Fast Food Rockers were a British pop group known briefly for their

novelty music A novelty song is a type of song built upon some form of novel concept, such as a gimmick, a piece of humor, or a sample of popular culture. Novelty songs partially overlap with comedy songs, which are more explicitly based on humor, and wi ...

. The band met at a fast-food convention in

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...

in the summer of 2003.

Career

Their most successful hit was their 2003 release " Fast Food Song", which parodies the traditional folk melody " A Ram Sam Sam". The Dutch DJ Eric Dikeb claims to have made a Dutch song out of that traditional melody in 2001, called "Pizzahaha", explaining that at that moment, he was taking part in the Dutch television show ''Big Diet'', in which contestants had to lose as much weight as they could over a few months. Dikeb further claims to have come up with the idea to use the names of his favourite fast-food restaurants in the song. Pizzahaha did not make it to the Dutch charts, but in Belgium the band Dynamite made a big hit out of it, with a Belgian version called "De Pizzadans". It also topped the charts in Germany, called "Burgerdance", by

DJ Ötzi Gerhard "Gerry" Friedle (born 7 January 1971), better known by his stage name DJ Ötzi (), is an Austrian pop and Schlager singer. Successful mainly in German-speaking countries, he is best known in the English-speaking world for his 2000 single ...

. The Fast Food Rockers' version, adapted by Mike Stock, Steve Crosby and

Sandy Rass Sandy Rass is a British government statistician and a British songwriter/producer of Fast Food Rockers and others, and a singer, dancer and actor. He was born in London and trained at the Royal Ballet School for 3 years and then at Italia Conti Aca ...

, was the first release of independent record label Better The Devil Records. In June 2003 it reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart, despite the criticism of cultural analysts who lamented the "collapse of culture into product placement". The single would go on to sell 150,000 copies in the UK, and was in the year-end Top 40. Their second single, "

Say Cheese (Smile Please) "Say Cheese (Smile Please)" is a song by British bubblegum pop group Fast Food Rockers, released as a single on 6 October 2003 in the United Kingdom. The single debuted and peaked at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart ...

", reached #10. After their attempt at a Christmas single only reached #25, and an album that failed to make the

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabul ...

, the group disbanded in March 2004. After the disbandment, the band members found non-music-related jobs, and in 2006, former band member Martin Rycroft left his job as a bartender to take part in the Channel 4/ E4 show ''Boys Will Be Girls'', where three former male popstars (including Russ Spencer from Scooch) tried to convincingly create a new girl band by former Brother Beyond star Nathan Moore. In 2003, rumours surfaced that the band did not sing on their own records. However, in an interview with CBBC ''

Newsround ''Newsround'' (stylised as ''newsround'', and originally called ''John Craven's Newsround'' before his departure in 1989) is a BBC children's news programme, which has run continuously since 4 April 1972. It was one of the world's first televi ...

'', Meggitt stated she "trained for three years at a performing arts school, Ria's been in the business for a long time, Martin's been in the business for a long time and we're very proud to say we do sing on hissong".

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

Band

Fast Food Rockers
at Myspace
Fast Food Rockers biography, news, discography
at Bubblegum Dancer

Members

Martin Rycroft's official homepageRia Scott's official Myspace page

Songwriters and producers

Mike Stock Official Website
{{Authority control English pop music groups Musical groups established in 2003 Musical groups disestablished in 2004 Musical groups from Kent British Eurodance groups