Nov 122012
This is a longshot, but has anyone in the Halls of Rock ever appeared on a dance show along the lines of American Bandstand? As someone who rarely dances in any situation, I find it really odd to imagine what it much be like dancing to lip-syncing musicians. What does it sound like in the studio? Can you hear the musicians banging their unamplified instruments? How can you focus on dancing with the nonsense in progress onstage?
I’ve been watching a number of old Who videos lately and also wondering if the Who was the first band that went over the top in providing “exciting” lip-synced performances. Have any of our musicians ever lip-synced for a live audience? How weird was that?
I stumbled upon this video of Klark Kent (alter ego of very early Police era Stewart Copeland) and his backup band (mask-wearing Sting, Andy, and roadie Kit Turner) lip-syncing to Klark’s song “Don’t Care” on Top of the Pops or something. I recall seeing Copeland being interviewed and he said that the studio really only had a very small number of “audience” members but they were carefully moved around and framed in just such a way as to make it look like there were a lot more people. There’s a lot of, as you say, over the top non-syncing lip-syncing going on. And good luck to the stand-in drummer miming Stewart’s style!
http://youtu.be/K-auRE6zV5E
Wow, that’s kicking it old school!
I was a Soul Train dancer in the mid 70s.