Greatest British rock band(s) that didn't meet success across the Atlantic

Great Britain is the island with England, Scotland and Wales on it (and Cornwall ). Ireland is the slightly smaller island to the left of Great Britain. Simples.

 

The Edge and Adam Clayton were born in the UK, so maybe that makes U2 a British band

 

Patto

 

I thought Adam Clayton actually was English and not just born there. He has an English accent, but then Dublin

 

We/I were referring to the British Isles and not Great Britain. They are two different things, although, Great Britain, as is Ireland, is part of the British Isles. Simples?

 

Yep. He is all yours

 

Great Britain = England, Scotland and Wales

United Kingdom = Great Britain + Northern Ireland

British Isles = UK + Republic of Ireland

A bit confusingly, a citizen of the UK is British or a Briton or "a Brit"

I'm not quite sure what Britain, used on its own, is.

As to the topic at hand, I know the Kinks didn't make it in the USA in the 1960s because of a dispute with the American Musicians' Union but were they successful in the 1970s?

 

'Great' Britain - great as in large, not as in, er, great - is to distinguish it from Brittany, I think?

 

Most definitely British, Briton refers to people from the iron age, Brit is 90s slang.

 

Yes, which makes the slogan "let's make Britain great again", used by some leavers in the EU referendum campaign, nonsensical.

 

Tell that to a Scottish republican! ;-)

 

I've seen it used as a second reference, in a sporting context, to avoid repetition.

For example:

"Great Britain's John Smith won the race.

The Briton, who was the favourite, etc..."

Yes, Britpop is from the 90s but, surely, to describe someone as a Brit pre-dates that?

 

The Kinks (certainly not in the 60s when they were at their creative height.)

 

Britain, used on its own, refers to England + Wales (Wales was annexed by England after a series of laws by 1542).

As you correctly say, Great Britain = England + Wales + Scotland

However, strictly speaking, the 1707 Act of Union (before which Scotland was an entirely separate nation) created "the United Kingdom of Great Britain" - so that phrase 'United Kingdom" was introduced, although the entity was, in shortland, "Great Britain".

The "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" existed from 1801-1922 (Irish War of Independence).

This left the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".

However, "the British Isles" - being a geographical rather than political descriptor - is a different matter again. It includes the two large islands of Great Britain and Ireland, plus all the outlying islands of those territories (the Hebrides, Orkneys, Shetland, Arran Islands, Tory Island, Rockall, etc.) PLUS the UK 'Crown Dependency' the Isle of Man, which lies midway between Ireland and great Britain but which is in jurisdictional terms part of neither.

By tradition, "the British Isles" also includes two further 'Crown Dependencies' (the Bailiwick of Jersey and the Bailiwick of Guernsey - in short, the Channel Islands, a small group of islands that is geographically closer to France than to Great Britain). These three places are the only three 'Crown Dependencies' - they are part of neither the United Kingdom nor the British Overseas Territories (Bermuda, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Cayman Islands, etc.). They are self-governing possessions of the Crown. But let's leave this arcanery aside.

The Isle of Man is an interesting place - it claims the world's oldest continuously functioning parliament (pre-1000AD)... and it's where the Bee Gees were born...

Northern Ireland has its quirks too (I live there): its residents/native-born people can choose whether to have Irish or Briitish passports, or both. I happen to have a UK one, my wife happens to have an Irish one - it's no big deal, but it can be pragmatically useful to have the option (especially post-Brexit).

 

I'll nominate the British blues-rock band Juicy Lucy.

Someone posted part of this Juicy Lucy clip on Instagram with no info, and this forum helped me figure out who the band was and the source of the clip. Three things:

1. This song is *awesome*, but there isn't a title for it anywhere.

2. Amazingly, two of my friends came to me in the last month, "have you heard of this band Juicy Lucy?" I guess this particular clip has been making the rounds on classic (or obscure!) rock forums and pages.

3. It is because of this clip that I've learned who Micky Moody is. With the little I know...wow, what a guy, and what a career. He's kind of been everywhere, hasn't he?

 

Their single 'In a Big Country' did well here and the video was in fairly heavy rotation on MTV - way back when that mattered.

 

T. Rex - One hit wonders in the U.S., huge in the U.K.

 

Intriguingly, the Mahavishnu Orchestra once supported T Rex in the US. Apparently the Rex had to bow to crowd demand and have them back on for an encore before the T Rextasy began.

 

Wow -- I will be looking for their records ! Glenn Campbell on steel guitar, is that right?

 

Blossom Toes

 

The Stranglers
Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac

The entire Skiffle era

 

It's really surprising that bands Rainbow and Motorhead don't have even Gold album in the US till this day.

 

Yes, initially, the debut went US Gold. Thru the 80s they could probably do 3000-5000 seat halls, but eventually fell to 800-1200 seaters.

 

That's never been in doubt, the simple fact is, that coming from the British Isles, doesn't make you British!

 

You could be one of three things:

British
Irish
Manx