In most cases, this lot are long past their prime (if indeed they ever had one), but they've all put out new 'music' in the last year or so.

Which of them would you most like to be led off to the rest home for retired horses?

Elvis Costello.

I'd agree ( and I'm a fan), but since he's not there, I went for the really really obvious choice. Starts with a U and ends with a 2. :sick:

I used to be but he's released so much shite that I can't bear to listen to him now.

Most of these have made a tune or two worth listening to. Stereophonics get my vote for not having managed that at any stage of their horrible career.

Wierdly, their first ever single, a 500 only cd/7" called Looks like Chaplin, is actually a pretty decent record.

Everything else has been utterly awful, though.

(On edit). Actually, just listened to that, and it really is as awful as the rest...sorry :D

I was surprised to see that Swing Out Sister released an album in 2008. But really, I don't mind anyone carrying on until their dying breath as long as they don't mind me not listening to them. The alternative is a bit too close to Logan's Run.

Well put. I mean, there is such a thing as 'poisoning your legacy,' but in the end, people have to make a living. And it's only music, John... B)

I don't know why Morrissey is on this list - I have liked quite a fair few of the bands listed in the past and admit they are crap now - but Morrissey still makes the occasional brilliant record. The last album had a couple of classics on it.

But out of your list it would be Iggy Pop - as long as he promised to pack in adverts as well.

Yes, looking at that list there isn't anyone whose earlier work I like any less now that the artists' current output is of no interest. What the Pet Shop Boys do now in no way diminishes the brilliance of Being Boring and Introspective etc.

Exactly. To me, when an artist 'hits the wall,' I just stop buying their stuff. It doesn't stop me enjoying everything up to that point. The same goes for authors...

Conversely though, I think artists can also earn the right for their work to be considered worth exploring on one level regardless of what they do, just by virtue of their preceding work eg off-hand I can't imagine not being interested in anything that MES did, simply because I'm fascinated by the person who spawned all those amazing records in the 70s/80s and how he's navigated the subsequent decades.

But it doesn't mean I'm delusional about the aesthetic merits of his output. In the 90s my enthusiasm for The Fall waned quite a bit and I stopped buying their LPs as soon as they were released but I always got round to getting them eventually, once I saw them going cheap. And then from LUS onwards Fall LPs became compulsory purchases again.

I imagine thousands of people of a certain age feel the same way about Bob Dylan. Mind you, this isn't set in stone. I assumed I'd always feel the same way about John Lydon and I haven't bought a PIL record since Commercial Zone haha.

GG Allin.

Mate, you're an embarrassment. Just pack it in while you still have a shred of dignity.

And that goes for Tori Amos too.

Of course, but I think you might agree that a list of such artists is very short. I feel that way about MES (of course), Ray Davies and a few others. Even their less stellar outings are interesting and worthwhile. B)

You're right. It's a pointless poll. Ignore.

MODS!!! :devil2:

I meant to add it's very hard not to vote Madonna.

It's hard for me to consider voting for Madonna because I've never heard of anything she's done I like...so - she hasn't gone down, talentwise, she's never been anywhere else.
Now Bob Dylan up to 1966 was terrific and seemed to raise the bar with each album through Blonde on Blonde. Since then, there have been - in my opinion - good songs scattered about the albums but the overall effort has been much less then cutting edge.

r.e.m

Given the list is almost all artists that I've always been pretty indiffferent to, I voted for D Byrne, probably the artist I'd say has fallen farthest from an early peak (though he had farther to fall than almost anyone). I still find Iggy at least interesting whereas I haven't heard anything from Byrne in the past 20 years that I'd want to give a second listen to.

Went for U2, seeing as there's no "All of the above" option :huh:

Of those on the list, the one I had the most invested in (and have felt most disappointed by in recent years) is Morrissey. I would vote for him, but I still think he can produce great work.

U2 is the obvious vote, I guess, but that doesn't stop me voting for them. :lol:

Simple Minds is still churning product? We truely are in the last days...

Voted for all of the above.

G.G. Allin - a shred of dignity? now thats funny!!

Bob Dylan, Sting and Depeche Mode

Too easy to vote U2, so went for Simple Minds who at least had a shred of credibility many years ago.


No mention of The Cure yet - Robert Smith is starting to look a bit silly these days.

Looks like a cloned hybrid of Michael Jackson and Alice Cooper.

Half dead, then. :whistle: :D

No chance of Brett Anderson retiring. He says here that "I'm aiming to make an album a year for the rest of my life - and yes, I've already started to think about the next one."

interesting that there's no votes for Wellah

don't get me wrong, but I don't dislike him as a person. Sure he can be an absolute swine, but what succesful musician isn't?

I guess the reason I've got that attitude is he's inoffensive, almost, and I guess the music is inoffensive hence the no-show in this poll (so far).

I had the misfortune to listen thru his rock bollocks 'modern classics'.

Fair play to the man, he's found a commercial formula, trotting out bland clichéd rock for the (unquestionning) masses. Were The Jam and the Style Council *that* much better anyway? if anything I'm more of a Style Council man - at their best they ruled :)

I'd be a bit unhappy tho - happy with the money, but on the other hand, thinking couldn't I rhyme some better, more insightful lyrics on life?

You Do Something To Me and one of two others may stand head and shoulders above the rest of his ouvre but he'd almost be my vote on that hearing.

Think U2 are more deserving tho. :devil2:

I once saw Weller whack a kid over the head with his guitar. The kid went straight down and had to be carted out by the St John's Ambulance people. Weller said the kid had been gobbing at him (whatever happened to gobbing?). About half the audience left, me included.

Yes I've read that too.

And MES aimed a kick towards a photographer's camera once, and where is a camera usually placed?

Like I said most successful musicians are arseholes.

:devil2:

U2...I didn't realise they were still going.

Their sell-by date was before their first gig.

What's the big nudge nudge wink wink story about Jimm Kerr?

*spreads hands a foot apart*

Always wondered what Ms. Hynde saw in him... mystery: solved!

That's why he's nicknamed Wan-Kerr.
Ba-dam tching!

All of them except Manic Street Preachers

Voted U2, just because their new records are hardest to avoid. If Brett Anderson's records were popular, it would definitely be him instead.

Don't think Ian Brown should be on that list - his last few albums have been great.

Well, Weller now has a vote. :angry: Middle age has really affected him in such a negative way, don't understand what he's trying to say/do with his music from the last decade. :unsure: Having said that, still have bought everthing from '77 until now, even bought 22 Dreams, :ohdear: really should have packed it in after Heavy Soul, sigh, hearing the current stuff makes one yearn for the Style Council. :whistle: