In 1964 an impresario named Rudy Duclós spotted four young guys from Florida named Tom, Vic, Bill and Dave playing in a band The Ardells in a Miami club and decided to organize them a tour in South America. The band, renamed "The Beetles" for this particular tour, was in for it. Duclós sold them to South American cubs as the real thing, he even got them a spot on Argentinian TV. Once they appeared on TV, however, the con was uncovered. The media ripped them to pieces, but the fans who bought the tickets their concerts didn't mind that much. Mostly everybody really liked their music and what they were doing. Finally - they made a lasting influence. They inspired competitors to make their own Beatle-posing bands, as well the formation of a genuinely nation-shifting band Los Shakers in Uruguay who helped to birth the country’s revolutionary rock nacional music scene. BBC tells the amazing story...

Last year American metal band Threatin made a publicity stunt building a big fake tour online, with shows that actually no one or a only a few people had attended. Some of the shows didn't happen at all. This weekend they played London, for real. NME reported from the show: "The music starts and the […]

“There was no way that I was going to get enough attention being a rock artist in 2018 unless I did something to get people to pay attention” - 29-year-old Jered Eames says in his first interview after he had duped venues across Europe by creating fake industry backing and buzz around his band Threatin. He […]

One of the greatest art rock pranks of all time – or a hugely expensive exercise in vanity? That's Guardian's question after a US-based ‘band’ Threatin embarked on a tour of empty venues in the UK – having been booked on the basis of a fake online fanbase. With all the attention since the story broke, […]