bad news

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).

Biography

Bad News made their television debut during 1982, 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 fly-on-the-wall rockumentary, in which the incompetent band is followed travelling to a gig in Grantham by an almost equally inept 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.

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, piss-filled) bottle barrage, which was a traditional and awkward welcome for some bands at the Donington festival in those days. Before the performance properly began, 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.

On November 9th 1986 the band performed with Iron Maiden at London's illustrious Hammersmith Odeon, as part of a charity performance for the NSPCC. During the performance Jimmy Page and Brian May both appeared playing guitar solos. The show was also attended by musicians from other bands, such as Marillion.

Discography

• 1987 – Bad News
• 1988 – Bootleg
• 1992 – The Cash In Compilation
• 2004 – Bad News (re-release on EMI International)

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

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)

• Two quid for one bloody sausage?!, quickly followed by Can I have half a sausage for a quid? (Den)

• Oh Jimi who art in heaven, Hendrix be thy name. (Vim)

Trivia

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (August 2007)

• Snippets of dialogue from The Comic Strip Presents... Bad News On Tour were used on the album Answer That and Stay Fashionable by hardcore band AFI. Dialogue from More Bad News is used in "Pinita" by Nojahoda.

• Drummer Spider Webb is credited as providing music for many of the later The Comic Strip Presents... films.

External links

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007)

• Bad News Fan Site
• BBC's h2g2 Bad News entry