OFF: 10 Most hated

[Dave Berry]

At 09:20 19/03/99 -0000, Andy Gilham wrote:
>Can't understand why everyone's getting exercised over old hat losers like
>all these 70s/80s AOR bands (well, not everyone, but a majority who've
>posted).  Of them all, only Whitesnake were truly offensive...

This reminds me of the "Top 10 Heavy Metal" programme that Channel 4 showed
a couple of weeks back.  It was like a competition to spot the biggest idiot.

Ritchie Blackmore made a surprisingly strong showing: he was interviewed
wearing a cloak and a very sad hat, and was completely self-obsessed.  He
was obviously hell to work with.  Nowadays he seems to have retreated into
a renaissance fantasy world.

David Coverdale was a more conventional idiot.  My favourite revelation was
that the rest of the band called him "Elsie", which puts his macho nonsense
into perspective.

Ozzy and Philthy were obviously completely barking, but they were also fun.

For me, the winner was Ronnie James Dio.  The man is a fool, which the
programme highlighted nicely.  Just after he explained that he didn't write
love songs, and "preferred to address a different intelligence", they cut
to a clip of "Long Live Rock 'n' Roll", a dreadful song that contains not
even a homeopathic trace of intelligence.

By contrast, Iron Maiden and Def Leppard came across as people who just
happened to make it big.  They were actually likeable (the people, not
necessarily their music).

Lemmy was his usual self -- chirpy, idealistic, sensitive ...

Dave.

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