bad news
American Heritage Dictionary:
Top
bad news
pl.n. Slang (used with a sing. verb)
One that is unpleasant or undesirable: A troublemaker within a group is always bad news.
Related Videos:
Top
bad news
Top
1.
An unwelcome thing or person, trouble. For example, That fire was bad news; we were underinsured for the damage, or No one wants Mary on the board--she's bad news. This term transfers literal bad news--the report of an unhappy recent event--to an unwanted or undesirable individual or circumstance. [Slang; 1920s]
2.
The amount charged for something, as in Waiter, bring our check--I want to see the bad news. [Slang; 1920s]
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists:
Top
Bad News
- Genres: Spoken Word
Biography
Bad News, the parody of a bad heavy metal band, began as a 1983 episode from the Comic Strip, an English comedy troupe whose members numbered three of the four Young Ones (Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmonson, and Nigel Planer) and writer Peter Richardson (other members included Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders). As a particularly British answer to Spinal Tap, Bad News could barely find the switch on their amp. Edmonson played Vim Fuego, the egocentric guitarist of the group, Planer played Den Dennis, the metal purist and rhythm guitarist, Mayall played Colin Grigson, the talentless bassman, tolerated because he owns the P.A., and Richardson as Spyder Webb, the barely there drummer. The 1983 special came at a creative high point for the Comic Strip team -- it was one of many well-done shows in that season, but time, numerous repeats, and the rise of the VCR raised Bad News to cult status, mainly among college students. After a few years passed, the four decided to reunite for an album (Bad News) and sequel to the original special. To really get the most out of their roles, they played in front of 70,000 at Castle Donnington's Monsters of Rock festival and were promptly booed off the stage. The success of the album resulted in a cassette-only follow-up Bootleg and a single "Cashing in on Christmas" a poke at the traditional end-of-year single. The four comedian actors never returned to their roles afterwards, but a hashed-together compilation "The Cash in Compilation" followed a few years later with one or two rare tracks. The members have since gone on to various other TV and movie projects and (fortunately) never picked up any instruments again. ~ Ted Mills, RoviOxford Dictionary of Modern Slang:
Top
bad news
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
Bad News
For other uses, see Bad news (disambiguation).
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2011) |
| Bad News | |
|---|---|
| Origin | United Kingdom |
| Genres | Heavy metal |
| Years active | 1983–1988 |
| Labels | EMI |
| Past members | |
| Vim Fuego Den Dennis Colin Grigson Spider Webb |
|
Bad News were a spoof rock band, created for the Channel 4 television series The Comic Strip Presents.... Its members were 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).
|
Contents
|
Biography
Bad News made their television debut during 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 satirical fly-on-the-wall rockumentary, in which the incompetent band is followed travelling to a gig in Grantham by an almost equally inept documentary film crew: It seemed to take much inspiration from Mark Kidel's 1976 BBC documentary So You Wanna Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star? that followed the Kursaal Flyers around Scotland and northeast England.[1] The episode was also coincidentally in production at the same time as This Is Spinal Tap, which was released the following year to a much wider audience and subsequently greater acclaim.
The "Bad News Tour" episode is notable for featuring songs (written by Edmondson and Simon Brint) that do not appear on either of the Bad News albums or in the later TV episode. These rare tunes are 'Bad News' (Version 1), 'The Motorbike Song' (aka 'Doing A Ton Down The Highway'), a brief snippet of a song whose title is unknown, and an almost complete live version of "Mr Rock N Roll". These tunes represent the only released Bad News material not (co)produced by Queen guitarist Brian May.
The band continued to tour throughout most of the decade and released an eponymously titled album, consisting of thrashy rock songs punctuated by frequent squabbling amongst the band's members. Brian May produced the record, which included a cover of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". That track peaked at #44 in the UK Singles Chart in September 1987.[2]
Perhaps their most memorable appearance was when they were invited to play at the Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington in 1986. This performance was the centre piece of a second follow-up Comic Strip episode, "More Bad News", broadcast again by Channel 4 in 1988. A feature of the band's on-stage antics that day, omitted from the final cut, was a method of coping with the crowd's plastic (and often urine-filled) bottle barrage, which was then a traditional (if somewhat awkward) welcome for bands playing at the Donington festival in those days. Before the performance began proper, the band spent time just running around on stage dodging missiles, with Mayall using his guitar as a bat in an attempt to return some. They also played a low-key London show at the Marquee Club, with guest appearances by Jeff Beck and Brian May.
Discography
- 1987 – Bad News - UK #69[2]
- 1988 – Bootleg
- 1989 – Bad News (expanded reissue)
- 1992 – The Cash In Compilation
- 2004 – Bad News (re-release on EMI International)
Videography
- 1988: Bohemian Rhapsody (contains the music video for the title track and a skit entitled "EMI: Every Mistake Imaginable")
- 1988: Comic Strip Classics: Bad News/More Bad News (the two Comic Strip Presents episodes)
- 1992: Bad News Tour (live performance?)
Songs
Over the band's seven releases, some songs appear one one another, e.g. "Cashing in on Christmas (Dub)" appears on both Bootleg and the third version of the band's self-titled debut album. Also, songs such as "Hey Mr. Bassman" and "Hey Mr. Drummer" appear as separate tracks on the second version of Bad News, whilst together as one track on the third version of Bad News using just "Hey Mr. Drummer" as the title.
Here is a list to show which songs are identical to which, also featuring the spoken tracks, with a track position to show where the song is on the particular release. This list does not show you the track times, as for one single song they can be different when it appears on one release than another due to segueing (an example is "Bad News Rehearsal", which lasts five minutes on the 1989 Bad News but four minutes on the 2004 Bad News)
| Song | Bad News (1987 version) |
Bootleg (1988) |
Bad News (1989 version) |
The Cash in Compilation (1993) |
Bad News (2004 version) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "A.G.M." | 2 | 2 | 4 | 18 | |
| "AIDS" | 5 | ||||
| "Bad News" | 4 | 4 | 9 | 9 | |
| "Bad Dreams" | 1 | 1 (listed as "Bad Dreams Rehearsal") | 2 | 17 | |
| "Bohemian Rhapsody" (Take 1) | 5 | ||||
| "Bohemian Rhapsody" | 3 | 14 | 5 | 6 (listed as "Bohemian Rhapsody (Take 2)") | |
| "Cashing in on Christmas" | 16 | 22 | |||
| "Cashing in on Christmas" (Dub) | 10 | 13 | 21 | ||
| "Dividing Up the Spoils" | 17 | 7 (listed as "The Contract") | |||
| "Double Entendre" | 3 | 15 | 11 | 20 | |
| "Drink 'til I Die" | 6 | 9 | 12 | 13 | |
| "Excaliber" | 13 | 4 | |||
| "Heavy Metal Farmer" | 8 | ||||
| "Hey Hey Bad News" | 1 | 11 | 1 | 1 | |
| "Hey Mr. Bassman" | 5 | 10 | |||
| "Hey Mr. Drummer" | 6 | 10 (track 10 is listed as "Hey Mr. Bassman" but contains both that song and "Hey Mr. Drummer") | |||
| "Introducing the Band" | 3 | 8 | |||
| "Life with Brian" | 8 | 16 | |||
| "Locked In" | 4 | ||||
| "Making of Masturbike" | 9 | ||||
| "Masturbike" | 5 | 7 | 10 | 11 | |
| "Maybe We Should Plug the Guitars In?" | 14 | ||||
| "O'Levels" | 6 | 7 | 19 | ||
| "Pretty Woman" | 6 | 15 | |||
| "Trousers" | 8 | 12 (listed as "What are We Going to Wear for Top of the Pops?") | |||
| "Vim is Angry" | 10 | 2 (listed as "We Haven't Record Anything Yet") | |||
| "Warriors of Ghengis Khan" | 2 | 12 | 3 | 3 | |
| "Wedding" | 7 |
Members
- Vim Fuego aka Alan Metcalfe (Adrian Edmondson) – Vocals and lead guitar
- Den Dennis (Nigel Planer) – Rhythm guitar
- Colin Grigson (Rik Mayall) – Bass guitar
- Spider Webb (Peter Richardson) – Drums
References
- ^ 50 Greatest Music Films Ever. London: TimeOut. Oct. 2, 2007. http://www.timeout.com/film/features/show-feature/3567/8/.
- ^ a b Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 39. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
External links
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Read more
American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Read more
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists
Copyright © 2012 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.
Read more
Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang
Oxford University Press. © 1997, 2008, 2010
All rights reserved.
Read more
Mentioned in
Sensitive Market
(finance term)
Bad News Tour / More Bad News
(1987 Comedy Film)
Discounting the News
(business term)
» More