Mine as well. In their prime as a live band no one could touch them (Just ask the Rolling Stones). Losing Keith diminished them, but they still blew the roof off Madison Square Gardens in the Concert For NYC. Losing John was the final straw though, after that their shows were good but the magic was gone.
The Smiths
Radiohead
New Order
The Clash
Depeche Mode
Oasis
Tough to leave The Cure out, but 6 is 6.
This post is representative of why I started this thread. The accumulation of bands I’m not familiar with.
The Smiths have come up a lot. I’m not familiar. I need to fix that.
Someone once gave me a New Order CD. I was young and never took the shrink wrap off of it.
Got it in though!
If I were going for the top six bands based NOT on my preferences, but on the historic changes they brought to popular music… well, it’d be close to what’s been posted already:
- The Beatles
- The Rolling Stones
- Led Zeppelin
- The Who
- Queen
- Pink Floyd or Cream
(or Bowie, but he’s not a band…)
.
I’d love to then list another six (like The Smiths), from the later era after history had been changed by the first six… but oh, well (which reminds me of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac…).
I’d been considering how/what to post in this thread, but I think that the reasoning I’d put into it, and who I’d pick, are exactly what you’d shared. FWIW, I’d probably lean more towards Pink Floyd than Cream.
Well, you’re all just lucky I didn’t go into my lonnng reasonings behind every band’s inclusion. I would’ve spent twenty paragraphs tying the rise of the middle class to both World Wars and the British monarchy and the twelve-tone scale and the ferry 'cross the Mersey…
One thing I’ve noticed - I think only 4 posters have mentioned bands fronted by women.
You say this like it’s a positive rather than something they’re to blame for 
I’m surprised myself that nobody had mentioned Fleetwood Mac
Well, if I knew the Monkees qualified…
I would guess a lot of people consider them (at least the Buckingham-Nicks variation) only semi-British.
Do the Pretenders count as a British band? Because they’d be my pick for best female-lead band, and they keep up with everyone posted so far.
Really? Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Chrissy McVie are all British, and the band was started in London. Yes, they’ve got some American members, but I would count the band as a British one in a way the Monkees really aren’t.
“Only” the two main frontpeople for most of the band’s best-know period & songs.
As would I. I was just offering suggestions as to why people weren’t.
The other option - hear me out here - is that people just don’t rate them as highly as at least 6 other bands.
.
I mean, they formed in London, right?
Although, by that standard, so’s the Jimi Hendrix Experience
That last is entirely possible - I didn’t list them myself for that reason.
Mick Fleetwood has always been the headline guy for me.
I really think of Fleetwood Mac more as an LA band, than a London band.
I think most people would say Buckingham/Nicks/McVie, even if Mick’s name is on the tin. Singers get the glory first (closely followed by lead guitar)
Beatles
Pink Floyd
Led Zeppelin
Rolling Stones
Yes
The Who
I too was surprised by how long it took Fleetwood Mac to get a mention, though fair point that they are not 100% British.
I don’t know enough about music to have a strong opinion on which 6 British bands had the most influence etc, so I’ll just list the 6 whose music I enjoy the most.
Queen
Dire Straits
Oasis
Fleetwood Mac
Deep Purple
Coldplay (yes, really - like all bands, they’ve put out some rubbish, but also some really good tunes)
Same here. I admit that any list of actual “greatest British” bands not to include The Beatles is probably wrong. The 6 I mentioned are just my favorites.
Depending on your point of view, The Pretty Things deserve at least some of the blame.