Back in 1977, in the UK, Lone Star set the standard for aspiring rock bands.

What's Hot
equalsqlequalsql Frets: 6084
And.. poof!.. With the advent of punk they dissapeared without trace...
It was a crime.. but typical of the time when the popular music press (yes that's you NME) decided to destroy all that had come before.

Anyways.. these guys were essential listening during that period and as an 18 year old bass player in my first band at the time this was the THE bar that we were trying to achieve.

For all you old timers out there :)


(pronounced: equal-sequel)   "I suffered for my art.. now it's your turn"
0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom

Comments

  • Moe_ZambeekMoe_Zambeek Frets: 3419
    Sounds a bit like Wishbone Ash to me, only with more synths. Not entirely surprised they disappeared, listening to it now it’s hard to tell it isn’t a spoof 70s prog band...
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
  • sweepysweepy Frets: 4159
    Damn that sounds dated for all the wrong reasons :(
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 2reaction image Wisdom
  • equalsqlequalsql Frets: 6084
    I must admit that the lead singer Kenny Driscoll was a bit too close to Robert Plant, both in terms of performance and style.
    However during that period they were considered the next big deal, but punk truly was the nail in the coffin for them.
    (pronounced: equal-sequel)   "I suffered for my art.. now it's your turn"
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • IamnobodyIamnobody Frets: 6887
    edited April 2019
    All I can say is thank fuck for punk!

    I admit I switched Lone Star off after 30 seconds - but I did go back and listen to a few more 10 second snippets of the rest. 

    I guess it it would be different if you were there at the time maybe...although that said even the album name is cheese. 

    Decent music survived punk - Dire Straits being the classic example.
    Previously known as stevebrum
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 2reaction image Wisdom
  • Philly_QPhilly_Q Frets: 22516
    edited April 2019
    equalsql said:
    I must admit that the lead singer Kenny Driscoll was a bit too close to Robert Plant, both in terms of performance and style.

    Hate to nitpick but it's John Sloman on Firing On All Six.  He does sound quite similar to his predecessor Kenny Driscoll, but I think he's more Glenn Hughes than Robert Plant.  He overdoes it a bit - maybe quite a lot - with the vocal mannerisms, but I do like his voice.

    Despite the negative reaction here, I'm a fan of Lone Star.  I bought that album very cheap in an HMV sale nearly 40 years ago - drawn by the shiny silver cover - and I still love it.  The first album is great too.

    Great Welsh band.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    edited April 2019
    Sounds a bit like Wishbone Ash to me, only with more synths. Not entirely surprised they disappeared, listening to it now it’s hard to tell it isn’t a spoof 70s prog band...
    Sounds more like ELP to me.

    Iamnobody said:
    All I can say is thank fuck for punk!
    +1

    And I admit to being the owner of an ELP album .

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • NeckwringerNeckwringer Frets: 357
    Saw these supporting Ted Nugent @ Liverpool in around '75 ish,don't remember their set but I remember Ted's.....
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • equalsqlequalsql Frets: 6084
    Philly_Q said:
    equalsql said:
    I must admit that the lead singer Kenny Driscoll was a bit too close to Robert Plant, both in terms of performance and style.

    Hate to nitpick but it's John Sloman on Firing On All Six.  He does sound quite similar to his predecessor Kenny Driscoll, but I think he's more Glenn Hughes than Robert Plant.  He overdoes it a bit - maybe quite a lot - with the vocal mannerisms, but I do like his voice.

    Despite the negative reaction here, I'm a fan of Lone Star.  I bought that album very cheap in an HMV sale nearly 40 years ago - drawn by the shiny silver cover - and I still love it.  The first album is great too.

    Great Welsh band.
    Thanks for the correction @Philly_Q, as you say in was Sloman who was the Plant clone and Driscoll who sung on their earlier album. Doh! 
    Like you, I'm still a fan of the band and love Firing On All Six which IMHO is a real lost gem. 

    I do agree that Punk was the enema that the music scene needed though, especially back in 76 after a mate of mine took me to see a Rick Wakeman concert. After watching that 'spectacle' , Wakeman with his cape, a bass player with his triple-neck bass and a singer dressed up like a bad extra from a medieval drama, I did wonder what the hell was happening to rock music as it seemed to be crawling up its own arse.
    (pronounced: equal-sequel)   "I suffered for my art.. now it's your turn"
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • thecolourboxthecolourbox Frets: 9654
    It sounds like the intro music to a quiz or gameshow :) interesting to think what different directions may have been taken at key points in music history though if one particular style had not kicked off and another developed in its place
    Please note my communication is not very good, so please be patient with me
    soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
    youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
    tFB Trader
    I must say I find all the twiddly baroque keyboard twiddles make me cringe.

    When you put that next to something like this available at the time:


    I know what I would have been listening to.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
  • Philly_QPhilly_Q Frets: 22516
    I've never bought into the idea that punk was "needed" to somehow "clear the decks" in the late '70s, as if prog was some huge expanding Blob that was going to cover the world, obliterating everything in its wake were it not for the brave resistance of some skinny spiky-haired oiks in old school uniforms and safety pins.

    I liked punk - in fact in 1976-1978 I liked just about everything in the top 40, including disco, because that period was the very beginning of me becoming obsessed with music.  But the idea that punk somehow swept everything else away is nonsense, without looking it up I'd guess the biggest albums in 1977-78 were Abba, ELO, the Saturday Night Fever and Grease soundtracks... and Boney M!

    But there was room for everything.  Prog included.  I wasn't particularly into prog at the time and I'm not particularly into it now, but looking back at those Bob Harris-period OGWT programmes, prog was brilliant and prog was fucking cool.  I don't care what anyone else thinks.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 4reaction image Wisdom
  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16253
    I think the idea of Punk clearing the decks is a bit oversold, even if it harmed bands like Lonestar it didn't make much difference outside of the UK and even the likes of Genesis still achieved some kind of comeback later on. NME, Melody Maker,etc, turned against 'serious rock' but I'm not sure it registered much beyond that - there probably wasn't a huge cross over between people buying the NME and Bee Gees singles. Smash Hits started in 1978 and cleared the boards of the broad sheet music papers to some extent. 
    Pretty much every genre of pop/ rock has it's five minutes of fame and settles into a niche. Trad jazz in the 50s ( Acker Bilk was the first UK artist to achieve a number 1 single in the USA), 60s Blues Boom, Disco, Punk, New Romantics,etc,etc, all of which are niche and/ or nostalgia now. By 1977 Prog had it's day. I coped with the first two minutes of the Lonestar video and it isn't to my taste but I suspect what really did for them was that they just arrived on the scene a little too late ( and a band name that made them sound like a country band [ indeed there is a current country band called Lone Star]).  
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • IamnobodyIamnobody Frets: 6887
    Philly_Q said:
    But the idea that punk somehow swept everything else away is nonsense, without looking it up I'd guess the biggest albums in 1977-78 were Abba, ELO, the Saturday Night Fever and Grease soundtracks... and Boney M!
    Wisdom. It makes a nice story for the old punks but different genres have and  always will exist side by side in popular music. 

    Mind you I wish Britpop could have sounded the death knell for boy and girl groups in the 90’s.

    I must say I find all the twiddly baroque keyboard twiddles make me cringe.

    When you put that next to something like this available at the time:


    I know what I would have been listening to.

    Yes! And 40 years later bands like The Jam are still influencing the likes of me buying a Rickenbacker.

    Previously known as stevebrum
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    The video/music didn't appeal to me. Just sounds pretty dated and generic to me. It makes me realise the freshness that Punk/New Wave brought in though. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
    tFB Trader
    Philly_Q said:
    I've never bought into the idea that punk was "needed" to somehow "clear the decks" in the late '70s, as if prog was some huge expanding Blob that was going to cover the world, obliterating everything in its wake were it not for the brave resistance of some skinny spiky-haired oiks in old school uniforms and safety pins.

    It's all complete crap.


    That Lone Star album didn't do anything because it's derivative and has nothing interesting to say not because punk albums came out the same year. Rush were doing prog rock at the time and at the peak of their careers.

    The same nonsense was said about grunge musicians hating glam rock and then you see Dave Grohl doing a cover of Detroit Rock City with Paul Stanley.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • WazmeisterWazmeister Frets: 9446
    I must say I find all the twiddly baroque keyboard twiddles make me cringe.

    When you put that next to something like this available at the time:


    I know what I would have been listening to.
    Absolutely bang on...

    Thank God for the punk (and following scenes) to blow away that kind of 'music'...
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • ReverendReverend Frets: 4974
    edited April 2019
    Philly_Q said:
    I've never bought into the idea that punk was "needed" to somehow "clear the decks" in the late '70s, as if prog was some huge expanding Blob that was going to cover the world, obliterating everything in its wake were it not for the brave resistance of some skinny spiky-haired oiks in old school uniforms and safety pins.

    It's all complete crap.


    That Lone Star album didn't do anything because it's derivative and has nothing interesting to say not because punk albums came out the same year. Rush were doing prog rock at the time and at the peak of their careers.

    The same nonsense was said about grunge musicians hating glam rock and then you see Dave Grohl doing a cover of Detroit Rock City with Paul Stanley.
    Gregg Ginn from Black Flag was a huge Deadhead, Lydon loved Hawkwind, Ian Macaye and Henry Rollins still love Nugent. 
    A big part of the punk myth is NME journos congratulating themselves for inventing something that had already started 8 years previously across an ocean. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • ReverendReverend Frets: 4974
    And lets face it, 1976 is the year of Stargazer. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
Sign In or Register to comment.