Inspired by my other thread, who gets your vote for the greatest of the Manchester Bands?
Tony Wilson narrowed it down to the 5 great Manchester bands:
Joy Division/New Order 2. The Smiths 3. Happy Mondays 4. Stone Roses 5. Oasis.
Tony must have been mad at Mark E Smith over something, because obviously The Fall should be added to that list as well.
I would imagine that Joy Division, The Fall, and The Smiths will get most of the votes, though all six groups were groundbreaking in one way or another, so I’m interested to see how it goes.
I did also include “other” as a choice, as there could be some die hard Throbbing Gristle fans lurking around. Who knows, maybe someone here really loves Simply Red. anyways, if you pick other, please indicate your choice in the thread.
The Smiths are the greatest - would be in the conversation for greatest band of the last 30 years, full stop.
The Fall are also immense, of course, it’s just really hard to compare them to anyone else. They’re literally in a league of their own, which is good and bad I suppose (they have a new album out right?)
Personally prefer the Roses and Mondays’ sound to New Order, but would say that New Order were the more important band, and have a far larger body of quality work.
Oasis are a novelty act so can’t be compared to the others - a pub band.
I find it ironic that The Smiths are tied with Joy Division (I just tied them up BTW :D), because without Ian Curtis, there ain’t gonna be any Morrissey/Smiths.
I would agree that Oasis probably comes in last out of these bands, but I think you’re being a little hard on them. The Gallaghers did put out 2 excellent albums that helped define Britpop, and thus, the dominant sound in British popular music in the mid-nineties. I would compare their impact to that of Nirvana. Of course, it’s currently in style to call Nirvana one of the most overrated bands ever, so who knows.
I voted Stone Roses. I’m going to be honest, Joy Division does very little for me outside of a few songs, The Smiths had some good songs but the Stone Roses really nailed everything: image, melody, instrumentation, lyrics and were arguably directly responsible for half the bands coming out of Britain in the 1990s (Ocean Colour Scene, Bluetones, Oasis, etc. all formed after attending a Stone Roses gig). If we’re talking albums, the Stone Roses is the best album produced by any of those bands IMO.
Stone Roses is a fantastic album, but it’s no The Queen is Dead.
Glad to see the Roses getting some love.
It’s funny you say that about Joy Division. I was the same way for a long time and then all of a sudden something in my head just clicked and now they’re the one band that I would consider putting above the Smiths(though I didn’t)
Not fair to put all the blame onto the Roses for that collection of shite IMO.
Agree the Roses are mightily good, very influential but it’s just two albums, one great, one decent - v thin body of work. A lot more sustained brilliance from The Smiths, New Order etc [Obviously not fair to compare anyone’s output with The Fall, who are on another planet].
I would have to go with The Fall for sheer originality of material. Although to be honest, I know they’re not as cool as those other bands, but I’ve probably got more enjoyment out of James over the years than any of those.
Methinks Morrisey doth protest too much-in any event while Curtis brooded in his music (sometimes too effectively), Morrisey often just comes across as a whiner half the time.
True enough, but if you compare Johnny Marr’s guitar and Andy Rourke’s bass to Sumner and Hook, the style is completely different. Stephen Morris may well have had some influence on Mike Joyce though.
Lyrically though, I just don’t see it. There are some similar themes, of course, but Ian Curtis was more of a poet that happened to be in a band. Supposedly he had a box containing poems/lyrics that he had written and would just grab a sheet and make the words fit onto the song. Morrissey is much more of a conventional songwriter. Ian was not really into all that clever wordplay and sarcasm like Morrissey.
Apologies, I was referring to rock bands rather than pop, though I apparently forgot to note that in the OP. Feel free to toss them under “other” if you must.
Interestingly, though the Hollies have been around since 1962, The Fall have released 56 more albums than them.
