Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (1982)

Taglines: She can’t fool all the fans all of the time…

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains movie storyline. Corrine Burns retreats far into plans for her band, The Fabulous Stains, after her mother’s death. So far that she gets them (she and two cousins) on a tour with a washed-out glam-rock group and a rising British punk band, radically changes her appearance, attracts a cult following and national media attention. With luck like this, what could go wrong?

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains is a 1982 film about three teenage girls, played by Diane Lane, Laura Dern and Marin Kanter, who start a punk band.

About the Story

Corinne Burns is a seventeen-year-old girl whose mother has recently died from lung cancer. Working in a fast food restaurant to help support herself and her younger sister, Corinne is interviewed by a local television station for a story about her town’s dwindling economy. During the interview, Corinne becomes angry and belligerent towards the reporter, eventually lashing out at her boss and getting fired.

The segment resonates with the station’s teenage viewers, who see Corinne as a kindred spirit. The station does a follow-up interview, which primarily consists of Corinne acting flippant and making sarcastic remarks to the journalist. However, she does manage to slip in a plug for her garage band “The Stains”, which consists of her, her sister Tracy, and their cousin Jessica.

Emboldened by appearing on television, Corinne attends a concert put on by small-time promoter Lawnboy, featuring the washed-up metal band the Metal Corpses and their opening act, an up-and-coming punk band called the Looters. Eager to end hostilities between the jaded Metal Corpses and the hedonistic Looters, Lawnboy signs the Stains without having heard them perform. Corinne and the Stains join the bands on tour, witnessing firsthand the bands’ animosity towards one another, largely the result of the conflict between the aging Lou, the frontman for the Metal Corpses, and Billy, the Looters’ volatile lead singer.