Frank Sidebottom RIP
Well, I'm back online, and the first notable thing I find to write about is another obituary. This year sucks so far.
Frank Sidebottom, if you are unfamiliar with him, was a comic character created by Chris Sievey, a former punk who was rather too clever and nice to make a convincing punk. His band, the Freshies, had one moderate hit with "I'm in Love with the Girl on the Manchester Virgin Megastore Checkout Desk." I seem to remember that he also released a solo single about a year later, the B side to which was a program -- written by Sievey -- for the ZX Spectrum. You loaded the program, then pressed "Enter" when cued on the A side. This synched the program to the music, and so you ended up with an 8-bit video to watch while you listened.
Sievey's greatest invention, however, was the eternally naive, slightly egotistical surrealist, celebrity, and banjo ukulele player, Frank Sidebottom; a man with a papier-mache head who lived with his mum in Timperley in south Manchester. Timperley is a real place, but seen through the distorting lens of Sidebottom's perceptions, it became something like a friendlier version of Royston Vasey.
Over the years from his debut in the mid-'eighties, Sidebottom/Sievey's fortunes ebbed and flowed, but he never stopped. I was delighted to see a poster in Bristol a few months back for a Sidebottom performance, albeit after the event. Never mind, I thought, he tours like a mad thing. He'll be back again soon enough. That anticipation feels rather sour now.
Even if I never see him on stage, however, I did have the curious pleasure of meeting Frank Sidebottom (I never met Chris Sievey, as will become apparent) when he did an episode of “Radio Timperley” from my front room after I unexpectedly won a competition. He arranged the time to visit by 'phoning in character, but I had this vague idea he would turn up as Chris Sievey, we would roughly thrash out how the show was going to go and then record it. No chance. He turned up on the doorstep all Franked-up with Mark Radcliffe in tow, and never broke character for a second. If the show had any failings, it was entirely due to me being so obviously banjaxed with astonishment throughout.
The thing I remember most was how brilliant at extemporisation he was. I was living in a shared house at the time, having long since moved out from the parental home. This was a concept that Frank Sidebottom was bound to have problems with.
“Where’s your mum?” he asked.
“About twenty miles away.”
“Ooooh!” he replied, impressed. “What a big house!”
It's fair to say that Frank Sidebottom was one of those acts that you either "got," and found hilarious, or didn't "get," and found pointless. Personally, if you can't find anything at least intriguing about a man with a papier-mache head, who has a ventriloquist puppet that looks exactly like him but for a two dimensional body, an obsession with Kilvert's lard, and can cow the likes of Iain Lee, then I suggest you go back to your TV and wait for the next thing Simon Cowell has planned for you. Your soma is waiting.
Oh, yes it is. It really is. Thank you.
Frank Sidebottom, if you are unfamiliar with him, was a comic character created by Chris Sievey, a former punk who was rather too clever and nice to make a convincing punk. His band, the Freshies, had one moderate hit with "I'm in Love with the Girl on the Manchester Virgin Megastore Checkout Desk." I seem to remember that he also released a solo single about a year later, the B side to which was a program -- written by Sievey -- for the ZX Spectrum. You loaded the program, then pressed "Enter" when cued on the A side. This synched the program to the music, and so you ended up with an 8-bit video to watch while you listened.
Sievey's greatest invention, however, was the eternally naive, slightly egotistical surrealist, celebrity, and banjo ukulele player, Frank Sidebottom; a man with a papier-mache head who lived with his mum in Timperley in south Manchester. Timperley is a real place, but seen through the distorting lens of Sidebottom's perceptions, it became something like a friendlier version of Royston Vasey.
Over the years from his debut in the mid-'eighties, Sidebottom/Sievey's fortunes ebbed and flowed, but he never stopped. I was delighted to see a poster in Bristol a few months back for a Sidebottom performance, albeit after the event. Never mind, I thought, he tours like a mad thing. He'll be back again soon enough. That anticipation feels rather sour now.
Even if I never see him on stage, however, I did have the curious pleasure of meeting Frank Sidebottom (I never met Chris Sievey, as will become apparent) when he did an episode of “Radio Timperley” from my front room after I unexpectedly won a competition. He arranged the time to visit by 'phoning in character, but I had this vague idea he would turn up as Chris Sievey, we would roughly thrash out how the show was going to go and then record it. No chance. He turned up on the doorstep all Franked-up with Mark Radcliffe in tow, and never broke character for a second. If the show had any failings, it was entirely due to me being so obviously banjaxed with astonishment throughout.
The thing I remember most was how brilliant at extemporisation he was. I was living in a shared house at the time, having long since moved out from the parental home. This was a concept that Frank Sidebottom was bound to have problems with.
“Where’s your mum?” he asked.
“About twenty miles away.”
“Ooooh!” he replied, impressed. “What a big house!”
It's fair to say that Frank Sidebottom was one of those acts that you either "got," and found hilarious, or didn't "get," and found pointless. Personally, if you can't find anything at least intriguing about a man with a papier-mache head, who has a ventriloquist puppet that looks exactly like him but for a two dimensional body, an obsession with Kilvert's lard, and can cow the likes of Iain Lee, then I suggest you go back to your TV and wait for the next thing Simon Cowell has planned for you. Your soma is waiting.
Oh, yes it is. It really is. Thank you.
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