Schoolchum
Paul Garner, the man half of talented comedy-puppet-horror-freakshow-art-cabaret troupe Gawkagogo, has made a new set of art prints, Monsters Of Comedy, available to buy. They're very good. You can buy them here (and find out about all the other ker-azy stuff that goes on beneath the Gawkagogo banner). He's very good. And what's more, he was my Best Friend at school circa the early 80s. We used to draw cartoons together in his bedroom and listen to his Rowan Atkinson LP and Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy. This was before he turned into a lycanthrope and went to college. We were occasionally photographed by the Chronicle & Echo newspaper in Northampton during those salad days, and I was once described in a caption as his "schoolchum", as if perhaps we were in the Beano.
This is us holding the Benson & Hedges cup (which is for winning at cricket) with Northants ace Sarfraz Nawaz, after we had drawn schoolchum caricatures for the newspaper of all the players, in 1980. Don't we look wide-eyed at meeting our first celebrity! (And look, you can see Paul's drawing on the right. I don't think you can buy a print of it on his website though.) This was the reception that the Chronicle & Echo held for the Northamptonshire team when they beat Gloucestershire to the title, and we were called upon to hand out the caricatures to all the players. All were delighted - we were, after all, schoolboys. Except Alan Lamb, who said to Paul, in a sinister voice, "You've gone too far this time." What a bastard. (Perhaps it wasn't meant to be sinister, it may just have been his normal speaking voice. Anyway, now he's a cartoon in real life, advertising meat.)
posted by Andrew Collins @ 12:53 PM
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yes Sarfraz was a caner in those days!
I can imagine Alan Lamb saying that in his South African accent- it is a characteristic of that accent that it generally sounds a bit sinister (to me, anyway), just as Germans always sound like they're telling you what to do (my ex-girlfriend is German and she agrees so no need to worry about xenophobia on this most woolly and liberal of blogs ;) )
Andrew- did I imagine this or did you and Stuart Maconie write and present a comedy show for the old Radio 5 years and years ago in which Alan Lamb (or someone presumably someone pretending to be him) played a part? I suppose that was a result of this experience. What was that comedy show called? All I can remember about it is that every week you were injected fantastic voyage style into someone's body, and that you had a band on.
God, I'd forgotten about that, Ian! That was Fantastic Voyage, our first ever radio show. Alan Lamb was indeed a character - it was a spoof kids/yoof TV show with Stuart and I playing ourselves as ex-hospital radio DJs, with a crazy gang of regular characters (all played by comedians Geoff Boyz and Alan Francis, and now-famous TV actress Debbie Stephenson): there was a Johnny Ball type called Johnny Fact, we had a squeaky toy called Ronnie, and yes, Alan Lamb, who just muttered and I believe actually said the words, "You've gone too far this time." I have all six episodes on cassette somewhere. I should convert them to MP3s. It went out in 1993. We pulled favours and got our pop stars mates to play acoustically: Suede, Wonder Stuff, Frank & Walters (that dates it), Blur, Lush and Billy Bragg, who brilliantly refused to play acoustically and stormed off. The idea of the fake show was indeed that we were injected into the body of a celebrity. I tell the story of having to ask Richard Whiteley's permission in my book - ha ha.
That sounds light a right hoot Andrew. It would be great if you could MP3 them and make them available to the masses.
Was it Debra Stephenson, one time contestant on Opportunity Knocks, then babe on Corrie and Playing The Field?? Hello! (spoken in Leslie Phillips style)
Yes, that Debra Stephenson, or Debbie in those days - she'd just won Opportunity Knocks with a comedy routine!
I was a talking head on a radio documentary called Banned In The 50s last, which played out on Smooth last Saturday, and it was narrated by Leslie Phillips. Which means ... Leslie Phillips said my name!
Good, I didn't imagine it then. That has been bothering me for some time. I can remember Lush being on it. Get it on BBC7! The old Radio 5 was great, lots of people who are now quite big on the TV and radio did shows for it. I wish the BBC still had something like it.
You look like Cha Chee from Happy Days.
You look lke Cha-Chi from Happy Days.
Whoops sorry Andrew, multiple comments, thought it hadn't worked when I tried posting it earlier to day at work.
Andrew
Are you sure that isn't Graham Gooch blacked-up?
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