I've just finished watching the episode of GYAT involving Saxon, a band who were said to have inspired Spinal Tap, and it's definitely one of the most entertaining episodes of the series mainly because of the similarities between the two.
I didn't really know a lot about the band until I saw this documentary, apart from the song "747 (Strangers In The Night)" which was a chart hit in 1980. It turns out that one of their other tunes was a cover of Christopher Cross's "Ride Like The Wind" which wasn't as good as the orginal but nowhere near as bad as the East Side Beat house cover from 1991.
Normally Harvey Goldsmith is seen effing and blinding his way through an episode, but this time round it's lead singer and Freddie Starr lookalike Biff Byford who provides a large amount of the episode's bad language.
Amongst the tactics used by Harvey to try and take the band into the 21st century and make the sound "less pedestrian" include "conning" a load of fans into thinking they're going to see The Cure to seeing Saxon perform, to unsuccesfull results.
Even worse but very funny, is when he gets the band to perform at Hillsborough halfway through a home game with Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland, which only lasts three minutes with the crowd booing and shouting "who are ya!, who are ya!".
There's even a shot of a young boy with his mouth wide open, looking very similar to Joss Stone in the Band Aid 20 video when she appears to "look shocked" when watching the video footage of Ethiopia.
Unlike the Big L DJs who don't seem to give a shit about what Harvey's done to them, the Saxon boys react rather angrily to the bad publicity put upon them by Harvey which had me cracking up, but it ends on a high with a succesfull gig in their hometown of Sheffield leading onto a new album hitting the top 10 of the British rock chart.
I'll probably watch the circus episode next as that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
As for the rest of tonight I'll make sure I tape Peter Kay's "Britain's Got And Extra Pop Factor And Then Some! +1 +2" on Channel 4 whilst watching the final episode of Have I Got News For You where this week's guests are Irish comedian Ed Byrne and what promises to be an interesting appearance from ex Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy.
Jeremy Clarkson's hosting again and it was when he presented the show last time round that saw not just the funniest response to the Missing Words round, but possibly one of the best overall moments on television this year.
Although a lot of people can barely stand Clarkson, there's no denying that he's got a great sense of humour.
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