Who's the best front man, or woman, of all time?

fields5069

Kirk Brandon was pretty good when I saw SOD in the mid-80s. Pseudo-operatic voice, lots of emotion, a fair bit of charisma.

chillidoggy

Dave Lee Roth. Who else could get away with wearing leather chaps with the arse-cheeks cut out?

And a curved ball - Ian Anderson with Jethro Tull in the 70's. Most charismatic performer I've seen.

LuttiS

No mention for in his prime Meatloaf?

He took up much of the stage with his "presence" 


Saw him in 2008 ish? First few songs were spectacular then his voice lost it, but in terms of working the stage and crowd he was great... He's one of the people i wish i'd seen when they were good.

ICBM

chillidoggy said:

And a curved ball - Ian Anderson with Jethro Tull in the 70's. Most charismatic performer I've seen.

I saw them in the late 80s and he was then too.

He's also probably almost unique in that he single-handedly introduced a new instrument to rock music. OK, there hasn't exactly been a lot of take-up since...

Philly_Q

LuttiS said:

No mention for in his prime Meatloaf?

He took up much of the stage with his "presence" 

Saw him in 2008 ish? First few songs were spectacular then his voice lost it, but in terms of working the stage and crowd he was great... He's one of the people i wish i'd seen when they were good.

I saw him around that time I think, maybe a year or two earler.  It was the only gig I've ever been to where I wished I'd taken a book to read.

To be fair, I was way up in the back corner of that atmosphere-free cowshed that is Wembley Arena.

EricTheWeary

chillidoggy said:

Dave Lee Roth. Who else could get away with wearing leather chaps with the arse-cheeks cut out?

I'm fairly sure that chaps are designed not to have arse cheeks. Although they are designed to be worn over trousers, that's the detail Diamond Dave forgot. 

Sarge

Lodious said:

Good call with Robert Calvert, I saw him with ICU and he was amazing.

Dave Lee Roth

Perry Farrell 

P J Harvey

Anthony Kedis 

Lemmy

Paul Draper 

Kathleen Hanna 

Lady Gaga

I saw paul draper on Saturday, while the band were good, he certainly wasn't a great frontman on this occasion.  

Sarge

But... they played the whole Attack of the grey lantern as their 2nd set, so all is forgiven  

darius

Freddie by a mile.
Surely Madonna for the girls?

fandango

ICBM said:

fandango said:

Surprised no one has mentioned Jim Morrison

Page 1, post 3 .

Sorry.

longi

Man - Baz from Predatur

Woman - A girl fronting a metal band at a Wheel Motor Cycle Club bash at a pub in Stelling Minnis around 2011. One of those moment when when time stands stops. She had a voice not unlike Lizzy Hale and had real charisma.

ThePrettyDamned

chillidoggy said:

Dave Lee Roth. Who else could get away with wearing leather chaps with the arse-cheeks cut out?

And a curved ball - Ian Anderson with Jethro Tull in the 70's. Most charismatic performer I've seen.

Second that! JT were amazing when I saw them  

meltedbuzzbox

Beck

Blueingreen

Little Richard or James Brown.

Don’t know if he qualifies as a frontman but Sammy Davis Jnr was an absolute phenomenon.

EricTheWeary

ICBM said:

chillidoggy said:

And a curved ball - Ian Anderson with Jethro Tull in the 70's. Most charismatic performer I've seen.

I saw them in the late 80s and he was then too.

He's also probably almost unique in that he single-handedly introduced a new instrument to rock music. OK, there hasn't exactly been a lot of take-up since...

I saw them late 80s. I don't particularly remember the charismatic front man bit but it was a gig I didn't particularly want to go to but then enjoyed immensely. They were quite fun ( lot of people running around the stage in animal costumes for example) which was the opposite of what I'd expected.
Off the back of that I saw Fairport Convention a few times late 80s/ early 90s who were almost a JT off shoot at that point. Probably no charismatic front person but,IIRC, every member of the band would chat to the audience and they'd joke amongst themselves. First time I'd seen a band like that, like a great evening down the pub with some brilliant musicians .

equalsql

The best I ever saw live in concert was Jim Dandy of Black Oak Arkansas. 

He 'sung' like a broken chainsaw but as a showman, back in 1973, was almost peerless. It's generally considered that he was the forerunner of David Lee Roth who he had a massive influence on. 

Freddie and DLR are obvious candidates. Peter Gabriel back in the day with Genesis was also mighty impressive.

Lodious

Sarge said:

Lodious said:

Good call with Robert Calvert, I saw him with ICU and he was amazing.

Dave Lee Roth

Perry Farrell 

P J Harvey

Anthony Kedis 

Lemmy

Paul Draper 

Kathleen Hanna 

Lady Gaga

I saw paul draper on Saturday, while the band were good, he certainly wasn't a great frontman on this occasion.  

Haha, your probably right @Sarge. I saw them in Manchester ages ago and they smashed the stage up, which I thought was pretty cool at the time*.

* - I know I should not think that as it's childish ;-)

hywelg

In his earlier years Rory Gallagher was possibly the best front man if his time.  He engaged and held his audience and spoke to them through his guitar. 

chrishill901

kjdowd said:

Prince for me, every time. 

On the smaller bands point, Oli Brown of Raveneye is worth a mention (and also an enthusiastic @thorpyfx fallout cloud user!). Bit too early to be the greatest (!) but very, very good. 

Saw them last week. Great energy and showmanship, all sorts going on (crowd surfing solo, excursion into audience on bass player’s shoulders, lots of left hand legato riffing while holding the mic and singing) and just a great rock n roll attitude without being a prick. Highly recommend them live. 

Was thinking Oli Brown as soon as I saw the thread title. He really is a tremendous frontman. I've seen him 11 times now and every time is captivating. Bit early to be the greatest as you say, but certainly great.

I would have to say Axl Rose in his prime, that sense of danger must have been fantastic, and the best I've seen personally would have to be Chris Cornell who was a truly mesmerising frontman with charisma and grace in equal measure - he could make 10,000 people feel like they were all getting a personal private show.

Teetonetal

I'm not really sure what "best" is. In terms of delivering the music, or turning the gig into a show? It's surely very different things depending on the size of the venue and the type of music being played.

Ever been to a low gig? Damn near played in reverent silence and totally captivating, yet I can't see any awards for "best front man" being banded about.

Freddie has a lot to answer for when it comes to call and response crowed sing a longs, was he the first to inflict this on us?