Musical urban legends

[the 12 th man]

Hundreds of curious American people turned up at a "Big Tom & The Mainliners" gig in the States expecting to see a heavily drug influenced band performing.:D

[Pauro 76]

Is it true about the Ryan Adams gig where he started to ask if anyone would like to hear a request. A wag shouted 'Summer of 69' and was escorted out of the gig by his heavies? If its true, classic!

[Macy]

"Marc Almond/Holly Johnson/Prince/Marilyn Manson (delete as applicable to your era) has had his bottom 4 ribs removed...."

I was in the Canal Bar to see Oasis/ I was in the Free Trade Hall to see the Sex Pistols.

[tetsujin1979]

Police raided the home of Mick Jagger to find Marianne Faithful with a chocolate bar.... ;)

BTW - this one is definately not true

[CollegeTillIDie]

Well here's one that was used to blatantly promote a band's debut album ! In 1975 I think it was, KLAATU released an album in North America and some people on the radio thought it was so Beatle like that it must have been the re-formed Beatles.
This story spread like wildfire and was relayed on radio and in the music press in both the USA and Canada for weeks .
The band did not issue a statement denying they were the Beatles ... till after the album went TOP 50 on the Billboard charts.

KLAATU's only chart action this side of the pond came via the Carpenters who covered their song " Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft " in around 1977 or 78 and hit the UK Top 40 with it.

[Gareth]

Elvis is alive and well and living in my front room.

[tetsujin1979]

Elvis is alive and well and living in my front room.
There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis ;)

I'll get me coat....

[the 12 th man]

Slightly off topic..............but Richard Gere, his hospital visit, and the gerbils :eek: that were found:D

[Dodge]

http://www.snopes.com/

Good urban legend site. Refutes most of them

[CollegeTillIDie]

Marc Almond gave a horse some cunni lingus?:eek:
Collapsed was carted off to hospital and had to have his stomach pumped?

[noby]

Collapsed was carted off to hospital and had to have his stomach pumped?

The horse?

[noby]

Sex Pistols were intentionally kept off the no.1 spot for the Queens Jubilee

[Aldini98]

Jim Morrison actually Broke On through to the other side....

[CollegeTillIDie]

The horse?
no Marc Almond you daft thing:D

[CollegeTillIDie]

Sex Pistols were intentionally kept off the no.1 spot for the Queens Jubilee
There is a certain amount of credible evidence of this one. So much so that compilation of the Charts were moved to another organisation Gallup from the BMRB( British Market Research Bureau) some years later and bar codes were put on the sleeves of singles so the Charts are immune to manipulation allegedly.

[noby]

A certain amount. But there's a large amount of anecdotal evidence that it was the Malcolm McLaren PR machine in full swing.

[Troy.McClure]

I was in the Canal Bar to see Oasis/ I was in the Free Trade Hall to see the Sex Pistols.

You were at both gigs!?! :eek:





I'll get my coat :o

[Macy]

You were at both gigs!?!
Yes, obviously.

[CollegeTillIDie]

The KLF Set fire to a million pounds. Made a film of it and went on a lecture tour, showing the film, explaining why and fielding a Q & A session afterwards.

[Lionel Ritchie]

There is a certain amount of credible evidence of this one. So much so that compilation of the Charts were moved to another organisation Gallup from the BMRB( British Market Research Bureau) some years later and bar codes were put on the sleeves of singles so the Charts are immune to manipulation allegedly.

In this particular instance -both releases "Sailing" by Rod Stewart and 'God Save The Queen' by Sex Pistiols were through Virgin in the UK (though Stewart was actually signed to Warners) -who maintain that their own distributors were being asked to re-supply shops with the Pistols record at a rate that would indicate it was shifting considerably more copies than Stewarts.

neither the UK charts nor anyone elses are imune from rigging.
Since they started compiling a chart -artists, managment and labels have given wads of cash to people and told them go 'round and buy up particular records.
Shops are supposed to report "irregular" sales patterns but when it was at it's peak there were so many doing it that you'd do little else if you were to phone gallup or whoever every time someone bought a dozen copies of the same single.

I'd say it happens less these days as a hit single isn't nearly as valuable now as it was in the mid 80's when you could make a substantial profit on single sales alone. Far fewer singles are sold nowadays.

The Irish Charts are nothing short of a joke and I say that as someone who was in a band and learnt a bit about how they're compiled.
They're basically a "sample of sales" taken from HMV Grafton Street, Virgin on Aston Quay (is that still there actually? I'm sure I heard it was closing) and one other (yes thet's right ...One) record shop from "down the country" which is apparently chosen randomly from week to week.

I remember talking to one of The Golden Horde about 15 years ago when they'd 'Endless Weekend' out as a single and they'd just been told it had climbed to no. 12 in the Irish Charts -they were also able to confirm through Record Services that it had sold around 250 copies that week.

[Gareth]

That Virgin on Aston Quay is a Supervalu now. Long gone. Charts are awful things as they are so poorly worked. If music shops had a central system of recording sales maybe it could work but its always open to manipulation. Anyways most of the bands I like never chart!

[tetsujin1979]

I heard before a lot of bookies won't take bets on the charts because it's so predictable.
Also I think it was Ronan Keating said before that they were saying to Louis Walsh that Boyzone (still together at the time) were so popular, why weren't they playing bigger venues? Louis took him outside, opened the back of his car and showed Ronan stacks of singles that he had bought to push the latest single to number 1!

[max power]

The KLF Set fire to a million pounds. Made a film of it and went on a lecture tour, showing the film, explaining why and fielding a Q & A session afterwards.

no bill and jim did actually burn the money........fair play to them.

[Lionel Ritchie]

no bill and jim did actually burn the money........fair play to them.

They did indeed. Bizzarely it's also reported that they made a tidy profit from the lecture tour, appearance fees on televised debates and screening rights to show the film of a million quid going up in smoke.

[max power]

wasn't the late late show part of the pr ???

[Lionel Ritchie]

wasn't the late late show part of the pr ???

it would've been. I recall Bill Drummond going head to head with Joe Elliot from Def Leppard who in an exercise of complete point missing slated them for not giving the million quid to charity.

He was then challenged by Drummond as to why a chap as wealthy as Elliot obviously was had never felt an inclination to hand over a million quid to charity himself.

[Aldini98]

Bob Holness (from Blockbusters) played the sax on "Bakers Street" by Gerry Raferty, its a load of bo**ocks :)

[Lionel Ritchie]

I hate 'Baker Street' for making me hate saxophones.

[the 12 th man]

"The Ruttles" were The South of Englands answer to "the Beatles"
(anybody remember them ?)

[tetsujin1979]

"The Ruttles" were The South of Englands answer to "the Beatles"
(anybody remember them ?)
Yep, they were a legend in their own lunchtime!

[the 12 th man]

Yep, they were a legend in their own lunchtime!


Who could forget "The tragical history tour" or " A hard days rut":D

[sylvo]

Who could forget "The tragical history tour" or " A hard days rut":D

Was Eric Idol from Monty Python involved in that.

[the 12 th man]

Was Eric Idol from Monty Python involved in that.


He was "Dirk Mc Quigley"(Paul) in the group.The rest of the Group were all members of the Python team afaik:)