Depeche Mode

and The Cure of course!

Ray joe head

Wow, 6 pages and I'm the first to plump for . . . . . . . The Smiths.

Oh hard decision, The Kinks or Kings of Leon. Both amazing bands.

Can I have 2 favourites???

"That's cause zepplin are s**t."

get a grip, Zep are excellent..4 incredible rock n roll masterpieces released over 24 months...brilliant band..

Stones for me..best rock n roll band that ever drew breath...

Absolutely. It's so hard to defend the Rolling Stones these days because they've become such a parody of themselves. But their output from '68-'72 alone is just peerless. The fact that they released some great stuff before and after those classic years is all the more impressive. Great, great band. They had a fantastic rhythm section and they understood American music like almost no other band of the time. If it wasn't for 'The Band' I would say Exile On Main St. is the finest album of American music ever. No mean feat for a bunch of art school types from Dartford.

(Sorry, I get a little over-excited when someone mentions the S word)

Have been out of loop or would have got my spoke in ages ago.

Manic Street Preachers.

See man, thats just it, the seventies stuff is savage too..some girls, goats head soup and its only rock n roll are all stellar....mix of funk, reggae, disco and rock n roll... tattoo you aint that great, emotional rescue was ok... dont go near dirty work, they werent even in the same cities as each other when it was recorded....

i think the fact that they have stuck together (barring a death, and a line up change her and there) is a testament to them..
every single front man of a white rock n roll band this side of Rio has copied Jagger in some way shape or form...

Radiohead being the most popular choice so far? no surprises (no pun intended)

This is very hard because taste changes but for body's of work it would have to be Eels or Elliot Smith.

Yes very had, impossible even... Ill have to go with Elliott Smith aswell... for now

There's some good stuff, but album-wise there's a drop in quality after 'Exile on Main Street'

Suppose, but the thing is, exile was kind of a concept album, keith was actually wanted in the us..hence they recorded in jamaica with jimmy miller..see jimmy miller is THE all time greatest rock n roll producer..he was a hopeless heroin addict though.....alot of the songs on exile are actually rejigged blues standards......i personally think that Sticky Fingers is their best album and that was actually made up of tunes that were shelved..it only got released cos mick wrote brown sugar on the set of ned kelly in '70 and thought it could be a hit...

Sort of. Exile was recorded in the south of France, the band having left England rather than being hammered by the tax man. Goats Head Soup was recorded in Jamaica, simply because Keith and the band liked the place. I think Keith bought a house there and hung out with guys like Peter Tosh.

Jimmy Miller did produce Exile and you're dead on about him being a great producer for them. In fact the Jimmy Miller period, starting with Jumping Jack Flash in 1968, sort of signifies the start of their hot-streak, and Jimmy leaving in the mid-70's signifies the end of it. As you say, Keith was too much of a heroin addict by the time of Goats Head Soup to show any leadership, so Mick stepped in and started hopping on bandwagons. Which is why they became much more dated from then on (disco, slick production, cod-raggae).

I don't see much of a concept running through Exile, apart from the trials and tribulations of a rock & roll band in 1971, but thats sort of a given, right? I love Sticky Fingers too, its certainly a more concise album but the murkiness of Exile can't be beat. One of my favourite albums and THE classic double-LP along with the Beatles White Album. There's only one or two blues covers on Exile too, its not a filler album.

What i mean by the concept album, is not in the dark side of the moon sense, but more that the songs and elements that made up the tunes on exile were things as a band that had to come out all at once,hence so many tracks... keith was out of it for much of the recording of the album and they probably could have split up only for mick....mick gets a hard time sometimes but he was the one that came up with the concept of a world tour of shows as opposed to travelling around in a van gigging....it saved the band...

what i would not give to have been at even one date on the famous north american tour of 72/74.......

ye know rory gallagher actually got offered a guitarist spot to replace mick taylor but keith objected cos Brian Jones was his hero!

apparently ....its only rock n roll was performed roughly by mick and rory in an ammsterdamn studio...read that in a book about rory years ago...imagine the fusion though between rory and keith with mick on vox...ronnie wood on bass but then ronnie kept keith sane....

still charlie watts is the all time coolest man in rock n roll for me..there was a story that on a tour in teh 1980s....mick was partying in a hotel during the night and began yelling "wheres my drummer!!" and charlie simply got up went down and dropped mick like a bad habit and went back to bed.....

gonna go home and have a listen to exile now......

They were writing alot of tracks at the time. Keith, despite being on the heroin, was still very much at the helm during the Exile period. The fact that the album was recorded in the basement of his house in France says it all really. He was addicted, but still in control.



Yeah, I heard this. I actually read that he was offered the role by Keith but Rory turned it down due to touring commitments. I don't know what the real story is though. It's a nice little footnote to Rorys career, but he was too talented to take a backseat. Mick Taylor was smothered in the band and left because he wasn't given much of a chance to contribute other than guitar solos. He couldn't handle the lifestyle anymore either. As far as I can recall, he co-wrote Moonlight Mile with Mick Jagger and wasn't given a credit. If thats true its shocking as its one of the Stones' finest moments. Had Rory been in the band he surely would have been too head-strong to tow their line, whereas Ronnie was happy to go along for the ride, too drunk to give a f**k. It's probably just as well he stayed solo.

impossible is correct...

'85 to '87: U2
'87 to '89: Joy Division / New Order
'90: Pixies
'91: Ride
'99 to '02: The Frames

when you get old like me, this is too difficult to answer unless you're an obsessed geek-fan...

will oldham and smog would be current contenders

agreed on Taylor, he got screwed royally.....my dad saw the stones in eupope with mick taylor and reckons he's the finest guitarist they have had bar brian jones........but yer right the lifestyle was not for him.....

"I think Exile was a hangover from the end of the '60s" mick said this some years ago..i think he's wrong ,have to agree with you peejay...exile is fookin great..dirty, thrown together mesh of blues, honk, and dirty rock n roll......

i think exile is widely regarded as the stones best album because it appeals to so many folks....

point is stones are and always will be my fave of all time...have been listening to them since i was 8..honestly the old man loved them too....