the first album by the clash was amazing, the second was ok but the rest was pretentious rubbish.
they didn't start punk it was around years before with the likes of the new york dolls and motor city 5.
what punk did was give song writers like elvis costello, paul weller and pete shelley a chance to shine. there are some great tunes, as in any era, if you look beyond the biggest names.
stiff little fingers remain one of my favourite live bands, there greatest hits live is supurb

You are more than entitled to your own opinion and "list of the best musicians of all time" but if you think that Metal guitarists should be on that list then you need to listen to a few more genres.

Yeah coz the likes of randy Rhodes, Eddie van Halen, slash, tony iommi Richie Blackmore, the twin axes of maiden, priest, thin lizzy, Michael and rudi schenker, ynwie malsteem are not considered great guitarists. You'll be saying next that john bonham, Ian paice, bill ward, Neal peart are not considered great drummers.

First requirement = volume, lots of it, hides a multitude of sins and simple repetitive chord structures, numbs the audience into believing the hype..

Stick them in a small venue where a handful of people sit two feet away, give them an acoustic guitar and lets see them hold that audience - Lemmy (was it Lemmy) did it for a few minutes for Guinness advert a few years ago, bet he wouldn't make a living doing it though.

i never rated the new york dolls either but they were the early pioneers of punk

Will do for sure..... No doubt you're familiar with their compatriots the Shout Out Louds?

The first band I ever went to see was Thin Lizzy in the old Leeds tram shed.....death trap in the waiting if ever there was one. Still the most memorable for me. They were superb with the two lead guitarists. .... Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson ( I think ) .

I saw them a year or two later at the Poly Refectory, quite outstanding.

Oh by the way, I am contractually obliged to mention this - for those who like to get in on the ground floor of the next popular beat combo thing - have a look for a band called Rixton, they have a page on Facebook.





OK, yes, there is a vague family connection...

What about the best gigs we've been to?

Stone Roses at Heaton Park was ace. It was more about being there though. I'd waited my whole life for that gig

Type in, mastodon acoustic with scott gorham, on that video site, and tell me metal guitarist's can only play loud.
Ps mastodon best band in the world right now.

No put be checking em out

I'm way too young to have seen thin lizzy with Philip at the front. But have seen the touring band at hellfest in France in 2011. Really thought it would be hard to watch like watching a covers band . But it wasn't they where superb. Wish I could have seen them with Phil though. But never saw dc with Bon Scott, and will never see the clash, either,

Heavy Metal musicians aren't very good?!?!





I've played guitar for many years, and studdied some of the greats, and as much as I love the great guitarists of the 60s (Peter Green is probably my favourite guitarist). The heavy metal guitarists of the 80s to the present are far superior to the old guard from the 50s-to the mid 70s on a musical, and technical level. Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Tom Morello, Tosin Abasi, James Hetfield. Then you also have the drummers. Again, most of the greatest drummers of all time play heavy metal.

Spot on. Liking Metal is
Iike being an RL fan we no it's the best but does not get the respect it deserves, all RL fans should convert to the church of heavy metal, at least once or twice a week.

Check out some of The Nighchman's stuff. It's the accoustic alter-ego of Rage against the machine guitarist Tom Morrelo. 'Until the end' in particular is an outstanding song.

Also, if you think heavy metal is simple then listen to anything by Dream Theatre or Aenama, or Laterlaus by Tool and tell me it's simple. I'm not a huge fan of either band but as musicians they're superb.

You should have been around when Scott Gorham was good (see previous posts on Thin Lizzy in the 70s).

I'll have a listen to that.

...you see that was the original purpose of this thread all those years ago, to share musical tastes and make suggestions. Now clearly I don't like heavy metal, which isn't to say that I never have or that I don't have friends who still do, but my musical tastes have changed over the years as do many peoples.

However, I listen to a lot more music these days than I ever did because of the shoite on TV and because I'm holed up in my studio most nights and I like to explore the likes of Spotify and Deezer, there's the usual amount of crap in there but you come across some really interesting stuff sometimes especially when you explore genres that you would never normally even glance at.

Now don't laugh.

But the best gig I ever went to was...


Darts in 1978 at the Poly Refectory.

Yes, the 1970s freak doo-wap band.

OK so musically it wasn't ven slightly ground breaking and it was mainly pop music chart stuff, but it was just the night as a whole which is what live gigs are all about - a hot, sticky thundery summers evening outside and sweltering hot inside, and packed, rammed full of loud, ed, nubile students, I never went to Uni but it looked like everyone got on really well with each other there and squashed in the middle of the room with a ridiculous band on stage who were probably the most visually outrageous band you'd ever see in that era, was just a bloody good night.

Contrast that a couple of week later and back in the same venue to see Kiki Dee to find the room full of earth mother types all sitting on the floor waving lighted candles in the air, now I like the lass from Bradford but her followers were just a bit too much right-on for the evening to go down in the record books as anything but a waste of a night out.

Have to disagree with some of your comments- but defintely concur that HM musicians can be tremendously talented. HM guitarists may have speed and some technical superiority to other genres but to say they are musically superior is highly debatable. I don't have to roll out Jimi Page to prove it. Jazz guitarists have superb technique and musicality (even though I don't like jazz) and some of the flamenco players I have seen are utterly incredible. If you are talking about more mainstream music then guitairsts like SRV blow most metal players away because they are actually listenable to for a start. A combination of technique, tone and feeling that is beyond Kirk Hammet. I can't sit through 10 minutes of high speed twiddling. I read a great quote from one of my all time favourite players, Andy Summers, he went to see Jeff Beck and said "after 5 minutes I'd heard the whole show, but it still went on for another 2 hours".

i have played since I was 14 and I love a lot of metal and of course there are some superb musicians. Then you also have to define "heavy metal". I wouldn't call, Rush, Tool or RATM heavy metal. As for drummers, Stuart Copeland, and Jimmy Chamberlain are my 1 and 2.

Saw Nirvana on their first UK visit when they were third on the bill behind Mudhoney and Tad. Astoria I think. Kurt broke a string at the start and only having one guitar had to change it on stage while the rest of the band jammed.
Saw them on their last gig in the UK as well - Reading festival - where Kurt was wheeled out on stage in a hospital gown.

Most fun I had was at a Pixies gig (Astoria again), my mate broke 2 ribs it was that mental. Ah, those were the days.

Haha, sounds like a right night. Even if I don't know what or where half the stuff you mentioned is!



I think the atmosphere of gigs and what happens before, during & after are what makes them memorable and stand out.

I'm gona spotifiy Darts.

Was Kurt unwell or was it just him being a crazy loon in a hospital gown? I can't stand Nirvana's music but enjoy the tales of Cobain.

Quote ="Bang"Was Kurt unwell or was it just him being a crazy loon in a hospital gown? I can't stand Nirvana's music but enjoy the tales of Cobain.'" www.clashmusic.com/feature/nirva ... appearance Everett True wheeled him on. It was a joke because the media had been making much of Cobain's drug issues and speculating about his health.

Quote ="Bang"Was Kurt unwell or was it just him being a crazy loon in a hospital gown? I can't stand Nirvana's music but enjoy the tales of Cobain.'" www.clashmusic.com/feature/nirva ... appearance Everett True wheeled him on. It was a joke because the media had been making much of Cobain's drug issues and speculating about his health.