‘Almost 30m plays on Spotify!’ When fake bands hit the real-life big time, from Spinal Tap to the Flaming Dildos

‘Back then, cocaine was just another way of waking up’ … Stereophonic, the play about a 70s band. Photograph: Marc Brenner

They have sold out venues on both sides of the Atlantic. Their first-ever gig was opening for a former member of Arcade Fire. Their 2024 album has been acclaimed as sounding like a lost classic of 1970s rock. Their two top tracks, Bright and Masquerade, have notched up 700,000 streams on Spotify. In fact, by the numbers, they’re having one of the most buzzy rock debuts of recent years. Yet they don’t really exist. They don’t even have a name.

The band is in fact the unnamed five-piece featured in Stereophonic, a hugely successful, Tony-winning drama, currently playing in London’s West End. Written by David Adjmi, with music by former Arcade Fire member Will Butler, Stereophonic earned five stars from the Guardian, which praised its “moments of creative transcendence, including a late-night epiphany so electrifying that the sound waves will excite your internal organs”.