Battle Of The Bands - The List

I've given this some thought and I now have a working list of 56 bands, which I will list below. There is now only a limited opportunity to make any alterations before I intend to start the Preliminary Round.

Summary of Gameplay
Just as a reminder, here is how the game will be structured:

56 bands in total – Eight bands selected in advance enter Round 1, with the other 48 entering the Preliminary Round.

Preliminary Round – 48 bands -> 24 bands (24 ties; 2 rounds of 12 ties)
Round 1 – 32 bands (24 + 8 ; 16 bands (16 ties; 2 rounds of 8 ties)
Round 2 – 16 bands -> 8 bands (8 ties; 2 rounds of 4 ties)
Quarter Final – 8 bands -> 4 bands (4 ties)
Semi Final – 4 bands -> 2 bands (2 ties)
Final – 2 bands -> WINNER!

In each tie, vote for your favourite band out of the two.

The Bands - List
The bands receiving a ‘bye’ to Round 1 (i.e. skipping the preliminary round) will be:
The Beach Boys
The Beatles
Fleetwood Mac
Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd
The Rolling Stones
U2
The Who

Here is the list of 48 bands which will enter the Preliminary Round. The five additions to make, for the first time, a list that will work have been highlighted in bold for clarity.
These bands are as follows:
1. ABBA
2. AC/DC
3. Aerosmith
4. The Allman Brothers Band
5. Bad Company
6. The Band
7. Bee Gees
8. Black Sabbath
9. Blue Oyster Cult
10. Bon Jovi
11. The Byrds
12. The Cars
13. The Clash
14. Coldplay
15. Cream
16. Creedence Clearwater Revival
17. Crosby, Stills and Nash (& Young)
18. Deep Purple
19. Dire Straits
20. The Doors
21. ELO
22. Foreigner
23. Genesis
24. Guns 'N' Roses
25. Heart
26. Iron Maiden
27. The Jimi Hendrix Experience
28. Journey
29. Judas Priest
30. KISS
31. Lynyrd Skynyrd
32. Nirvana
33. Oasis
34. Pearl Jam
35. Poco
36. The Police
37. Queen
38. Radiohead
39. The Ramones
40. R.E.M.
41. Rush
42. The Sex Pistols
43. Styx
44. Thin Lizzy
45. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
46. Van Halen
47. Yes
48. ZZ Top

(If anyone has wondered why the eight bands at the top are not numbered, it is because these the numbers listed are those which assigned to the respective bands in the draw for the Preliminary Round, which the first eight bands will bypass).

Having considered which five bands to go for, I felt that Iron Maiden and Judas Priest were probably the easiest choices. I have opted to include Thin Lizzy and Blue Oyster Cult as I felt they both received a decent amount of support for their inclusion (they were suggested or were supported by different posters), so Def Leppard miss out I'm afraid. I decided to go for The Cars for the final spot as I didn't want to give all the remaining places to hard classic rock or heavy metal bands, and they are probably more recognisable in the US, especially to people who listen to relatively little contemporary music, than most of the alternative options. I considered Roxy Music and Mott The Hoople for their glam rock styles but feared they would not be sufficiently well known in America.

If anyone feels strongly that any of these bands should NOT be on the list, I can still alter it before finalising the list and making the draw but at this stage I think it is appropriate to prevent any new suggestions for inclusion (apologies for this), it was hard enough picking which ones to include from the shortlist! IMO the most realistic alternative choices at this stage would now be Def Leppard, ELP or Metallica although I may consider others if I think there is a band that could be relatively easily removed beyond the last five additions.

If there are any no significant objections to these choices then I am happy to use this list and start the game. I will make the draw for the Preliminary Round tomorrow and should be able to start the first round over the weekend. However I think this may be best left until Sunday as I am aware some members don't usually visit the boards on the weekends.