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Fighter does have the advantage of not having any pools of stuff to keep track of. It has the disadvantage of sucking at everything but combat. But you're thinking of dipping Rogue, which would theoretically help with that a little (but only a little), I suppose.
Still, I've yet to see a Fighter/Rogue that doesn't do better as a Slayer. Slayers are restricted from wearing heavy armor, but since you weren't planning on that anyway, I'd just go with it.
You'll likely need to adopt a slightly different tactical setup (probably just dropping the shield), but the character will likely be both more effective and more fun.
As for Feats, all melee characters want Power Attack, and all characters with a Reach weapon want Combat Reflexes. So, those are a good place to start.
I agree with DMW, the Slayer is great for new players, very simple to understand, but also very solid and playable even among a group of optimized characters.
"Tank" isn't really a role in Pathfinder; many enemies, especially ones with spellcasting, are going to be able to get around you regardless of what you do, so the best thing to do is make sure you're enough of a threat that they can't ignore you. Easiest way to do this is to get Power Attack with a 2-handed weapon and let the damage roll in.
"Tank" isn't really a role in Pathfinder
To me, that's more along the lines of battlefield control using combat maneuvers such as trip or sunder. Both can be managed fairly well with a Fighter. Slayer too actually. Just not as many feats but the tradeoff for it is you get way more skill points and better overall saves.
Oh, if you decide to go rogue, see about getting the Unchained version if it's available to you. It's just better than the core rulebook version. Not "broken" better. The Unchained version fixes alot of the shortcomings brought on by time and the evolution of the ruleset that became apparent over the years, thus bringing it back to a similar level with other classes.
I made some NPC fighters that were pretty effective at battlefield control.
Power Attack
Pushing Assault (trade damage bonus from Power Attack to push opponents back 5 feet)
Combat Reflexes
Stand Still (creatures you hit w/ Attack of Opportunity for moving must stop moving)
Basically, you hit opponents and push them back 5 feet. They can't move, and you step back 5 feet. Now, they need to move 10 feet to reach you, and provoke more AoOs. At higher levels, you can combine this with Lunge to hit them when they are 10 feet from you (not with your AoOs, though).
And fighters do have some useful skills, like Knowledge dungeoneering and Survival. You also have enough feats that you can spend one on Additional Traits so you can pick up some additional class skills. Or multiclass into Ranger for more skill points.
Ranger is actually an excellent introductory class for new players. The Slayer is a Ranger/Rogue combo, so it would probably be a fun class for, since it combines a fighting class with skill class and teaches you some rogue stuff, like sneak attack.
I'm working on a Slayer build using the Bounty Hunter archetype, and the dirty trick feat line. Maybe not for beginners, but giving a string of dirty trick combat maneuvers as a full attack action is one way of "tanking".
Depending on the size and makeup of your party, you might be able to have your allies also make AoOs when your opponent provokes them.
But I just remembered most of your allies will be spellcasters. Any of them going to be a reach cleric/bard/inquisitor/druid/summoner/alchemist/etc.?
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If you want to be a big old tank, Barbarians work very well for this. They have the most hits points out of any class, great weapon proficiencies, good armor, and their Rage Powers that you get at every odd level can make them very hard to kill. Intimidating things is also a common theme for them, and they even have abilities that force creatures to attack you (you can also take the Antagonize feat). You can also really push the Diehard feat line, if you want, and just have a stupid amount of HP and never go unconscious. It isn't super effective, but it can be fun if that's your thing.
Cavaliers are also great at tanking, if you become an Order of the Shield cavalier. They get Stand Still for free, and they can put out pretty good damage. They're also very much a party-focused, kind of teamplay-oriented fighter variant, and they get a mount. If you aren't so into the mount, your DM can probably work with you on using an archetype that trades it for something else (Daring Champion, I believe it's called). Alternatively, you can also take the Samurai class, which is an alternate Cavalier that is very tanky and can survive a lot of punishment.
These classes are pretty straightforward, and there aren't a whole lot of moving parts involved. The Barbarian can add in more nifty abilities with Rage Powers, or you can just take things that're passive buffs.
Basically, you hit opponents and push them back 5 feet. They can't move, and you step back 5 feet. Now, they need to move 10 feet to reach you, and provoke more AoOs. At higher levels, you can combine this with Lunge to hit them when they are 10 feet from you (not with your AoOs, though).This is pretty much what I was imagining, but instead of Pushing Assault using Shield Slam.
I've toyed with the Super Shield Slammer before. Go with a medium size bloodrager with the aberrant bloodline. You can have 5 feet reach from bloodline, 5 from Long arm Spell and 5 from Enlarge Person. This gives you a nice 20 foot reach for you to spam Shield Slams. You can even slam on your attacks of opportunity creating a deadzone around yourself where your enemies will have trouble entering. Alternatively do this with a dual shields build, to really up the chances of applying the bull rushes on your turn.
The main downside to this build is that it's fairly MAD, although you could go with small shields and a finesse build including Agile Maneuvers. Unfortunately, this doesn't pair as nicely with the strength bonuses from bloodrage.
And bloodrager also increases your speed, so you can run forward 40 feet (30 feet in medium armor), so you can create a zone of safety between your opponents and your squishy spellcasting allies.
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What books do you have access too?
As a new player I highly reccomend you DO select a class that has some of those resource features, mana, rage, ki or other x/much of per day abilities. The fact is that nearly every class in the game has at least one expendable resourse and those classes that didnt initally have them have gained them through new options and features as the game grew. Even the basic fighter was very recently buffed by the rules for combat tricks in Pathfinder unchained, which gives the fighter a pool of stamina to work with.
Heres a list of all the basic limited resources that i can remember before unchained (not including the really limited stuff like specific rage powers and feats):
Bardic performance, Rage, Channel energy, Wild shape, Ki, Smite, Bloodline powers, School powers. That accounts for all but three classes in the Core rulebook, not counting spells.
Bombs. Mutagens. Challenge. Judgement. Bane. Revelations. Summon monster. Hexes. Thats every class in Advanced players guide.
Arcane pool for Magi.
Arcane reservoir. Bloodrage. Martial flexibility. Animal focus. Inspiration. Spirit magic and hexes. Raging song. Blessings. Fervor. That accounts for every class except slayer in Qdvanced class guide.
In other words. Every class in the game except four has a defining limited use class ability, still not counting spells.
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Thats why I reccomend taking a class with a limited-use resource, because they are integral to the system. They are really easy to manage once you get the hang of it. The classes have very different complexity tiers and are easy/hard to mess up in character creation depending on the class. A Barbarian for example is easy to play and very hard to mess up during creation. All you need is con and str, then power attack ,and youre good to go. A fighter however is a little more prone to fall flat if you choose the wrong feat, and classes like Bard and Rouge really struggle without finesse.
Are you opposed to playing dwarves?
A dwarven slayer can build for strength and still get 2 weapon fighting with the combat style talents... Dwarves with martial weapon proficiency are automatically proficient with the dorn dergar which is a reach weapon that can be used one handed with a feat (it's called Dorn Dergar Master, or 'chain flail master' on d20pfsrd). So, then you can pretty easily, and pretty effectively, fight with a dorn dergar at reach with your main hand and shield bash (adjacent) with your off hand.
I'd offer Switch Hitter Ranger as an alternative option. It's not complex but has a bit of variety if you want it. At the simplest you can choose an archetype that loses spells and opt not to have an animal companion, but this is less powerful.
As a basic frame use the classic Switch Hitter from Treantmonk's Guide. I'd suggest considering the Urban Ranger Archetype and the Boon Companion feat at level 5.
You have a big 2-handed weapon if enemies are close. You have a bow if enemies are far away. You have stealth and scouting skills. The pet and spells are icing on the cake.
If you want to play a low-difficulty class and still learn the system, I reccomend picking a class that has minimal statistical modifications and minimal decicionmaking during character creation and each round.
Note that EVERY character will wind up having some effects that are limited or stat modifying, power attack for example is extremely common. Your goal should be to make a character that routinely makes the same modifications, power attack and rage for example are easy to calculate because they always grant the same benefits and penalties and neither of those effects are case dependent, such as Favored enemy or Smite.
Warpriest for example has a HUUUGE number of statistic modifying options and a bucketload of buffs that he can bring into play quickly, Warpriest have so much stuff to do that they are one of the rare classes that can make good tactical/strategic use of every action slot routinely.
Barbarian on the other hand has only a few options every round. Generally "To charge, or not to charge." is the biggest one, raging is almost allways a given and youre not likely to run out of rage/day often.
The ultimate "Learn pathfinder" class that is also easy to play is the Bloodrager.
Bloodragers have:
A selectable theme (Bloodline).
Daily use class abilities (Bloodline powers).
A spendable resource core to their class (Bloodrage).
Options in and out of combat (Moderate amount of skillpoints per level and high attack bonus).
And finally, spells.
So many features might sound hard to play with, but its really easy. Your daily use abilities are picked for you by your bloodline, and using them is rarely complicated (All of the aberrant abilities for example are passive effects, using them is part of your strategy, not your action economy.) You get spells, but they are so few and so low leveled that it is fine if you just pick a spell you like and use it with impunity, reliable spells like Magic missile or Shield will rarely fail you. Counting rage rounds will become near automatic after a few combats, you can even scetch up a basic system on your character sheet to tick off rage rounds one by one.
If you do pick Fighter, a fighter is really good for Stoic combat styles that favor skill and mastery at mundane stuff (Like the phalanx fighter, which is one of my favorite archetypes for fighter and I have used it for some of my most memorable NPC factions in the game) but they dont have much "bling" factor. Fighters are good at what you made them to be good at, but bad at pretty much everything else, which is why many people think they are bad or boring. I find that fighters are best apprechiated by seasoned players that already have plenty of experience with spellcasters and other complex classes and want to play a fighter for the change of pace.
Whatever class you decide to play keep in mind that not class is truly "Easy", they all need to be built and played properly or you risk making a character that is unreasonably weak.
Slayer is pretty forgiving of sub-optimal builds without having a lot of things to keep track of. Sure you can make very optimized slayer builds with lots of choices, but you could just as easily go two handed weapon and start power attacking face smashing.
Which makes me think that I should add a simplest Slayer to my class guide. A build that anyone could play and still do great.
Like Scott above I really dig on the Phalanx Soldier for at least a 3 level dip. Perhaps going slayer the rest of the way for better skill points and the style feats would be an easy and strong build that will let you get used to the non-caster types. Polearm and shield is cool and not easy to pull off without Phalanx Soldier. Combat Reflexes and Shield Slam and you are good to do your shtick at level 5 when the casters start taking off.
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Ranger is a really good starter class. It's flexible, but not too flexible and has a lot of cool abilities that you get slowly, so they're not all thrown at you at once.
If you have access to the Advanced Race Guide and don't mind playing a Dwarf, the Foehammer (dwarf-only Fighter archetype) is solid and very straightforward. You get some battlefield control (Bullrush and Trip) and pretty much wreck everything you hit.
The unchained fighter looks like a fun option - but the above guidance about not worrying about resource tracking is worth listening to. Non-resource limited classes are few and far between, and generally weaker overall. They use the resource limitation to offset the stronger abilities of the classes that use them. Since the rest of your party will be resource limited, it's not like you'll be getting in a bunch more fights per day, so you might as well play withing your resources as well. Whether that's the barbarian's rage, or the unchained fighter's stamina, or a swashbuckler's panache (all three of these make fun first characters) - it will still be relatively easy to work with.
Weapon Expert Rogue is a 3rd party option, so I don't know how your DM feels about that sort of thing.
Personally, I'm a real big fan of Lore Warden fighters. Get an Agile Elven Branched Spear, use +Dex to Damage, and get a ridiculous number of really powerful Attacks of Opportunity. (You don't need to track combat maneuvers, but if you're willing to take just Improved Trip then you can basically make a solid pile of fallen enemies in front of you for the spellcasters to fireball). Then get Cleave, and retrain it to Whirlwind Attack around level 7-8; if you pick up a magic item that boosts reach, you can keep a whole bunch of mooks at your mercy.
Meanwhile, a 1-2 level dip into Master of Many Styles or Martial Artist Monk (low enough to not get any ki you need to worry about) can give you some really nice tricks, like Deflect Arrows or Kirin Strike (which, with Unchained, lets you add +Int to attacks without spending anything, which is nice for a smart fighter).
A switch-hitter ranger or slayer might be the best bet. Rangers teach you about a lot of skills, some fighting styles, monster types, spells, and animal companions. They're also really useful both in combat and outside of combat.