Spawny gets..lucky fifth wheels in music

[BigRedX]

Let's face it. Anyone in a band who isn't either The Singer, The Player of The Main Melodic Instrument (not necessarily the guitar) or The Main Songwriter, can be considered a 5th wheel.

[BrunoBass]

Andy Fletcher from Depeche Mode. He has contributed little, if anything, musically  since their first album in 1981.

[Barking Spiders]

1 hour ago, BreadBin said:

Sister Bliss from Faithless - normally seen 'playing' keyboards with no audio connections and reacting to changes one bar after they actually happen.

Except Sister Bliss plays the keyboards /synths and  co-writes the music!

Edited April 23, 2018 by Barking Spiders

[BrunoBass]

5 hours ago, Barking Spiders said:

My teen daughters are getting all retro and finding a love for 80s pop along the lines of Duran, Spandau, Wham etc. So we had back to back DD and Wham on Yesterday at the weekend. Mark Radcliffe's comments reminded when we used to wonder what Andrew Ridgeley actually did apart from occasionally mime playing the guitar and bass !  Other 'famous' fifth wheels that come to mind are; Bez from Happy Mondays  who basically used to trot out the same off his face  'dance' with plastic maraccas; Paul from Frankie GTH who contributed occasional backing vocal and the bloke in Boney M who semi-spoke the odd line like ' he's crazy like a fool' (from Daddy Cool). Bring 'em on!!!

I don’t think Paul was the only member of FGTH not doing very much! 

[dave_bass5]

Alex Such Ex- Bon Jovi.

I was amazed to see him on stage with BJ, while Hugh McDonald was also playing, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.

[bartelby]

1 hour ago, Cato said:

I know what you mean and they managed live without a third guitarist for many years but having one does mean that they can now replicate the many parts on the records where they have two guitars playing lead in harmony over a third guitar playing rhythm when they play live,

 

36 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

Aside from the records often having 3 part harmonies they didn't want to bin him when Smith re-joined. Proper friendship.

Stop giving sensible responses!! 

I'm not buying it! 

[mikel]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

Let's face it. Anyone in a band who isn't either The Singer, The Player of The Main Melodic Instrument (not necessarily the guitar) or The Main Songwriter, can be considered a 5th wheel.

Not sure about that. Imagine The Police without Stewart Copeland?  For me his quirky off beat drumming and harmonies brought Sting's songs to life.

[rushscored4]

1 hour ago, BrunoBass said:

I don’t think Paul was the only member of FGTH not doing very much! 

I know Brian "Nasher" Nash the guitarist from FGTH and I don't think he'd agree with you there! They were all accomplished gigging musicians on the Liverpool circuit (even Billy "Holly" Johnson was the bass player in 'Big in Japan') although I think Trevor Horn played a lot of the instruments on their biggest hits.

[rushscored4]

2 hours ago, fretmeister said:

Aside from the records often having 3 part harmonies they didn't want to bin him when Smith re-joined. Proper friendship.

Similar to when Pat Smear rejoined the Foofighters I guess.

[skankdelvar]

6 hours ago, Angelus said:

Apparently, ... Paul McCartney ... “Ringo? He’s not even the best drummer in the Beatles!”. 

6 hours ago, mikel said:

Nice try but It was John who said that,

3 hours ago, BrunoBass said:

It’s become urban legend that the comment came from the band themselves but it actually originated from a 1970s Jasper Carrot sketch.

 

 The Carrott theory is given credence by an obsessive but otherwise mentally competent Yank researcher who digs into it in the video below:

 

Edited April 23, 2018 by skankdelvar

[BreadBin]

3 hours ago, Barking Spiders said:

Except Sister Bliss plays the keyboards /synths and  co-writes the music!

Debatable 

[MacDaddy]

10 hours ago, Barking Spiders said:

Mark Radcliffe's comments reminded when we used to wonder what Andrew Ridgeley actually did apart from occasionally mime playing the guitar and bass ! 

Unfairly maligned is Ridgeley. Without Ridgeley, not only would there not have been Wham!, there would not have been George Michael. 

He co-wrote some of the early stuff, and helped launched Michael's solo career having co-written Careless Whisper. 

Michael always acknowledged Ridgeley's importance to himself and Wham!

Love me a bit of Wham! 😎

[BigRedX]

 

[BrunoBass]

3 hours ago, rushscored4 said:

I know Brian "Nasher" Nash the guitarist from FGTH and I don't think he'd agree with you there! They were all accomplished gigging musicians on the Liverpool circuit (even Billy "Holly" Johnson was the bass player in 'Big in Japan') although I think Trevor Horn played a lot of the instruments on their biggest hits.

They could certainly play live, there is some decent footage on YouTube of them on The Tube in 1984, Mark O’Toole in particular was a decent bass player, but on the records it’s all Fairlight.

[skankdelvar]

32 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

Unfairly maligned is Ridgeley. Without Ridgeley, not only would there not have been Wham!, there would not have been George Michael. 

He co-wrote some of the early stuff, and helped launched Michael's solo career having co-written Careless Whisper. 

Michael always acknowledged Ridgeley's importance to himself and Wham!

Love me a bit of Wham! 😎

Not forgetting Ridgeley's secondary role as shuttlecock wrangler.

[spectoremg]

2 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

Unfairly maligned is Ridgeley. Without Ridgeley, not only would there not have been Wham!, there would not have been George Michael. 

He co-wrote some of the early stuff, and helped launched Michael's solo career having co-written Careless Whisper. 

Michael always acknowledged Ridgeley's importance to himself and Wham!

Love me a bit of Wham! 😎

Isn't it widely reported that George 'gave' Andrew a credit on Careless Whisper?

[Owen]

Good luck to them all. Any of us would be more than happy to have had so much exposure in the industry that people were discussing us on forums  

[SpondonBassed]

11 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

It took less than fifteen seconds for me to bin that link.

Thanks anyway.

[vantagepointrocks]

19 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

Alex Such Ex- Bon Jovi.

I was amazed to see him on stage with BJ, while Hugh McDonald was also playing, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.

But when Alec John Such was in the band they released great albums, Slippery, New Jersey, Keep the Faith, when he left they put out a few average ones, These Days, Crush & Bounce, before releasing absolute tosh in The Circle, Lost Highway, Have a Nice Day etc ... Are you telling me this is just pure co-incidence? I always assumed it was the change in bass player that resulted in the drop in quality of their output ...

[dave_bass5]

18 minutes ago, vantagepointrocks said:

But when Alec John Such was in the band they released great albums, Slippery, New Jersey, Keep the Faith, when he left they put out a few average ones, These Days, Crush & Bounce, before releasing absolute tosh in The Circle, Lost Highway, Have a Nice Day etc ... Are you telling me this is just pure co-incidence? I always assumed it was the change in bass player that resulted in the drop in quality of their output ...

Think you will find Alec didnt  record most of those 'classic' bass lines ;-) Hence my comments about him.

Agree about the decline though, but that had nothing to do with AJS.

Edited April 24, 2018 by dave_bass5

[Barking Spiders]

15 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

Unfairly maligned is Ridgeley. Without Ridgeley, not only would there not have been Wham!, there would not have been George Michael. 

He co-wrote some of the early stuff, and helped launched Michael's solo career having co-written Careless Whisper. 

Michael always acknowledged Ridgeley's importance to himself and Wham!

Love me a bit of Wham! 😎

I was quite partial to Wham..but 99% because of Pepsi and Shirley's appearances on TOTP etc

[Hobbayne]

37 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

I was quite partial to Wham..but 99% because of Pepsi and Shirley's appearances on TOTP etc

One married Paul Weller, and the other married Martin Kemp from Spandau Ballet.

[SpondonBassed]

4 minutes ago, Hobbayne said:

One married Paul Weller, and the other married Martin Kemp from Spandau Ballet.

...and like Ant and Dec, you never know which is which until they're stood on their marks.

[dave_bass5]

47 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

...and like Ant and Dec, you never know which is which until they're stood on their marks.

or got behind the wheel of a car.......

[LewisK1975]

23 hours ago, bartelby said:

I consider Janick Gers in Iron Maiden a 5th wheel. They produced all their greatest stuff with 2 guitarists. Why the hell do they feel the need to have 3??

Also I seem to recall on one of the documentary films (I forget which one) Steve Harris saying something along the line of the original idea was to have 3 guitarists anyway...