Bad News was one of the best episodes and should have gotten it's own series.If there were twelve of these, I'm sure they would all be great.All of the characters are funny.Rik's character Colin cracks me up every time he talks.This time Vim has been offered a record contract if he can get the original band back together.He is quickly able to get them back together but nothing has changed, the guys can't stop fighting.Of course the contract is very one sided and the band doesn't get any money.Even though no one is buying the record, they somehow get booked at Castle Donnington's Monsters Of Rock Festival which has tragic results for them.This is The Comic Strip at its best.Everyone should see this.
3 Reviews
Expands on it's predecessors satirical premise with superior brilliance
The-Last-Prydonian9 February 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Four years have elapsed since the documentary which followed the exploits of the tenth-rate rock band, Bad News was filmed. The film crew is now wanting to catch up with them, and see them reunited in the hopes of seeing the former band members give it one last shot at rock stardom. The result is car crash TV at its finest as past disputes, and clashes of egos come to the fore which prove to be the beginning of their problems.
After the commercial and critical success of Hollywood director, Rob Reiner's, This is Spinal Tap which I think is likely to be said was inspired by, Bad News Tour which preceded it two years previously It seemed inevitable that Adrian Edmondson would want to revisit one of his more satisfying endeavors as a writer with, More Bad News. An adroit decision was given that while an amusing, pointed satire it suffered slightly from its minimal half-hour running time. With the Comic Strip team having finally hit their stride as, Bad News Tour aired during their first series and they had gained critical momentum and a loyal cult fan base, the powers that be were willing to afford him the carte blanche to expand on the premise of his earlier project. Clocking in at 50 minutes in length, and although the old adage dictates that less is more, that doesn't apply to, this sequel.
With Edmondson collaborating once more with fellow Comic Strip team members, the late, Rik Mayall, (who had been and would continue to be his frequent writing partner and collaborator on anarchic sitcoms like The Young Ones, Filthy Rich & Catflap, and Bottom) Nigel Planer and Peter Richardson, one if they were inclined towards cynicism might believe that Edmondson was attempting to coast off a past glory, (although the word glory might be a slight exaggeration) the pay off proves to be a rewardingly more waggish viewing experience than it's predecessor.
Recasting wife and past co-star Jennifer Saunders as "rock chick journalist", Sally Friedman who essentially hosts the documentary as she catches up with the guys, establishing what has become of the curious quartet. In the wake of their calamitous, ill ineffectual quest where "past footage" highlights that due to the inevitable friction and discord within the band (primarily between Edmondson's Vim Fuego and Mayall's Colin Grigson) which played a vital part in their ignominious breakup, it had led to each of them going their own separate ways. Vim with ostentatious pretensions remaining intact has become a self-styled "metaphysical" psychic who still composes (if that's what one could call it) songs that he's ripped off from pre-existing material. Colin after flunking out of college has become a clerk in a bank and still lives with his doting mother, while Den (Planer) is a self-employed painter/decorator. Last but not least, and with this band of misfits that's saying something is the "wild man" Spider (Richardson). Now a kept man so to speak, he lives with his hippy wife who is bemusing in her apathy towards her husband leaving her, and the kids behind to go on the road again with the band.
What follows is thematically much of the same as we saw before with the structural framework given a different spin. We bear witness to the cardboard rock star wannabes attempting to overindulge and live a life of self-indulgent excess. From ordering 100 pints of larger in an Indian restaurant, leaving the documentary film crew with deeper pockets to cover the cost, to an orgy of wanton destruction in a drunken hotel room wreck it chronicles their pathetic artificial attempts at rock anarchy. While among all of this naively placing their faith in a small-time record company, the ironically titled, Frilly Pink leads to a humiliating experience when the lads attempt to buy their new single in a record store. Their combined ineptitude and lack of self-awareness are also sharply and hilariously observed as they film the music video for their début single, Warriors of Genghis Kahn.
Watching the horrendous car crash that is taking place before our very eyes, and examining it in hindsight brings to mind the low-rent punk rock band, The Towers of London. Delusional guys like .lead vocalist, Donny Tourette, and his fellow band members are the kind of shallow hellraisers deserving of scorn and ridicule that they were sending up.
Finally culminating in their booked appearance at, The Monsters of Rock Festival which has the well-judged bonus of having genuine rock icons which consist of, Ozzy Osbourne, Def Leppard, Motorhead, and Scorpions being briefly interviewed, scathingly contemptuous in their critique of the comical anti-heroes. Figuratively burying them and acting as the final nail in the coffin before the curtain finally closes on the film which tops its prequel in terms of its nihilistic, downbeat finale. More Bad News marks one of the finer works of the Comic Strip Presents fairly long run. With the same adeptly executed comedy performances and smart scripting from Edmondson along with, Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door (which he co-wrote and starred alongside Mayall) and; Eddie Monsoon, a Life showcases his prowess as a writer and the cohesive talents of the team.
After the commercial and critical success of Hollywood director, Rob Reiner's, This is Spinal Tap which I think is likely to be said was inspired by, Bad News Tour which preceded it two years previously It seemed inevitable that Adrian Edmondson would want to revisit one of his more satisfying endeavors as a writer with, More Bad News. An adroit decision was given that while an amusing, pointed satire it suffered slightly from its minimal half-hour running time. With the Comic Strip team having finally hit their stride as, Bad News Tour aired during their first series and they had gained critical momentum and a loyal cult fan base, the powers that be were willing to afford him the carte blanche to expand on the premise of his earlier project. Clocking in at 50 minutes in length, and although the old adage dictates that less is more, that doesn't apply to, this sequel.
With Edmondson collaborating once more with fellow Comic Strip team members, the late, Rik Mayall, (who had been and would continue to be his frequent writing partner and collaborator on anarchic sitcoms like The Young Ones, Filthy Rich & Catflap, and Bottom) Nigel Planer and Peter Richardson, one if they were inclined towards cynicism might believe that Edmondson was attempting to coast off a past glory, (although the word glory might be a slight exaggeration) the pay off proves to be a rewardingly more waggish viewing experience than it's predecessor.
Recasting wife and past co-star Jennifer Saunders as "rock chick journalist", Sally Friedman who essentially hosts the documentary as she catches up with the guys, establishing what has become of the curious quartet. In the wake of their calamitous, ill ineffectual quest where "past footage" highlights that due to the inevitable friction and discord within the band (primarily between Edmondson's Vim Fuego and Mayall's Colin Grigson) which played a vital part in their ignominious breakup, it had led to each of them going their own separate ways. Vim with ostentatious pretensions remaining intact has become a self-styled "metaphysical" psychic who still composes (if that's what one could call it) songs that he's ripped off from pre-existing material. Colin after flunking out of college has become a clerk in a bank and still lives with his doting mother, while Den (Planer) is a self-employed painter/decorator. Last but not least, and with this band of misfits that's saying something is the "wild man" Spider (Richardson). Now a kept man so to speak, he lives with his hippy wife who is bemusing in her apathy towards her husband leaving her, and the kids behind to go on the road again with the band.
What follows is thematically much of the same as we saw before with the structural framework given a different spin. We bear witness to the cardboard rock star wannabes attempting to overindulge and live a life of self-indulgent excess. From ordering 100 pints of larger in an Indian restaurant, leaving the documentary film crew with deeper pockets to cover the cost, to an orgy of wanton destruction in a drunken hotel room wreck it chronicles their pathetic artificial attempts at rock anarchy. While among all of this naively placing their faith in a small-time record company, the ironically titled, Frilly Pink leads to a humiliating experience when the lads attempt to buy their new single in a record store. Their combined ineptitude and lack of self-awareness are also sharply and hilariously observed as they film the music video for their début single, Warriors of Genghis Kahn.
Watching the horrendous car crash that is taking place before our very eyes, and examining it in hindsight brings to mind the low-rent punk rock band, The Towers of London. Delusional guys like .lead vocalist, Donny Tourette, and his fellow band members are the kind of shallow hellraisers deserving of scorn and ridicule that they were sending up.
Finally culminating in their booked appearance at, The Monsters of Rock Festival which has the well-judged bonus of having genuine rock icons which consist of, Ozzy Osbourne, Def Leppard, Motorhead, and Scorpions being briefly interviewed, scathingly contemptuous in their critique of the comical anti-heroes. Figuratively burying them and acting as the final nail in the coffin before the curtain finally closes on the film which tops its prequel in terms of its nihilistic, downbeat finale. More Bad News marks one of the finer works of the Comic Strip Presents fairly long run. With the same adeptly executed comedy performances and smart scripting from Edmondson along with, Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door (which he co-wrote and starred alongside Mayall) and; Eddie Monsoon, a Life showcases his prowess as a writer and the cohesive talents of the team.
Burning, looting, raping, shooting...
fedor817 March 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Rick Mayall and Adrian Edmondson are familiar faces to any fan of 80s
and 90s British TV comedy, but what they did with "Bad News" is easily
their best stuff. Typically, very few people know about this "band
project", which is a shame.
While Spinal Tap was a more general and on occasion subtler and more "cinematic" spoof of metal/hard-rock/rock, Bad News are an in-your-face kind of parody of an ultra-cliché heavy metal band, the kind that had its heyday in the early- and mid-80s, complete with leather jackets, very bad hair, and "macho" posing.
People who claim that Bad News ripped off Spinal Tap and that it's inferior to the American heavy rock farce don't know what they're talking about. Both are great, in fairly different ways, but if I had to compare them quality-wise I'd have to give Bad News an edge, mostly because of the music. Spinal Tap's songs are on occasion barely listenable and at best mediocre, completely relying on the lyrics for entertainment value, whereas Bad News have some great tunes. They work both on a comedic and musical level - sort of like the silliest and best Muppet Show numbers. You laugh at the stereotypical metal riffing and the sloppiness, but the songs are surprisingly catchy, and benefit greatly from Adrian's voice which is ideally "filthy" for this kind of trashy version of Motorhead.
Which was btw a great band. Lemmy and Philthy appear very briefly in the film, as do Ozzy and a few others (whose names aren't worth mentioning because their music sucks). They all shared the stage with Bad News in 1987 (?) in Castle Donnington. Some fans believe that the interviews with these bands are genuine, that Lemmy and the others had no idea that Bad News was a fake band, but while I also had that impression upon my first viewing aged 19, now I tend to believe that they knew the deal.
Adrian was the one who initiated this idea and talked the others into it, as far as I understood. He is also obviously the one with the most musical chops, handling the guitar better than he pretends to. His sloppiness is mostly intentional, whereas the ineptness of the other three "musicians" appears to be a realistic reflection of their very limited skills. I may be wrong, of course, but I am almost sure that Rick had to learn the bass for this role and that Peter "can't play the drums", just as Vim Fuego (Adrian) jokingly claims at one point.
The band members are played with panache and obvious joy by the cast; I can imagine there must be tons of footage of out-takes from the shooting, which will hopefully one day be released - unless the tapes were destroyed in BBC-like fashion. (This is Channel 4 though, but you never know...) Even though this unique mockumentary is only around 45 minutes long (sadly), the 4 characters are very quickly and masterfully established. Each of them have very distinctive personalities, and it is the clashes between the band members, particularly between Rick and Adrian, that make up a lot of the highlights. But basically it's nearly all highlights.
"More Bad News" can be considered a sequel to the half-hour "Bad News Tour" which was released 4 years earlier. However, you can easily start with this film, the order being irrelevant. Aside from these two short films there are several TV-show appearances, a few video clips, a half-hour bootleg film clip of their Donnington appearance, and two albums. That's pretty much it, which is a shame. I'd have preferred if they had extended this concept to a full series - rather than waste so much time on the generally fairly uninteresting Comic Strip series, which rarely delivers. This is head-and-shoulders better than everything else from the entire series. The writing is so much better, and this is genuinely funny stuff unlike the other episodes which are much more "arty" and usually not in a good way.
Many highlights here: Vim playing "Imagine" from Lennon, the fight over who gets the Marshall amp, the Castle Donnington appearance (complete with actual, unscripted footage of tomatoes and bottles flying into the band's faces), Rick's embarrassment about being a Momma's boy, Rick crying (on several occasions), and last but not least: the video shoot.
The video to the song "Warriors Of Genghis Khan" is so hilarious, it will make you go for the rewind button, over and over.
While on the surface this may seem to be a silly metal parody, it is more than this. The script very cleverly explores a whole bunch of genre cliches, plus a generally mockery of the rock industry. For example, the contract signing, which many real bands could recognize themselves in.
If you end up loving this wonderful heavy metal spoof - and you will, regardless of whether you're familiar with cheesy 80s metal or not - don't ignore the band's first album. Released in 1987, it contains 17 tracks, many of which are various dialogues between the band members. One of the musical "highlights" is BN's hysterical version of "Bohemian Rhapsody". Though, as I mentioned earlier, many songs are catchy and fun, with suitably moronic lyrics.
(That this is my 666th IMDb comment is a total coincidence...)
While Spinal Tap was a more general and on occasion subtler and more "cinematic" spoof of metal/hard-rock/rock, Bad News are an in-your-face kind of parody of an ultra-cliché heavy metal band, the kind that had its heyday in the early- and mid-80s, complete with leather jackets, very bad hair, and "macho" posing.
People who claim that Bad News ripped off Spinal Tap and that it's inferior to the American heavy rock farce don't know what they're talking about. Both are great, in fairly different ways, but if I had to compare them quality-wise I'd have to give Bad News an edge, mostly because of the music. Spinal Tap's songs are on occasion barely listenable and at best mediocre, completely relying on the lyrics for entertainment value, whereas Bad News have some great tunes. They work both on a comedic and musical level - sort of like the silliest and best Muppet Show numbers. You laugh at the stereotypical metal riffing and the sloppiness, but the songs are surprisingly catchy, and benefit greatly from Adrian's voice which is ideally "filthy" for this kind of trashy version of Motorhead.
Which was btw a great band. Lemmy and Philthy appear very briefly in the film, as do Ozzy and a few others (whose names aren't worth mentioning because their music sucks). They all shared the stage with Bad News in 1987 (?) in Castle Donnington. Some fans believe that the interviews with these bands are genuine, that Lemmy and the others had no idea that Bad News was a fake band, but while I also had that impression upon my first viewing aged 19, now I tend to believe that they knew the deal.
Adrian was the one who initiated this idea and talked the others into it, as far as I understood. He is also obviously the one with the most musical chops, handling the guitar better than he pretends to. His sloppiness is mostly intentional, whereas the ineptness of the other three "musicians" appears to be a realistic reflection of their very limited skills. I may be wrong, of course, but I am almost sure that Rick had to learn the bass for this role and that Peter "can't play the drums", just as Vim Fuego (Adrian) jokingly claims at one point.
The band members are played with panache and obvious joy by the cast; I can imagine there must be tons of footage of out-takes from the shooting, which will hopefully one day be released - unless the tapes were destroyed in BBC-like fashion. (This is Channel 4 though, but you never know...) Even though this unique mockumentary is only around 45 minutes long (sadly), the 4 characters are very quickly and masterfully established. Each of them have very distinctive personalities, and it is the clashes between the band members, particularly between Rick and Adrian, that make up a lot of the highlights. But basically it's nearly all highlights.
"More Bad News" can be considered a sequel to the half-hour "Bad News Tour" which was released 4 years earlier. However, you can easily start with this film, the order being irrelevant. Aside from these two short films there are several TV-show appearances, a few video clips, a half-hour bootleg film clip of their Donnington appearance, and two albums. That's pretty much it, which is a shame. I'd have preferred if they had extended this concept to a full series - rather than waste so much time on the generally fairly uninteresting Comic Strip series, which rarely delivers. This is head-and-shoulders better than everything else from the entire series. The writing is so much better, and this is genuinely funny stuff unlike the other episodes which are much more "arty" and usually not in a good way.
Many highlights here: Vim playing "Imagine" from Lennon, the fight over who gets the Marshall amp, the Castle Donnington appearance (complete with actual, unscripted footage of tomatoes and bottles flying into the band's faces), Rick's embarrassment about being a Momma's boy, Rick crying (on several occasions), and last but not least: the video shoot.
The video to the song "Warriors Of Genghis Khan" is so hilarious, it will make you go for the rewind button, over and over.
While on the surface this may seem to be a silly metal parody, it is more than this. The script very cleverly explores a whole bunch of genre cliches, plus a generally mockery of the rock industry. For example, the contract signing, which many real bands could recognize themselves in.
If you end up loving this wonderful heavy metal spoof - and you will, regardless of whether you're familiar with cheesy 80s metal or not - don't ignore the band's first album. Released in 1987, it contains 17 tracks, many of which are various dialogues between the band members. One of the musical "highlights" is BN's hysterical version of "Bohemian Rhapsody". Though, as I mentioned earlier, many songs are catchy and fun, with suitably moronic lyrics.
(That this is my 666th IMDb comment is a total coincidence...)
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