In 1986 the Monsters of Rock music festival took place at Donington park in England. Some of the classic bands performing that day included Ozzy Osbourne, Motörhead and Def Leppard.
The festival is remembered now as a day full of world-famous and genre-defining bands.
However, in the early afternoon, a much smaller band played. They were relatively new and not the most technically proficient band.
This band definitely got the crowd going, although maybe not for the right reasons.
Most of their set was spent avoiding thrown bottles, some likely filled with urine. However this was a pretty common occurrence for festivals back in the day.
Because Music Festivals back in the day were gross.
The band was virtually unknown compared to the other acts performing that day, having not yet released an album or even a single.
So, who was this band and how did they come to play the Monsters of Rock festival?
Who Were They?
The band was Bad News.
In nature and in name.
Originally created as a fake band for an episode of the comedy show ‘The Comic Strip Presents’.
The episode, ‘Bad News Tour’ aired in 1983. It starred well-known comedians of the day; Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer and Peter Richardson.
The episode was a Mocumentary, following the (fake) small metal band around as they played gigs and tried to get famous, but actually spent most of the time arguing and failing to look cool.
Imagine ‘This Is Spinal Tap’, except shorter, made on a shoestring budget, and released a full year before that film.
However, Bad News ended up as much more than that. They actually toured and opened for the Heavy Metal kings Iron Maiden.
Satire
The episode was created to poke fun at metal bands of the time, revelling in the stereotypes of metal bands of this era.
The episode shows the bands excessive drinking (and its effects), the lack of money indie bands suffer have, and the bands collective over-estimation of their own talents.
The episode is a classic, and does a fantastic job of satirising bands of the time, as well as the cliches of metal music.
One of my favourite parts is during the sound-check before their biggest gig, the bass player, Colin (Rik Mayall), refuses to even play unless he gets to sing one of his songs.
Colin - All I'm asking, Vim, is that you let me perform just one number. Vim - Yeah, I know. And I say you can't, okay? Colin - Well it's just not fair! Vim - Look, this is my band, so it's fair! Colin - Well if that's the way it is, it's my brothers' PA and I say that you all can't use it.
It perfectly summarises the power dynamics in a band and how they can cause tension and spiral into huge arguments.
The episode, ‘Bad News Tour‘ was such a success that the concept was revived a few years later in the episode ‘More Bad News’…
The Reunion & Festival
In the years after the first episode, the band had continued to perform as a real metal band.
They even released an album in 1987, produced by Brian May, of Queen.
Yes, seriously.
In the follow-up episode, the band reunite and get the opportunity to release an album and play at the Monsters of Rock festival.
Again:
Yes, seriously.
The episode ‘More Bad News‘ is just as funny as part 1: with more in-fighting and squabbling, as well as continued delusions of grandeur.
The highlight of the episode, however, is obviously the bands performance at the actual Monsters of Rock festival in 1986.
The joke was that for the band, this was their crowning achievement and they think they are finally getting respect.
But in reality, the crowd hate them.
The footage of the performance is spliced with clips of famous musicians saying how much they hate the band and everything they stand for.
They were absolutely fucking awful!
Ozzy Osbourne
How did it go?
The band had a short, 25-minute set, in which they managed to bang out a couple of songs.
The rest of the time was spend being silly and dodging incoming projectiles.
For those in on the joke, the set was an incredible moment of television coming to life.
They played generic, thrash metal songs and the band members acted wildly over the top in a hilarious way. It wasn’t meant to be taken too seriously.
The issue was that a number of people in the crowd weren’t aware of the episode of The Comic Strip Presents and so didn’t get the satire.
They thought this was a legitimate bad band and weren’t all too impressed.
For those people, this must have been an uncomfortable half hour.
Overall, the joke mostly worked and was an enjoyable performance piece, rather than as a straight music set.
Also, someone actually filmed the entire set, which is available on YouTube.
It’s so cool to see the whole thing now, rather than the 5-minutes or so that we get to see in the episode.
I honestly have no idea how they managed to film this way back in 1986.
Regardless, it’s a fascinating look into the past.
Reading Festival
It’s less well-known now, but the band also played at Reading Festival the following year!
The joke was still that the band is bad, and the crowd was basically encouraged to throw bottles at the band!
By this point the joke was getting a bit old, and as there was no coverage of this set for TV.
So the band’s second festival performance has mostly faded in peoples memories.
However, their set at Monsters of Rock will forever live on in The Comic Strip Presents, and the memories of the people who were there.
(and threw bottles full of piss…)
Wrap Up
The two episodes of The Comic Strip Presents are classic comedy and tell a similar story to Spinal Tap but in half the time and with some down-to-earth British heavy metal satire.
The episodes can be bought on Amazon, or even watched for free (legally) on Channel 4.
Since festivals seem to be cancelled this year, at least you can get some festival goodness from this.
