Most Significant (Rep of) Irish band since U2?

Duke Leonal Felmet

I have been thinking about this one lately, and I have to say I am struggling to think of one. We (the Irish Republic) haven't exactly been producing acts this past twenty years, have we? Off the top of my head, noteworthy (populist or otherwise) acts include:

- Whipping Boy
- Frank & Walters
- Sultans of Ping
- Cranberries
- The Thrills
- Boyzone
- Westlife
- The Frames
- Sinead o Connor
- The Script
- Damien Rice
- Bell X1


Are there more? Note that bands from Northern Ireland are banned from this, let's just stick to the Republic.

Either way, it's a fairly paltry list.

Welsh Megaman

Six

bucketybuck

All of those bands are better than U2. Including Six.

doughef

ash!! :cool:

karaokeman

You forgot....

The Corona's
The Corrs
Republic of Loose
The Blizzards
Imelda May

Yeah but I know what you mean there's not many at the moment. But if you want to know whose the best Irish band since U2 I would say The Script.

MrStuffins

doughef wrote: »

ash!! :cool:

Duke Leonal Felmet wrote: »

Note that bands from Northern Ireland are banned from this, let's just stick to the Republic.

A lot of people write them off, I think these people are clowns who have never actually listened to them and have just heard the hits on the radio.

My nomination: Aslan!

doughef

oops.. my bad

I agree with Aslan..

also, The Stunning
The Saw Doctors

Funkfield

Adebisi Shank

Best Irish band ever.

/thread

pancuronium

Don't forget Jedward!!!!!

ricero

for success reasons id say the script and **** it i like some of there songs

Nolanger

This thread would be much longer if it was about the best recent bands from Wales or Scotland.

MrStuffins

Nolanger wrote: »

This thread would be much longer if it was about the best recent bands from Wales or Scotland.

Or Iraq!

flyswatter

My Bloody Valentine.

Eathrin

The coronas
Fox avenue
the rubberbandits

To name a few

karaokeman

bucketybuck wrote: »

All of those bands are better than U2. Including Six.

No U2 bashing please.

mikemac

Bewitched

The four girls set a record getting when their first four singles got UK number ones, never been done before and I think it's never been repeated.

Was a big deal at the time to get that record so I think it's worth mentioning

MrStuffins

Well I don't know who holds the current record, but I know Westlife had their first 6 singles go straight to No.1

karaokeman

MrStuffins wrote: »

Well I don't know who holds the current record, but I know Westlife had their first 6 singles go straight to No.1

Westlife have 14 UK #1 singles, that is the third highest in history only behind the Beatles and Elvis.

Also B*Witched broke America before they split so Ireland has had its moments in pop history.

MrStuffins

For me though, there is no magic in the No.1 single anymore. Any auld sh*te can make No.1 these days just as long as they're rammed down the listener's throat enough.

I mean, have you heard Swagger Jagger by Cher Lloyd? Horrible!

Also, Westlife have sold countless millions of albums and continue to do so! But mostly through very very clever marketing and timing. Have you ever noticed that every time they release a new album it's always in very late Oct or well into Nov? Plenty of time for their new cover version to be all over the radio and for everyone to buy the new album for their girlfriends, sisters and mothers for Christmas.

It's a very clever strategy that is making the Cowell fella ever more richer!

(Edit: Just checked their Discography. 10 Studio Albums and a Greatest Hits in 11 years (one each year) all released between 31st Oct - 30th Nov)

3hn2givr7mx1sc

karaokeman wrote: »

No U2 bashing please.

Who made you king?

muirsheen

Cry before Dawn brilliant Wexford band

karaokeman

baz2009 wrote: »

karaokeman wrote: »

No U2 bashing please.

Who made you king?

I'm not but thats just ludicrous to claim "all" of the bands listed by the OP are better than U2.

For instance Boyzone were mentioned. How on Earth are Boyzone better than U2???

MrStuffins

karaokeman wrote: »

I'm not but thats just ludicrous to claim "all" of the bands listed by the OP are better than U2.

For instance Boyzone were mentioned. How on Earth are Boyzone better than U2???

SOMEONE hasn't heard Love Me for a Reason!

karaokeman

MrStuffins wrote: »

SOMEONE hasn't heard Love Me for a Reason!

I'm not saying their songs are bad or anything like that.

The truth of the matter is they can't sing.

Anyone who has seen Ronan Keating live or heard some of his more recent stuff can tell. He struggles with both reaching the high notes and being able to stay in key.

Ronan like the other four hadn't really got any vocal training before joining the band, it just came to him. Fair enough he was a track-and-field athlete from a young age representing Ireland but that was where RK's talent lied.

Ronan admitted it some years later in an interview that he was just a normal guy who got lucky.

Stephen Gately was the only one of them who could sing well. All the others were living their own lives until they saw the advertisement for an Irish Take That.

MrStuffins

Sorry man I was being sarcastic. There's no denying (they dont deny it either) that they werent the most talented. They werent great singers and they werent Take That because they couldn't dance.

But that's pop music for ya. An awful lot of it has nothing to do with talent! Ah well!

SilverScreen

My Bloody Valentine and God Is an Astronaut. And both are better than U2.

Duke Leonal Felmet

- Whipping Boy
- Frank & Walters
- Sultans of Ping
- Cranberries
- The Thrills
- Boyzone
- Westlife
- The Frames
- Sinead o Connor
- The Script
- Damien Rice
- Bell X1
- Six
- The Corrs
- Republic of Loose
- The Blizzards
- Imelda May
- Aslan
- Adebisi Shank
- Jedward
- My Bloody Valentine
- The Coronas
- Fox Avenue
- The Rubberbandits
- Bewitched
- God Is an Astronaut


I think we are really scraping the barrel, in places. I guess I meant bands that have actually had an impact outside the Republic (and not some YouTube fad), even if it was just one single. I have highlighted the dodgy choices, based on whether they had a significant charting outside of ROI (source: Wiki). Let me know if I got one wrong there, and source your claim.

discobeaker

Ok im gonna go with these bands

Kerbdog
The Redneck Manifesto
The Radiators from Space
Future Kings of Spain
Woodstar
Messiah J and The Expert
Pet Lamb

teekayd25

Bearing in mind that everybody's probably got a favourite Irish band, and a favourite genre, let's look at the Frank and Walters, Aslan and Primordial. All three groups command significant respect and / or affection within their respective genres (yes, Aslan take a lot of heat, but who, within the general pop-rock sphere, doesn't? :cool:), along with also having had very long, sustained careers compared to most other Irish bands (Primordial have released seven studio albums, Aslan five, the Frank and Walters are currently working on their sixth). What we're basically looking for, I think, are bands who have enjoyed the best overall mix of critical and commercial success, and enjoyed it over a sustained period of time. These three bands would probably fit the bill (note that Primordial usually sell about 20,000 copies of a release, no mean feat within the world of metal).

If you talk about solo artists, Sinead O'Connor and Cathal Coughlan (who was in a couple of pretty good bands himself) are probably out on their own.

Bassfish

Cyclefly

J_E

flyswatter wrote: »

My Bloody Valentine.

Mind. Blown