Name your favorite Alternative British Band and why?

Coldplay Its well different, it doesn't sound like any of the wussy pop rock we have over here (John Mayer ect) and it aint nu metal.

Travis, Radiohead, Coldplay, Stereophonics, Haven, Doves

Muse -- just love the distortion and piano work. Simply great stuff. Had to import the second album (dunno why it wasn't released over here), and plan on importing the third.

Like Suede a bit as well (aka London Suede?). Interesting vocal styles. I like variety.

Catherine Wheel.

Why? Because they're the best.

Radiohead, Doves, Portishead, Spiritualized, Supergrass.

Radiohead and Coldplay

Radiohead. BY FAR, the best band on earth.

doves, travis, coldplay, blur, elastica, portishead, and of course radiohead.

StarSailor ... for me, the best Brit band by far at this moment. I love the emotional quality in the songs and how the singer (John Walsh) matches that with his singing. The lyrics on their debut album may at times be overly simple, but I can forgive them easily for that .. and I hope they grow into a band to be reckoned with. They could be really big.

Muse ... another band which should be more widely known. Powerful music. If you love guitar-driven rock ... check this band out.

Of the older British bands that I love dearly .. The Waterboys are always a band I look forward to hearing more from. Live they are an awesome band. Once again, it's the open emotional quality in Mike Scott's songwriting and singing that caught my attention when their first album came out way back in the early 80's ... and through the years Mike Scott has always followed his own direction, constantly creating music that appeals to the heart and mind.

Radiohead ?? They seemed unstoppable circa OK Computer, but then they lost the plot completely with the drivel that is Kid A.

Win: My Bloody Valentine, they were the cream of the crop...total invention.

Place: When Pulp's "Different Class" came out, it was clearly the best album to come out of England since MBV's "Loveless" and no album has come close since.

Show: Supergrass' first one, "Life on other Planets" and mostly "We're in it for the Money"... pure pop-punk brilliance.

Honourable Mention:

Saint Etienne whose "So Tough" is a left field classic. Also, the best singles band out of Englan during the ninties.

Coldplay, Verve, Tindersticks, Placebo, Starsailor, Belle & Sebastian....

Loveless is an absolutely brilliant record.

Where do I begin:

All time faves: Verve/Richard Ashcroft, Stone Roses, Coldplay, Travis, Radiohead

Other faves: Doves, South, UNKLE, Stereophonics, Charlatans (UK), Massive Attack, Badly Drawn Boy, Blur, Chemical Brothers, Super Furry Animals, Underworld

Old Time Faves: New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen, the Smiths

Cast, Stone Roses, Verve, Oasis, Charlatans UK, Smiths

Most of the Brit bands I listen to have started to suck in the past few years (at least in my opinion): Blur, Oasis, Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics, Belle and Sebastian). Radiohead are still good, Teenage Fanclub and Coldplay still are doing alright, and Gomez are still good. The band that I think continues to improve is Charlatans. I've always liked them, but to me they keep getting better. Pulp run hot and cold - some of their stuff I like, and some not so much. I'm not mentioning bands that broke up or reformed to cash in on some nostalgia thing.

I can't believe I'm the only Manics fan here. I thought their last album (Know Your Enemy) was kinda lame, but everything up to that was brilliant.

I typically don't dig the British sound of these days, although I do enjoy Coldplay.

Favorite would have to be Bush. Sixteen Stone is one of my favorite albums off all time. A lot has changed over the years, but I recently saw them live and they really kicked it.

I'd say my favorite all-time would be James - although they recently broke up. I really liked their sound and lyrics and the fact they provided such a wide variety of music. For the most part you never listened to them and thought that all of their songs sounded the same, like you do with a lot of the other bands.

Others I really like: Travis, Coldplay, Belle and Sebastian, JJ72, The Cure

Some of those might not actually be British, but I kinda just lump all European bands together.

I used to like Radiohead up to OK Computer, but Kid A/Amnesiac were unlistenable for me, so they've fallen completely off my radar.

The only two of theirs I have and enjoy are 'the holy bible' and 'this my truth...' any of their others I have not listened to or felt compelled to buy...but the two I own I listen to alot.

Radiohead.

Why? Because the law says so .

I've got Holy Bible, Everything Must Go and "This is My Truth..." and I certainly like them. Holy Bible is probably the most intense album this side of Joy Division I've heard.

To me, though, they aren't willing to just drop their pretentions and rock out. Every song is deadly serious, filled with radicalized politics and depression. It gets wearying... I can take it in small doses, but after a while I feel like I'm listening to a coffee-house grad student living on daddy's dime preaching about how great Castro is.

At that point, I put on some Def Leppard and all is well...

I understand what you're saying, but I think the pretension had waned enough after Richey's "disappearance" for them to be kinda fun, even. The Holy Bible is seriously pretentious, but Everything Must Go? I know it's got songs about Kevin Carter and Willem de Kooning, but they're not weighted down like a song like "The Intense Humming Of Evil" is. They're nice singalong anthems, and you don't even have to know what you're singing about.

I think given the Manics' collective obsessions, Appetite For Destruction might be more appropriate.

I dunno, "If you Tolerate this Then You're DChildren Will Be Next" is a fairly over-intellectualized song.

It also won't attract any hot chicas.

Coldplay is my favorite band from the UK by far.

I also love Doves, Idlewild, and Badly Drawn Boy.

Travis is pretty good as well.

Don't listen to Radiohead one bit.

They were a local pub band where I was at University. They sucked then too.