Quoted in Rolling Stone magazine as "the worlds greatest rock band", Dave Matthews Band are probably the most popular band in the US today, however they are little known in the UK and Europe, and indeed the rest of the world. They were the 3rd biggest earners of 2002 (losing out to Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones), sold out New York's Giants Stadium in 90 minutes (equivalent to selling 11 tickets every second for an hour and a half) and more people went to see them in 2002 (where they only played concerts in the US) than any other musical act on the planet and each one of their studio and live albums has gone platinum. So why does there exist a band with such huge popularity that is so unknown anywhere outside the US?

It has been put down to one very understandable reason, and this is the way in which they became popular in the first place. They were formed in 1991 in Charlottesville, Virginia, when Dave enlisted the help of some already well established musicians from the Charlottesville music scene to help Dave create a demo tape. Drummer Carter Beauford (who is considered through his immensely fast playing, accurate rhythm timing and unbelievably hugely sized drum kit to be one of the best in the world), saxophonist Leroi Moore and 16-year-old bassist Stefan Lessard along with Dave developed an incredibly unique sound that had never really been heard anywhere before... and with further help from Boyd Tinsley on the violin and Peter Griesar on the keyboards they created a sound so unique today that it completely defies any categorisation; a mix of so many different musical genres and styles that they have developed their own kind of music. Boyd was on and off towards the earlier days of Dave Matthews Band (due to being a member of his own band, 'The Boyd Tinsley Band'), but joined onto the band fully around the time that Peter Griesar left.

Dave Matthews Band in the early days were all about the same thing they are now; playing continuously. With a tuesday night spot at the now nationally known Trax nightclub in Charlottesville (which was torn down completely in 2002) and a wednesday night spot at The Flood Zone, Dave Matthews Band slowly worked their way into the heads of all who turned up. Playing wherever they could find (local clubs, frat houses and even the bar Dave worked at, "Millers") they worked on building up at fan base from the ground level. So successfully did this work that their popularity has grown to the huge extent it reaches today. The reason for the band's popularity in the US is the reason why they are so unknown here; in short, for the band to become popular here they would most likely have to go through the same process as they did to become popular in the US which is unthinkable due to such a large number of constraints. However, that doesn't mean we shouldn't try anyway; tell your friends, bug your local radio station and listen to as much DMB as you can.

A hugely informative, more well-researched description of Dave Matthews Band is available at the nancies.org FAQ.