Faith No More played their first show of the King For A Day Fool For A Lifetime tour twenty five years ago.
Raw | Issue 171
Silly Old Trout by Dave Ling FAITH HO MORE warmed up for their, er, warm-up tour at the Windsor Old Trout. DAVE LING pulls up a ringside seat. A FEW days before the start of Faith No More's UK tour, the band played a low-key date at, of all places, The Old Trout in Windsor. Billing themselves as NEW FAT BASTARDS, the show took place before just 200 people and served as the debut public show of new guitarist Dean Menta. Details of the appearance had been kept strictly hush-hush - to the point where the band's agent had been ordered to pull the plug on it if any inquisitive soul should call him to enquire whether or not it was happening and tickets had only gone on sale at the venue on the morning of the gig, resulting in most of the tickets going to local people. However, word eventually got around and some devoted people from London made it along. The sound wasn't great at the start of the show and just five songs from the brand new King For A Day... Fool For A Lifetime platter were aired, but the band did throw in an unexpected Introduce Yourself in their bizarre 90-minute slot. Track-listings aside, everyone was far more interested in finding out whether Menta would slot in with his new band mates' notoriously individual sense of humour. Apparently, Dean must've been made to feel at home, for Patton wasted tittle time in telling everyone: "He's not playing his guitar with his wrist, he's playing it with his arm!" Alas, the poor new recruit didn't have a mic to fire back his response. Afterwards, the band admitted that they were relatively unfit and all felt knackered. Never mind, with another 9 to 12 months world touring ahead of 'em, they'll soon get back to match fitness. Many bigger bands now jump at the chance of brushing off the ring-rust with low key shows before beginning huge world tours. Guns N' Roses debuted their Get In The Ring extravaganza with gigs at small US (theatres, and Metallica once played a show at London's minute 100 club!