The Greatest ever Frontman/woman

Xfm are currently running a poll for the Greatest ever Frontman/woman of a band so I wanted to see what the people of here thought?

Freddie Mercury? Kurt Cobain? Bono? Jim Morrison? Morrisey? John Lydon? Bob Marley? Ozzy? Dave Grohl?

Who would you pick?

Thom Yorke anyone?

GG wrote:Thom Yorke anyone?

Just you

I would go for Freddie Mercury possibly.

Is Alice Cooper considered a front man or an individual artist? I might put him up there too.

Another worth onsidering (although I am not a huge fan of their music) would be Jim Morrisson

Mick Jagger ? or are the Stones a package

Axel Rose?

Though personally think Freddie, if there was no Freddie there'd have been no Queen as we know and love them.

KingKenny7Heaven wrote:Mick Jagger ? or are the Stones a package

Nope he's very much one to be in the list!

Freddie Mercury
Billie Joe Armstrong
Chris Martin
Mick Jagger

Not sure I'd ever have Chris Martin anywhere near a greatest frontman/woman list.

The some of the names that spring to mind for me.

Robert Plant
David Lee Roth
Robert Smith

Janis Joplin
Annie Lennox
Stevie Nicks

Tough choice between Freddie and Jim Morrison.

Good shout on Dave Lee Roth he is legend. so much better than hagar.

Joe Strummer, Ian Curtis, Jarvis Cocker are another three I'd put up there

Seeing as Freddie Mercury has already been nominated, I'll go with Bruce Dickinson. Other picks would be:

Jon Bon Jovi
Joey Tempest (Europe)
Shirley Manson (Garbage)
Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam)
Joe Elliott (Def Leppard)
Mike Patton (Faith No More)
Steven Tyler (Aerosmith)
James LaBrie (Dream Theater)
Christina Scabbia (Lacuna Coil)
Debbie Harry (Blondie)

Just to throw another few name into the mix, but how about

Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy)
Sting ( the police)
Bret Micheals (Poison)
Bono (U2)
Bob Marley (The Wailers)
Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chilli Peppers)

Certainly Mick Jagger
also Bruce Springsteen,
Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin)
Ian Gillan (Deep Purple Mk II)
David Coverdale ( Deep Purple MkIII & Whitesnake 80s)
Ronnie James Dio ( Rainbow & Dio)

Jim Morrison

They're all great so far. Keep them coming. The more you mention, the more you highlight the pointlessness of the word 'Greatest' in a great movement that has lasted 50 something years - Rock.

Lists of 'Greatest' are nice distractions as long as we don't take them too seriously. Those who take them seriously are the phone-in Cowell generation who don't listen to music but 'rate' it. I think 'rating' rock is counter-intuitive to its very reason for being

SecretFly wrote:They're all great so far. Keep them coming. The more you mention, the more you highlight the pointlessness of the word 'Greatest' in a great movement that has lasted 50 something years - Rock.

Lists of 'Greatest' are nice distractions as long as we don't take them too seriously. Those who take them seriously are the phone-in Cowell generation who don't listen to music but 'rate' it. I think 'rating' rock is counter-intuitive to its very reason for being

It might have been different if Chico had ever fronted a band - this whole thread would be moot!

Can only be one: Freddie Mercury

XFm have now published their top 20 from which to vote on:

Alex Turner
Brandon Flowers
Caleb Followill
Chris Martin
Dave Gahan
Dave Grohl
Eddie Vedder
Freddie Mercury
Ian Brown
Ian Curtis
Jim Morrison
Joe Strummer
Kurt Cobain
Liam Gallagher
Matt Bellamy
Mick Jagger
Morrissey
Paul Weller
Thom Yorke
Tom Meighan

No Bono is a slur and a continuing joke. "If we don't think about U2 maybe they'll just go away."

Actually, no Bruce Springsteen is also a joke. But then that was my original point. I'll just laugh.

What a crap list!!! Alex Turner? For real? Tom Meighan? Caleb Followill?

How on earth did names such as Roger Daltery, Bono, Ray Davies or Steven Tyler not make that list?

Shows why I don't like XFM. Poopie station!

No Robert Plant or Black Francis?

The mind is boggled.

Michael Stipe, Black Francis, David Byrne, Don Henley, Angus Young, James Hetfield, Steven Tyler, Joey Ramone, Lou Reed, Brian Wilson, all names I don't think anyone has mentioned as yet.

Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
Freddie Mercury (Queen)
Ronnie James Dio (Rainbow/Black Sabbath/Dio)
Lemmy (Hawkwind/Motorhead)
Rob Halford (Judas Priest)
Phil Anselmo (Pantera/Down)
James Hetfield (Metallica)
Alice Cooper (Alice Cooper)
Glen Danzig (Misfits/Danzig)
Jim Morrison (The Doors)
Chuck Schuldiner (Death)
Dee Snider (Twisted Sister)
Chuck Billy (Testament)

Marc Balin
Grace Slick

Ian Anderson Jethro Tull

Bono (U2)
Joe Strummer (The Clash and later with The Mescaleros)
Siouxie Sioux (Siouxie & The Banshees)
Adam Ant (Adam & The Ants)
David Bowie (yeah I know that's slightly bending the rules a bit, but if you consider the Ziggy stuff...)
Steve Strange (just cause he looked amazing in Visage)
Iggy Pop (when he was with The Stooges)
Henry Rollins (Black Flag)
Edward Tudor-Pole (Ten Pole Tudor) - just cause he was nuts.
Stuart Adamson (The Skids, Big Country)
Billy McKenzie (The Associates)

Gary Glitter

Anyone mentioned Shane MacGowan?
Saw the Pogues live at the Powerhouse in Brum once, and didn't see MacGowan through the entire set (until the encoure IIRC). I could hear him, and he sounded great. Turns out he'd spent the entire gig lying on his back on the stage with his mike in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other.
Only those right at the front could see him. Still a great gig though.

I guarantee that Matt Bellamy will feature highly in this list, because every time a poll like this comes up, Muse fans bombard it and skew the results. Actually, to be top 20 anyway is too high.

My favourite frontmen are people like Kurt Cobain, Jarvis Cocker, Rivers Cuomo...

Hoggy_Bear wrote:Anyone mentioned Shane MacGowan?
Saw the Pogues live at the Powerhouse in Brum once, and didn't see MacGowan through the entire set (until the encoure IIRC). I could hear him, and he sounded great. Turns out he'd spent the entire gig lying on his back on the stage with his mike in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other.
Only those right at the front could see him. Still a great gig though.

Yeah he does that Hoggy, many a time i have seen him unable to walk to his stoll on stage so he just laid on the floor and sung. Cracking voice, ugly ugly man

Another vote for Jim Morrison from me.

Although I'm not suggesting he was one of the greatest but I was watching a music channel over here the other day and it was showing an old INXS live concert. I was very impressed by Michael Hutchence live - he seemed to have great charisma on stage (and a very good voice too - not just shouting like most male rock singers)

Can't believe people are seriously mentioning Bono and Chris Martin. Good songwriters yes but not what I would call top frontman or woman class in a million years.

B9 - have to disagree on Bono. That man can hold an audience like you wouldn't believe. See Live Aid 1985 performance as evidence, but he still does it even now.

Fair enough Cari - it's wrong of me to discard someone so strongly when I've not actually seen him live in person. To be honest though I don't like the guy which influenced my decision somewhat - I like some of their music but something about him really grinds my gears (to borrow the term from another 606v2 thread!).

Now I have seen Christ Martin live on more than one occasion and stick by my original assessment .

Obviously someone has never witnessed ZOOTV, POPMART or something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6vNQf_tne0
Bono isn't about some constant radio songs that real U2 fans don't even rate - but 30 years of spellbinding concerts.

B9 - I've never seen Coldplay live, so I can't comment on that, but I think he's a knob anyway Mainly because of his oh-so-patronising wifey and the fact he's so damn rude in interviews. Just a complete tosspot. At least Bono has manners.

Cari wrote:B9 - I've never seen Coldplay live, so I can't comment on that, but I think he's a knob anyway Mainly because of his oh-so-patronising wifey and the fact he's so damn rude in interviews. Just a complete tosspot. At least Bono has manners.

First time I saw him was by accident - Glastonbury 2000. I'd never even heard of Coldplay but my mate had heard Yellow on Mark & Lard on radio 1 and dragged me to see them along with about 200 people at the Other Stage on an extremely hot Saturday afternoon. They were pretty good live and although not the greatest singer he seemed extremely humble and I was impressed by the band in general. To be honest I felt like total and absolute crap whilst watching them after being up for 30 hours straight partying (in a way you wouldn't want your Mum to know about) so for me to still come away impressed whilst on a downer and a half was surprising really.

I then saw them later that year at V and he seemed to be getting a bit full of himself as their popularity grew. Still it wasn't a bad showing though I came away compairng him to an irritating public school student union head boy or something.

I then saw him the following year and in some interviews and my opinion was well and truly formed, and nothing since has made me change my mind. He certainly seems to have gone full circle from being humble to just plain arrogant and rude.

Lemmy Hawkwind/ Motorhead

Brandon Flowers? Really? Man I hate that band.

Of that list I would have to say Joe Strummer or Mick Jaggar. Freddie Mercury is a legend and a great front man I'm just not a huge Queen fan.

I don't think anyone has mentioned Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumkins.

GG wrote:Thom Yorke anyone?

I'll vouch for Thommy

Don Van Vliet.

Everything he did was both fast and bulbous.

John or Edward - From Jedward?

SecretFly wrote:They're all great so far. Keep them coming. The more you mention, the more you highlight the pointlessness of the word 'Greatest' in a great movement that has lasted 50 something years - Rock.

Lists of 'Greatest' are nice distractions as long as we don't take them too seriously. Those who take them seriously are the phone-in Cowell generation who don't listen to music but 'rate' it. I think 'rating' rock is counter-intuitive to its very reason for being

That'll be why magazines like Classic Rock, Metal Hammer etc. have polls and articles every few years, about the greatest singers, albums, guitarists etc.

Rating music is quite a good idea IMHO as it makes you think about WHY you like the songs/albums/bands you do. Is it the lyrics, the musicianship, the spectacular live shows, singer/guitarist's nutty antics at gigs? Is it the imagery, subject matter of the songs or do you agree with their political views? Sheer brilliant musicianship can take your breath away, but simple songs that deliver a powerful message can make just as much of an impact. Or even stuff thats just ridiculous but makes you feel good.

Yes, its still very subjective as everyone has their own ideas on what makes a great song, but figuring out why you like the music you do will tell you quite a bit about yourself as a person.

William Bruce Bailey ........... the best for awhile at least

dyrewolfe wrote:

That'll be why magazines like Classic Rock, Metal Hammer etc. have polls and articles every few years, about the greatest singers, albums, guitarists etc.

Rating music is quite a good idea IMHO as it makes you think about WHY you like the songs/albums/bands you do. Is it the lyrics, the musicianship, the spectacular live shows, singer/guitarist's nutty antics at gigs? Is it the imagery, subject matter of the songs or do you agree with their political views? Sheer brilliant musicianship can take your breath away, but simple songs that deliver a powerful message can make just as much of an impact. Or even stuff thats just ridiculous but makes you feel good.

Yes, its still very subjective as everyone has their own ideas on what makes a great song, but figuring out why you like the music you do will tell you quite a bit about yourself as a person.

I don't read those magazines, dyre. I don't mind the polls, as I say. I do mind those people who use polls to 'prove' or 'disprove' greatness. Music is music. You like it or you don't. There is no quality control that dictates good over bad. I don't rate hiphop, but who am I to judge, I seldom listen to it. The same when you break down individual bands or performers. "This guy isn't great 'cause he didn't get a Grammy". No, he's not great because you don't like his kind of music and seldom listen to it. Those that listen to him, like him.

Rock especially came from a culture of rebellion - youth rebelling against the mannerisms, music, fashion and culture of their parents. It's a little anarchic (culturally rather than politically) and anarchy of that nature doesn't do lists. But by all means let the polls roll on - they too have their followers.

SecretFly wrote:

dyrewolfe wrote:

That'll be why magazines like Classic Rock, Metal Hammer etc. have polls and articles every few years, about the greatest singers, albums, guitarists etc.

Rating music is quite a good idea IMHO as it makes you think about WHY you like the songs/albums/bands you do. Is it the lyrics, the musicianship, the spectacular live shows, singer/guitarist's nutty antics at gigs? Is it the imagery, subject matter of the songs or do you agree with their political views? Sheer brilliant musicianship can take your breath away, but simple songs that deliver a powerful message can make just as much of an impact. Or even stuff thats just ridiculous but makes you feel good.

Yes, its still very subjective as everyone has their own ideas on what makes a great song, but figuring out why you like the music you do will tell you quite a bit about yourself as a person.

I don't read those magazines, dyre. I don't mind the polls, as I say. I do mind those people who use polls to 'prove' or 'disprove' greatness. Music is music. You like it or you don't. There is no quality control that dictates good over bad. I don't rate hiphop, but who am I to judge, I seldom listen to it. The same when you break down individual bands or performers. "This guy isn't great 'cause he didn't get a Grammy". No, he's not great because you don't like his kind of music and seldom listen to it. Those that listen to him, like him.

Rock especially came from a culture of rebellion - youth rebelling against the mannerisms, music, fashion and culture of their parents. It's a little anarchic (culturally rather than politically) and anarchy of that nature doesn't do lists. But by all means let the polls roll on - they too have their followers.

I read them but I ignore their self-importance. I find them good mostly for pointing out someone or something I hadn't heard before.