Bad News
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the spoof rock band. For the monster truck, see Bad News (truck)
Bad News are a spoof rock band, created for the Channel 4 television series The Comic Strip Presents.... Its members are Vim Fuego (aka Alan Metcalfe), vocals and lead guitar (played by Adrian Edmondson); Den Dennis, rhythm guitar (Nigel Planer); Colin Grigson, bass (Rik Mayall); and Spider Webb, drums (Peter Richardson).
Their first appearance was in 1983, in the first series of The Comic Strip Presents... (written by Edmondson, and produced by Michael White/Comic Strip Productions). The episode, Bad News Tour, took the form of a spoof rockumentary, in which the incompetent band is followed on tour by an almost equally incompetent documentary crew. Coincidentally, it was in production at the same time as the similar film This Is Spinal Tap, which was released the following year to much greater acclaim. Beyond the premise, the two aren't that similar: Spinal Tap have some talent and a lot of success, while Bad News has neither.
The band also guested on some TV music shows and released a self-titled album, consisting of thrashy rock songs interspersed with arguments amongst the band. Brian May of Queen produced the album, which included a cover of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".
They also played a tour of universities and polytechnics as well as playing Reading Festival in 1987.They also played a suitably bad set at the Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington. This performance was featured in a second Comic Strip film, More Bad News, broadcast in 1988. A feature of the band's performance that day which did not appear on film was an interesting method of dealing with the audience's (plastic) bottle barrage, which was a traditional and awkward welcome for some bands at the Donington festival in those days. Before the performance proper started, the band spent some time just running around on stage dodging bottles, and Mayall used his guitar as a bat in an attempt to return some.
Contents |
[edit] Albums and Track Listings
- Original Release of "Bad News"
- Bad Dreams Rehearsal
- A.G.M.
- Introducing The Band
- Bad News
- Hey Mr. Bassman
- Hey Mr. Drummer
- Masturbike
- Trousers
- Drink Till I Die
- Vim Is Angry
- Hey Hey Bad News
- Warriors Of Ghengis Khan
- Excaliber
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- Double Entendre
- Cashing In On Christmas
- Dividing Up The Spoils
- "The Cash In Compilation"
- Hey hey bad news
- Bad dreams
- Warriors of Ghengis Khan
- AGM
- Bohemian rhapsody
- Oh pretty woman
- O levels
- Life with Brian
- Bad news
- Masturbike
- Double entendre
- Drink till I die
- Cashing in on Christmas (Dub)
- 2004 re-release of "Bad News" on EMI International
- Hey Hey Bad News
- "We haven't Recorded Anything Yet"
- Warriors Of Ghengis Kahn
- Excalibur
- Bohemian Rhapsody (Take 1)
- Bohemian Rhapsody (Take 2)
- The Contract
- Introducting The Band
- Bad News
- Hey Mr. Bassman
- Masturbike
- "What Are you Going To Wear For Top Of The Pops?"
- Drink Till I Die
- "Maybe We Should Plug The Guitars In"
- Pretty Woman
- Life With Brian
- Bad Dreams
- A.G.M.
- O'Levels
- Double Entendre
- Cashing In On Christmas (Dub)
- Cashing In On Christmas
[edit] Quotations
- I could play Stairway To Heaven when I was twelve. Jimmy Page didn't actually write it until he was twenty-two. I think that says quite a lot. (Vim)
- Oh Jimi who art in heaven, Hendrix be thy name. (Vim)
- [the camera has seen him in his business suit] No. No, er... I'm not Colin, I'm... I'm... I'm Trevor. I'm Trevor, Colin's twin brother. If you want Colin, he'll probably be round at his pad... because he's frightfully... groovy. (Colin)
[edit] Trivia
- Snippets of dialogue from The Comic Strip Presents... Bad News On Tour were used on the album Answer That and Stay Fashionable by pop-rock band AFI.
