Smigg.

That's what I was thinking too. Because later in the movie, the drummer was talking about his new girlfriend being high school age after his wife ran off with Peter Gabriel.

I don't think he was getting fired, because Dominic Wood said "You want to go and do you're own thing, and that's fine!" So, I think he was leaving of his own volition, but then I think they were just openly disrespecting him, by making fun of him being gay, and by wheeling out knock-offs, showing him that they think he's just a meat bag who can be easily replaced by some jabroni off the street.

Okay, I tried tempering it, but I've got so much to get out about this movie, but there are plenty of little references to things that occured in the world of metal music. - When Chris was going into his audition, they were staring at a Bobby Beers tour outfit, that's a nod to Judas Priest, as Rob Halford would wear outfits like that. He's credited for introducing the "Metal Uniform" with the leather, studs, spikes and chains, most of which he got when he visited S&M shops in Soho, London. One particular store he would visit was "Mr. S. Leather". - Even though the story is based upon Tim "Ripper" Owens joining Judas Priest, the story itself seems to follow more closely to Jason Newsted joining Metallica. Newsted was a Metallica superfan who idolized their bassist, Cliff Burton. When Burton died, Newsted ended up joining his favourite band, and eventually left (albeit after 14 years, and not the 1 that Chris was in the band), because he wasn't able to add much creatively, as Metallica's frontman, and drummer (James Hetfield, and Lars Ulrich), wrote the songs, and it was Newsted's job to play what they wrote. Kirk Cuddy even plays the same guitar as James Hetfield, and both serve as rhythm guitarist in their respective bands. - The press conference Steel Dragon hold to introduce Chris is in the same place as Spinal Tap's - The guy who auditioned before Chris went on to become the frontman of Steel Panther - When Tim Spall said that MTV "don't play the lad's music as much after they trashed their studio" is a reference to Guns N' Roses trashing the studio for MTV's Headbangers Ball. - The tattoos on Steel Dragon's lead guitarist, Ghode, (played by Zakk Wylde) are the logo for Wylde's band, Black Label Society. - Noted rock/metal musicians who appear in the movie include: Jason Bonham, who played Steel Dragon's drummer, has played for Foreigner, UFO and appeared in VH1's 'Supergroup' and is the son of Led Zeppelin's John Bonham. Jeff Pilson, who was Steel Dragon's bassist, was also in Foreigner as well as playing for Ronnie James Dio, and Dokken. Nick Catanese (Mark Wahlberg's lead guitarist in his tribute band) was in Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society Zakk Wylde is the frontman of Black Label Society, Pride & Glory. and has solo albums to his name too, as well as being the guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, and was also tapped to replace Slash in Guns N Roses but turned them down. Myles Kennedy, who was Mike/Thor at the end of the movie, went on to become the lead singer of Alter Bridge (that band that was Creed, but then told Scott Stapp to go fuck himself) Stephan Jenkins, the other Steel Dragon tribute singer, was the frontman for Third Eye Blind

Tanya being transgendered might have been foreshadowed earlier in the movie. When Tim Spall was handing out backstage passes, Chris asked him for one, he said "Not without a blowjob and a sex change". Then, when Chris goes into his audition, he makes a comment that Tanya dated Bobby Beers for a while, then Bobby reveals he was gay. So, perhaps Tanya was dating Bobby because Bobby hadn't gone public with being gay. To be honest, I have no idea if that actually is the way it would work, but a 2001 movie would probably be working off the same level of ignorance.

Now, if you look at the "Once in a Lifetime" montage (which I have LOTS of things to point out), one of the magazines opens up showing an article about "25 Reasons To Love Steel Dragon". However, it's actually an article about Rage Against The Machine and their influence on the Rap-Metal boom of the late 90s. The montage as a whole shows how fucked up the timing of the movie is, because it's all over the place. When the movie starts it just says "Pittsburgh - The 80s", like it's an episode of The Goldbergs, when it pans through the porno theatre (the title 'All That Jizz' was a personal favourite), and into the Blood Pollution rehearsal area, outside of all of the Steel Dragon paraphanalia, there's a Metallica poster, Metallica released their debut album, "Kill 'em All" in 1983, and when Chris is working on the copier in the office, Karma Chameleon is playing on the radio, which was released in the US in 1984, so far, so good... so what (that's a Megadeth reference for my own amusement if you didn't catch it.) When Chris joins Steel Dragon, he's on the "Livin' The Life Tour 1985", as written on the back of Tim Spall's jacket. So, the montage isn't about the years they've spent on the road, it's just for that tour, because the dates still show 1985, here's where the timing is fucked up. As pointed out earlier, those magazines were still coming out in 1985, why they all had Steel Dragon on the cover, I have no idea, however, when you look at some of the articles featured on them. You had: - "Heart: More Than Just Pretty Faces": Heart released their first album in 1977, so they'd been releasing stuff for 8 years at that point, everyone would already know that they were more than just pretty faces. - "Step Aside Jon Bon-Jovi": Bon Jovi released a couple of albums, not really breaking the top 40, however, it wasn't until 1986 when they really hit it big with "Slippery When Wet", so, Jon Bon Jovi wouldn't be stepping aside for Chris, Chris would be stepping aside for Jon Bon Jovi. Bon Jovi leads me to the the music they used in the movie, which is all out of line with when the movie takes place. They used "Livin on a Prayer" which came out in 1986, which isn't really the most egregious use of a song considering the time frame: - When Chris is getting his nipple pierced, the song that's playing on the radio is AC/DC's "Are You Ready?", that song is on the album "The Razor's Edge", which came out in 1990, Chris was getting his nipple pierced in 1984. - When they went to the after party for Chris's first show with Steel Dragon, the song playing in the nightclub was "The Devil Inside" by INXS, a song which came out in 1987. - Def Leppard's "Lets Get Rocked" came out in 1992 - Motley Crue's "Wild Side" came out in 1987 So I can see why people think this movie took place over many years, when really, it's the people making the movie didn't know their arse from their elbow when it came to the right music to use, and just said "Fuck it, that'll do".

Okay, I was sitting on this one, with my fingers crossed that it wasn't brought up, but Mark Wahlberg donned his Steel Dragon wig, and joined his Steel Dragon bandmate, Zakk Wylde in the video for Black Label Society's "Counterfeit God" as the bass player. To me, that would have been a MUCH better ending than the one they had, because Zakk Wylde is the fucking man. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEvasv5KMko

I'm glad the discussion about "Where the money went" was talked about. Chris wouldn't have really made much money, he wasn't in the band for even a year, sang on one album, and didn't write any of the songs. So, unless they gave him an advance to sign with the band (sort of like how Metallica offered Robert Trujillo $1,000,000 when he joined the band in 2003), he'd still be relatively poor. In fact, the question that should be asked is, where the fuck would he have gotten money for a Batmobile?! Or for a motorbike to just ride through hotels and smash into doors. Maybe he's having to hitch-hike because the little money he made, he pissed up against a wall buying Batmobiles and Hotel Motorbikes

YEAAAAAAH!!! Just a forewarning, like I said in the mini-episode thread, I am going to be insufferable.

1) That happens a lot during club/bar gigs, when there's a solo, the singer will leave the stage, sometimes to get something from the bar and let the guitarist/drummer/whoever to take centre stage. 2) Not only is it a film from 2001, it's also set in the 80s, lot's of homophobia going around. Not only that, it sets up the members of Steel Dragon as horrible people, so then you can see why Chris wants to leave a dream gig. 3) Tanya is basically like a consierge for the band, they tell her to get stuff, she'll go out and get it. 4) It's a hotel. Emily is pissed because Chris has basically shoved her to the side to have this Rock Star lifestyle, it started when he chastised her for calling him "Chris" instead of "Izzy" in front of people. 5) I think it's a coffee shop

This goes to show you what happened with the Glam bands, from Warrant's Jani Lane.

It's the Rob Halford paradox. You have one of the most respected guys in metal, up there with Ozzy and Lemmy as one of those guys who is universally respected by everyone in metal, and the guy happens to be gay. To make it even more ironic, he himself is calling things "gay".

GnR didn't so much "kill" glam, but they bridged the gap between the glam and the "real metal" groups, they managed to get both sides, which is why they fell so hard after the infamous 1992 tour with Metallica, because they were made to look like poseurs.

Both. What was happening was Metallica were playing to sold out arenas with barely any radio play, and they didn't even have a music video, so they started collecting scalps for want of a better term, because they, as well as bands like Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer were guys going up on stage and playing this raw, fast, heavy metal. Megdeth kicked off the '90s with "Rust in Peace", absolute masterpiece of an album, I implore that you give it at least one listen, just for the technical mastery, that was the shot over the bow, it was a Top 10 album in the UK, and was a big seller in the US. Then Metallica's eponymous "Black Album" came out in 1991, same year as Nevermind by Nirvana, and just fucking blew up, that's when the pile of bodies started growing. In fact, this is how on their game Metallica were at the time, they did a tour with Guns n' Roses in 1992, and it basically sunk GnR for a long time, because of Axl's ego, he demanded that Metallica went on first, and they just destroyed everything in their path. In fact, Jim Breuer does an amazing telling of the saga: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGy_obJa_JQ So, what essentially happened was, the Black Album coming out so soon after Nevermind was this huge, landscape changing moment, and then the rest of the glam bands got picked off by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alica in Chains and Soundgarden, then all of the people who were wearing spandex with their hair all teased up and putting make up on, were now sporting flannel and work boots. So, you sort of had this thing where Grunge and Thrash could co-exist, particularly Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, as they had more of a metal influence.

Shame Brian Posehn isn't in the episode, he might have lost his shit talking about this.

This is how scary and powerful Glam was at the time, they turned fucking OZZY glam. Before Glam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnNWUUZ7cEA During Glam:

Whenever I talk about Glam Metal, I always end up thinking of three things. The first being the quote from Dave Mustaine when he formed Megadeth, "What do I think of Glam Metal? Well, its G-L-A-M, it's Gay LA Metal" The second is Riki Rachtman, who hosted Headbanger's Ball, talking about how difficult it was to programme, because he'd get it from both sides, he'd get guys sending him shit saying "If you're the 'Headbanger's Ball', why the fuck are you playing Firehouse?!" Then in the same mailbag, he's get girls sending him stuff like "Why are you playing Slayer?! Nobody listens to that!" That contrast leads back to my eariler point that both of these songs I've shown are both considered "Metal", that's why sub-genres become so important. The third thing is how the Glam Bubble ended up bursting. It became so homogenised that these glam bands would bring out an album, but they had to have three specific singles, all released in the same order: 1) The "YEAH! WE'RE GONNA PARTY! ROCK & ROLL!!!" single, things like "Girls, Girls, Girls" by Motley Crue 2) The heartfelt power ballad, like "Is This Love" by Whitesnake 3) The acoustic song And because it had gotten so sanitised, they didn't see the impending threat that was marching over the hill, bands like the big four of thrash.

I'm a thrash guy, so I find Glam/Hair metal to be distasteful. So, when I hear "Livin' On A Prayer", I don't think "metal", but some consider it to be. Take "Home Sweet Home" by Motley Crue, that's "Metal" because it's performed by Motley Crue.

How can you say such a thing?! Any actor worth is salt would be chomping at the bit to say the line "My friends call me Murphy, but you call me... ROBOCOP!!!!" Weller's a fool.

Okay, I've watched the film twice, I have plenty of notes, I'm gonna be insufferable.

We have a 12a age rating where kids can go in with an adult, but not on their own. The problem with this age rating is that now action movies are doing this thing where they release it in the cinema as a 12a, so that parents can take their kids in with them, but then release the DVD as an "Extended Edition" and it gets a 15 certificate, so you're not seeing the movie as it's supposed to be until the DVD comes out. They did it with the RoboCop remake, The Expendables 3 and Life Free or Die Hard and a couple of others. Case in point as to how strict it is, I went with my brother to a midnight release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and they literally had members of staff going around the shop, taking the game out of kids' hands and giving them to their parents and saying "You have to buy this, it's illegal to sell it to anybody under 18".

Is it true that in the US, a kid can go into any movie if they're accompanied by an adult? Because I think that's how it's different in the UK, there's no way a kid's being let into a movie they're too young for, regardless of who's with them, and they're really strict with it Yeah, I've stayed away from all things political this last year or so, because it's vile, now it's just people calling each other horrible names, and nothing ever gets discussed. Sometimes I just want to turn into pull a V for Vendetta, who whatever show I'm thinking of, hack into all of the available screen in the world and just say "Look, just stop being dicks. You over here, stop doing Nazi shit, you over there, Air Conditioning isn't sexist, you're not helping anything", I think I'm just far too much of a centrist, because I get it from everyone, so I've given up.

I don't know how it is in the US, but here, we basically list out all the things that people would find objectionable. We put them on all movies, games and TV; So you look on the back of Mortal Kombat X for example, and it'll say "Strong Language, Intense Violence, Gory Images", so people know what to expect, and it covers pretty much everything from "Mild Peril" to "Extreme Violence" Before, I was guilty of being the "Oh, fucking sensitive people, what's wrong with that?!" but I've eased my stance on it because while I'm alright with pretty much everything, but there are things I see where I think "Well, that's not cool", so then I'd be a hypocrite. Case in point, we have a show here called "The Big Fat Quiz of the Year", and it's a comedy show where comedians of varying quality have a quiz about what happened in the year, they started talking about an advert for a bakery where they swapped out the baby jesus in a Nativity for a sausage roll, and a lot of their responses were "Fucking Christians?! What's wrong with that? If it was other religions, I could see why they would be, but what are the Christians getting mad about!" David Mitchell then said something that gave me this epiphany when he said "I can see why they would be, they've reduced their deity, their god, into nothing more than a pastry product". Which is where I've landed on it, I'm an advocate of creative freedom, however, those who do have a problem with things shouldn't necessarily be shouted down, instead, say "Okay, well, here's why I'm okay with it, but I can see why you'd feel that way".

Your "parents doing damage to each other" just reminded me of one of the single greated burns I've ever heard. When I was about 16, my mum visited some friends for the weekend, so she trusted my 19 year old brother and I was not burning the house down. Well, I met up with some friends, they decided to neck an entire three litre bottle of White Lightning each. This White Lighting was a cheap as fuck White cider, which might as well have been legally classed as paint thinner, you could get these three litre bottles, which were 8% vol, and you could get them for £2 a bottle. So, after they necked these bottles, they were pissed out their faces, And they left a mess for me to clean up before my mum got home, one of them had been sick on the patio so badly, it had stained the stonework. Well, my mum calls his house and said "He needs to come up here and clean it up!" and they argued about it, and my mum said "What was he doing with cider?!" and this guy's mum replied said "Oh yeah?! You're the one who left for the weekend, leaving your kids on their own!" and my mum just came back at her with "You were at home and your son drank an entrie three litre bottle of cider and was rolling around drunk! While my son didn't drink anything!" It was just beautiful.

That's one thing that's really frustrating now, is the "all or nothing" metality that people have. Say "I don't like this here", it's no longer "Well, that's your perogative, I disagree", it's "Are you triggered?! You wanna go to a safe space, snowflake?!" because nuance is all but gone.

Minor update on this post, I've bummed myself out thinking about it, because then I thought to myself "I don't really cry at stuff like this, but this had an impact on me, that might have been the closest I've come to shedding a tear at a game... oh god, I forgot about John Marston", oh god I was sad for DAYS about that one, FUCK YOU EDGAR ROSS!!