Bad News are a fictional English heavy metal band created for the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

series '' The Comic Strip Presents...''. Its members were Vim Fuego (also known as "Alan Metcalfe"), vocals and lead guitar (played by

Ade Edmondson Adrian Charles Edmondson (born 24 January 1957) is an English actor, comedian, musician, writer and television presenter. He was part of the alternative comedy boom in the early 1980s and had roles in the television series '' The Young Ones'' (1 ...

); Den Dennis, rhythm guitar (

Nigel Planer Nigel George Planer (born 22 February 1953) is a British actor, comedian, musician, novelist and playwright. He played Neil in the BBC comedy '' The Young Ones'' and Ralph Filthy in '' Filthy Rich & Catflap''. He has appeared in many West End ...

); Colin Grigson, bass (

Rik Mayall Richard Michael Mayall (7 March 1958 – 9 June 2014) was an English actor, stand-up comedian and writer. He formed a close partnership with Ade Edmondson while they were students at Manchester University and was a pioneer of alternative ...

); and Spider "Eight-Legs" Webb, drums ( Peter Richardson). The band continued outside the context of the TV series, with the actors (in character) eventually playing a number of live gigs as Bad News, and recording an album (1987's ''Bad News'') and a single (a cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody") that made the UK charts.

Biography

Early incarnation: "Bad News Tour" (1983)

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 Fly on the wall is a style of documentary-making used in film and television production. The name derived from the idea that events are seen candidly, as a fly on a wall might see them. In the purest form of fly-on-the-wall documentary-making, t ...

rockumentary A concert film, or concert movie, is a film that showcases a live performance from the perspective of a concert goer, the subject of which is an extended live performance or concert by either a musician or a stand-up comedian. Early history The ...

, in which the incompetent band is followed travelling to a gig in

Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln a ...

, by an almost equally inept documentary film crew: It seemed to take much inspiration from

Mark Kidel Mark Kidel (born 6 July 1947) is a documentary filmmaker, writer and critic, working mostly in France and the UK. His award-winning films include portraits of Cary Grant, John Adams (composer), Elvis Costello, Boy George, Ravi Shankar, Rod Stew ...

's 1976 BBC documentary ''So You Wanna Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?'' that followed the Kursaal Flyers around Scotland and northeast England. In the episode, Bad News is a band just starting out; they have no recording contract, no management, no crew, and have apparently only been together for a short while. The 30-minute documentary follows them on their "tour" (apparently only one gig), which is an unqualified disaster ... only four people show up. Along the way, there is much inter-group squabbling as Bad News are profiled by "rock journalist extraordinaire" Sally Freidman (

Jennifer Saunders Jennifer Jane Saunders (born 6 July 1958) is an English actress, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Saunders originally found attention in the 1980s, when she became a member of The Comic Strip after graduating from the Royal Central School of ...

), and pick up a schoolgirl groupie named Tracy (

Dawn French Dawn Roma French (born 11 October 1957) is a British actress, comedian, presenter and writer. French is known for writing and starring on the BBC comedy sketch show '' French and Saunders'' with her best friend and comedy partner, Jennifer Sau ...

). The episode was filmed in autumn 1982 and was coincidentally in production at the same time as the similar mock-documentary ''

This Is Spinal Tap ''This Is Spinal Tap'' (also known as ''This Is Spınal Tap: A Rockumentary by Martin Di Bergi'') is a 1984 American mockumentary film co-written and directed by Rob Reiner (in his feature directorial debut). The film stars Christopher Guest, M ...

'', which was released in 1984 to a much wider audience. 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" (a.k.a. "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 Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themsel ...

Brian May Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and astrophysicist, who achieved worldwide fame as the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen. May was a co-founder of Queen with lead singer Freddie Mercury and ...

. The opening sequence of "Bad News Tour" shows Vim living in the notorious Chantry Point tower block on the Elgin Estate in west London. The block was demolished in 1992.

Revival: Monsters of Rock (1986), ''Bad News'' (1987), "More Bad News" (1988) and ''Bootleg'' (1988)

After a pause of a few years, the previously fictional-only band became an entity in real life when Bad News were invited to play at the

Monsters of Rock Monsters of Rock was an annual hard rock and heavy metal music festival held in Castle Donington, England, from 1980 to 1996, taking place every year except 1989 and 1993. It later branched into other locations such as the Netherlands, Poland, ...

festival at

Castle Donington Castle Donington is a market town and civil parish in Leicestershire, England, on the edge of the National Forest and close to East Midlands Airport. History The name 'Donington' means 'farm/settlement connected with Dunna'. Another sugge ...

in 1986. A feature of the band's on-stage antics that day was a method of coping with the crowd's plastic (and often

urine Urine is a liquid by-product of metabolism in humans and in many other animals. Urine flows from the kidneys through the ureters to the urinary bladder. Urination results in urine being excreted from the body through the urethra. Cellul ...

-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 The Marquee Club was a music venue first located at 165 Oxford Street in London, when it opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts. Its most famous period was from 1964 to 1988 at 90 Wardour Street in Soho, and it finally closed ...

, with guest appearances by

Jeff Beck Geoffrey Arnold Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He rose to prominence with the Yardbirds and after fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to a mainly instrumental style, with a fo ...

and Brian May, and several other gigs, including opening for

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harr ...

and a show with a guest appearance from

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various alternative ...

. All this was in aid of promoting an eponymously titled Bad News album, consisting of thrashy rock songs punctuated by frequent squabbling amongst the band's members. Brian May produced the record, which included a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song relea ...

of Queen's "

Bohemian Rhapsody "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen, released as the lead single from their fourth album, '' A Night at the Opera'' (1975). Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, the song is a six-minute suite, notable for its lack o ...

". That track peaked at No. 44 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in September 1987. A 1987 UK tour was put on, with May appearing during the encores. The band's performance at the Monsters of Rock festival was the centre piece of a follow-up ''Comic Strip'' episode, "More Bad News", broadcast by Channel 4 in 1988. In this one-hour mock-documentary, the band is once again profiled by "rock journalist extraordinaire" Sally Freidman (Jennifer Saunders); Dawn French plays a different character this time, the band's manager Rachel. It is explained that Bad News "broke up" in 1983, six months after the original documentary was filmed, due to extreme personality conflicts. (A snippet of a supposed 1983 appearance on '' The Tube'' is shown, with Bad News being interviewed by

Jools Holland Julian Miles Holland, (born 24 January 1958) is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was an original member of the band Squeeze and has worked with many artists including Jayne County, Sting, Eric C ...

before it devolves into a screaming match). Five years later, the band is put back together again at Freidman's instigation, and now has an opportunity to record a song ("Warriors of Ghengis Khan") and make a video for it. Behind-the-scenes footage of the recording and video shoot are shown, but the single flops, and the band is in debt to their record company ("Frilly Pink Records") when the opportunity to play the Monsters Of Rock festival comes along. In the film, highlights from the concert are shown, but it ends with Bad News' terrible performance causing a riot, and the members of Bad News being beaten mercilessly by the crowd and by the police. The documentary ends with all four members of Bad News in hospital, severely injured. Dennis (the only band member still actually capable of speech) muses that if Vim dies from his injuries and they market it properly, the band might be successful yet. Bad News appeared at the 1987

Reading Festival The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Festiv ...

and were joined onstage by

for a performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody". Later in 1988, the band issued the largely spoken word album ''

Bootleg Bootleg or bootlegging most often refers to: * Bootleg recording, an audio or video recording released unofficially * Rum-running, the illegal business of transporting and trading in alcoholic beverages, hence: ** Moonshine, or illicitly made a ...

'', which ostensibly consisted of dialogue (mostly interband arguments) recorded during the sessions for ''Bad News''. In 1989, a CD reissue of the ''Bad News'' album combined tracks from both albums; the later ''Cash In Compilation'' (1992) compiled many of the same tracks.

Later activity

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. In the documentary, the post-1988 fates of the Bad News members were revealed: Alan (Vim) returned to his business as a painter and decorator, with Den assisting him; Colin's father got him a job as a bank clerk; and Spider retired to the West Country with his partner and three children. It's also revealed that Vim and Sally eventually married—just as their portrayers Adrian Edmondson and Jennifer Saunders were married in real life. On 9 June 2014, Bad News member Rik Mayall (Colin Grigson) died at his home in Barnes, Richmond-upon-Thames, London, from a sudden

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

after

jogging Jogging is a form of trotting or running at a slow or leisurely pace. The main intention is to increase physical fitness with less stress on the body than from faster running but more than walking, or to maintain a steady speed for longer periods ...

. In 2019, a vinyl record of Bad News rarities (''Almost Rare'') appeared. The following year, the band issued a 2-CD live compilation of material recorded in 1986, including a complete gig at the Hammersmith Odeon and their Monsters Of Rock show live at Donington.

Discography

*1987 – '' Bad News'' - UK No. 69 *1988 – ''

'' # Bad Dreams # AGM # Double Entendre # Locked In # AIDS # O Levels # Wedding # Heavy Metal Farmer # Making of Masterbike # Cashing in on Christmas (DUB) *1989 – ''Bad News'' (expanded reissue) *1992 – ''The Cash in Compilation'' *2004 – ''Bad News'' (re-release on EMI International) 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) *1982: ''Bad News Tour'' (the first Comic Strip television special)

Band members

* Vim Fuego, né Alan Metcalfe (

) – Lead vocals and lead electric guitar * Den Dennis (

) – Rhythm electric guitar and backing vocals * Colin Grigson (

) – Electric bass guitar and backing vocals * Spider Webb ( Peter Richardson) – Drum kit and backing vocals

References

External links

* * *
Rare crowd-shot footage of the 1986 Donnington appearance
{{Authority control English heavy metal musical groups Musical groups established in 1983 Musical groups disestablished in 1988 The Comic Strip Comedy rock musical groups Fictional musical groups Bands with fictional stage personas Fictional characters invented for recorded music Fictional English people