the mid to late 90s. Ultrasound are one that stuck in my mind as they're one of the very few* I can genuinely claim to be into before they were hyped, so I was surprised on going to see them at the miniscule Wolverhampton Varsity to find it packed and sold out, and learning they'd suddenly been all over the music press for about a week before so most of the tickets had been sold on the door. Think the much anticipated debut album was a flop so that was that although they still pop up every now and then. 

*The other one being Puressence, although they never really had a big '' They're gonna be huuuuge'' moment in the press, they were just sort of always there, never quite making it (apart from in Greece, where they're huge.)

Icehaven

#6
Envy and Other Sins, Birmingham band who had quite a local following, in about 2006 they won the first (and I think last) series of an X Factor style TV show on ITV that was supposed to be for 'real' bands, for which the prize was a record contract with a big label (can't remember which), made a mediocre album with appallingly poppy, slick production which didn't sound anything like them, and broke up shortly after. Their frontman sat a few rows in front of me in the audience at the theatre a few months later and he looked quite dejected and didn't come back after the interval (tbf it was a shit musical about the recession so I don't blame him.)

IIRC the boss of the label that the competition winners got the contract with was also one of the panel of judges on the show, but it was a public vote that decided the winning band. In the final it came down to EAOS and another more Oasis-y type band with more obvious popular appeal that the label boss clearly favoured/expected to win, so the whole thing was kind of cursed from the get-go with the label being stuck with a band they didn't want to work with and the band having to force their sound and style into a setup intended for someone else.

Brundle-Fly

I had a mate who did session work for Thomas Ribeiro who was tipped to be the next big thing. The record label invested big bucks in him around the mid-nineties; touting him as 'the black Rod Stewart'. It never happened and he was quickly dropped. Shame as he was a talented guy. File next to Jonathan Jeremiah.

It looks like he's back, judging by his comment on this old YouTube link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_DaiCpA_nQ


Phil_A

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on April 30, 2018, 03:24:19 PM
I had a mate who did session work for Thomas Ribeiro who was tipped to be the next big thing. The record label invested big bucks in him around the mid-nineties; touting him as 'the black Rod Stewart'. It never happened and he was quickly dropped. Shame as he was a talented guy. File next to Jonathan Jeremiah.

It looks like he's back, judging by his comment on this old YouTube link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_DaiCpA_nQ

Somewhere I have an Island Records sampler tape from the nineties that is full of "nearly was" acts, including yer man Riberio. Anyone remember Elcka? Archive? Lewis Taylor?

Damn good tape, actually.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Phil_A on April 30, 2018, 03:38:23 PM
Somewhere I have an Island Records sampler tape from the nineties that is full of "nearly was" acts, including yer man Riberio. Anyone remember Elcka? Archive? Lewis Taylor?

Damn good tape, actually.

I had the Elcka single, Boho Bird. Not on YouTube.

itsfredtitmus

Quote from: Oops! Wrong Planet on April 30, 2018, 01:56:42 PM
♫ We are The Pipettes and we've got no regrets

Are you sure?
There was another all-girl band around the same time (actually might have been just before) that did the same kind of brill building influenced pop but with a more merseybeat beat music bent

Serge


momatt

#12
Quote from: Brundle-Fly on April 30, 2018, 03:24:19 PM
I had a mate who did session work for Thomas Ribeiro who was tipped to be the next big thing.

Is he the same guy as Thomas Ribero?
If so, I love his two appearances on Les Rythmes Digitales – Darkdancer.  Really sleazy and original electro-soul tracks

Oddly enough I rediscovered this album over the weekend.  I loved it when it first came out and it's still bloody great.
Still, I was always surprised that Thomas Ribero never became big.


sevendaughters

think Envy & Other Sins were on MobileAct Unsigned with Fangs, who were one of sadly forgotten Kirkcaldy-duo Motormark rebranding in a faux-tuff nu-rave thing, they were also touted in the desperate rush to have a British Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

the ones that really stand out to me were Hoggboy, if you wanted a British Strokes then there were way better options than these clueless turds (Moco, hometown bias, but they had better tunes, but were uglier).

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: icehaven on April 30, 2018, 02:12:15 PM
About three-quarters of bands the NME breathlessly raved about in the mid to late 90s. Ultrasound are one that stuck in my mind as they're one of the very few* I can genuinely claim to be into before they were hyped, so I was surprised on going to see them at the miniscule Wolverhampton Varsity to find it packed and sold out, and learning they'd suddenly been all over the music press for about a week before so most of the tickets had been sold on the door. Think the much anticipated debut album was a flop so that was that although they still pop up every now and then. 

*The other one being Puressence, although they never really had a big '' They're gonna be huuuuge'' moment in the press, they were just sort of always there, never quite making it (apart from in Greece, where they're huge.)

Ultrasound are still one of my favourite bands and their 2012 comeback album, Play For Today, really delivered on the promise once shown. They also released a third album in 2016, but whilst impressive in places it's weak in others.


The Culture Bunker

Quote from: BlodwynPig on April 30, 2018, 02:06:15 PM
Brother
Surely one of the quickest "hyped, then shite" turns ever, at least in indie/NME type music? Can remember reading an article early on where their singer was "anybody who doesn't want to see the future of music, leave now" and thinking "what an absolute cockend". That the music eventually spectacularly failed to live up to his words was somewhat amusing.

Puressence were always likely to pull a reasonable crowd in Manchester... sadly, they weren't even the best band to come out of Middleton. Their original guitarist once replied to a "musicians wanted" ad  put up, which struck me as a wee bit tragic. For him, not me.

kngen

Brinsley Schwarz's bid for stardom is stuff of legend, and farcical to almost Spinal Tap levels

From wikipedia:

QuoteBrinsley Schwarz signed a contract with manager Dave Robinson, of Famepushers, who devised a plan to earn the band extensive publicity. They were to open for Van Morrison and Quicksilver Messenger Service at the Fillmore East in New York City, on 3 and 4 April 1970. Robinson would fly a plane full of British journalists to the show, so they could review it,[3] along with the winners of a Melody Maker competition, arranged in order to get pre-publicity.[2] Though the band had planned on leaving a few days early, so they could rehearse, visa problems prevented this, so they went to Canada and entered the US in a light aircraft. They arrived in New York shortly before they were due on stage, and had to use hired equipment with which they were unfamiliar. The journalists were due the following day, but their plane was delayed for four hours, so they had free use of the bar, and eventually arrived at the show either drunk or hung over.[citation needed] The show did not go over well, and the band received a flood of negative reviews over the following weeks, including bad reviews of their first album, Brinsley Schwarz, which was released shortly after their return to the United Kingdom. This incident became known as the Brinsley Schwarz Hype.[3]

20/20 should have been massive. Maybe not Blondie massive, but definitely worthy of being pulled out of the LA underground and onto the big stage to rub shoulders with other new-wavers like the Motels and the Go-Gos, and could easily hold their own against the likes of the Knack or the Police in the late 70s. Their record company certainly thought so, and buoyed by heavy rotation on KROQ and sold out shows in Southern California, their debut LP was released internationally to ... nothing. Fuck knows why, because it's a great LP (and I love playing it to the uninitiated, who - on first listen - generally have a reaction of 'How the fuck have I not heard this?') - and Yellow Pills is probably the track they're best known for, and even that is the preserve of power-pop completists from bootleg comps and the like. Maybe the album cover didn't do them any favours ...




Leatherface should have been massive after they released Mush one of the greatest albums of the 90s and one of the greatest ever British punk albums. It was just before Nevermind so there was definitely a desire for their kind of thing out there at the time.

itsfredtitmus

Wildhearts should have hit absolute gold with Just in Lust

Dr Syntax Head

Quote from: itsfredtitmus on April 30, 2018, 07:41:49 PM
Wildhearts should have hit absolute gold with Just in Lust

Brilliant band.


Gay Dad. The pound shop Dandy Warhols.

Dr Syntax Head


Quote from: itsfredtitmus on April 30, 2018, 07:41:49 PM
Wildhearts should have hit absolute gold with Just in Lust

Indeed. I do think that Ginger is slightly bitter that a songwriter of his talent hasn't had the success he probably deserves.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on April 30, 2018, 01:33:27 PM
The Oil Experts - highlights of the Bristol music scene in the mid-to-late 90s, got massive acclaim locally and in the more knowing national music press, appeared on Later With Jools Holland to much fanfare, before mysteriously breaking up a few years later.  Their DJ worked in the post room in my old workplace and, despite being a smart uni grad, stayed in there because he was basically counting the days until they landed a major record contract (which was all but guaranteed).  I'd long left that office when they split so I never found out what happened, but all that remains of them is a short clip on YouTube from their very last gig.

I think they started a little later, but wouldn't swear it. In any case, I knew the bassist - he and one of my best mates became friends through work and we used to socialise a fair bit. My memory is a little hazy, but pretty sure this started before the band was formed.

Sadly, I can't really throw any light on the split - I don't think I had the full SP or anything near it. From what I can recall, it wasn't a happy break or one that had been mutually agreed. I think fairly soon after it happened, that I bumped into the bassist, who said next week he was moving to another country - his family had really strong links there, so it's not quite as drastic as it sounds, but even so...

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: kngen on April 30, 2018, 07:21:05 PM
Brinsley Schwarz's bid for stardom is stuff of legend, and farcical to almost Spinal Tap levels

From wikipedia:

20/20 should have been massive. Maybe not Blondie massive, but definitely worthy of being pulled out of the LA underground and onto the big stage to rub shoulders with other new-wavers like the Motels and the Go-Gos, and could easily hold their own against the likes of the Knack or the Police in the late 70s. Their record company certainly thought so, and buoyed by heavy rotation on KROQ and sold out shows in Southern California, their debut LP was released internationally to ... nothing. Fuck knows why, because it's a great LP (and I love playing it to the uninitiated, who - on first listen - generally have a reaction of 'How the fuck have I not heard this?') - and Yellow Pills is probably the track they're best known for, and even that is the preserve of power-pop completists from bootleg comps and the like. Maybe the album cover didn't do them any favours ...



Another one a bit like this are The Brains.



Perhaps the only thing most people might recognise is their (original) version of Money Changes Everything, which Cyndi Lauper covered on She's So Unusual.

Quote from: sevendaughters on April 30, 2018, 05:53:25 PM
sadly forgotten Kirkcaldy-duo Motormark

They were great, recorded them a couple of times and still fond of their two albums. Their near-counterparts Flying Matchstick Men from the same era sadly faced a similar nu-rave rebranding/legal issues/label politics related demise. Definitely something in the air in Scotland at that time.

Quote from: DrGreggles on April 30, 2018, 02:05:10 PM
'Pull Shapes'

Such an amazing single, for some reason in my mind i have this (wrongly) as early 2010s.

Maybe a one hit wonder , but even that never happened Sébastien Tellier - La Ritournelle is up there with Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy for hitting THAT emotional button

https://youtu.be/crblDrrcunQ

sevendaughters

Quote from: Better Midlands on April 30, 2018, 09:25:29 PM
Maybe a one hit wonder , but even that never happened Sébastien Tellier - La Ritournelle is up there with Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy for hitting THAT emotional button

https://youtu.be/crblDrrcunQ

yes this is pretty much a perfect song. he's still famous on the continent but a lot of his music is tongue-in-cheek, very Gallic, and doesn't really work here. when he did Eurovision, it was a hilarious and deliberate car crash.