no. 3
James Dean Bradfield, Manic Street Preachers ???
no. 6
Kurt Cobain, Nirvana ???
no.8
Freddie Mercury, Queen
where's the sence?
no.1
Liam Gallagher, Oasis ??????
no.4
John lennon, The Beatles ?????
no really, where's the sence??
True it is the NME - but still ......no Little Richard , Bono , Axl , no Rob Halford , Bruce Dickinson or Michael Stipe . Do Bowie and Elvis count as front men or solo artists ? I guess the list is a reflection of the NME 's demographic .
"Do they deserve to be there ?" Well in terms of stage craft and stage presense then IMHO the answer would be a "yes" - all of them have more charisma than Robert Smith ! 8 -) Isn't the job of a front man to be a conduit between the band and audience ? Also surely Alice Cooper and Ozzy should make the top 20 .
Well... Bono can be really quoted as being very professional in this aspect. He knows how to please his audiences. If he's being honest (with himself and with the audiences themselves), that's another story. Bruce is quite good with his job too. Axl... not really. Rob Halford... well... let's include Gene Simmons then.
And yes, Robert Smith is a good frontman. It's just another kind of cup of tea.
The daughter of my ex-boss was living in UK when they were in the Achtung/Trabant days and rumours were that he was high on heroin most of the time back then. Even if he quit, he is still tripping. A lot. One particular scene that annoys me is one in Rattle & Hum where he is reciting the lyrics of "when love comes to town" to BB King like if he was Shakespeare proof reading something...
Stage presence and charisma doesn't mean to jump like a monkey or scream ARE YOU READY TO ROCK all the time there's a pause. I just read the comments on that poll... fans are funny.