Fear Frightens Saturday Night Live

40 years ago today On October 31st, 1981 the notorious L.A. hardcore band Fear was invited to play the Saturday Night Live Halloween show.  The episode was hosted by Donald Pleasence.

John Belushi had become a fan of the band and pulled the necessary strings required to make this happen. Belushi also planned to bus in 15 to 20 fans from DC for the performance. The bus made some extra stops in Baltimore and Philly and showed up with twice that many. Fear and their fans had a pretty bad reputation of wreaking havoc wherever they went and did not disappoint on this occasion. The set was destroyed and profanities uttered on live television. They got through two songs but were shut down before a third.

This led to Fear joining an elite club of performers to earn a lifetime ban from the show. This was nothing new to the band as they seemed to get banned from everywhere they performed.

Fear performance on SNL (YouTube video)

Elvis Costello performs the Wrong Song on SNL

John had previously collaborated on a song with Fear for his black comedy film Neighbors, also starring Dan Ackroyd. The song was axed by executives (big surprise there) and the SNL performance was Belushi’s way of making it up to the band. 

Also on this date:

Sally Kirkland was born in 1941

Related:

Saturday Night (Live)