(Nearly) all our yesterdays
Posted by Rob Fitzpatrick on 16 September 2008 - 11:16am.
There's a fantastic, short documentary about a pre-teen Scottish Heavy Metal band called Hatred (previously known as Rising Eagle, fact fans). They're all about 11 or 12, but their influences are nearly all the same as the bands that me and my friends Michael and Martin would have recognised when we formed our band in 1982 - AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Motorhead. There's a heart-breaking clip where they practice in a disapproving mother's front room (about 3:10) which is precisely how I remember long afternoons spent at "band practice" to be. The endless, formless noodling interpersed with a frantic, awful racket. "The reason he was sacked was because he didn't, like, rock..." A classic in the making.
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Been there....
....done that, though not at such a tender age. My eldest son is 10, and to be honest I'd be quite happy if he was showing an interest to the extent that these kids are.
Pushy showbiz Dad is funny though, obviously a frustrated rockstar himself.
And who can resist the classic "Satan Rocks";
"Fresh from the Fires of Hell
Satan came out of his shell
Pulled out a Flying V
Then rocked as heavy as rock can be..."
I do have to wonder if any of it was staged though... the mis-spelt band names on the patches is a bit too Spinal Tap to be true. Anyway, they can't be metal because they have a keyboard player... in a true HM band he'd be hidden behind the stacks somewhere.
"Hell Bent for Leather" by Seb Hunter is a great read in a similar vein.
Great link though Rob, thanks!
Cheers
Keith
"...not at such a tender age..."
Adults in bands aren't much more mature, but if you did this with an adult band, nobody would believe it.
Another similar veiner is John Byrne's "Tutti Frutti" TV serial from the 80s, charting the death throes of a minor Scottish rock'n'roll outfit.
Read about it here
Highly recommended, if you can get it, that is: Copyright complications have prevented its (legal) release on video. I'm still enjoying my original home-recorded grainy VHSs of the series.
Thumbs up on Tutti Frutti -
Thumbs up on Tutti Frutti - watched it when it was on originally, watched the one repeat they showed, and saw the stageshow in Edinburgh last year... fantastic comedy, very well observed.
Lucky Tiler? Is that as in "Dave Beattie's....."? Out come the Fife bands then... :-)
It's a fair cop guv
David Beattie's Lucky Tile it is. Your cover was easier to blow!
What we have here is a Kingdom of Fife cover bands pincer movement to wreak exapnsionism on the Word blog.
Be afraid, bloggers!
Damn, now I'm going to be
Damn, now I'm going to be whistling Satan Rocks all day. Also love the advanced use of brackets in the title of (There's no point)Living Life This Way.
Some Kind of Monsters Inc
It's a delight. Are you sure it wasn't staged?
The bass audition scenes were almost exactly the same as those in Metallica's 'Some Kind of Monster' I was surprised their new bass player wasn't offered a million bucks (or at least a set of Top Trumps cards) as a welcome to the band.
fantastic
the bit when the dad starts singing is amazing. The kid with the scarf is surely going to be a star. Thanks Rob.
The bit with Dad singing...
...is the best thing I've seen this year.
Three things
First of all, good luck to them they do seem like a game bunch of lads.
Secondly, if you ever wanted to know what it would be like to see Tom Jones fronting Iron Maiden - watch the dad.
Lastly, it's a shame the guitarist couldn't get the heavier distortion pedal. He should have asked for one that went "one louder".
David Brent times a thousand.
Saw this on TV not long back here in Australia.
Fantastic.
DAD, Was he in Rainbow ?
great stuff. Thought the dad would burst into "Since you 've Gone" or "Long Live Rock 'n' Roll " at any moment. he's got that Metal voice down to a tee.
Years ago I saw a metal band in a pub In Bognor Regis who had a song Called "Satan's Rock Band ". How do I remember this ? Well the other songs they had were brilliantly titled,They were so brilliant we went to another pub and wrote them down.
Recognise Any ?
Night Rider
Stairway To Hell
Smoke in The Air
Whole Lotta Lovin'
The Boys are here again
I'd Die to be Wild (Honestly,When we started laughing the band gave us the Evil eye)
And for an encore they did
The Damnation Of Rock.
All done with a totally straight face.
By this point we had to leave before getting beaten up. Can't say the name of the Band because one of them Works with a mate of mine.
staged
Alright then, if *you* were looking round a field three weeks before your first festival gig, do you think they'd already have the portaloos in place?
Staged?
I watched it thinking it was much too good to be true, but I don't think that the portaloo is necessarily evidence of fakery - places that have a permanent portaloo presence aren't that unusual, and anywhere where's the some kind of building activity expected will have them installed before the work starts.
The bits that didn't seem to be completely convincing to me were the Hatred/Hatrid mispelling, and the scene in the guitar shop.
But I desperately want it to be 100% real.
Is any "fly on the wall" TV ever totally natural?
TV producers would love us to think that a TV programme recorded without a script must therefore be totally natural. Most "reality TV" relies to a huge extent on people behaving differently, and often quite extraordinarily, because they are on TV. I don't expect this group of players would be any different.
And of course, if the different behaviour makes the programme more entertaining, the producers aren't going to discourage it. This brings up to the thin line between
"not discouraging behaviour put on for the camera"
and
"encouraging behaviour for the sake of the camera"
Once that grey line is crossed it's downhill all the way as far as realism is concerned until the point is reached where all that matters is that you can get away with it.
It's in that context that you should decide whether elements of this programme were staged. Call me an old cynic, but I'd say "Why wouldn't they be?"
Bless!
Staged or not, these are scenes familiar to all those families whose little ones join a band at school. Great fun, and bless their cotton socks - HATRID indeed!
I would just like to point out that my wife and I never ever "showed them how to do it". We provided rehearsal space(much to our neighbours consternation!), bacon sandwiches, and lugged heavy gear about until it became clear we were no longer needed as it was a bit uncool to have your Mum & Dad being over-enthusiastic at the gigs!
very funny
I just think we should accept it's a completely staged documentary, the directors latest film is about his failed love life which has had similar comment mad about in that real life has be re-staged or enhanced. Many of the shots look too set up and how did he find such a newly formed band? I'm not saying it's not entertaining it's just a good film not a documentary.
Brill
This is fantastic, finally got round to watching. The bass guitar auditions are very funny! Let's wish HATRID all the luck on the rocky road to stardom. Maybe a movie to follow.
"They say your attitude
"They say your attitude determines your altitude. How high you gonna fly?"
Defo faked. Funny and entertaining, but faked. The Hatrid patches confirmed that surely?
Waldorf is spot on. It's a spoof! But a good one.
Oh come on everybody, it's so obviously a scripted, acted spoof. 100% spoof. The Office meets Spinal Tap. But brilliantly done, so funny. I take it you guys enthusiastically plugging it on the Word Podcast as a 'documentary' were in wind-up mode? Either that or I've become terribly cynical. Maybe there's a thread here on great wind-ups in popular culture. Roger Eno (Brian's brother) released a wonderful CD a few years ago claiming it to be a collection of original recordings from neglected English composers, complete with grainy b&w photographs and brief biographies. It was enchanting stuff and I was thrilled to read the tales of this colourful cast whilst listening to their beguiling musical fragments until.... the penny dropped. The stories were just a little over-egged, the music was just a little too colourful and someone looking strangely like a monotone Roger Eno at a period fancy-dress party kept popping up in the pics. Great stuff though. And good luck to Hatrid. They rock.