There’s not much out there in rock n’ roll land that surprises anyone any more – indeed you sometime wonder if many manufactured bands are real or indeed artists at all. In fact, some of the most entertaining acts of all time are fictional creations. So what happens when these fictional acts from TV, film and comic land start playing gigs. Join us as we count down some of our favourite fictional acts to find out just how real they are and to see if we can break the space/time continuum while we’re at it.
Sexual Chocolate
Eddy Murphy and Arsenio Hall hamming it up in the 1988 film Coming To America taking the piss out of lounge cabaret singers in the band Sexual Chocolate is dated as all hell but still quite funny.
Barry Jive and the Uptown 5/Sonic Death Monkey
Jack Black’s objectionable record store clerk High Fidelity transforms from the unlistenable Sonic Death Monkey to Barry Jive and the Uptown Five (via Kathleen Turner Overdrive) and it became the springboard to the formation of Tenacious D and their upcoming stadium tour of Australia with the Foo Fighters.
Orange Organics
All Australians of a certain age will remember the kids TV series Pugwall’s Last Summer and their cringeworthy attempts to form a successful rock band.
The B Sharps
Homer Simpson’s Barbershop quartet who win a Grammy, see the band bust up after Barney meets a Yoko Ono like figure and play a final gig on the roof of a record company, only for Beatle George Harrison to appear in a guest cameo appearance and tell them ‘It’s been done before’.
Dr Teeth & The Electric Mayhem
Loosely based on rock acts of the 1960s and 1970s, the band was The Muppets house band and drummers of today are still compared in their playing style to Animal, the drummer.
Zack Attack
No childhood of the 1990s was complete without the dulcet tones of ‘Friends Forever’ by Zack Attack in the series Saved By The Bell.
Wyld Stallyns
Bill & Ted’s band in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and later Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey served as a cross promotional marketing vehicle for Kiss’s comeback song ‘God Gave Rock n’ Roll To You.
The Venus In Furs
One of two fictional bands in the 1998 film Velvet Goldmine, the band was loosely based on David Bowie circa Ziggy Stardust and Roxy Music, busting out Brian Eno covers and the like.
S.Mouse
Okay so he’s topical at the moment, but 900 fans for a free show a St Kilda’s Prince of Wales on Sunday night said that they thought Chris Lilley’s character was funny.
Spinal Tap
The ultimate fictional band which seems to embody every cliché about being in a band, exposing all the flaws and foibles of rock stars and wannabe rock stars. It’s 26 years old but still as pertinent as ever.
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