Homepage News Reviews - Acts - Shows - Screen - Radio - Books - Clubs Interviews Awards 2006 Edinburgh 2005 - Reviews - Blog - Previews Features Archive Awards 2005 Edinburgh 2004: - Previews - Shows - Diary Guestbook Forum © Emporium Of Mirth 2004 Editor: Lauren Murphy Reporters: Fiona Wilkie Natalie Joanne	Emporium of Mirth Graham Fellows Most famous for his ex-music star/radio presenter character John Shuttleworth, Graham Fellows does pretty much everything from his home. Including interviews. The first time I ring his Lincolnshire house, he is dealing with someone picking up parcels. I hastily apologise and redial five minutes later. He this time assures me that he is free to talk. Graham is about to head off on a National tour with his music lecturer character, Brian Appleton. It seems a good starting point to ask him about the general premise for the tour. “It’s the latest instalment in Brian’s sad and bitter life. He feels he’s been hard done by by the rock industry, and ripped off in various ways. People have stolen his ideas. They haven’t really, it’s all a grand delusion. It’s under the pretence of a rock lecture called ‘Bizarre Rock Deaths’, where Brian basically tells the story of various… bizarre rock deaths!” A clue in the title if ever there was one. “From Jim Morrison to Keith Moon, Kurt Cobain… the Tokyo drummer who sprayed his garden with insecticide and died as a result. But weaved into that will be his own close shaves with death. He’s very self-obsessed so he keeps coming back to his life, which sometimes is put into song.” These musical escapades are what Graham seems to do best; in every comedic outing for one of Graham’s characters there is some sort of musical attachment. “There’s new songs like ‘The Fly Who Couldn’t Fly’, when he’s feeling very depressed and he’s just watching this fly who he thinks can’t fly, so he decides to teach it how to fly by just flapping his arms. And then of course, the fly is disturbed and flies around, and Brian thinks that he’s been making fun of him. This is how paranoid he is, so he vows to destroy the fly.” All that in one song?! I ask him the whereabouts of John Shuttleworth. “He’s been making a film.” Ooh, sounds interesting. I urge him to continue. “A film called ‘It’s Nice Up North’, where we went to the Shetland Isles, me and a film crew. The cameraman was the renowned international photographer Martin Parr, who’s dead good. He’s made a few little films himself, and we’re friends.” Graham goes on to describe the stance of the film a bit more. “It’s kind of a drama-documentary. In a nutshell, John thinks the further north you go in the UK, the nicer people are. So, to test the theory to the limit he decides to go to the Shetland Isles, coz they should be, by rights, the nicest. And, we didn’t know that they would be, but they were! There’s real interviews with real people.” For a character that was supposed to have been pensioned off, John is getting a lot of outings. “Yeah, he’s doing that, and there’s another radio show in the pipeline” In some sort of parallel universe, if Brian and John were to meet, would they have anything in common? I ask Graham what they’d talk about. “I think… not a great deal. I don’t think John would like Brian particularly. He’d find him a bit bitter. And, as John has said when introducing Brian, he doesn’t rate him, and he doesn’t believe his claims to rock stardom.” I inquire as to whether Graham himself shares any traits with either of his characters. “I’m sure I probably do, but I don’t particularly work hard at working out what they are!” What about Graham’s other, newer characters? “Dave Tordoff is my up and coming character who’s supporting Brian, and he’s the man who, as one newspaper described, knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” He goes on to talk about the variation in the characters he plays. “It is cathartic playing different characters I must say, if at times a bit confusing.” I ask about his surprise novelty hit, ‘Gordon is a Moron’. Does he have any plans to re-release it? “No, I haven’t, but it’s funny you should say that…” I sense a plug coming on. “There’s an album that I did in ’85, called ‘Love at the Hacienda’, that is just being released through Voiceprint. It was released on vinyl in ’85, got really good reviews but didn’t sell anything really. And there was quite a lot of interest in Japan, amongst indie fans, so we thought we’d try and sell it in the UK as well.” I give him the opportunity for some more advertising, by asking if “500 Bus Stops”, John Shuttleworth’s televisual delight, is available to buy. “Yes it is, yeah, through the website.” Ah, that would be www.shuttleworths.co.uk. “There’s a lot of products, basically, for sale. CDs and T-shirts, tour mugs...business cards.” On the subject of “500 Bus Stops”, I ask Graham whose house he is standing outside on the beginning credits. “It’s a house in Sheffield. It was available to rent, and we just thought it would be quite close to what John’s house would be like.” I enquire as to his favourite performing medium. Radio, TV or stagework? “Or indeed, just recording at home?” Yeah, that too. “Well, I like everything, coz if you did one thing for too long it would just get boring. So, I like the variety. I really enjoyed this filming, but it nearly gave me a nervous breakdown coz I was trying to do everything, really. But I’m looking forward to the tour.” As Graham seems so keen on performing, I wonder if he is passionate about anything else that isn’t comedy. He seems to be struggling to think of things. “I go cycling. Erm... drinking!” I ask him about his inspirations in terms of comedy. Is there anyone in particular he admires? “I’m a bit out of touch, I have to say. So I don’t really feel qualified to comment.” Not even on childhood influences? “Probably, in my teens, I liked Alan Bennet, and I loved Mike Leigh films... that’s it really!” I suggest that comedians don’t necessarily have to be influenced by other comedians. “Yeah, I used to read a lot of Thomas Hardy, and... bands who I used to really love are people like The Smiths and... I like REM!” The pause suggests that Graham’s reluctant to admit to that latter piece of information. “I’ve just got a lot of varied tastes.” It seems to me that most of Graham’s knowledge is musical rather than comedy-based. “Yeah, I probably ODed on comedy a bit in the early nineties. I don’t like the massive comedy explosion that supposedly has happened. I don’t feel that I work within any kind of recognised industry, I just do my own thing. I’ve always done my own thing, and if people like it then I’m really happy, but if they don’t, I still do my own thing anyway.” So, what’s next for Graham once Brian Appleton’s tour is done and dusted? “I’m finishing editing this film, and then hopefully we’ll get it in film festivals, and in the cinema if possible. Certainly on the telly and selling DVDs and stuff.” Graham certainly seems very independent in terms of his production. “There was a time when I was approaching all the major labels and knocking on doors of TV companies, it doesn’t... you’re sort of best doing it yourself really, because otherwise you’d wait around for idiots to make decisions that they’re not even qualified to make in the first place.” He pauses. “Ooh, that sounded bitter!” He quickly justifies himself. “It’s more fun just doing things yourself, I think.” Quite right. Interview by Nat – Spring 2004 Click on the images to see the full pictures. RSS  Printable version	Visit our Siamese Twin Sister Site!