DID you unduly respect certain bands as a youth, but now have a sneaking suspicion they were knobheads? Here are some that look like twats with hindsight.
The Stone Roses
Classic first album, but the incredibly bigheaded Roses forgot you had to write another one. ‘Fools Gold’ is a decent track, but five years to make it? It’s the work equivalent of taking two weeks to replace a print cartridge. Then came Ian Brown’s anti-vax bullshit, firmly establishing him in the pantheon of rock knobheads, alongside Roger Daltrey.
Bob Dylan
Not a band, but Dylan was in bands, and ideal for the slightly pretentious teenager. He was, like, really deep, right? Now, years later, you desperately want him to learn to sing properly and stop torturing that harmonica.
Led Zeppelin
Supremely talented, hugely innovative, and bellends. They probably didn’t do sex things with a tied-up groupie and a mudshark/red snapper, but they did produce countless tunes on the theme of faeries and Satanic bollocks. Jimmy Page bought Aleister Crowley’s house, because: ‘A man was beheaded there, and sometimes you can hear his head rolling down.’ Okay.
Public Enemy
While Chuck D seems fairly normal, knobheadery was always on the cards thanks to ‘Professor’ Griff and Flavor Flav. Griff got ‘reorganised’, ie. sacked, for anti-semitism, while Flav’s life reads like a random list of social ills: domestic abuse, drug abuse, jail, unpaid debts, and finally showing up on Celebrity Big Brother looking a bit confused.
The Verve
Super-hyped band from the very late 80s. They later became massive, apparently on the basis of one hit where the best bit is pinched off the Rolling Stones. Later still considerably older singer Richard Ashcroft is still doing daft rockstar behaviour. Still, you can probably sell your CDs on Ebay when you have to do a clear-out.
