23/09/2019 Bad News (band) - Wikipedia

Bad News (band)

Bad News are a fictional English heavy metal band, created for the
Bad News
Channel 4 television series The Comic Strip Presents.... Its members were
Vim Fuego (aka Alan Metcalfe), vocals and lead guitar (played by Ade
Edmondson); Den Dennis, rhythm guitar (Nigel Planer); Colin Grigson,
bass (Rik Mayall); and Spider "Eight-Legs" Webb, drums (Peter
Richardson).[1]

Contents
Biography
Bad News, in a scene from More
Discography Bad News. From left to right; Colin
Videography Grigson, Spider Webb, Vim Fuego,
Songs Den Dennis.
Members Background information
References
Origin United Kingdom
External links
Genres Heavy metal,
parody music,
comedy rock
Biography
Years active 1983–1988
Bad News made their television debut during 1983, in the first series of The
Labels EMI
Comic Strip Presents...[1] (written by Edmondson, and produced by
Michael White/Comic Strip Productions). The episode, "Bad News Tour", Past members Vim Fuego
took the form of a satirical fly-on-the-wall rockumentary, in which the Den Dennis
incompetent band is followed travelling to a gig in Grantham, by an almost Colin Grigson
equally inept documentary film crew: It seemed to take much inspiration Spider Webb
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.[2] 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 the 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.[1] Brian May produced the
record, which included a cover version of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". That track peaked at No. 44 in the UK
Singles Chart in September 1987.[3]

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Perhaps their most memorable appearance was when they were invited to play at the Monsters of Rock festival at
Castle Donington in 1986.[1] 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 festival in those days. Before the performance
began properly, 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. In late 1987, to promote the release of their eponymous album, the band
embarked on a full UK tour which also featured a guest appearance from May during the encore. The same year Bad
News also supported Iron Maiden and Paul Samson's Empire at the Hammersmith Odeon, at a Sunday Matinee show
Iron Maiden added (as part of their Somewhere On Tour), a sixth consecutive date at the venue. The show featured a
guest appearance from Jimmy Page.

In 2012, for the 30 Years of Comic Strip documentary, Planer and Richardson returned as Den Dennis and Spider
Webb respectively to recall stories from their time as Bad News.

Discography
1987 – Bad News - UK No. 69[3][4]
1988 – Bootleg[4]
1989 – Bad News (expanded reissue)
1992 – The Cash In Compilation[4]
2004 – Bad News (re-release on EMI International)[1]
During the "AGM" sketch, their upcoming album is the provisionally entitled Satan Ate My Knob. During "Cashing in
on Christmas", Colin states that as a band they have released 17 singles so far.

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 (the first Comic Strip television special)

Songs
Some songs appear on several of the band's releases, e.g. "Cashing in on Christmas (Dub)" appears on both Bootleg
and the third version of the band's self-titled debut album. Also, "Hey Mr. Bassman" and "Hey Mr. Drummer"
appeared as separate tracks on the second version of Bad News, whilst they appeared together as one track, using just
"Hey Mr. Drummer" as the title, on the third version of Bad News.

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, which can differ for a song
from one release to the next due to segueing.

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Bad Bad
The Cash in
News Bootleg News Bad News
Song Compilation
(1987 (1988) (1989 (2004 version)
(1993)
version) version)

"A.G.M." 2 2 4 18
"AIDS" 5
"Bad News" 8 4 9 9
1 (listed as 17 (This version is about 1 minute shorter - a
"Bad number of minor edits were made, possibly to
"Bad Dreams" 1 2
Dreams ensure the total playing time for the CD did not
Rehearsal") exceed the maximum.)

"Bohemian
Rhapsody" 5
(Take 1)
"Bohemian
5 14 5 6 (listed as "Bohemian Rhapsody (Take 2)")
Rhapsody"
"Cashing in on
16 22
Christmas"
"Cashing in on
Christmas" 10 13 21
(Dub)
"Dividing Up
6† 17 7 (listed as "The Contract")
the Spoils"
"Double
3 15 11 20
Entendre"
"Drink 'til I
12 9 12 13
Die"
"Excalibur" 4† 13 4
"Heavy Metal
8
Farmer"
"Hey Hey Bad
1 11 1 1
News"
"Hey Mr.
9† 5 10
Bassman"
10 (track 10 is listed as "Hey Mr. Bassman"
"Hey Mr.
9† 6 but contains both that song and "Hey Mr.
Drummer"
Drummer")

"Introducing
7† 3 8
the Band"
"Life with
8 16
Brian"
"Locked In" 4
"Making of
9
Masturbike"
"Masturbike" 10 7 10 11
"Maybe We
Should Plug 13† 14
the Guitars In"
"O'Levels" 6 7 19
"Pretty
6 15
Woman"

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Bad Bad
The Cash in
News Bootleg News Bad News
Song Compilation
(1987 (1988) (1989 (2004 version)
(1993)
version) version)

12 (listed as "What are We Going to Wear for

"Trousers" 11† 8
Top of the Pops?")

2 (listed as "We Haven't Record Anything

"Vim is Angry" 2† 10
Yet")

"Warriors of
Genghis 3 12 3 3
Khan"
"Wedding" 7

† Sketch present on the 1987 vinyl release, but only the songs were listed on the packaging.

Members
Vim Fuego aka Alan Metcalfe (Adrian Edmondson) – Vocals, lead guitar
Den Dennis (Nigel Planer) – Rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Colin Grigson (Rik Mayall) – Bass, vocals
Spider Webb (Peter Richardson) – Drums, backing vocals[1]

References
1. Mills, Ted. "Bad News - Music Biography, Credits and Discography" (http://www.allmusic.com/artist/bad-news-mn0
000764998). AllMusic. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
2. 50 Greatest Music Films Ever (http://www.timeout.com/film/features/show-feature/3567/8/). London: TimeOut. 2
October 2007.
3. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 39.
ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
4. Mills, Ted. "Bad News - Bad News : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards" (http://www.allmusic.com/album/bad-news-
mw0000654467). AllMusic. Retrieved 20 February 2013.

External links
BBC's h2g2 Bad News entry (http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A447950)
Bad News (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0544862/) on IMDb
Bad News (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0544879/) on IMDb
Rare crowd-shot footage of the 1986 Donnington appearance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MIXW6N0c7
c)

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This page was last edited on 1 September 2019, at 11:17 (UTC).

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