Spawny gets..lucky fifth wheels in music

[Barking Spiders]

My teen daughters are getting all retro and finding a love for 80s pop along the lines of Duran, Spandau, Wham etc. So we had back to back DD and Wham on Yesterday at the weekend. Mark Radcliffe's comments reminded when we used to wonder what Andrew Ridgeley actually did apart from occasionally mime playing the guitar and bass !  Other 'famous' fifth wheels that come to mind are; Bez from Happy Mondays  who basically used to trot out the same off his face  'dance' with plastic maraccas; Paul from Frankie GTH who contributed occasional backing vocal and the bloke in Boney M who semi-spoke the odd line like ' he's crazy like a fool' (from Daddy Cool). Bring 'em on!!!

[yorks5stringer]

Bobby from Boney M was actually a dancer and he mimed all the words, sung by Frank Farian, the Producer.

[rushscored4]

I'm tempted to state the blinking obvious and say Ringo Starr or Bill Wyman but didn't Madness have some bloke in a pork pie hat who used to just dance and shout the odd line like "one step beyond"?

[Hobbayne]

1 minute ago, rushscored4 said:

I'm tempted to state the blinking obvious and say Ringo Starr or Bill Wyman but didn't Madness have some bloke in a pork pie hat who used to just dance and shout the odd line like "one step beyond"?

Yes. Chas Smash

[Barking Spiders]

6 minutes ago, rushscored4 said:

I'm tempted to state the blinking obvious and say Ringo Starr or Bill Wyman but didn't Madness have some bloke in a pork pie hat who used to just dance and shout the odd line like "one step beyond"?

Chas Smash started out as a backing vocalist but as time went on he had  a more prominent role  including playing trumpet, taking the occasional lead vocal and co-writing.

Other that have just come to mind are the others in the Prodigy, usually described as MCs and /or 'dancers' though really they were there to keep company for Liam Howlett  and provide some visuals. On record their contributions were small apart from the odd vocal

Edited April 23, 2018 by Barking Spiders

[Hobbayne]

There was a duo called Milli Vanilli. Neither of them could sing, but mimed to backing tracks recorded by someone else.

Unsurprisingly enough, it was the the same bloke from Boney M at it again.

[Angelus]

56 minutes ago, rushscored4 said:

I'm tempted to state the blinking obvious and say Ringo Starr 

Apparently, I wasn’t there so can’t corroborate, but at a press conference a journalist was asking Paul McCartney about playing with Ringo, because Ringo was the best drummer in the world. Paul’s response was “Ringo? He’s not even the best drummer in the Beatles!”. Was only later, when I read up on it, that I found out that others had toured and played drums, including McCartney, on some Beatles recordings. 

[rushscored4]

5 minutes ago, Angelus said:

Apparently, I wasn’t there so can’t corroborate, but at a press conference a journalist was asking Paul McCartney about playing with Ringo, because Ringo was the best drummer in the world. Paul’s response was “Ringo? He’s not even the best drummer in the Beatles!”. Was only later, when I read up on it, that I found out that others had toured and played drums, including McCartney, on some Beatles recordings. 

Indeed and likewise I think Keef Richards played bass on a lot of Rollin' Stones records.

[bartelby]

First one that comes to mind it Bez.

[mikel]

18 minutes ago, Angelus said:

Apparently, I wasn’t there so can’t corroborate, but at a press conference a journalist was asking Paul McCartney about playing with Ringo, because Ringo was the best drummer in the world. Paul’s response was “Ringo? He’s not even the best drummer in the Beatles!”. Was only later, when I read up on it, that I found out that others had toured and played drums, including McCartney, on some Beatles recordings. 

Nice try but It was John who said that, and it was a typical Beatles p**s take. Ringo was the one drummer the Beatles chased to join them, and put the final piece in the jigsaw. Ringo was the one they begged to come back when he walked out and said he was leaving the band. Same goes for Charlie Watts. The Stones chased him for ages to get him to join. Kieth has said many times "Charlie is the musical bed I lie on" They bribe him with gifts and platitudes to Tour as he is not keen on life on the road. Listen to pop drumming before Ringo and Charlie, then what they brought to the party will become obvious, unless you play drums then you will be blindingly aware of what they brought to the respective bands.

[mikel]

My 5th wheel vote.  Liam Gallagher with Oasis. He was lucky enough to be in his brothers band.

[Barking Spiders]

Some others that come to mind 

Black Eyed Peas - the ones who aren't Will.I.Am

Spice Girls - Posh, the only one that didn't do lead vocal

Pussycat Dills - the ones who aren't Nicole Scherzinger

apologies for the pop bias here folks  

[Trueno]

Stacey in Hawkwind... is that the right name??? Don't think anyone complained at the time, though.

[fretmeister]

18 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

Some others that come to mind 

Black Eyed Peas - the ones who aren't Will.I.Am

Spice Girls - Posh, the only one that didn't do lead vocal

Pussycat Dills - the ones who aren't Nicole Scherzinger

apologies for the pop bias here folks  

Fergie can really sing though! I wish she'd do a rock album.

 

[EliasMooseblaster]

50 minutes ago, Trueno said:

Stacey in Hawkwind... is that the right name??? Don't think anyone complained at the time, though.

Stacia? (Or "Lady Stacia" in some of the liner notes) The tale I've heard is that she approached Messrs Brock and Turner about joining the band, and just said "I dance." So at her first gig, both the band and audience were equally astonished when she took all her clothes off.

I remain very glad that Bez didn't go that far with the Mondays...

[BreadBin]

Sister Bliss from Faithless - normally seen 'playing' keyboards with no audio connections and reacting to changes one bar after they actually happen.

[bartelby]

I consider Janick Gers in Iron Maiden a 5th wheel. They produced all their greatest stuff with 2 guitarists. Why the hell do they feel the need to have 3??

[Cato]

6 minutes ago, bartelby said:

I consider Janick Gers in Iron Maiden a 5th wheel. They produced all their greatest stuff with 2 guitarists. Why the hell do they feel the need to have 3??

I know what you mean and they managed live without a third guitarist for many years but having one does mean that they can now replicate the many parts on the records where they have two guitars playing lead in harmony over a third guitar playing rhythm when they play live,

[Trueno]

35 minutes ago, EliasMooseblaster said:

Stacia? (Or "Lady Stacia" in some of the liner notes) The tale I've heard is that she approached Messrs Brock and Turner about joining the band, and just said "I dance." So at her first gig, both the band and audience were equally astonished when she took all her clothes off.

I remain very glad that Bez didn't go that far with the Mondays...

Thanks for buoying up my dodgy memory... heh! heh!

[SpondonBassed]

Linda McCartney in Wings.

Having said that; I am not sure if that recording of Linda singing badly is genuine.  It was played on the radio a few years ago with the story that the sound engineer had taped it privately off the sound desk.  I think they said that she was allowed to believe that her singing was in the mix but in reality the engineer never let it reach FOH.

Anyone got a link to it?

[Cosmo Valdemar]

3 hours ago, Angelus said:

Apparently, I wasn’t there so can’t corroborate, but at a press conference a journalist was asking Paul McCartney about playing with Ringo, because Ringo was the best drummer in the world. Paul’s response was “Ringo? He’s not even the best drummer in the Beatles!”. Was only later, when I read up on it, that I found out that others had toured and played drums, including McCartney, on some Beatles recordings. 

Ringo missed part of a tour in 1964 due to illness and was replaced with a session drummer, Jimmy Nicol. It's true that some of the later Beatles recordings feature McCartney on drums, but by this time the band was fragmenting and it was not uncommon for a particular Beatle to record songs without much help from the others.

Of course, it was also standard practice for the rest of the band to swap instruments from time to time in the studio, often due to recording limitations of the day  - Harrison playing bass when McCartney played piano, for example. The occasions when the drumming was handled by someone other than Ringo should not be seen as an indictment of his abilities.

[EliasMooseblaster]

15 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

 

Ringo missed part of a tour in 1964 due to illness and was replaced with a session drummer, Jimmy Nicol. It's true that some of the later Beatles recordings feature McCartney on drums, but by this time the band was fragmenting and it was not uncommon for a particular Beatle to record songs without much help from the others.

 

One might even say they recorded some of them with[out] a little help from their friends...

 

 

I'll get my coat.

[BrunoBass]

3 hours ago, mikel said:

Nice try but It was John who said that, and it was a typical Beatles p**s take. 

It’s become urban legend that the comment came from the band themselves but it actually originated from a 1970s Jasper Carrot sketch.

[BrunoBass]

36 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

Linda McCartney in Wings.

Having said that; I am not sure if that recording of Linda singing badly is genuine.  It was played on the radio a few years ago with the story that the sound engineer had taped it privately off the sound desk.  I think they said that she was allowed to believe that her singing was in the mix but in reality the engineer never let it reach FOH.

Anyone got a link to it?

Linda wasn’t much of a musician or singer but she had a distinctive voice that worked well within Wings’ harmonies, a became a recognisable part of their sound. I’m not sure how she’d have sounded in isolation.

[fretmeister]

54 minutes ago, bartelby said:

I consider Janick Gers in Iron Maiden a 5th wheel. They produced all their greatest stuff with 2 guitarists. Why the hell do they feel the need to have 3??

Aside from the records often having 3 part harmonies they didn't want to bin him when Smith re-joined. Proper friendship.