Punk rock band Fear caused mayhem on Saturday Night Live on Halloween in 1981, bringing a most-pit to Studio 8H for the first time.
Days after the show, rumors started to swirl that the band fronted by Lee Ving, who would later star as Mr. Body on cult movie Clue, was permanently banned from SNL as a result of the destruction caused.
Over 45 years later, Questlove, who has directed Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music, which premieres on NBC on January 27, has uncovered the truth.
“I’ll occasionally read in the [NY] Post that so and so is banned for life. We’ve never banned anyone. We’re way too crass and opportunistic. If something’s hot, we’re going to go for it and have it on,” says creator Lorne Michaels.
How did a California punk band that once featured Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea end up performing on the hallowed NBC variety show?
“John Belushi found out about us, he liked our music,” says Ving in the doc. “He became a fan of ours, this ragtag bunch, we don’t have distribution, we have a record deal with Slash magazine, that was pretty much it. John allowed it to look how it looks genuinely, there had to be this contingent [of moshers]. They didn’t have much idea what the situation was going to be between the first twelve rows and the band.”
As the band began to play, a group of fans, bussed in from Washington, DC, started a mosh pit on the show, consisting of the likes of Minor Threat and Fugazi member Ian MacKaye, Harley Flanagan of the Cro-Mags and John Brannon of Negative Approach.
The band played three songs – I Don’t Care About You, Beef Bologna and New York’s Alright If You Like Saxophones.
That episode, which was hosted by Donald Pleasence, was under the leadership of Dick Ebersol, who replaced Michaels for five years in the mid-80s.
Ebersol says, “I think it was the only time up to that point in the show that there had been participatory dancing during the musical act. I don’t think I’d really figured out in my head what slam dancing was so talk about naïve.”
“Mr and Mrs Normal America, who usually go see Saturday Night Live, they’re looking askance at the punk rockers, wondering what the hell is. Kids are tossing each other through the air like there’s no tomorrow. John just looks at us [and smiles],” says Ving.
The New York Post reported that the band and its fan caused tens of thousands of dollars in damages but Hal Wilner, a Sketch Music Producer for SNL, says this wasn’t really true. “I remember having to talk to Lee Ving about his lyrics. It was one of the great phone calls. Then I heard that Belushi was going to bring a crew from Washington to dance around the stage. There wasn’t a riot, they didn’t destroy equipment, that was a good story but otherwise they were totally nice people and acted totally professionally,” he adds.
Belushi was actually no longer a cast member on SNL, having left in 1979. But Eddie Murphy was. “We thought it was crazy shit that John Belushi was making them put on TV. At the end of the Fear performance, I jump on the stage with a guitar, acting like I’m with the group,” Murphy says.
Fear’s performance inspired a generation of punk rockers.
Fred Armisen, who worked on the show from 2002 through to 2013 and was a member Chicago punks Trenchmouth before that, says, “[Belushi] was a soldier for punk.”
Jack White, frontman of The White Stripes, adds, “That was a chance for this really kind of hardcore punk band to be on national television in a way that had never been seen before, it was kind of a dangerous move. That’s what’s great about Saturday Night Live, we’re still talking about that moment right now and there’s been 1,000 bands on other TV shows that we’re not talking about. That meant something.”
“It was a hallmark for punk rock music, it didn’t have to be some armpit basement, it was on a legitimate stage and it was John’s doing,” adds Ving. “John was the best thing to ever happen to us, I love him like a brother and always will. May he rest in peace, thank you brother.”
