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TOP 10 ROCK TOFFS

1 The Strokes
Well-heeled rich kids + lower east side slumming = indie rock gold

The Strokes - Last Nite
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They may have recorded their 2001 debut Is This It on the edgy streets of New York's Lower East Side, but Julian Casablancas and his band of private school chums were definitely slumming it on Avenue A. As the son of model agency mogul John, Casablancas, Jr spent his childhood uptown - apart from the short period around the age of 13 that he attended Le Rosey, an exclusive Swiss boarding school. His father had sent him there to curb his interest in alcohol; instead he
bonded with fellow wayward rich kid, and future Stroke, Albert Hammond, Jr.

2 Daft Punk
Vive la revolution! Er, then again...

Daft Punk - Around The World
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The French techno duo have claimed to be
part-robot, but their human origins are far less humble. Thomas Bangalter's father is disco royalty, having produced '70s one-hit wonders Ottawan, while Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo's full title is Guillaume Emmanuel Paul de Homem-Christo. Bangalter grew up in the ritzy part of Montmartre in northern Paris, and though he and Homem-Christo met at school, it was no ordinary educational establishment - among the Lycée Carnot's old boys is former French president Jacques Chirac.

3 Peter Gabriel
Prog rocking lord of the manor

Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer
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Now the egg-headed sage of WOMAD, Peter Gabriel started out as co-founder of prog rock's most highfalutin exponents, Genesis, whose original line-up, minus token geezer Phil Collins, bonded at Charterhouse School in Surrey, one of the most exclusive public schools in the country. Gabriel, though, had pedigree even before then - not only did his grandfather also attend the school, his 19th-century ancestors were successful timber merchants who owned
a country estate in Cambridge and included a former Lord Mayor of London.

4 James Blunt
Singer, soldier, all-round posh bloke

James Blunt - You're Beautiful
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Before You're Beautiful propelled him toward radio ubiquity, James Hillier Blount was an officer in the Household Cavalry. Raised in keeping with his family's military lineage, which dates back over 1000 years, and schooled at Harrow and Sandhurst, the man nicknamed "Cunty Blunty" by his army chums makes no attempt to disguise his privileged past.
"It's not a dirty word to be posh," he once declared.

5 Gram Parsons
country rock fruit magnate\

Born Ingram Cecil Connor III, Parsons's mother was a scion of the wealthy Snively clan who in the mid-'50s controlled one of the largest fruit farming operations in the southern United States. Unsurprisingly, young Cecil grew up firmly on the right side of the tracks in Waycross, Georgia, and was initially sent to Bolles, an elite military prep school in Florida. Expelled at the age of 13 following his father's suicide, Parsons may have morphed into a free-wheeling country rock icon, but even Keith Richards referred to him as a "gentleman".

6 Shane MacGowan
Chose punk over public school

Whiskey swilling, dentally-challenged figurehead for unruly Irish genius he may be, but The Pogues' frontman was actually born in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent. After a brief period spent living in Ireland, he was sent to prep school before winning a scholarship to Westminster, the venerable public school across from the Houses Of Parliament. Eventually, though, MacGowan's rebellious
streak, and fascination with Irish nationalism, won out over his educators' attempts to tame him and he was expelled for taking drugs at the age of 14.

7 Damian Marley
No trust fund, no cry

He may rap with the righteous fire of a man from the mean streets of Kingston, but the youngest son of Bob Marley isn't quite the ghetto radical he likes to appear. Indeed, his father's direct influence was minimal, given he died when Damian was just two, leaving the boy to be raised in Kingston's affluent enclaves and private schools, by his stepfather, a politician, and mother Cindy Breakspeare, a model and former Miss World.

8 Ben Volpeliere-Pierrot
london society's favourite '80s jazz-popper

With his foppish grin and silly beret, as the frontman for '80s jazz-pop lightweights Curiosity Killed The Cat, Martin Benedict Volpeliere-Pierrot briefly ruled the charts - and upper crust London party circuit - like a Harper's Bazaar version of Mick Hucknall. The son of an English debutante and French fashion photographer who counted Eric Clapton and George Harrison among their friends, his time in the limelight was inevitably short-lived - though he has since reappeared, somewhat humbled, on the '80s nostalgia circuit.

9 Sophie Ellis-Bextor
She's "sophisticated and a bit classy"

The ice queen of pop disco's haughty demeanour and cut-glass tones are no
accident, given that she attended the £15,000-a-year Godolphin And Latymer School in West London. In terms of her proud refusal to hide her upbringing from public view she even out-ranks her mother, Janet Ellis, who was the jolly-hockey-sticks face of Blue Peter for much of the '80s. Little wonder, then, that Sophie now sneers at upstart rivals such as Victoria Beckham. Although she apparently prefers to think of herself
not as posh, but "sophisticated and a bit classy."

10 Crispian Mills
Partial to sitars and sanskrit

Born into a British acting dynasty - his mother was '60s screen darling Hayley Mills; his grandfather war-movie veteran Sir John Mills - the Kula Shaker frontman grew up in a rarefied world of private schools and country retreats. Turned on to psychedelia while doing his A-levels, he developed a severe case of upper-class fascination with Indian culture and religion. So much so, in fact, that some ill-considered remarks about the swastika, once a symbol of Hindu good luck, later got him into a spot of bother with the tabloid press.

And finally...

The least posh:

Victoria Beckham
"POSH SPICE?" fat chance

Dubbed "Posh Spice" by Top Of The Pops magazine, Beckham may have been all-too willing to adopt the airs and graces of the upper classes, but her background was far more modest and she went to a local comp in Goffs Oak. "I haven't read a book in my life," she confessed in 2005. "Although
I do love fashion magazines."

Have we missed out your favourite posh rock royalty? Tell us who they are below!

10:09 AM | 29/08/2010