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Well somebody had to do it. My votes go to Eddie Vedder and Sharon Jones. Neil Falllon from Clutch could possibly be the nicest frontman ever.
Joe Strummer.
Suede, the interviews Bret Anderson has been doing have been great, Cerys Matthews is up there along with Radiohead and Blur. Lots of them about
Justin Sullivan, nice guy, great lyricist. New Model Army in case you were wondering
Another mention for Eddie, and I’ll add Dave Grohl.
Foo Fighters.
+1 for Dave grohl. Apparently "the nicest man in rock and roll"
Eddie Vedder was the first name that popped into my mind too.
Mark Knopfler seems very normal, don't particularly know if he's nice, but he seems to be almost the polar opposite of what a frontman should be like.
I'll raise you sheryl crow and willie nelson.
Blaze Bayley, always willing to spend as much time talking to people who come to his shows as he can
Charlotte Wessels, Delain. met a couple of times - once was at a gig before the show to do an interview with one of the others guys in the band - after that an i was hanging round waiting for the interview slot with another band on the bill she sat down at my table for a natter for 5 mins til she was called away for some set up.
Joaquim - sabaton - always found him really friendly
Damon Albarn always comes across as decent (albeit in an 'I went to Art School and just get esoteric stuff better than you' way).
Miki Berenyi? And yes, Lush ARE great.
James Dean Bradfield during his sober periods.
Got to be The Frames and Glen Hansard
The Temperance Movement. Phil Campbell is great. I met him last year 🙂
Guy Garvey.
I base this on nothing but listening to interviews with him but he seems like a lovely bloke?
Probably don't fit the great band description in many people's eyes, but John Peel rated them very highly and he's right and you're wrong. David Gedge of the semi-legendary Wedding Present always seems a nice enough chap whenever I've talked to him.
Black Sabbath/Dio/Rainbow: Ronnie James Dio (RIP, Ronnie \m/ \m/).
Keith the Bass from Here & Now.
Dick Lucas from Subhumans/Culture Shock/Citizen Fish.
Nigel Blackwell from Half Man Half Biscuit.
All the Bonzos I've met have been sweeties.
Mike Patton was actually very pleasant in real life.....
The Specials - Terry Hall
Doves - Jimi Goodwin ( tbh all of them are sound)
Damon Albarn +1
Human League - Phil Oakey
all spring to mind.
Vanian from the Damned is a good egg
Dave Faulkner from the Hoodoo Gurus is a good guy.
Pulp
Slowdive
(there's actually quite a few fronted by 'normal' people come to think of it)
Not a band I know, but there was a huge outpouring of love for George Michael when he passed that’s never seen a backlash, even from the gutter tabloids. Seemed a lovely Man, I mean even when he went mad on the weed and crashed his Car into a shop he chose a SnappySnaps, a brand at the forefront of a dying industry probably glad of the publicity and insurance money.
Thin Lizzy - Philip Lynott ! Legend
Ian Dury. sorely missed.
Funny how there are more women in this thread than the other one....
Hmm, thread confirms I definitely prefer the bellends! [edit]though I did meet Joe Strummer and he was very nice. Long after the Clash however
Iron Maiden - Bruce is ace. Pilot, fencer, all round good egg.
Thunder - Danny can't dance, but he's a lovely bloke. As are the rest of the band, I should mention!
How can you tell if someone is not a bellend from occasionally hearing an interview or meeting them once ?
Vanian from the Damned is a good egg
i watched the Dammed documentary recently and he does not even bother to show up for all the gigs. And I think it was Roman Jug that said he was nightmare working with doing the Phantom cords as he he had to rely on someone who was unreliable.
"crashed his Car into a shop he chose a SnappySnaps,"
someone painted " WHAM" on the boarded up door. Honest, I saw it . 🙂
+1 for Dave grohl. Apparently “the nicest man in rock and roll”
That's what I had always thought, but then I watched the Foo Fighters - Back and Forth film. I think Dave Grohl has mellowed now that the band are enormously successful (and they're all older) but at the end of Nirvana / early years of Foo Fighters he comes across as a massive knob!
My first job was working in a recording studio in Liverpool.
Met many of the local bands. One or two idiots.
But I did get to meet Cozy Powell. throughly nice bloke. and sadly missed.
That’s what I had always thought, but then I watched the Foo Fighters – Back and Forth film. I think Dave Grohl has mellowed now that the band are enormously successful (and they’re all older) but at the end of Nirvana / early years of Foo Fighters he comes across as a massive knob!
I think I know what you mean, he hired and fired bandmates with a callous indifference and binning all their work on the first album and re-recording everything himself wasn’t exactly kind.
I not sure if that’s all that unusual (well perhaps the playing all the parts yourself bit) for the band scene and at least he never sold the Nirvana angle to push Foo Fighters.
2nd Gedge.
+1 for Thunder. Danny Bowes, great voice, one of the nicest blokes about and about as far from the stereotypical rock and roll frontman as you could get. Part way through a Christmas gig a few years back, after completing the acoustic first half of the set he announced "I'm just going to go for a little wee wee and then we'll be back to play some more".
Guy Garvey was nice when I ‘met’ him. I was a student in Brighton in 2001 and had a part time job with an events company doing stewarding etc. I ended up stewarding for Elbow when they played HMV in Churchill Square shopping centre! They were relative unknowns and were promoting Asleep in the Back. I helped them pack up etc at the end and he gave me a poster and signed it with the ironic comment ‘Cheers for da protection :-)’ which made me smile as there were about 50 people there and I was anything but security material! Was pleased that they went on to big things.
Pulp
there’s actually quite a few fronted by ‘normal’ people come to think of it
He might well be lovely but he ain't exactly 'normal' 😉
Garbage, obvs. Shirley Manson was interviewed on six music the other week and was as charming, witty, sharp and funny as ever, has the filthiest laugh in the world and reminded me that this still holds true....
I think I know what you mean, he hired and fired bandmates with a callous indifference and binning all their work on the first album and re-recording everything himself wasn’t exactly kind.
I not sure if that’s all that unusual (well perhaps the playing all the parts yourself bit) for the band scene and at least he never sold the Nirvana angle to push Foo Fighters.
That's exactly what I meant!! 🙂
I do largely agree with it probably not being that unusual. I suspect that to lead a really huge band, or even have aspirations that your band could get that big, it helps to be pretty mercenary when things need done / changed.
Er, really?! I think I prefer Marilyn Manson 😉
Bret Anderson
I doubt Bernard Butler would agree with you on that one.
Dave Grohl
Might be nice but he's tedious. 5 minutes of chat about how he takes no notice of curfews between every 3 minute song and then finishes on the dot.
Cerys Matthews, as mentioned. I’ve met her a number of times, been on stage doing added percussion at a gig in Bath, and she’s never less than utterly delightful. Eddie Reader, formerly of Fairground Attraction is also really lovely. The whole of Howling Bells and Joy Formidable were really nice when I met them after gigs, and Sir Bill of Bragg, The Bard Of Barking, was smashing when I met him before and after a gig at the Cheese and Grain in Frome.
I Met Aimee Mann a couple of times, and Shawn Colvin with Steve Earle, also JD Souther, who wrote a number of The Eagles greatest hits, also worked with Linda Ronstadt, and many others, and he was the sweetest bloke you could imagine, very down to earth, as were the others, as was Janis Ian. In fact, I can’t think of anyone I’ve met over the years who wasn’t really pleasant at the very least.
I've had a cup of tea with Cerys Matthews.......and biscuits.True story.
Corey Taylor of slipknot / stone sour, nice bloke despite the screaming 🙂 and contrary to popular opinion he can actually sing
Ian Dury. sorely missed
Perhaps you're being ironic but I've always read what a colossal bellend he was. According to wife, son, various Blockheads and others.
Billy Bragg's a very nice man though.
Billy Bragg’s a very nice man though.
I enjoyed his early solo work, but not sure which "great band" he was frontman of... same with Aimee Mann. And Fairground Attraction? Great?? (I know I know, I'm being picky 😛 )
This put a smile on my face. Fair play! “Damon Albarn carried off stage by security at Roskilde Festival after refusing to end five-hour set”
http://www.nme.com/news/music/damon-albarn-17-1221440
same with Aimee Mann
'Til Tuesday weren't a great band?!?
Lzzy Hale, Halestorm
Thought of another , James Dean Bradfield of those Manic fellas is a nice chap. Some of their recordings are great.
& whilst the catatonia fan club is in attendance ..... I once steered a very inebriated Cerys into the toilets in a North London venue , where she vomited profusely and carried on being very drunk. ha.
‘Til Tuesday weren’t a great band!
FTFY 😀
The early Thin Lizzy line up stood for a good while backstage after a gig at The Mayfair , Newcastle on The Vagabonds of the Western World Tour chatting to fans and signing posters ...
Not a great band ..but probably my favourite of recent years Gazpacho ..always join their fans for a pint & a chat after a gig ..met them on the street in Leamington Spa on The Demon tour in 2014 as they were looking for a pre gig restaurant ..and was swapping emails for a while with the lead guitarist Jon Arne Vilbo.
Depending on your definition of "nice"..there was none nicer than a very young Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac fame ..who became my identi-kit for the type of women I went after in the 70's...
Bruce Springsteen really does seem like a genuinely good guy.
Ditto Robert Plant, and I don't even like Led Zep.
I not sure if that’s all that unusual (well perhaps the playing all the parts yourself bit)
Prince springs to mind as someone who's default working practice was this. Probably unusual as there aren't that many artists capable of playing all the parts.
My pick would be Ginger Wildheart (of the Wildhearts, strangely enough). A very caring guy, very and genuinely engaged with fans in person and on social media, and very supportive of ex bandmates etc.. On a recent acoustic tour his practice was to hang out by the merch table before the gigs and chat with fans until the support act hit the stage.
Good to hear that about Ginger .
I'm not a Wildhearts fan but his solo album " Market Harbour " is right up there in my favourites list ..
See Joe Strummer's been mentioned, and the clash was the best band in the world for a time. Manu Chao comes over pretty well.
I know someone who was a road manager for the Wildheatrs, he said Ginger was nightmare.
Joy Formidable were really nice
agree, they were ace when I chatted to them after a gig, as were Everything Everything after a gig at Trades in Hebden Bridge.
Most surprising "lovely Bloke" award goes to Andy Black of Black Veiled Brides (American scremo Boy band for socially confused emo teenaged girls, ie my daughter) funny, gracious and patient with a shy stammering slightly star stuck young woman who asked for an autograph, even more so when he realised he was signing another band's merch!
Wolf alice. oh and ben howard
Agree with Lzzy Hale (Halestorm). Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge seems impossibly nice too!
B.B. King.
Tim Booth from James.
Tori Amos is totally lovely, too.
Damon Albarn's Dad was my head of art school. Nice bloke; no idea about Damon.
Met all of Shootyz Groove - decent fellows. Managed to get backstage at a Sultans of Ping gig too – they were nice enough to share their beer with a bunch of 16 yr olds.
+1 for Shirley Manson. Was super nice.
My pick would be Ginger Wildheart
You won't find many ex-band members agreeing with you.
Very happy to hear that Tori Amos is lovely.. 🙂
I'll go with Jonah Matranga (Far lead singer, does solo stuff too). Utterly bloody lovely bloke
Ben ottewell from Gomez was a thoroughly decent chap when I knew him, but that was before Gomez.
Has anyone suggested Sade yet?
She seems to be incredibly appreciative of her support. Fantastically talented and pretty darn hot to boot.
Til Tuesday were a great band!
FTFY 😜
Well, their first album wasn’t all that, but it spawned a hit single, leading to years of record company indifference when the band showed more interest in improving their songwriting skills, than churning out identikit copies.
Aimee herself has been a lot more successful, since she set up her own label. I never got to see ‘Til Tuesday, sadly.
Ben ottewell from Gomez was a thoroughly decent chap when I knew him, but that was before Gomez.
I still can’t believe that his voice belongs to him. He doesn’t look at all like he sounds.
Michael Stipe from R.E.M. always seemed a very nice fella.
definitely the boy Gedge.
Lovely chap, and generally to be seen helping out on the merchandise stall at gigs.
Thought of another one....
Mike Peters from The Alarm is a good egg.
Runs a festival at Llanberis, raises an awful lot of cash for cancer charities locally.....
Zoe Colotis of caravan palace, very nice 🙂