Similar story. Years ago I saw Australian artist Paul Kelly in a small (100 seat) venue in SF. Behind me was an Aussie couple who were thrilled to see him in such a small venue, as he’d be in an arena in Australia.
“Little Willy” is Sweet’s biggest hit in the US reaching #3 on the chart- “Ballroom Blitz” reaching #5 at its peak.
But YES they were bigger in the UK.
Quiet Riot covered two of Slade’s song—“Cum On Feel the Noize” which reached #5 and “Mama Weer All Crazee Now” which only reached #51 on the Billboard charts(which is surprising to me because MTV played the video constantly for it.)
Even now bands such as Alter Bridge are bigger in Europe than the US, when things return to normal, we might travel to US to see them in a smaller venue (smaller than a stadium).
I don’t think Creed made it much in Europe either though.
Bush, I believe, is a UK band which was big in the US but unknown in the UK.
Rush, I’d say, made it fine in Europe. Stadium gigs for all their times from about 2112 onwards.
I’m with you, @MrDibble. The Cure absolutely made it in the US and were practically synonymous with “alternative music” in the 80s and 90s. If you asked someone then who knew jack shit about alternative music to name a altenative band, I think it’s likely one they’ll come up with is the Cure (REM is perhaps the other band I associate with mainstream alternative bands.)
Don’t go by the charts – if you did, many of the grunge bands that defined 90s music for a certain segment of American culture also “never caught on” in the US. Nirvana only has one top 10 hit: Smells Like Teen Spirit (#6) and the other three charting songs are 32, 45, and 64) if you only go by the Hot 100. It’d be a stretch to say they “never caught on” or were a one-hit wonder. By that definition, the Cure had many, many more Hot 100 hits (and higher peak position with the #2 “Love Song,” which isn’t even in the first five or so Cure songs I’d be able to name) and a few higher charting singles.
PS: I’m going to be the first to nitpick that Rush is Canada, not US, I guess … (in reply to post #4)
The Smiths were definitely known as “that weird band the literary kids or introverts or pretentious college kids liked.” Something like that. (I love them.) They didn’t get much radio play, but you will hear them fairly regularly on stations that play alternative rock/Gen X nostalgia music. (I’m checking the playlist of WXRT, and I see currently an REM tune is playing, and a Cure song, “High” played an hour ago – to go with my previous post – but I’m not seeing any Smiths in the last hour and a half.)
Perhaps Manic Street Preachers and Pet Shop Boys? Take That?
The Manic Street Preachers definitely. They’ve also expressed so much disdain for US politics that they had a hard time getting into the US mainstream market.
Level 42 was an excellent group that had good success in the U.K., but only had one top ten charting single (Something About You) in the U.S. They made four outstanding record albums between 1983 and 1988. They are a horribly underrated group, especially in the U.S.
A-ha is seen as a one hit wonder in the U.S. (Take On Me), but apparently has had a long and successful career in the U.K.
Were the Boomtown Rats (featuring Bob Geldof) ever successful in the U.K…because they never really hit it off in the U.S.
Seconded!
I’d never even heard of Manic Street Preachers until today, so maybe they qualify – I was at least reasonably aware of a wider range of music artists (though my knowledge was undoubtedly not encyclopedic) during that band’s early years. Interestingly, the Wikipedia entry for their discography doesn’t even list U.S. chart performance.
Pet Shop Boys were pretty big here in the U.S. from around '85 to '87; “West End Girls” was a #1 song, and “Opportunities,” “It’s a Sin,” “What Have I Done to Deserve This,” and “Always on My Mind” were top-10 songs. Those songs were radio staples, and they were on MTV a lot.
Take That seemed to largely fly under the radar here (and may be another example of the US vs. UK boy-band phenomenon mentioned earlier) – I remember hearing of them, but I have no memory of their actual music. When Robbie Williams went solo, I remember him showing up on a few US TV shows, with people talking about how big he was in England, but he, too, didn’t make a big impression here (two singles making it onto the Hot 100, but not the Top 40).
I didn’t realize Pet Shop Boys had so many hits here. I remember first becoming exposed to them on family trips to Poland, and I somehow had missed them listening to US radio. I know I hear them on the radio now, so I must’ve been going through a different music phase when they were popular here.
actually not the PSB they were somewhat popular here in the us first …
The Smiths broke up a year before the start of Billboard’s alternative music chat started. 1987 and 1988 respectively. From what I remember hearing on Hit. Parade (a podcast that looks at chart history) they had been slowly gaining popularity in the US when they broke up. I do think they were still important and influential, but not popular.
Bush are a British band who did nothing in Britain, found a degree of success in the US and then had a hit single (reached Number 7 in the charts) in the UK with Swallowed at which point all the commentary was: Here is a British band who are huge in the USA but unknown here.
Never really did much else here musically although the lead singer Gavin Rossdale got some tabloid notoriety by marrying Gwen Stefani of No Doubt, an affair with Courtney Love and an initially denied, later admitted gay relationship with a friend of Boy George.
It was a similar story with Def Leppard who were a minor British Heavy Rock band, found success in the USA and then had a number of reasonably successful singles and albums at home. Again they were initially always described as: A British band huge in the USA but unknown here.
TCMF-2L
The Boomtown Rats were a fairly successful UK pop band (they positioned themselves as punk originally) and lead singer Bob Geldof also had some solo chart success.
Geldof was a key figure (with Midge Ure) in organising Band Aid and Geldof was much higher profile.
Geldof married Paula Yates who was already famous as the ‘Wild Child’ daughter of a TV religious show presenter. Although later in life she found out she was actually the daughter of a different TV presenter, a Game Show host.
The marriage was a tabloid feeding ground as Yates presented a vaguely notorious TV Music Show (The Tube) typically flirting outrageously with male guests. She had a doomed affair with Michael Hutchence of INXS ending, after they split, with his suicide and later still her suicide. Later still one of her children with Geldof died of a drugs overdose.
So musically and with general ‘fame’ Geldof and The Boomtown Rats are well known in the UK.
TCMF-2L
From what I can see, the Canterbury Scene bands were far more popular in the UK, though they weren’t that popular there. They had a niche that allowed them to continue to record.
Pentangle also had a successful career in the UK without getting much notice in the US.
I don’t think Black Lace ever really caught on in the States.
Expanding this to Canada, we’ve had our share of home superstars who just couldn’t make it big elsewhere. Among them:
The Tragically Hip
April Wine
Triumph
Colin James
Lighthouse
Trooper
Kim Mitchell
On a slightly different note: Supertramp was absolutely monster in Canada - bigger than they were in the UK, as I recall.
To your list, I’d also add Bruce Cockburn, who’s had an illustrious career in his native Canada, but only cracked the top 40 in the U.S. once, with “Wondering Where the Lions Are” in 1979.
Syncronicity. They literally just came up in my Facebook feed (though the feed was about the band Material Issue). Upper right (from spring 1995):
They never did hit it BIG here, but I do remember them being somewhat known during my college days in the 90s here in the Chicago area (note that this ad is for a third show for them that was added due to popular demand.) I also remember seeing a poster for them headlining a show in Madison with Nirvana opening for them. (This would have been pre-Nevermind, of course. I think 1989.)
All the other bands, though – never heard of.
But it is weird – I’ve always wondered why there is so little chart bleed from our neighbors up North. Whenever I listen to Canadian radio, I’m like who the hell are all these guys, and why are none of them getting airplay in the US? I mean, there’s many notable exceptions, but, for the most part, what happens on the charts there may as well be happening halfway across the world, not just next door.