Wednesday 28 September 2016

505 Fundamental Frolics




First  viewed : 31  July  1981

This  was  a  one-off  pre-recorded  film  of   a  concert  featuring  an  eclectic  range  of  musicians  and  younger comedians for  Mental  health  charity  MENCAP. The  line  up  was  :

MUSIC : Hot  Gossip , Chas  and  Dave, Alan  Price, Elvis  Costello, Jon  Anderson, Nico  Ramsden, Ian  Dury

COMEDY : Chris  Langham, Not  The  Nine  O  Clock  News ( both  together  and  solo ),  Neil  Innes, 20th  Century  Coyote  (Rik  Mayall  and  Ade  Edmondson ), Alexei  Sayle

Rowan  and  co  were  the main  draw  of  course  although  as  a  group  they  only  did  a  run-through  of  the  familiar  "Abou  Ben  Adhem"  sketch  and  none  of  their  solo  routines  were  particularly  good. In  fact  they  were  outshone  by  their  exiled  former  colleague  Chris  Langham  in  that  respect.

From  my  point  of  view,  the  concert  is  most  memorable  for  me   for  introducing  me  to  the  "alternative  comedy"  set . This  was  where  I  first  saw  Rik  Mayall, Ade  Edmondson  and  Alexei  Sayle. Having  sat  through  Mayall  doing  his  "Theatre"  rant/poem  and  Sayle's  assault  on  middle  class  preoccupations - the  "Dance  of  the  Faulty  Central  Heating  System"  and  all - I  concluded  that  "alternative"   really   meant  not  funny.

One  other  thing  I  recall  is  Sayle  having  a  pop  at  Bruce  Springsteen  and  my  sister  not  having  heard  of  him  so  after  the  show  I  played  her  a  recording  of  his  last  single  "The  River" which  is  ironically  a  fairly  left-leaning  song.  

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