Paul Heaton from The Beautiful South.
Actually, all the singers from The Beautiful South.
Certainly don’t sound British. For the record Shane MacGowan was born in Kent, England, and spent his formative years in both Ireland and the UK, but his sound is affectedly Irish.
Believe it or not, Rod was born and bred in Highgate, London (and sounds it when not singing). His perpetual wrapping of himself in the tartan and Scottish footie-fanaticism would tend to suggest otherwise, of course.
Yes, of course Welsh counts as British.
At the risk of ploughing the same furrow as the other threads have done, it’s debatable how much some of the people mentioned here sound British in spite of their attempts to mimic American vocal patterns and how much they’ve attempted to retain their own accents. Stewart and Robbie Williams certainly don’t sound British to my ears when singing. YMMV.
Despite all the indications, Rod is as Scottish as pickled eels. He was born and bred in London. I think his father was Scottish.
Steve Marriott - first of Small Faces, then Humble Pie
Liam Gallagher - Oasis
The Streets. Obviously. (Not that he’s a singer, but still)
Marc Bolan.
Travis sound Scottish too.
How about “The streets” frontman Mike Skinner?
Richard Butler, of Psychedelic Furs and Love Spit Love fame.
The Pogues play music inspired by traditional Irish songs, but they were formed in London, by Londoners. Shane MacGowan, though an Irishman by blood, was schooled and raised in England and has a decidedly English accent, in both his speech and his songs.
You can occasionally hear the scottish accents creeping into Belle and Sebastian songs, too.
Isn’t it about time to mention The Streets again?
Seriously though, if you’re into some seriously innovative music, try to get hold of The Streets’ CD “Original Pirate Material”. It’s superb.
He used to live in stretford, where I live…
Rats! I mant to mention the Miserable Morissey.
How about SLADE, of whom we will shortly be hearly a LOT.
ANd going back more than a couple of yars - Donovan - not always but the Scottish accent definitely came through.
You learn something new every day. Any particular reason for Rod’s chronic caledoniaphilia?
oh yes, Noddy Holder.
His dad was Scottish.
You sound like one of his groupies.
Now there’s a disturbing image.
jjimm…just don’t mug yourself
robbie williams doing the annoying rap thing at the end of kids…very stoke-on-trent.
radiohead, muse and coldplay also sound british.
Ash, to my ears at least, sound norn irish.
Neil Hannon from the divine comedy also sounds norn irish to me, but most people only hear the affected english accent.
Peter Noone … especially in Mrs. Brown