How about a battle of the unsigned bands that have vanished to glam obscurity

KrissTeen · November 29th, 2005, 11:24 PM

Let's Start with Indian Angel VS. Swinging Thing...

I think Indian Angel were extremely underrated, even more so as I never see them mentioned anywhere nowadays. They were voted 10 in The Kerrang unsigned bands forum in 1991. Rob was a great guitarist and listen to the driving bassline on songs like Playing Hard to Get. Also they were suckers for piling a demo full of ballads! Remember Lock up Your Heart? I loved Swinging Thing's "Let's do it with the Lights on", and I think that they just edge it for proffesionalism and image. What do you think?

**DAMAGED ROSE** · November 29th, 2005, 11:40 PM

Both were okay , but Gunfire Dance were miles better than both of them and are probably the most underated band of all time

**Ian Rich Rags** · November 30th, 2005, 09:08 AM

Gotta vote for myself and Gunfires here.

**deviantdee** · November 30th, 2005, 09:25 AM

A lot of the LA bands had an edge over their
UK peers because that's where all the all-in-
one management teams (photos, demo prodution,
advertising, etc.), media and money was.

A funny thing: a bunch of mates returned from
LA, circa'89 (or thereabouts), and brought back
a copy of Rock City News...All the bands looked
amazing - great photography, great artwork
(Ana Black cardboard cutout above a club door
rings a bell), etc. Except one...

Some dodgy-looking British band who had relocated
there. They were called 'Brit Steel' (or something)
and at least three of them had moustaches and
spandex.

You can take the band out of Blighty....

D.

**Stacey0471** · November 30th, 2005, 02:44 PM

Saw the Gunfires twice support the Tailz. Gotta say they did nothing for me, at the time. [img]graemlins/thumbs_down.gif[/img]

**Darryl Wilks** · November 30th, 2005, 07:13 PM

From this side of the pond it's Gunfire Dance. That's not even up for debate. They could all genuinely play and came from much more interesting musical stock than the majority of their peers.

**Hairglamfan** · November 30th, 2005, 08:59 PM

How can you compare Indian Angel to Swingin Thing, its night and day. IA's songs were poorly produced and the musicianship leaves a lot to be desired. Swingin' Thing had it completely together and were great musicians and they did have releases so I can't quite see what your getting at here?

KrissTeen · November 30th, 2005, 10:02 PM

Yeah good point and it has been well taken. But you know, both were just unsigned glam bands when I ran that fanzine and they could be compared with each other in that way. But Looking back now it's absolutely obvious who was the better band.

**Tim73** · December 1st, 2005, 12:42 AM

At the risk of sounding like everyone else, its gotta be Gunfire Dance.. although I think there were plenty of great unsigned bands out there. Sorry to disagree with Darren but I thought the US bands were lame by comparison. I quite liked Alleycat Scratch but most of them put all the money in the press packs & the production on most of the stuff I heard was terrible. Also UK bands tended to be more song orientated. I can still hum at least one tune from most Uk bands & a few made the Ipod today. The US bands also seemed hell bent on coming up with the most ridiculous stage names; Candy Le Roxx AKA Russell (okay, I made that up but I wouldn't be suprised if it exsisted)

My other gripe was that the where as the UK bands walked the talk - I'd be wearing make up 24/7 & back combing my hair just to go out & get some cigarettes. We lived it. I KNOW that a lot of the US bands only dressed up for the photos & would normally just wear jeans / t-shirt. Well, you might as well be grunge...

The difference was the US seemed glamourous. If your from Preston & you've been seen playing to 20 disinterested people in a pub in Stoke, its harder to maintain the mystic.

All that said, Darren I take your point about the spandex / moustache combination. We could politely describe this as unwise..