When The B-52’s appeared on a strange 1980s soap-opera
In 1976, The B-52’s formed in Athens, Georgia, after longtime friends Ricky Wilson and Keith Strickland became closer with Ricky’s sister Cindy Wilson. The strong, familial trio subsequently acquainted Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson through mutual friends. One evening, while sharing a flaming volcano cocktail at a Chinese restaurant, this group of kooky youths drunkenly decided to form a band. The rest, as they say, is history.
As one might derive from the band’s bold garments and vibrant, enthusiastic live performances, they’ve always been a particularly gregarious troupe. Following the release of their self-titled debut album in 1979, the Georgia-based group soared to the height of new wave appeal and garnered a global following. Keen to keep in touch with their sprawling fan base, the band embarked on frequent extra-curricular activities.
Notably, the band created a popular fan club newsletter that kept fans updated with all things B-52’s and even shared a couple of recipes here and there. Beyond their culinary teachings and fan-bund literature, The B-52’s maintained a healthy presence on national television. Appearances on talk shows and music programmes proved to be a fruitful outlet, but once, the band even visited the long-running soap opera Guiding Light.
Guiding Light holds a record as the longest-running US soap opera, having debuted in 1952 and concluding in 2009 when it was replaced by Let’s Make a Deal. In 1982, 30 years into the show’s impressive lifespan, The B-52’s appeared in an episode of Guiding Light during their tour supporting Mesopotamia, the band’s EP produced by Talking Heads frontman David Byrne.
In the episode, the plotline lands in a fictional venue named Springfield, where The B-52’s appeared to play a couple of songs. In one of the adjoined scenes, Cindy Wilson, Pierson and Schneider also appear in acting roles as they acquaint one of the soap’s characters who aspires to become a famous musician.
When discussing the band’s appearance in Guiding Light in the below video clip, Schneider revealed that The B-52’s were just one of many musical guests invited to appear on the show. “Every week they’d have a different musical guest, and because it was a club in the town, one week they’d have Judy Collins, the next week they’d have The B-52’s
Watch The B-52’s perform ‘Throw That Beat in the Garbage Can’ and ‘Private Idaho’ on the set of Guiding Light below.
