You know the act well; you have no idea what the act looks like

I guess this is more common with electronic artists but it occurred to me the other day that despite having listened to the band McCarthy for over 30 years, I had no idea what singer Malcolm Eden looked like. I mean, when I finally took a look on Google his appearance was no great surprise but it was still strange to finally put a face to a voice that had lived in my head for so long.

If you don't know what someone looks like (espcially a vocalist, perhaps) do you paint a picture in your head or are they just faceless?

Actually now I've found a video interview with them and it's hearing them talk that's the surprise. Proper Essex accents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMymF6OvJrM

I remember being surprised to discover Ivor Cutler was a little old man, I can't actually remember what I envisaged him looking like though.

Ha, I’m pretty sure my mental image of Ivor Cutler was pretty bang on.

No idea what boards of canada or plaid look like but "white guys probably balding" goes a long way.

Cocteau Twins one of my favorite bands for decades, definitely recognize Liz Fraser, wouldn't be able to pick Robin Guthrie out of a line-up if he were standing under a giant arrow emblazoned with 'this is Robin Guthrie'.

Yeah, I just GIS-ed him and confirmed that I had no idea what he looked like.

I'd been listening to Faust for years before I saw a photograph of them. They pretty much looked how I thought they would!

I love how completely shit the Wikipedia photo for Boards of Canada is. God bless royalty-free photos.

This is pretty common, I think, especially with late 20th/early 21st century "rock" bands, even huge ones. I mean, I know what Chris Martin looks like, but there are three other dudes in Coldplay who I bet could walk around one of the band's own concerts, pre-show, undisturbed.

For many years, Dead Can Dance and (if they count) The Residents.

I didn't see a photo of Stereolab for several years after I got into them. There was a sepia image of them lying as radii in a circle on a promo poster for Cobra, but I didn't have a sense of who was who. I pictured Laetitia Sadier as an icy blonde for several years — I might've gotten her mixed up with Mary Hansen, but MH was not "icy."

I mean, I know what Chris Martin looks like, but there are three other dudes in Coldplay who I bet could walk around one of the band's own concerts, pre-show, undisturbed.

Yeah, I guess the backing band is kind of off the hook in all this if you know what the singer looks like. Though there's a difference between not being able to recognize the bassist from Coldplay in the street and having literally no idea what he looks like. Like, I'm sure I've seen him a few times and if he looked in any way remarkable he'd have lodged in my head but presumably he didn't. I know 'what he looks like' without having any actual mental image of him stored in my head.

Composers are a big one for this. I have no idea what Stravinsky, Bartok, Ligeti or Shostakovich look(ed) like despite listening to them for decades and probably owning releases with their photo on. Crusty old dudes would be my guess.

Stravinsky's, Ligeti's, and Shostakovich's photos all iconic for me. (And ofc they weren't old when they composed some of their famous works!) Admit that I'd forgotten what Bartok looked like before checking.

Jute Gyte is probably the strongest example of an artist where I both own many albums and know a lot of his work pretty well and also have never seen a photo or video of Adam Kalmbach. Afaik he doesn't do live performances.

Actually Krallice too - and visual evidence is actually available with them. A lot of contemporary metal bands might fit this for me. I've never seen the guys in Blut Aus Nord, Akvan, or Botanist.

I thought I knew what Bartok looked like but I didn't, cool looking guy, looks like an intellectual!

I Googled Colin Marson. He didn't look like what I imagined, other than being a skinny white man with long hair.

looks like an intellectual!

He was an academic ethnomusicologist as well as a pianist and composer.

In this case I knew what they looked like, but I love the album The Machine that Cried by String Driven Thing, and was convinced the lead singer was the scraggly haired guy hiding in the back. It wasn't until I saw a video on youtube that I realized it's the bearded guy in the middle, and that face does not fit the voice at all.

http://images.45worlds.com/f/ab/string-driven-thing-the-machine-that-cried-4-ab.jpg

This is :zoviet*france: for me. I mean sure they've cultivated an aura of anonymity over the years, but they've played out on multiple occasions and I still have no idea what they (or more specifically Ben Ponton) look like.

the drummer in every band.
well, other than frank beard of course.

Pretty sure I couldn't pick Paul Buchanan of The Blue Nile out of an ID parade either.

the drummer in every band.
well, other than frank beard of course.

― mark e, Friday, July 30, 2021 2:13 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

He's the one with the beard, right?

the fact is i could be stood behind 99% of the music makers that are in my archive in the queue at the supermarket and i would have no idea.

apologies for crap sentence structure, but you get the point.

The title questions proposes that "you know the act well", though.

fair point.
hence serious answer : the black dog.

I had listened to Soul Mining and Infected hundreds of times before I ever saw a picture of Matt Johnson, on the cover of Mind Bomb. Not really sure how I had pictured him, but being that it was the 80's, the decade of hair, I most certainly would not have figured him to be fairly bald.

Same with New Order. I only had the cassette of Low Life, so I don't get the individual mugshots of the band, only Stephen Morris on the cover. Otherwise, there weren't many ways outside of seeing them live or finding a British music magazine that you could see what they looked like. I did not figure on one of the members having long hair and a beard.

i would totally recognise Matt.
whether i would go up and say hello is another matter.
as happened a few years back when on a trip to london.
following a big night out, i happened to be in the same beer garden as him.
by the time i got the nerve,
he had buggered off ...

Despite the ubiquity of images of Phil Collins, when I was first poring over my mother's copy of Invisible Touch I assumed the guy with the really intense expression and had to be the singer. That was Tony Banks, of course.

^^^every time I see a picture of a band I have become familiar with, I try to pick out who is the drummer, the singer, etc., using the same metric of facial expressions, perceived surliness, etc. I'm almost always wrong.

In this case I knew what they looked like, but I love the album The Machine that Cried by String Driven Thing, and was convinced the lead singer was the scraggly haired guy hiding in the back. It wasn't until I saw a video on youtube that I realized it's the bearded guy in the middle, and that face does not fit the voice at all.

Used to drink in one of my local pubs when I lived in Pollokshields.

No idea what Stars of the Lid looked like even tho I've been to see them twice

I was just thinking something similar to this thread not too long ago. I was just thinking about how many bands that I've listened to a bunch where I don't even know the names of any of the band members, let alone what they look like.

A friend of mine mentioned recently he was only able to publicly identify an offstage John Zorn cuz he had camo pants on

I guess it’s more common in the digital era. I know physical releases didn’t always have photos of the artist on, but now unless they’re on the cover itself there’s no reason to see them. Yes, Google, but that’s an active step. I suppose if you’re young and into following them on social media it’s different.

Too many to name.

Negativland

daft punk

an experience I've had a lot these last few years is searching on YouTube for a song by an obscure 90s act and finding that they actually made a music video and someone has uploaded it, most recent example of this was Younger Younger 28s yesterday

daft punk

― mookieproof, Friday, 30 July 2021 23:04 (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Are you under 35?