The Border Battle Of The Bands 2015

[Funk 50]

Match 13. KISS vs COLDPLAY
Match 14. ZZ TOP vs THE SEX PISTOLS
Match 15. FOREIGNER vs OASIS
Match 16. THE BAND vs THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE
Match 17. BON JOVI vs RUSH
Match 18. PEARL JAM vs THE CLASH
Match 19. YES vs AEROSMITH
Match 20. DEEP PURPLE vs RADIOHEAD
Match 21. THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND vs CROSBY, STILLS AND NASH (& YOUNG)
Match 22. AC/DC vs CREAM
Match 23. GENESIS vs POCO
Match 24. STYX vs BLUE OYSTER CULT


Abstaining on matches 13, 19, 20, 22, and 24 because (again!) I'm not familiar with their music. (Never even heard of BOC before this thread. )

You need to stay in more UK TimFan


These earlier comments raised an eyebrow

I don't insomuch dislike Queen, but a vote for them is a vote for Brian May, which I couldn't abide to do.

What's up with Brian May?
He wears clogs, uses a sixpence as a pick and built a fabulous guitar out of a fireplace. A guy, serving tea to Queen in a recording studio, commented that BM would spend ages umming and aahing over which drink he wanted, if it's not too much trouble, whatever you're making etc.
I don't like Queen but Dr. Brian May seems a good sort.

Match 5. THIN LIZZY vs BLACK SABBATH (Also challenging, might just give Thin Lizzy the edge as I think the late Gary Moore
was a fine guitarist).

I quite like Thin Lizzy. Sometime member, Gary Moore was gifted but what about Black Sabbath's brilliant Tony Iommi. Riffmaster general despite having the tops of his fingers chopped off!

[thelastresort]

What's up with Brian May?
He wears clogs, uses a sixpence as a pick and built a fabulous guitar out of a fireplace. A guy, serving tea to Queen in a recording studio, commented that BM would spend ages umming and aahing over which drink he wanted, if it's not too much trouble, whatever you're making etc.
I don't like Queen but Dr. Brian May seems a good sort.

I quite like Thin Lizzy. Sometime member, Gary Moore was gifted but what about Black Sabbath's brilliant Tony Iommi. Riffmaster general despite having the tops of his fingers chopped off!

I don't mind Queen, I like a lot of their music (I always thought it was sad that people adored the likes of I Want to Break Free, when you had gems like Breakthru and These Are the Days of Our Lives that slipped under the radar by and large). I loved Freddie, and John Deacon was a boss (spent several decades playing bass fairly anonymously, wrote the odd song and retired young absolutely minted), Roger Taylor is bearable (some of his comments and the way he acts surrounding Freddie's death leaves me cold though), but as much of a polymath as he is I just cannot abide Brian May. I said on the H&H thread last night that I never let a musician's personality get in the way of my appreciation of them, but something about him really rubs me up wrong. In all honesty it could well be his politics and activism (for example, whilst I suspect I do not match Henley's political leanings I still appreciate his work for Walden Woods, May not so much).

[thelastresort]

I should add I totally agree with you about Tony Iommi - my favourite guitarist ever; he can pull out guitar riffs like there's no tomorrow. It is on account of his accident and subsequent impairment that there will never be anyone else who plays the guitar like him.

[UK TimFan]

You need to stay in more UK TimFan

My lack of knowledge probably stems from the fact that I never listen to the radio. Plus certain genres of music such as punk, metal, grunge, house, rap, have never interested me.
Though at the other end of the scale, I'm not (apart from odd pieces) into classical music either.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

Match 13. KISS vs COLDPLAY
Match 14. ZZ TOP vs THE SEX PISTOLS
Match 15. FOREIGNER vs OASIS
Match 16. THE BAND vs THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE
Match 17. BON JOVI vs RUSH
Match 18. PEARL JAM vs THE CLASH
Match 19. YES vs AEROSMITH
Match 20. DEEP PURPLE vs RADIOHEAD
Match 21. THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND vs CROSBY, STILLS AND NASH (& YOUNG)
Match 22. AC/DC vs CREAM
Match 23. GENESIS vs POCO
Match 24. STYX vs BLUE OYSTER CULT

Well - This half of the round was a lot easier for me than the first half. The only hard choice I had this time was #21. On the other hand - it's hard for me to imagine that ABBA, Queen, Guns N' Roses, Heart, and The Bee Gees have already been eliminated.

[VAisForEagleLovers]

#16 was hard for me, too! Jimi Hendrix is an absolute legend, but I love The Band, so I had to go for them.

[Jonny Come Lately]

Time's up for the second half of the preliminary round as the 48 hours have elapsed - voting on these matches is now closed. This of course means the preliminary round itself is now complete

The results of these matches are shown below, with the number of points won by each band in the match being shown.

In each case, the winning band is shown in bold, the loser in italics.

Match 13. KISS 6-9 COLDPLAY (1 abstention)
Match 14. ZZ TOP 12-4 THE SEX PISTOLS
Match 15. FOREIGNER 9-7 OASIS
Match 16. THE BAND 5-11 THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE
Match 17. BON JOVI 9-7 RUSH
Match 18. PEARL JAM 10-5 THE CLASH (1 abstention)
Match 19. YES 5-10 AEROSMITH (1 abstention)
Match 20. DEEP PURPLE 12-3 RADIOHEAD (1 abstention)
Match 21. THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND 3-13 Crosby, Stills and Nash
Match 22. AC/DC 9-6 CREAM (1 abstention)
Match 23. GENESIS 10-6 POCO
Match 24. STYX 9-6 BLUE OYSTER CULT (1 abstention)

Happily, all of the results of these matches can now be confirmed and there is no need to reopen voting on any of them.

I should warn you all that I will be away for the weekend and it is doubtful that I will have computer access. There is some small hope that I will but I suspect I probably will not be able to post on this thread all Saturday and most of Sunday. I am happy to start the first half of the first round later today, when the first eight ties in this round will go up (I have yet to make the draw for this round), but this time I will say strictly that the voting will end after 48 hours exactly. If there are any undecided ties, these will also close and I will reopen these at the end of the round, after both halves of the draw have been played.

[Jonny Come Lately]

PRELIMINARY ROUND SUMMARY

Before I make the draw for the First Round proper I thought it would be interesting to have a look back at the results of the Preliminary Round.

BANDS ENTERING ROUND 1 (32)
Not involved in the Preliminary Round: The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, U2, The Who.
Bands victorious in the Preliminary Round: The Doors, Journey, ELO, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Thin Lizzy, Dire Straits, Van Halen, The Byrds, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, R.E.M., The Ramones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Coldplay, ZZ Top, Foreigner, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Bon Jovi, Pearl Jam, Aerosmith, Deep Purple, Crosby, Stills And Nash (& Young), AC/DC, Genesis, Styx.

BANDS ELIMINATED (24)
Bands eliminated in the Preliminary Round: Bad Company, ABBA, The Police, Queen, Black Sabbath, Guns 'n' Roses, The Cars, Nirvana, Heart, Bee Gees, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, KISS, The Sex Pistols, Oasis, The Band, Rush, The Clash, Yes, Radiohead, The Allman Brothers Band, Cream, Poco, Blue Oyster Cult.

THE FACTS
- CSN(&Y) were the band to receive the most votes (13). The Byrds, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top and Deep Purple all received 12 votes.
- CSN(&Y) and Lynyrd Skynyrd had the biggest winning margins, in each case by 10 votes over their opponents.
- By contrast, Dire Straits and R.E.M. won their ties by the odd vote (their matches against Guns 'n' Roses and the Bee Gees both finished 8-7).
- Iron Maiden received the least votes of any band (just 2). Nirvana, Radiohead and The Allman Brothers each received 3 votes.
- The Ramones, Dire Straits and R.E.M. won their ties with just 8 votes, the lowest of any victors. However, where the matches involving the other bands were undeniably very close, The Ramones received twice as many votes as their opponents Judas Priest.
- Guns 'n' Roses, the Bee Gees, Oasis and Rush were the losing bands with the most votes (7).

Personal Opinion
- I thought the most surprising result was ELO comfortably beating The Police, I think this is because I had previously thought the latter were much better known outside of the UK. CCR's defeat of Queen would seem surprising in the UK but I was less surprised by their victory on here, likewise The Byrds seeing off Nirvana (however, I was shocked by the emphatic nature of the scoreline).
- At the opposite end of the scale, I expected Lynyrd Skynyrd to comfortably defeat Iron Maiden so was not too surprised by that outcome.
- The luckiest winners IMO were probably The Ramones - their tie against Judas Priest was the only one in the round where more than one voter abstained, and I suspect Judas Priest were not among the most popular bands in the game. There were few comments about this round so I can't say for sure but I suspect they may have struggled to beat a number of the other bands.
- The unluckiest losers were either Heart or The Allman Brothers Band. Several people commented on their matches against Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and CSN&Y as being difficult to decide on yet they were beaten comfortably by their opponents. I felt these two probably 'deserved' more votes and would could have beaten some of the eventual victors.
- Alternatively, if your definition of the unluckiest losers is the bands that had the strongest case for going through to the next round based on the votes, then the Bee Gees and Guns 'n' Roses are the standouts. I think they would have defeated quite a few of the other bands and were handed tricky draws (Oasis I felt were relatively lucky to be up against Foreigner, who weren't one of most popular bands in the draw - I myself was fairly indifferent to the final result - and Rush had the benefit of appealing to different audiences to Bon Jovi so were always likely to get a decent number of votes).
- My most personally satisfying result was Dire Straits beating Guns 'n' Roses, however narrowly (I can see why some people thought that match was quite tough) - I was also very pleased to see Deep Purple beat Radiohead and The Byrds beat Nirvana so comfortably.
- The result I am least happy with is Bon Jovi's victory over the IMO superior Rush. I know Bon Jovi are probably more popular, and Rush gave them a good fight but I definitely prefer the latter band. I'm not as bothered by Aerosmith's win over Yes as I think Aerosmith are better than Bon Jovi and I expected them to win anyway. I also think Cream are better than AC/DC although many will disagree with this, and likewise I prefer Blue Oyster Cult to Styx. On most of the other matches where my opinion disagreed with the final result I was not quite so worried about the final outcome.

[Jonny Come Lately]

The Battle Of The Bands - Round 1

All of the bands involved in the game have now entered, with the 24 winners from the Preliminary Round being joined by the eight bands which bypassed that stage. There are 16 ties in this round, again split into two halves - I think that playing eight matches at one time will work well.

(I should say that I have had a change of heart for Round 2 and I now think it should be played in one go as there are only eight matches).

Voting for the first half of this round is now open and will close exactly 48 hours after the submission of this post. As stated previously I think it is unlikely that I will be able to start the second half of the game until late on Sunday when I return home. Any votes entered after the 48 hour deadline will only be counted if I'm feeling generous! All the votes so far have been in good time so I hope this isn't an issue.

So here's the first half of the draw for Round 1:

Round 1 - Matches 1-8 (First Half of the Draw)
Match 1. STYX vs FLEETWOOD MAC
Match 2. BON JOVI vs LYNYRD SKYNYRD
Match 3. THIN LIZZY vs THE BEATLES
Match 4. FOREIGNER vs THE ROLLING STONES
Match 5. ZZ TOP vs TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS
Match 6. GENESIS vs THE BEACH BOYS
Match 7. DEEP PURPLE vs R.E.M.
Match 8. CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL vs AEROSMITH

Once again, hope you have fun - I look forward to hearing your opinions!

[VAisForEagleLovers]

Match 1. STYX vs FLEETWOOD MAC
Match 2. BON JOVI vs LYNYRD SKYNYRD
Match 3. THIN LIZZY vs THE BEATLES
Match 4. FOREIGNER vs THE ROLLING STONES
Match 5. ZZ TOP vs TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS
Match 6. GENESIS vs THE BEACH BOYS
Match 7. DEEP PURPLE vs R.E.M.
Match 8. CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL vs AEROSMITH

Previous rounds, for the most part, were obvious choices for me, but I had to think about it on nearly every one on this one!