The Glam Metal Detectives

Peter Richardson, renowned from the television show The Comic Strip Presents, originated the Glam Metal Detectives as one of the mid-90s’ earliest ‘synergised’ multi-media assaults. The seven-part comedy series debuted on UK television on 23 February 1995 and followed a million-selling rock band that juggled worldwide performances with solving minor crimes, most often those carried out by their arch enemy, Royston Brulcade. In some quarters the show was described as ‘Scooby Doo with guitars’, trading on the same assumed rock-band idiocy already familiar from Spinal Tap and Bad News. The luckless actors and musicians assembled for the venture included Gary Beadle (ex-Seventh Wonder), Mark Caven, Phil Cornwell, Doon Mackichan, Sara Stockbridge and session guitarist George Yiascumi. Issued just four days after the opening episode, their debut single ‘Everybody’s Up’ appeared backed by an appropriately dire reading of the Osmonds’ ‘Crazy Horses’; an album of comparable quality arrived soon afterward.