Fantasy ultimate supergroup line up!

[Colin]

You can form a band with all your greatest musical heroes, would be in? Dead or alive, anyone you like but with only a few little rules:

Maximum 6 members.
No more than one member from any one band in your supergroup, as in, you can't have Lennon AND McCartney.
Mock musicians are permitted, animal from the muppets could be your drummer!

In a way this is for me personally to pick up on some musicians you'll come up with I haven't heard of that I can look up, and hopefully find some great new music! Give an explanation if you can about who gets in and why. Haven't formulated my line up fully yet, few tough choices fighting in my head, but i'll get there.........

[prinnysquad]

Provisionally

Vocals - Maynard James Keenan (Tool)
Guitar - Tom Morello (RATM)
Guitar - Johnny Marr (Smiths) or Ted Turner (Wishbone Ash) (depending on whether I wanted rhythm guitar or a melodic lead)
Bass - Bob Fairfoull (early Idlewild)
Drums - Jimmy Chamberlin (Smashing Pumpkins)
Synths and whatnot - Jon Crosby (VAST)

[monel]

OK, I only thought about this for about 5 minutes, and most of the classic soul singers would blow away most vocalists, but I came up with:

Drums : Ric Allen of Def Leppard- simply because a one armed drummer is dedicated enough to get into any supergroup I'm putting together.

Guitars : Slash, simply for the first two GNR lps, I love the sound on those. Also, I don't know much about guitarists.

Keyboards : Yuzo Koshiro - I think he would be up to the task.

Lead vocals : Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac fame. He can pretty much compose a whole lp himself and write the vocals so I go for him. I was tempted to choose Freddy Mercury but didn't go for that.

Back up vocals : Nancy Wilson of Heart - I don't like many of their songs but she has a voice I like and I'm a fan of layered vocals.


Dancer : Bez.


I was tempted to include Gene Simmons as a roadie, simply because I don't like him. I had to exclude a bassist, but Yuzo could provide that easily.

[Colin]

Ok, mine, for now (May need some tweaking!). I'm going to warn you, my taste is older than my years.............

Guitar - Jimmy Page

This man is my absolute musical hero. (Hence avatar) And Led Zeppelin are the band that mean more to me than any other in the world. Just genius in every way. Technically a lot of players knock him for sloppiness, but at the same time he's revered by the same people for how much he shaped rock music and has been an influence to probably 90% of the great rock guitarists of the last 30 years. The easiest choice for my band by a mile.

2nd Guitar - John Squire

The stone roses were my first musical love, and John was the man who made me walk in to a music shop and put down my hard earned for my first guitar. Looking at it from the context of my supergroup, I think John and Jimmy would rip the **** out of some serious free flowing soloing, and their playing would compliment each other brilliantly. Such a shame John has turned his back on music completely. Was a tough choice between him and slash for me in the line up.

Bass - John Entwistle

I love the who, just love them. The one member from a band rule is a killer for me (Yes, I know I made it) as the rythm section from the who is just my all time favourite. In fact, due to choices i've already made i've had to rule out my two favourite drummers ever, Keith Moon and John Bonham. Mr Entwistle though, my god, what a player. On record he was a standout, a 'lead' bass player which was pretty much unheard of. The first time I went to see the who live, he played a five minute run which will be forever etched in my mind. Basically made my jaw drop as if i'd just witnessed the martians landing. When he died myself and a mate were genuinely gutted by it and went on a drinking tribute in his honour.

Drums - Ginger Baker

The drums are a funny thing, people give their favourites as people who can play a bazzzzzzillion beats a minute, or have kits the size of a double decker bus. Me, I love drummers who work their arses off and fill in all the spaces in special ways left opened by the other members of the band, without being an arsey show off. For me there have been three that really have always stuck with me. As i've already said, due to other choices I can't have Bonham or Moon, so Ginger is my man. Some of the stuff he did with cream was just amazing.

Vocals - Rod Stewart

Yeah, you're already laughing, aren't you? You see Rod as a kind of joke cabaret act, don't you? Well **** that, the man's a legend. Ignore the cheesetastic 80's crap and send your ears towards the faces or his solo 70's back catalogue. Awesome. In this day and age of zero personality bollocks by numbers front men, Rod appearing now would be a breath of fresh air to my ears. Cheeky swagger, a bit of charm (****, just look at his dating history) and then of course that most important thing, that gravelly soul soaked voice. All the choices so far probably aren't giving an indication of how mixed my musical taste is or the bands I go to see, but if you want a supergroup, you need a superstar up front. (He's just been paid ?40 million to play Vegas, I don't really see Lady GaGa or any other modern fad bringing in a similar fee................) I went to see him recently, and the sheer joy and atmosphere in a field full of people was just amazing. Yeah, there's a ****load of big stadium bands these days, but sometimes you just want to smile, have a singsong and feel as if you're part of a massive party. That's a Rod gig.

And random final member in support..............

Backing vocals - Maggie Bell

A bit random and I doubt many will know who she is. Amazing voice, just so powerful and probably the female equivalent of Rod (Like Janis Joplin) I'd have happily laid down my cash to see the two of them duet. She was lead singer in a band called stone the crows, and probably my favourite female singer of all time next to the girls from Motown.


Yeah, i'm not cool, but I like what I like. Bring on the line up with the lead singer from bombay bicycle club if you really have to.............




People I wanted in but didn't quite make it:

Bruce Springsteen - Greatest storyteller i've ever seen, if you haven't seen him live you wouldn't understand

Slash - Just a fantastic guitarist, no bonkers look at me ****, just a solid rock legend.

Band members ruled out by other choices:

Ron Wood, John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Keith Moon, Roger Daltrey, Pete Townsend, Robert Plant, Eric Clapton

Folks up front:

Probably most of the Motown roster, these guys sang with more heart and emotion than I can describe. Classic soul means a huge amount to me, despite my roots in rock and blues. Eddie Vedder, Zach De La Rocha, Billy Joe Armstrong, Dave Grohl, Bon Scott, Chris Cornell, Axl Rose (Before he went mental, well, more mental) John Lennon all frontmen for a reason.

Band members:

Peter Green, Angus Young, Tom Morello, Clarence Clemons, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards, Mani.

God, I could go on forever..................

[monel]

To be honest, I didn't choose my all time favourites, I did more of a ultimate 80s group in my eyes. I agree with you about the Motown artists, I would add a lot of other soul and r&b artists too, when I'm in a certain mood those singers can affect me more than any other form of art, beyond just music.

[JazzFunk]

Mine would be a purely instrumental group.

Bass - Jean-Jacques Burnel (The Stranglers)
Drums - Agostino Marangolo (Goblin)
Electronics - Alan Wilder (Depeche Mode)
Keyboards - Herbie Hancock
Bongos - Candido
Guitar - Jimmy Page (seconded)

[QualityChimp]

I wish you'd put a little more thought into that list, Ikobo! Sheesh!

[CMcK]

I'm not sure how this lot would sound together but here goes.

Singer - Freddie Mercury
Pretty obvious choice really but he has a great range and loads of power. And he is the consummate frontman and a great songwriter. Plus he is pretty handy on the piano as well.

Drums - Benny Benjamin
Classic Motown era drummer from the Funk Brothers. A real talent that died too young.

Bass guitar - Alex Griffin
One of the bass players from Ned's Atomic Dustbin. They have such an unique sound but he usually played the melody lines so he gets the shout over his band mate.

Guitar - Joe Satriani
The man is a guitar playing legend still churning out great stuff after all these years.

Guitar - Glen Tipton
Judas Priest had a great dual guitar sound and really helped define the sound of heavy metal. I'm sort of relegating Mr. Tipton to a rhythm guitarist here but that's not to do him a disservice.

[Kieran76]

Okay so, here's my line up. Nothing too fancy and straight off the top of my head.

Singer - Eddie Vedder - Easy choice as I feel Ed has the greatest voice in the world and is also an incredible songwriter. Bonus is that he can aslo play guitar and Ukelele for added power.

Drums - Keith Moon - Again, no brainer, my love of The Who is mainly becuase of Keith, his drumming is wild and controlled. Love the man.

Guitar - Nels Cline - Guitarist from Wilco if you didn't know, his style can reminds me a bit of Neil Young so he would match up perfectly. Likes to rock out when playing live so would be a great showman. Listen to At Least That's What She Said to hear his talent.

Guitar - Neil Young - Friends with Vedder, genius. Enough said.

Bass - Ronnie Lane - I don't know a great deal about bass to be honest, but I couldn't include my favourite bassist in Steve Harris from The Maiden as I feel he would clas a little so I went for Ronnie Lane. Main reason is I love The Faces and I don't want a overpowering bass sound to my band.

If I could cheat slightly I would have Boom Gaspar on the organ. He does play occasionally with Pearl Jam but isn't an official member of the group!

[Skull Commander]

I have had many a supergroup in many a pub discussion over the years, so here is the 2011 version.

Vocals - Mike Patton (Faith No More etc) - For my money one of the greatest vocalists ever to have lived. Can change from a shreik to a grown to a croon and everything inbetween.

Drums - Jimmy Chamberlin (The Smashing Pumpkins) - Perhaps one of the most technically sound drummers around. Jazz background but can do amazing rock drums. No one hits the drums harder.

Lead Guitar - Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine etc)- A genius guitar player and again very versitile. Can coax some crazy noises from his guitar as well as being able to riff with the best of them.

Rhythm Guitar - Dino Cazares (Fear Factory) -A riff machine and a very good player. Has a unique sound and Fear Factory are only good when he is in their ranks.

Bass/Backing vocals- Pete Steele (Type O Negative) Sadly departed now. Not the best bas player but the man mountain knows his way round a good melodic bassline and his baritone vocals would make a good backing to Mike Patton. Also would be a great focal point with his 6'8 frame and bass strap made out of chain.

Synth/Keyboards- Martin Gore (Depeche Mode) -Quite possibily the best in his field and has influenced everyone worth influencing when it comes to his synth work.

I have no idea what kind of noise they would make, but I'd listen!

[Skull Commander]

Synths and whatnot - Jon Crosby (VAST)

Good call. Vast's first 3/4 albums (depending if you count Turquoise/Crimson/Nude as one entity or not) were fantastic, but I went off everything I heard after that. I hear that his newest work is back to the early sound but have not had a listen yet.

[monel]

I had no idea Bolo played the drums!

[Fader209]

Drums - Jason Bowld (Pitchshifter/This is Menace) - relatively unknown but in the drumming community he is regarded as one of the best drummers about with his variety of styles and ability to adapt.
Edit: Popped a video up, contains swearing in the lyrics so nsfw.

Vocal - Sammy Hagar (Van Halen) - The dude has one hell of a voice on him even now.

Guitar - Tom Scholz (Boston) - pure guitar talent and can put so much felling and emotion into that sound.

Guitar - Michael Schenker (Scorpions/MSG) - Has some killer riffs at his disposal.

Bass - Rick Savage (Def Leppard) - reliable and decent on the bass and a great backing vocal.

[QualityChimp]

Good thread!

At first I thought this would be easy, but the more I thought about it, the tougher it was to choose.

Sometimes I like band with just one guitarist that does all the work like Blur, Reef or Black Sabbath, then other times I like it when guitars work in unison like Smashing Pumpkins, Iron Maiden or Judas Priest, so narrowing this field down was the toughest of all.

Vocals - This one is totally in the air, but one of my fave live frontmen is Justin Hawkins (The Darkness). There are better frontmen in history, but Elvis and the like wouldn't work in my band!

Lead Guitar - Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins). Siamese Dream is an astonishing album and tracks like Geek USA showed me songs could have an amazing solo but not be the main focus. Watching Vieuphoria as a teenager, I thought Corgan made playing guitar look so cool.

Rhythm Guitar - Evan Dando (The Lemonheads). This band was the one that got me into guitar music. Such an amazing lyricist with whole songs of clever wording but he also makes playing the guitar look so effortless.

Bass - Steve Harris (Iron Maiden). Not only is he a great bassist, but he's written most of the best songs in Maiden's back catalogue.

Drums - This should be Jimmy Chamberlain, but the no-same-band rule means he's out. Instead, I'm going for Dave Grohl (QotSA). His work in Nirvana was great (has anybody not air-drummed to In Bloom at some point or other?), but his drumming on Song For The Dead is amazing. Check out this raw drum track.

Finally, there are no keyboards in my band. Piano lead bands like Ben Folds are ace, but Rock and Metal bands don't need no stinkin' keybs. Rock Band 3 put me off by adding keyboards - another instrument to buy and master and keyboards never look cool, even keytars.

[Neil]

Vocals: Evan Dando

Guitar: Page

Drums: Steve Goodwin (Cud)

Keyboards: Clint Boon

Bass: Flea


Female vocalist would be Harriet Wheeler