Bad News are a fictional English heavy metal band created for the Channel 4 television series The Comic Strip Presents.... Its members were Vim Fuego (played by Ade Edmondson) on vocals and lead guitar; Den Dennis (Nigel Planer) on rhythm guitar; Colin Grigson (Rik Mayall) on bass; and Spider "Eight-Legs" Webb (Peter Richardson) on drums. 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), and pick up a schoolgirl groupie named Tracy (Dawn French). 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) A 1987 UK tour was put on, with May appearing during the encores.

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 and their Monsters Of Rock show live at Donington.

Discography

  • 1987 – Bad News - UK No. 69
  • 1988 – Bootleg

References

  • Rare crowd-shot footage of the 1986 Donnington appearance