Artists/bands that were once quite popular, yet nowadays are mostly ignored in canonical history books

I didn't realize they also released a somewhat successful cover of Roxy Music's "More Than This" in 1997, after Natalie left. (It's their #3 track on Spotify.)

Are U2 still taken seriously by anyone aside from their diehard fans in 2020?

― pomenitul, Monday, August 17, 2020 2:02 PM (twenty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

U2 will probably be rehabilitated after they retire and a respectable amount of time has passed

― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Monday, August 17, 2020 2:19 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

you are looking at this from a ilx perspective not a real world perspective, they are comfortably in the eternal classic rock institution mode the stones, mccartney, metallica are in...their last tour they sold out 60,000 football stadiums and i mean, does kendrick lamar have someone from humble pie guest on his last album?

17 and 19 Joshua Tree Tour:

Commercial performance
On the opening leg of the 2017 tour, the band's two concerts at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena drew 123,164 attendees, grossing $15.7 million. In Chicago, the two shows at Soldier Field sold 105,078 tickets and grossed $13.4 million.[93] The first North American leg of the tour, comprising 20 concerts excluding Bonnaroo, grossed $123.7 million from 1,043,414 tickets sold,[94] ranking the band first among all 2017 global touring artists with an average gross of $7,276,551 per city.[95] The European leg grossed $83 million from 744,454 tickets sold. The second North American leg grossed $38,585,915 from 350,292 tickets sold,[96] maintaining the band's top rank globally with an average gross of $7,229,076 per city.[97] The Latin American leg grossed $70 million from 574,976 tickets sold;[96] the leg and the tour ended with four sold-out shows in São Paulo that sold around 280,000 tickets. In total, the Joshua Tree Tour 2017 drew 2,713,136 attendees to 50 shows and grossed $316,990,940,[98] making it the highest-grossing tour of the year.[99] It also ranked as the year's highest-grossing North American tour with $176.1 million earned.[100] U2 were the highest-paid musical act in the world in 2017 with $54.4 million in earnings, $52 million of which they netted from touring.[101]

For the 2019 tour, U2 grossed $35.7 million from eight concerts in Oceania and $38.1 million from seven shows in Asia. In total, the 2019 tour grossed $73.8 million and sold 567,000 tickets. Across the two tours, the band cumulatively grossed $390.8 million from 3.3 million tickets sold.[102]

Yeah, U2 is totally still popular and successful. In fact, I'm kind of surprised they haven't done something during the covid era (unless they have).

Huh, I had no idea that they were anything more than a punchline at this point. Good on them, I suppose.

Now a band like the Alarm ... they had something like 7 or 8 songs I know from the '80s. But apparently none of them were hits, so I wonder how I know them?

I often run into The Alarm on the "Classic Alternative" SiriusXM / DirecTV Music Choice channels of the world.

The "nobody I know voted for Nixon" attitude on ILX is fucking hilarious, and it's not just about massive arena-filling bands, either...the rolling metal thread is full to overflowing with posts effusively praising bands whose global audience numbers in the double digits, including immediate family members, and absolutely zero posts about/interest in any act the average metal fan would ever even hear about, let alone give a shit about.

Sometimes lose track of which is which: the Alarm, the Cult, the Call, the Church

*hangs head in 80s-kid shame*

The Alarm was one of the most blatantly U2-like bands, yet I can see them overlapping, sound-wise, with the Church and the Cult as well, neither of which sound particularly like U2 or each other, weirdly. They each have a little bit of what the other has.

Anyway, I knew the Alarm from being a kid listening to the radio in the '80s. How could a band get 7 or 8 songs on the radio that were played enough that I remember them yet were never hits?

(*though* neither of which sound like U2, that should be)

I knew of the Alarm in junior high and high school because a couple of Christian youth group kids wore their shirts. So I recognized their logo but never heard a note of their music.

I was mainly referring to U2 getting rehabilitated by critics/Pitchfork types. Kind of the way Springsteen was 15-20 years ago, even though he was massively popular for nearly all of his career

I think acts like Springsteen and U2 have been massively popular, critically and commercially tbh, for so long that they could only possibly be "rehabilitated" by people who were not fans to begin with.

The Edge seems to be pretty influential among guitar players afaict

Big Country were way more successful than the Alarm but equally as neglected by the world at large now, though that may not apply in Scotland

the rolling metal thread is full to overflowing with posts effusively praising bands whose global audience numbers in the double digits, including immediate family members, and absolutely zero posts about/interest in any act the average metal fan would ever even hear about, let alone give a shit about.

Didn't know you were a metal poptimist, unperson. Frankly, those bands average metal fans like suck at least 80% of the time.

xpost I think that would be a good example. People mostly know the hit, musos love the playing, but they kind of got lost in the shadow of U2.

This thread is reminding of this reconstruction of a quote I could never find the original of

I could've sworn the Alarm had one US top 40 hit, and I thought it was "Rain In The Summertime," but nope, none of their records got higher than #50 (for "Sold Me Down The River," which I don't think I've ever heard).

They were essentially a low-rent U2 tribute act; that said, they did the "authentic/rootsy/acoustic/WE JUST DISCOVERED AMERICA" thing before U2...in fact, I think U2 got most of the, um, "ideas" for Rattle & Hum from this Alarm footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTa_S_ypYQE

Frankly, those bands average metal fans like suck at least 80% of the time.

if we started a rolling "best new rock music" type thread the dynamic would be the same and with good reason

Why is no one talking about Father of All Motherfuckers?

I could've sworn the Alarm had one US top 40 hit, and I thought it was "Rain In The Summertime," but nope, none of their records got higher than #50 (for "Sold Me Down The River," which I don't think I've ever heard).

They were essentially a low-rent U2 tribute act; that said, they did the "authentic/rootsy/acoustic/WE JUST DISCOVERED AMERICA" thing before U2...in fact, I think U2 got most of the, um, "ideas" for /Rattle & Hum/ from this Alarm footage:

📹

every bad hair idea endorsed by U2 the Alarm got there first

They did try to warn us.

The alarm were always more of a rootsy rabble-rousing Bob Dylan meets the clash thing than the rest of those UK /Irish arena rock bands like U2/big country/simple minds/the waterboys, in hindsight they were a bit more akin to someone like spear of destiny or maybe the men they couldn't hang without the Irish folk influence

I do remember a Bands Reunited segment on the Alarm.

lol @ Simon

U2/big country/simple minds/the waterboys

Tears for Fears would like a word with you NickB

I remember some kind of segment on Big Country, but perhaps that was during the first (and only?) phase of their union.

I get The Call and The Alarm mixed up too. Did one of them have a song called "68 Guns", and the other a song called "When The Walls Come Down?" Or was it the other way around?

The Alarm's hit that I'm remembering is "68 Guns" which had a really irritatingly shitty chord in the chorus, let me go take a listen and figure out why that chord sucked...

xpost

"68 Guns" has a totally unnecessary (and subtle as a room clearing fart) D-minor in the chorus while the entire song is in G-major.

Yeah, "68 Guns" sounds like a bar band cover of Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" replete with the Spector/"Be My Baby"-drumming that U2 definitely mined for fodder for an album or two. I, like Tarfumes, would have assumed this song was more popular than the charts would indicate.

Remember that one too, Wikipedia said it reach #39 on some kind of chart. Never knew they were Welsh.

I sampled a couple of Alarm tracks. As expected, none of them rang a bell…

The Alarm's "Sold Me Down the River" could absolutely be a hit for many a mainstream country act. I think "68 Guns" was a bigger hit in the UK. The Alarm were Welch, iirc.

The Call had "When The Walls Come Down," which I always misremember as Mellencamp's "Crumblin' Down." The Call song definitely fits the alt-AOR mode.

Remember that one too, Wikipedia said it reach #39 on some kind of chart. Never knew they were Welsh.

The Call song I remember is "Let the Day Begin."

They did a college tour that was sponsored by AT&T (get it?)

Or maybe not that chart. Original link had the word “Hot” in the front.

The Alarm ones I know from memory: "The Stand" (based on the book, kinda like the Clash), "68 Guns," "Strength" (very U2 crossed with, yeah, the Cult, worse hair), "The Spirit of '76" (kinda like Springsteen roots rock crossed by way of, yeah, U2), "Rain in the Summertime" (kinda a cool song, very U2/Simple Minds), "Rescue Me" (very U2 by way of Bryan Adams AORy), "Sold Me Down the River" (yeah, very Rattle & Hum). That's a lot for a band I don't listen to!

Jeezus folks, The Alarm were Clash ripoffs! They had tons of hits in the UK and are not at all forgotten by people who were into them during the 80s. I know guys from school who still follow the ex-members' solo careers!

Perhaps only Bananafish readers might know this bit of trivia, but the bassist of The Call (Greg Freeman) went on to engineer (and play on) records from Pell Mell/Steve Fisk, Virginia Dare, World of Pooh, Barbara Manning/SF Seals, TFUL282, Royal Trux (TWIN INFINITIVES!), Icky Boyfriends, Vomit Launch, etc.

He talked mad shit about the main guy in The Call in one of the early Bananafish (#2?) zines, oh and he has a thread on here of course:
the PELL MELL/Steve Fisk/Greg Freeman/etc. thread

xpost Their highest charting "hit" in the UK was 17!

xp Interesting, I have always sort of wondered who Greg Freeman was.

there's some crossover with this thread

that stage where you think they aren't popular anymore but are actually way more popular than they were when they had "buzz"

i've seen large quantities of alarm records in used bins for DECADES and have never heard a note. i had to go listen to '68 guns' because of al's colorful description and this is freaking hilarious! that's easily the worst clash song i've ever heard. man what a horrible, horrible thing.

also, idk, early u2 (like up to and including unforgettable fire) always seems to hold some serious hipster cred. i'm guilty myself; i love those records and play them semi-regularly.

I listened to “68 Guns” just now for the first time since its heyday. Was enjoying it until the false ending and reboot in the middle (presumably the album version). Now listening to “In a Big Country,” which sounds like Motörhead in comparison.

U2's another massive rock band where I just don't connect with them like so many people do. I listened to Zooropa a lot at the time and still like it OK; they have a few songs I like a lot.

Frickin MONSTER rhythm section on "In a Big Country." The bagpipey guitar thing was a novelty that grated really quickly but the drums and bass on that track are killer.

I heard "In A Big Country" at the dentist last week, sandwiched between Phil Collins and I think Laura Branigan, and was amazed that it is considered easy listening dentist's office music now. But then a few songs later heard Bowie's "Let's Dance," which was really weird.