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 channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

series '' The Comic Strip Presents...''. Its members were Vim Fuego (played by

Ade Edmondson Adrian Charles Edmondson (born 24 January 1957) is an English actor, comedian, musician, writer and television presenter. Part of the alternative comedy boom in the early 1980s, he and his comedy partner Rik Mayall starred in the television sit ...

) on vocals and lead guitar; Den Dennis (

Nigel Planer Nigel George Planer (born 22 February 1953) is a British actor, writer and musician. His television credits include playing Neil in the sitcom '' The Young Ones'' and Ralph Filthy in the sitcom '' Filthy Rich & Catflap'', as well as narrating th ...

) on rhythm guitar; Colin Grigson (

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

) on bass; and Spider "Eight-Legs" Webb ( Peter Richardson) on drums. 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, ...

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 One ...

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

Grantham Grantham () is a market town and civil parish 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 (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies south of Lincoln, England ...

, 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 The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

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 ...

), and pick up a schoolgirl groupie named Tracy (

Dawn French Dawn Roma French (born 11 October 1957) is a British actress, comedian and writer. She is known for writing and starring on the BBC sketch comedy series '' French and Saunders'' (1987–2007) with her best friend and comedy partner Jennifer Sa ...

). 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'', 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 Simon Tracey Brint (26 September 1950 – 29 May 2011) was a British musician, best known for his role as part of the comedy duo Raw Sex with Rowland Rivron. He also composed for many British television comedy and drama programmes. Early life ...

) 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 most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

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 themselve ...

Brian May Sir Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, animal welfare activist and astrophysics, astrophysicist. He achieved global fame as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock band Queen ...

. 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 a hard rock and heavy metal music festival. It was originally held annually in Castle Donington, England, from 1980 to 1996, taking place every year except 1989 and 1993. It later branched into other locations such as th ...

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. Etymology The name 'Donington' means 'farm/settlement connected with Dunna'. Another su ...

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 many other animals. In placental mammals, urine flows from the Kidney (vertebrates), kidneys through the ureters to the urinary bladder and exits the urethra through the penile meatus (mal ...

-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 in London, England, that opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts. It was a small and relatively cheap club, in the heart of London's West End of London, West End. It was the location of the first ...

, with guest appearances by

Jeff Beck Geoffrey Arnold Beck (24 June 1944 – 10 January 2023) was an English musician. He rose to prominence as the guitarist of the rock band the Yardbirds, and afterwards founded and fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, ...

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

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician), Steve Harris. Although fluid in the early years of the band, the line-up for most ...

and a show with a guest appearance from

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician and producer who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the Rock music, rock band Led Zeppelin. Page began his career as a studio session musician in Lo ...

. 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 release ...

of Queen's "

Bohemian Rhapsody "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock music, rock band Queen (band), Queen, released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, ''A Night at the Opera (Queen album), A Night at the Opera'' (1975). Written by Queen's lead si ...

". That track peaked at No. 44 in the UK Singles Chart 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 The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

'' 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 Marc Almond, Jayne County, To ...

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, Berkshire, Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend ...

and were joined onstage by

for a performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody". Later in 1988, the band issued the largely spoken word album '' Bootleg'', 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. 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 The Hammersmith Apollo, currently called the Eventim Apollo for sponsorship reasons, and formerly and still commonly known as the Hammersmith Odeon, is a live entertainment performance venue, originally built as a cinema called the Gaumont Pa ...

and their Monsters Of Rock show live at Donington.

Discography

*1987 – '' Bad News'' - UK No. 69 *1988 – '' Bootleg'' # 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 "A.G.M." sketch, their upcoming album is the provisionally entitled ''Satan Ate My

Knob Knob or KNOB may refer to: Objects * A round handle ** Doorknob ** Control knob, controls a device ** Brodie knob, on a steering wheel * Tow ball or hitch ball * Dorset knob, a biscuit Landforms * A rounded hill or mountain, particularly in ...

''. 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: ''More Bad News'' (The Comic Strip Presents... S03E02) *1983: ''Bad News Tour'' (The Comic Strip Presents... S01E04)

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 British comedy rock musical groups Fictional musical groups Bands with fictional stage personas Fictional characters invented for recorded music Fictional English people