The world's biggest bands weren't always as cool as they are now
Alexandra Pollard

20:07 6th August 2015

World-famous rock and pop stars are always incredibly, effortlessly, enviably cool, right? Wrong.

It may surprise you to learn this, but even the best of them - Muse, Coldplay, Lana Del Rey - have slipped up in the past. They've worn a hideous outfit, posed with an embarrassing facial expression, stood in an uncomfortable power stance... and the thing about being famous, is there's always someone going out of their way to dig these photos up.

In this instance, that someone is us. Enjoy. 

  • No, this isn't a L'Oreal advert - it's a pre-fame Lady Gaga in the mid-00s, because she's worth it.

  • Supermassive black fringe! It's a geeky, anaemic Muse from 1999. Nice shirt, Dom - are they pyjamas?

  • We'd recognise that smile and those cheekbones anywhere. That toothy chap in the middle is Dave Grohl, with his pre-Nirvana band Scream.

  • Do blondes have more fun? Ask Lana Del Rey, seen here in her pre-fame days as Lizzy Grant.

  • He had 99 problems, but a decent image wasn't one, back in the late 80s for Jay Z (on the right, obviously)

  • Back when rock n' roll was still 'hiding in the swamp' for these acne-troubled Sheffield upstarts, Arctic Monkeys.

  • Back when Metallica were much less scary, and much, much less hairy.

  • That sweet and cherubic lass there is the magnificent Bjork, as a fresh-faced mentalist back when she was part of the brilliant Sugarcubes.

  • That look you get when you walk into the wrong frat party, courtesy of Blink 182 back in 1994

  • A much less gangsta Dr Dre with the World Class Wreckin' Cru.

  • Much less famous but no less badass, that's a young and long-haired Josh Homme with stoner-rock heroes Kyuss in the bottom-right.

  • No, not a tribute band to The Clash or an advert for Topman white jeans - it's a pre-fame Manic Street Preachers, years before they debut and before Richey Edwards even joined the band.

  • We're not sure what the treatment for this early Green Day photoshoot was, but we can only imagine it involved a lot of weed.

  • Depeche Mode...HAAA,HAHA.

  • "Mr, can we have our ball back?" No Coldplay, now get back to becoming the biggest stadium band on the planet.


Photo: Press