10 Bands Who Justifiably Should Have Been Huge

1. The La's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBwU7cPcGn0 Whoa, I hear you cry; "There she goes" was a huge hit wasn't it? What are the La's doing here? Well, the highest that song got in the charts was number 13, and that was on its third release. The La's should have been one of the biggest bands on the planet, they had songs that stood comparison with The Kinks and The Who, but their mercurial frontman Lee Mavers couldn't get the sound that he had in his head to translate onto record. When it came to recording their debut album, they tried virtually every producer of merit, including the mighty John Leckie, who had just found fame recording The Stone Roses (his version of 'There she goes' is very much worth a listen) but they weren't happy with any of them. Stories of Mavers demands, such as hiring vintage 1960's equipment only to discard it as it didn't have the original 60's dust on it, are the stuff of rock and roll legend. However their label was starting to panic, knowing that they had a truly magical band on their hands who had the talent to be an era-defining group. So they were eventually paired with Steve Lilywhite, who had previously put his stadium-filling production touch on the likes of U2. A marriage made in heaven this most certainly wasn't and the band not unexpectedly walked out of the sessions, only to discover to their horror that Lilywhite finished the album anyway using the guide tracks. Naturally the band hated it, but sadly, unlike other bands who go onto greater things, it was the only record they released. John Power left to form Cast, very much a watered down version of the La's, leaving Mavers without a wingman. Lee Mavers pops his head up every few years, reunited with Power briefly and there is the endless promise of new material, but I wouldn't hold your breath. To put how important The La's were in to context, Oasis wouldn't have existed without them, Liam's raw howl was just as indebted to Lee Mavers as it is to John Lennon, but Oasis never had the subtlety and authenticity the La's brought to the table. They also, alongside Stone Roses, laid down the foundations for the Britpop movement, with their 60's sensibilities, scally swagger and drop-dead beautiful songs, but missed out on the fame that their successors enjoyed. What a shame they missed their own party.