Fans Against Fake Bands » Phony Bands

The Monkees

videeoo — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:19:27 +0000

No rating, not touring The Monkees were a pop rock quartet assembled by Robert “Bob” Rafelson and Bert Schneider in Los Angeles in 1966 for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, and so were primarily in acting roles. The members were Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, and Englishman Davy Jones, who were supervised and popularized by Don Kirshner. At the time of the band’s formation, its producers saw The Monkees as a Beatles-like band. At the start, the band members provided vocals, and were given some performing and production opportunities, but they eventually fought for and earned the right to collectively supervise all musical output under the band’s name. The group undertook several concert tours, allowing an opportunity to perform as a live band as well as on the TV series. Although the show was canceled in 1968, the band continued releasing records until 1970. In the 1980s, the television show and music experienced a revival, which led to a series of reunion tours, and new records featuring various incarnations of the band’s lineup. Aspiring filmmakers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider were inspired by the Beatles’ film A Hard Day’s Night to develop a television series about a fictional rock ‘n’ roll group. The duo, jointly calling their firm “Raybert Productions”, sold the idea to Screen Gems television and in September, 1965, Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter ran an ad seeking “Folk & Roll Musicians-Singers for acting roles in new TV series”. As many as 400 hopefuls showed up to be considered as one of the “four insane boys” who would be the stars of the show. From this pool, four were chosen to become the fictional band The Monkees. George Michael “Micky” Dolenz had been the 10-year-old star of the Circus Boy series in the 1950s, during which time he had used the stage name “Micky Braddock”, and was a working actor. He found out about The Monkees through his agent. Englishman Davy Jones had achieved some initial success on the musical stage. Already recording for the Colpix record label and already under contract at Columbia/Screen Gems, he had been identified in advance as a potential star for the TV series. Indeed, he later acknowledged that The Monkees was initially created primarily around him, even with its linkages to A Hard Day’s Night. Texan Robert Michael “Mike” Nesmith was a songwriter and guitarist who had recorded for Colpix under the name “Michael Blessing”. He was the only Monkee who had come in to audition from seeing the original advertisement. He repeatedly denied having been the only musician in the team or, for that matter, much of a musician. Peter Tork, whose real name was Peter Halsten Thorkelson, was recommended to Rafelson and Schneider by friend Stephen Stills. Tork, a skilled multi-instrumentalist, had performed at various Greenwich Village folk clubs before moving west, where he was a dishwasher before becoming a Monkee. Nesmith subsequently called Tork a better musician, by several orders of magnitude, than Nesmith himself was. Several hundred other actors and musicians auditioned for the roles. Among those who were turned down were Stills, Bobby Pickett (at 27 deemed “too old”), Gary Lewis, brothers Matt and Mark Andes (later of Spirit and Heart), and Van Dyke Parks. Years later, an urban legend would arise that Charles Manson also auditioned, but this was impossible, as he was in Federal prison in Washington state at the time. When first creating their pitch for the show, Rafelson and Schneider wanted to cast an actual Los Angeles-based folk rock group, the Lovin’ Spoonful. However, they were already contracted to a record label, which would have denied Screen Gems the right to market records under their own label imprint, Screen Gems. Source and more information: Wikipedia

The Sorels plus Ellen Aim and the Attackers

videeoo — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:01:49 +0000

Sometimes, Bands or Artists are created for movies, television, etc. and are fake by design. Streets of Fire is a 1984 film directed by Walter Hill and co-written by Hill and Larry Gross. It was described in previews, trailers, and posters as “A Rock & Roll Fable.” It is an unusual mix of musical, action, drama, and comedy with elements both of retro-1950s and 1980s. The film stars Michael Paré as a soldier of fortune who returns home to rescue his ex-girlfriend (Diane Lane) who has been kidnapped by Raven (Willem Dafoe) and his motorcycle gang, the Bombers. Some of the film was shot on the backlot of Universal Studios in California on two large, elaborate sets covered in a tarp 1,240 feet long by 220 feet wide so that night scenes could be filmed during the day. The film was promoted as a summer blockbuster but was not well received critically or commercially, grossing only USD $8 million in North America, well below its $14.5 million budget. Its dynamic musical score by the likes of Jim Steinman, Ry Cooder, and others, as well as the hit Dan Hartman song “I Can Dream About You”, however, has helped it attain something of a cult following among fans. In a fictional city, the film opens with a concert featuring Ellen Aim (Lane), a “girl from the neighborhood” known as “the Richmond.” She is the lead singer of the eponymous band Ellen Aim and The Attackers and has returned home to give a concert. A biker gang known as the Bombers enters the auditorium as she is finishing “Nowhere Fast.” Ellen is attacked and kidnapped by Raven Shaddock (Dafoe), the leader of the Bombers. Some in the crowd try to save Ellen, but to no avail. Witnessing all of this is Reva Cody (Deborah Van Valkenburgh), who runs a local diner. She wires her kid brother Tom Cody (Paré), an ex-soldier and Ellen’s ex-boyfriend, to rescue her. Tom arrives by elevated train and, after taking Reva home, checks out the local tavern, the Blackhawk, where Clyde (Bill Paxton) tends bar. He is annoyed by a tomboyish looking ex-soldier named McCoy (Amy Madigan), a mechanic who “could drive anything” and who is good with her fists. They leave the bar and McCoy asks Tom for a place to stay for the night. He obliges, taking her home, where she gets the couch. That night, Tom and Reva plan to rescue Ellen; Reva is to contact Billy Fish (Rick Moranis), Ellen’s manager and current boyfriend, to meet at the diner in the morning. While Reva and McCoy go to the diner to wait for Billy, Tom acquires a cache of weapons that includes a pump action shotgun, a Stainless Ruger Redhawk revolver, and a Marlin lever action rifle. Tom and Billy meet at the diner and Tom agrees to the rescue on the condition that Billy pays him $10,000 and that he goes with Tom back into “the Battery” to get Ellen. Billy agrees, and Tom hires McCoy to drive for 10%. In the Battery, they visit Torchie’s, where Billy used to book bands. They wait until nightfall, down the block under an overpass, watching a lot of bikers come and go. Inside the bar, The Blasters play “One Bad Stud” while a dancer (cameo by Marine Jahan) gyrates on a small stage. Raven has Ellen tied up to a bed in a room upstairs. As Tom, Billy, and McCoy approach Torchie’s, Tom directs Billy to return to the car and be out front in fifteen minutes. Tom plans to go in topside while McCoy uses the front door. Ellen Aim (Diane Lane) and the Attackers.McCoy enters and is stopped by one of the Bombers. McCoy, pretending to like him, follows him to his special “party room,” just down the hall from where Raven is playing poker. McCoy pulls a handgun on the gang member and knocks him out with the butt of her weapon. Tom explores the building across from the bar until he is directly across from Ellen’s window. McCoy bursts into the card game and gets the drop on Raven and the rest. Tom starts to blow up the bikes, shooting their gas tanks, then slides down and runs up to Ellen’s room. He cuts her free and, with McCoy’s help, escapes just as Billy arrives at the front door. As the others jump into the convertible, Tom sends them off to meet at the Grant Street Overpass, then blows up the gas pumps outside the bar as a diversion. Raven appears out of the flames and chaos to confront Tom. After learning who he is, Raven warns he’ll be back for her – and for him, too. Tom escapes on the one motorcycle that survived destruction. Billy is persuading Ellen to wise up, telling her the only reason her ex-boyfriend rescued her was for money. Tom arrives and jumps into the car, and McCoy pointedly explains to Billy that Tom used to be Ellen’s old flame. Ditching the very visible street rod in a parking garage, Ellen follows Tom up the stairs while Billy and McCoy take the elevator. Ellen and Tom fight as Billy and McCoy go back and forth once again about Tom and Ellen’s love affair. When they all meet up on the street, they are in the Battery. The group returns Ellen safely home where she initially rejects her home town as well as Tom. Later, he goes to the hotel where Ellen and Billy are staying to collect his reward. He only takes McCoy’s cut and throws the rest in Billy’s face. He then tells Ellen that there was a time he would’ve done anything for her but no more. As Tom storms out, Ellen follows and the two embrace in the rain. Meanwhile, Raven informs the police chief that he wants Tom to confront him alone. If he agrees he will leave the Richmond alone. The chief tells Tom to get out of town. Tom, Ellen, and McCoy leave on a train. He knocks out Ellen and returns to town for a climactic battle with Raven involving railroad spike hammers. Tom defeats Raven. Later that night, he says a final goodbye to Ellen and rides off with McCoy. Source: Wikipedia

Eddie and the Cruisers

videeoo — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:47:30 +0000

Sometimes, Bands or Artists are created for movies, television, etc. and are fake by design. Eddie and the Cruisers is a 1983 American film directed by Martin Davidson with the screenplay written by the director and Arlene Davidson, based on the novel by P. F. Kluge. The film is about a television reporter named Maggie Foley (Ellen Barkin) investigating the mysterious death of musician Eddie Wilson (Michael Paré) and the search for his band’s second album, which disappeared from the vaults of Satin Records the day after Eddie’s alleged death. Only two cast members, Michael “Tunes” Antunes, the tenor saxophone player for John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band, and Helen Schneider were professional musicians in the fictional band. The film was not very successful at the box office, grossing USD$4.7 million in North America. It also received many negative to mixed reviews from critics. However, in the fall of 1984, the soundtrack album suddenly climbed the charts as the film was rediscovered on cable television and home video and the studio re-released the record. The film was followed by one sequel, Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! in 1989. It was marketed with the tagline “Rebel. Rocker. Lover. Idol. Vanished.” The film is about a fictional 1960s rock ‘n roll band called Eddie and the Cruisers. The band makes a name for itself while playing regularly at a Somers Point, New Jersey club called Tony Mart’s. It is there that they meet Frank Ridgeway (Tom Berenger), whom Eddie Wilson (Michael Paré) hires to be the band’s keyboard player and lyricist, and who he nicknames “Wordman”. Doc Robbins and Sal Amato are skeptical of hiring Frank, who is not a trained musician or experienced song writer, but Eddie believes that Frank is crucial to the band’s development. With Ridgeway’s help the band stops playing cover songs and releases an album of original material, Tender Years, that instantly becomes a hit, especially with the song, “On the Dark Side”. The band members spend a year recording their next album, A Season in Hell, during which Eddie’s artistic and creative talents often are buried beneath his arrogant and rebellious traits, leading to arguments between him and band manager Doc Robbins (Joe Pantoliano). At one point, bassist Sal Amato (Matthew Laurance) tells Eddie he doesn’t understand what he’s looking for, to which Eddie responds that he wants to be great. Sal replies “We’re not great. We’re just some guys from Jersey”. Eddie makes it clear that if the band cannot be great, then there is no reason to ever play music again. The band’s second album is a culmination of all that Eddie had ever hoped to do with music, different from anything that anyone else had ever done to that point, and he was satisfied with it. However, it is controversial and considered dark and strange by the record company, Satin Records, and is rejected, not to be released. In the early morning hours after Satin refuses to release the new album, Eddie’s car crashes through the railing going over the Stainton Memorial Causeway. Eddie’s body is never found, and he is declared dead. Almost 20 years later, Satin re-releases the band’s first album, which becomes a surprise hit, climbing higher on the charts than it had on its original release. The producers of a television show decide to do a documentary on the band, with an attempt to bring light to the band’s second album, which disappeared from the vaults of Satin Records the day after Eddie’s alleged death. Though the namesake of the documentary is the band’s lead singer, it revolves around the other members of the Cruisers, especially Frank Ridgeway, and their memories of the band. All of them have moved on with their lives except saxophone player Wendell Newton, who had died of an overdose in 1963 at age 37. Only Sal Amato remained in the music business, leading a new lineup of Cruisers. Ridgeway is now working as a high school teacher, Doc is a local radio disc jockey and drummer Kenny Hopkins works in an Atlantic City casino. Much of the story takes place in flashback, prompted by television reporter Maggie Foley’s (Ellen Barkin) interviews with the band members. Tensions building within the Cruisers during the flashback sequences coincide with Frank’s willingness to be more open with Maggie. Frank recalls that the band wanted to play at Benton College where Frank was a student, but Eddie felt uncomfortable there, stating that they would not belong there if it was not their kind of place. When Eddie sees Frank kissing Joann Carlino (Helen Schneider), Eddie’s girlfriend, he angrily tries to get back at Frank by referring to him as “Toby Tyler” to the audience when naming off his band members in an attempt to make Frank look bad. When Frank tries to quit, Eddie realizes his error and reconciles with him, telling Frank that they need each other. The story’s climax involves Joann, completing the one piece of the flashback puzzle that Frank could not: what happened the night that Satin refused to release the band’s second album? After storming from the studio, Eddie brought her to the Palace of Depression, a makeshift castle made of garbage and junk that he visited often as a child. She reveals it was in fact she who took the master tapes for Season in Hell from Satin Records, hiding them in the Palace of Depression, where she felt they belonged. Frank and Joann go back to the Palace of Depression to retrieve the master tapes. After returning to Joann’s house, she receives a phone call she believes to be from Eddie, who has been missing for almost 20 years, and with whom she remains in love. Frank does not believe it to be Eddie who called her, and hides outside and watches as a blue 57 Chevy, identical to Eddie’s, arrives at the house, and a voice that sounds like Eddie’s calls to her. Before Joann can reach the car, Frank pulls the driver from behind the wheel, who turns out to be the band’s old manager, who was using the trickery to obtain possession of the master tapes. They nonetheless give him the tapes, which he promises to release under a deal that will benefit all of them. The movie closes with Maggie’s story about the band, being viewed on televisions in a store window and watched by a crowd outside. The credits roll as a song from Season in Hell is premiered for the first time, and as the lights from the television dim, the crowd walks away, leaving only one person standing at the window. The reflection appears in the store window, revealing it to be the long-lost Eddie Wilson. Much older, he smiles serenely, proud to know that his work, misunderstood all those years ago, is finally being heard, and he disappears into the night. Source: Wikipedia

Spinal Tap

videeoo — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:37:38 +0000

Sometimes, Bands or Artists are created for movies, television, etc. and are fake by design. This Is Spinal Tap is a 1984 mock musical documentary directed by Rob Reiner about the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap. The film satirizes the wild personal behavior and musical pretensions of hard-rock and heavy-metal musical bands, as well as the hagiographic tendencies of rock documentaries of the time. Reiner and the three main stars are credited as the writers of the film, based on the fact that much of the dialogue was ad libbed by them. Several dozen hours of footage were filmed before Reiner edited it to the released film. A 4½ hour bootleg version of the film exists and has been traded among fans and collectors for years. The three core members of Spinal Tap—David St. Hubbins, Derek Smalls and Nigel Tufnel—are played by the American actors Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, and British American Christopher Guest, respectively. The three actors play their musical instruments and speak with mock English accents throughout the film. Reiner appears as Marty DiBergi, the maker of the documentary. Other actors in the film are Tony Hendra as the group manager Ian Faith and June Chadwick as St. Hubbins’ interfering girlfriend Jeanine. Actors Paul Shaffer, Fred Willard, Fran Drescher, Bruno Kirby, Howard Hesseman, Ed Begley, Jr., Patrick Macnee, Anjelica Huston, Vicki Blue, Dana Carvey and Billy Crystal all play supporting roles or make cameo appearances in the film. Scream queen starlets Brinke Stevens and Linnea Quigley appear in cameos as groupies of the band. The movie has the style of a documentary filmed and directed by the fictional Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner). The documentary covers a 1982 United States concert tour for the fictional British rock group “Spinal Tap” to promote their new album Smell the Glove, but interspersed with one-on-one interviews with the members of the group and footage of the group from previous points in their career. The band was started by childhood friends David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) and Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) during the 1960s. Originally called “The Originals”, then “The New Originals” to distinguish themselves from the existing group of the same name, they settled on the name “The Thamesmen”, finding success with their skiffle/R&B success, “Gimme Some Money”. They changed their name again to “Spinal Tap” and enjoyed limited success with the flower power anthem, “Listen to the Flower People”. Ultimately, the band found their long success in heavy metal and produced several albums. The group was eventually joined by bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), keyboardist Viv Savage (David Kaff), and a series of drummers, each of whom had mysteriously died under odd circumstances, including spontaneous combustion, a “bizarre gardening accident” and, in at least one case, choking to death on the vomit of person(s) unknown (“you can’t dust for vomit”). DiBergi’s interviews with St. Hubbins and Tufnel reveal that they are competent composers and musicians, but are dimwitted and immature. Tufnel, in showing his guitar collection to DiBergi, reveals an amplifier that has a volume knob that goes to eleven; when DiBergi asks, “Why not just make ten louder and make that the top?” Tufnel can only reply, “These go to eleven.” Tufnel later plays a somber classical music composition on piano for DiBergi, which he says is called “Lick My Love Pump”. As the tour starts, concert appearances are repeatedly canceled due to low ticket sales. Tensions continue to increase when several major retailers refuse to sell Smell the Glove because of its sexist cover art and there is growing resentment shown towards the group’s manager Ian Faith (Tony Hendra). Tufnel becomes even more perturbed when St. Hubbins’ girlfriend Jeanine (June Chadwick) — a manipulative yoga and astrology devotee — joins the group on tour and begins to participate in band meetings and attempts to influence their costumes and stage presentation. The band’s label, Polymer Records, opts to release “Smell the Glove” with an entirely black cover without consulting the band. The album fails to draw crowds to autograph sessions with the band. In order to rekindle interest, Tufnel suggests staging a performance of “Stonehenge,” an epic song that is traditionally accompanied in concert by a lavish stage show, and asks Ian to order a giant Stonehenge megalith for the show. However, Tufnel’s mislabels the sketch’s dimensions, using a double prime symbol instead of single prime. The resulting prop, seen for the first time by the group during a show, ends up only 18 inches high, making the group a laughing stock on stage. The group accuses Faith of mismanagement, and when St. Hubbins suggests Jeanine should co-manage the group, Faith quits in disgust. As the tour continues, rescheduled into smaller and smaller venues, including at a United States Air Force base and an amphitheater at an amusement park (second-billed behind a puppet-show), Tufnel becomes upset and leaves the group in the middle of a show, forcing the remaining members to perform fusion-esque experimental music for lack of Tufnel’s material. At the last show of the tour, as the group considers venturing into a musical theater production on the theme of Jack the Ripper, Tufnel returns and informs them that while their American reception has ended, the group is wildly popular in Japan, and that Faith would like to arrange a new tour in that country. The group likes the idea, letting Tufnel back into the band for their final performance. Despite losing their drummer Mick Shrimpton (R.J. Parnell) as he explodes on stage, Spinal Tap ends up enjoying great success on their Japanese tour.

The Rutles

videeoo — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:15:54 +0000

Sometimes, Bands or Artists are created for movies, television, etc. and are fake by design. The Rutles began in 1975 as a sketch on Idle’s BBC television series Rutland Weekend Television. The sketch presented Neil Innes (ex-Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band) fronting The Rutles singing “I Must Be In Love”, a pastiche of a 1964 Lennon-McCartney tune. The band name was a continuation of the premise of the TV show on which the skit originated. The show was presented as a programme by a fictional TV network in Rutland, the smallest county in England. One running joke was that it was run on a shoestring. If the show parodied a topic, it would use names derivative of “Rutland”. When Idle and Innes created a parody of the Beatles, Idle suggested “Rutles”. Innes was the musician/composer for the series and created songs with ideas on how they could be presented. Innes came up with parodying A Hard Day’s Night. He had written “I Must Be In Love” which he realised sounded very “Beatley” and thought of the Rutles skit. He passed the idea to Idle, who had a separate idea about a boring TV documentary maker. They merged the ideas into one extended film shot for the TV show. The Rutles had connections with The Beatles, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and Monty Python. The Beatles were fans of the Bonzos: they featured them in the 1967 film Magical Mystery Tour and Paul McCartney (working with Gus Dudgeon under the alias Apollo C. Vermouth) had produced their 1968 hit single “I’m the Urban Spaceman”. The Bonzos and members of the Python team worked together in the late 1960s on the TV comedy show Do Not Adjust Your Set. George Harrison was a Python fan as well as being involved in The Rutles film , his company Handmade Films later took over production of Python film Life Of Brian after the original backers pulled out, fearing its subject was too controversial, as well as financing the two first solo films of ex-Python Terry Gilliam, Jabberwocky and Time Bandits. In merchandising for the TV series, references were made to a Rutles album (Finchley Road) and a single (“Ticket To Rut”). In 1976, BBC Records produced The Rutland Weekend Songbook, an album containing 23 tracks including the Rutles songs “I Must Be In Love” and “The Children Of Rock And Roll” (later reworked as “Good Times Roll”). Saturday Night Live (1976) Two years later, on October 2, 1976 , when Idle appeared on the American NBC show Saturday Night (later Saturday Night Live), he took videotape extracts from Rutland Weekend Television — including the Rutles clip. That led to a suggestion by SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels to extend the skit into a one-hour mock documentary. This proposal led to the 1978 mockumentary All You Need Is Cash, directed by SNL film director Gary Weis (responsible for the programme’s short films), though Idle was credited as co-director. Saturday Night Live (1977) On April 23, 1977, Idle made another appearance on Saturday Night Live, bringing along Neil Innes as a musical guest. A running theme for this episode is the “Save Great Britain Telethon,” and at one point there is an appearance by “The Rutle who lives in New York, Nasty”. Innes appeared as Nasty with a lone white piano, singing a short version of “Cheese & Onions”. Later in the episode, as Neil Innes, he performed a pre-Rutles version of “Shangri-La”.[citation needed] All You Need Is Cash” (1978) All You Need Is Cash documented the rise and fall of The Rutles, parallelling much of the history of The Beatles. Innes wrote and produced the music. He relied on his memory of Beatles music, without listening, to create soundalike songs. Innes assembled a band (himself, Halsey, Ollie Halsall, Andy Brown, and Rikki Fataar) and the group played in a London pub to gel. During Rutles performances and studio recordings, Innes took lead on the songs that resembled Lennon’s; Halsall sang on most McCartney-esque tunes; Fataar sang the Harrison songs; and Halsey sang a Ringo Starr-type song. Idle mimed to Halsall’s singing and Brown’s bass playing in the completed film. Halsall appeared in the film as “Leppo”, the fifth Rutle who in the earliest years “mainly stood in the back”. Brown did not appear in the film. George Harrison makes a cameo, interviewing the band’s press spokesman ‘Eric Manchester’ — based on Beatles press agent Derek Taylor, played by Michael Palin.All You Need Is Cash was one of the first of its kind, inspiration for the Rob Reiner comedy film This Is Spinal Tap in 1984. All You Need Is Cash is a series of skits and gags that illustrate the Rutles story, following the chronology of The Beatles. The glue of the film is the soundtrack by Innes, who created 19 more songs for the film, each a pastiche of a Beatles song or genre. Fourteen songs were on a soundtrack album. The CD version added the six songs omitted from the original vinyl album. The album was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Comedy Recording of the year. The orchestrations and arrangements were by film composer John Altman. All You Need Is Cash was not a success on American television and finished bottom of all programmes that week. The programme fared better on BBC television. . A 66-minute version edited for TV was released on video and DVD but it has been superseded by the restored 72-minute version. The Beatles’ reaction George Harrison was involved in the project from the beginning. Producer Gary Weis remembers: “We were sitting around in Eric’s kitchen one day, planning a sequence that really ripped into the mythology and George looked up and said, ‘We were the Beatles, you know!’ Then he shook his head and said ‘Aw, never mind.’ I think he was the only one of the Beatles who really could see the irony of it all.” George Harrison: “…the Rutles sort of liberated me from the Beatles in a way. It was the only thing I saw of those Beatles television shows they made. It was actually the best, funniest and most scathing. But at the same time, it was done with the most love.” Harrison showed Innes and Idle the Beatles unreleased official documentary The Long and Winding Road, made by Neil Aspinall. (Aspinall’s documentary would be resurrected as The Beatles Anthology.) Ringo Starr liked the happier scenes in the film, but felt the scenes that mimicked sadder times hit too close. John Lennon loved the film so much that he refused to return the videotape and soundtrack he was given for approval. He told Innes, however, that ‘Get Up and Go’ was too close to The Beatles’ “Get Back” and to be careful not to be sued by Paul McCartney. The song was subsequently omitted from the 1978 vinyl LP soundtrack. McCartney, who had just released his own album, London Town, always answered, “No comment.” According to Innes: “He had a dinner at some awards thing at the same table as Eric one night and Eric said it was a little frosty.” Idle claimed McCartney changed his mind because his wife Linda thought it was funny. All the group and Apple consented to use of the Beatles’ Shea Stadium concert footage, along with other “real” footage cut in with Rutle footage. Idle claims on the All You Need Is Cash DVD commentary track that Harrison and Starr at one point discussed starting a band with Innes and Idle, based on the Beatles’ and Rutles’ shared and imaginary histories. This never came to pass. Later history Idle and Fataar issued one single as ‘Dirk and Stig’ in 1979 (Idle’s only appearance on a Rutles-related disc), but throughout the 1980s The Rutles did not exist. Innes, with session musicians, performed as “Ron Nasty and The New Rutles” at a convention honouring the 25th anniversary of Monty Python in 1994. This led to a Rutles reunion album in 1996, featuring Innes, Fataar and Halsey. Halsall died in 1992, but the reunion album, entitled Archaeology (a play on the Beatles’ Anthology series), featured several tracks recorded in 1978 that included his contributions. In 2002, Idle made The Rutles 2: Can’t Buy Me Lunch, but it remained unreleased for a year. The film features an even bigger number of celebrity interviewees discussing the band’s influence. This was met with mixed reactions from fans, especially since it used material culled from the original. The DVD has yet to be released in the UK. McQuickly and Nasty had cameos in the 2004 graphic novel, Superman: True Brit, co-written by John Cleese. In the graphic novel, the Rutles are saved by Superman after their car nearly plummets from the top of a car park. In 2007, a reissue of Archaeology included a new Rutles track called “Rut-a-lot”, which was simply a live medley of songs from the first Rutles album. On March 17, 2008, all four Rutles reunited for the first time at a 30th anniversary screening of All You Need Is Cash at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. The event included a question and answer session and performance by members of the tribute show “Rutlemania” which ran for a week at the Ricardo Montalban Theater in Hollywood before doing a week in NYC at The Blender Grammery Theater. The “Rutlemania” live show was conceived and written by Eric Idle which starred The Beatles tribute group “The Fab Four” as “The Pre-fab Four” Rutles. In February 2009 on his website “InnesBookOfRecords.Com”, Neil Innes released what he refers to as “Ron Nasty’s Final Song”, titled “Imitation Song” – a parody of “Imagine”. This was also Innes’ first and only entry in the Masters of Song-Fu competition run by Quick Stop Entertainment. Fictional history Ron Nasty first met Dirk McQuickly in January 1959, at the now-historical address of 43 Egg Lane, Liverpool. Having joined up with Stig O’Hara (a guitarist of no fixed hairstyle), they started playing as a trio. After 18 months, they discovered drummer Barrington Womble (whom they persuaded to change his name to Barry Wom to save time, and his hairstyle to save Brylcreem) hiding in their van, and the classic line-up was completed. In 1960, at the suggestion of then-manager Arthur Scouse, the group went to Hamburg where, with fifth member Leppo, they played all the clubs on the Reeperbahn. It was there that Leppo crawled inside a trunk with a small German fräulein and was never heard from again. Luckily, he had no talent for playing anyway. In October 1961, fate intervened in the shape and other attributes of one-legged retail chemist from Bolton, Leggy Mountbatten (a parody of Brian Epstein), who, after falling into “The Cavern” one night, decided he hated the boys’ music, but liked the cut of their jib—and especially, the cut of their tight trousers. He became their manager, cleaned up their image, and touted them around the major record companies. Eventually, they signed to Parlourphone, and their debut album, recorded in 20 minutes (their second took even longer), became an enormous success. By December 1963, they were the biggest thing ever to hit the music business, with 19 out of the top 20 singles in the UK. In 1964, Rutlemania went worldwide, and then some. The group swiftly conquered the U.S. thanks to the promotion of Bill Murray the K, while Nasty’s book of comic prose, Out Of Me Head, dominated the best-seller lists. In July of that year, the group’s first film, A Hard Day’s Rut, was released. This was followed in 1965 by Ouch! By this time, Rutlemania had reached such a fever pitch that crowd control was a serious problem. In August 1965, the Prefab Four played a sell-out concert at New York’s Ché Stadium (a pun on Argentinian-born guerrilla leader Ché Guevara and the New York Mets’s Shea Stadium), arriving a day early in order to get away before the audience arrived. The Rutles’s not-so-subtle sendup of John meeting Yoko in 1966 at Indica Gallery in London.In 1966, controversy hit the Rutles when Nasty was quoted as saying that the group were ‘bigger than God’. Nasty, however, insisted that he had been misquoted by a slightly deaf journalist, and had actually said they were bigger than Rod, referring to Rod Stewart, then a relative unknown. The band bounced back with their 1967 masterpiece Sgt. Rutter’s Only Darts Club Band, though this too was misted over in controversy when the group claimed they wrote it under the influence of tea, which they had been introduced to by Bob Dylan. When Nasty was arrested for possession of it, there was a national outcry and a full-page advertisement in The Times calling for it to be legalised. (All five members of The Rolling Stones had been arrested already, and an MP had been caught nude with a teapot). More bad news followed for the group. While staying with the mystic Arthur Sultan at his retreat in Bognor Regis, the band heard that Mountbatten had tragically emigrated to Australia, where he had accepted a teaching post. Some critics argue that the band lost their direction at this point. Tragical History Tour, their self-indulgent TV movie about four Oxford history professors on a tour around Rutland tea-shops, was regarded as a failure, despite the success of the soundtrack, which included the classic songs “W.C. Fields Forever” and “I Am the Waitress”. In April 1968, the group launched their new record company, Rutle Corps. Despite signing up some promising talent (notably: Arthur Hodgson and the Kneecaps. and the ‘French Beach Boys,’ Les Garçons de la Plage), poor financial management (mainly on the part of Stig O’Hara’s financial planner, Ron Decline) finally led to the label’s ultimate failure. Around this time, a ‘Stig is Dead’ rumour, prompted by both many obscure clues within the band’s songs and album covers (including a track which, when played backwards, reportedly said ‘Stig has been dead for ages, honestly’) and the fact that Stig had not spoken publicly in five years began to circulate, prompting Barry to stay in bed for a year. Whether this was intended as a tax dodge or as an attempt to start his own ‘Barry is Also Dead’ rumour never became clear. It was in this atmosphere that the group’s final release, Let It Rut. was recorded. Soon afterwards, the band fell apart amid much legal wrangling, with McQuickly suing Nasty and O’Hara, Wom suing McQuickly, Nasty suing O’Hara and Wom, and in all the confusion, O’Hara ended up accidentally suing himself. Wom had some success with his solo LP, When You Find The Girl Of Your Dreams In The Arms Of Some Scotsmen From Hull, but like the other members, soon drifted into obscurity, punctuated only by the making of a 1978 retrospective documentary, All You Need Is Cash. McQuickly formed the punk rock group Punk Floyd with his French wife, Martini (he sang; she did not); Nasty turned his back on the world; Wom became two hairdressers, as per a joke once made to the press; and O’Hara found work for Air India as an air hostess. It is rumoured that The Rutles acquired all their music from others. Many people said that they stole it from New Orleans blues legend Blind Lemon Pye, but he said that the Rutles music came from his next-door neighbour Ruttling Orange Peel. Ruttling claimed that he did write the music, but his wife claims that he is always lying. She said that he also claimed to have started the Everly Brothers, Frank Sinatra and Lawrence Welk. There is a small-time group named The Beatles who patterned their career after the legendary Rutles.