Artists/Bands who could have been more commercially successful?

[Arthur_Phuxache]

So I just read an article about them, which included why the stopped and the simple answer is, they were done with Blancmange. They stayed friends and did side projects and all that, further efforts to properly reunite being quashed by Stephen Luscombe’s health problems.

At the time it seemed they were having Top Ten hits, then just vanished. There were a lot of bands like that in the eighties. Just one or two hits, then vapourised - like Heaven 17, Wang Chung, Black, to name but three.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood did precisely two albums then it was all over bar Holly Johnson's solo career, which also went into hiatus with his health problems (HIV).

 

[Time Enough]

Just one or two hits, then vapourised - like Heaven 17

Heaven 17 had the problem of after hitting it big, after two albums, leaned heavily into a Pop Funk sound, which whilst not bad, wasn’t as interesting as there previous efforts (especially in 1984).

After that they released another okay album, kept on consuming coke at an unfortunate rate and then went foolishly left field and did a weird country inspired album that did poorly.

 

[insect5]

Birtha 1970s female band
Captain beyond Rod Evan's from deep purple was the lead singer.

 

[frittering]

Jazz woodwind icon Eric Dolphy was just getting settled in the European scene in 1964 when he was hospitalized for what was probably diabetic shock; the staff, assuming that as a Black musician he had most likely overdosed on something, administered a generic detox regimen which worsened his condition until he fell into a coma and died at all of 36 years old. A world where he survives and participates in the developments of free jazz/free improvisation in continental Europe that he had heavily influenced is one of the great musical futures we could have had.

 

[Charles EP M.]

Blues singer Long John Baldry was doing quite well during the 1960s but never able to jump up to the next level of fame during the British Invasion era, despite having known a bunch of people who did make it (the "John" in Elton John is a homage to him) and some of them helping him get a shot at a CD deal. He might have been able to get further ahead with a bit more luck at the right time and the right deal, before his style became less fashionable - he had the work ethic and connections.

Though then, who would be voicing Doctor Robotnik in the first cartoon?

 

[AH Layard]

So I asked Chat GPT this question and it came up with The Smiths, The Velvet Underground (trying to imagine Venus in Furs as a mainstream hit!), The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, and Neutral Milk Hotel.

 

[MachiavelliJr]

Warren Zevon had a decent career but if he hadn't spent the 80s off his face on heroin and the 90s so bankrupt he basically couldn't round up a touring band because "everyone knew" he couldn't pay them, he could have been an awful lot bigger.

 

[Deceptacon]

Kenny Inouye of that Inouye family was a fixture of the legendary '80s D.C. hardcore punk scene, having been a guitarist for local band Marginal Man. The Elder Inouye was a part-time owner of one of their labels and even attended several of their shows. On a musical level, they brought a more emotional edge to hardcore that would be popularized with contemporaries like Rites of Spring and Fugazi--I don't think it's hard to imagine them taking that niche instead. Do with that what you will.