Frank Sidebottom
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Frank Sidebottom is a comedic character created and performed by British comedian and musician Chris Sievey. Frank is instantly recognisable by his spherical paper-mache head (styled like an early Disney or Merrie Melodie cartoon), worn by Sievey during performances. Frank also usually wears a sharp suit, vaguely in the 1950s style.
The central conceit behind Frank is that he's an aspiring pop star from Timperley (a small village in Altrincham, Manchester). Although seemingly middle-aged, he still lives at home with his mother, to whom he makes frequent references. His mother is apparently unaware of her son's popularity. Frank sometimes has a sidekick in the form of Little Frank, a hand puppet who is otherwise a perfect copy of Frank.
Sidebottom's former Oh Blimey Big Band members include Mark Radcliffe and Jon Ronson, and his driver was Chris Evans.
Frank's character is optimistic, enthusiastic and seemingly unaware of his failings. The similarity of the characters Mrs Merton and John Shuttleworth (played by Graham Fellows) is evident. They all exude a sense of great ambition which belies domestic lifestyles in the north-west of England. These two characters both started out as Frank's sidekicks on his radio show "Radio Timperley".
Frank was first revealed to the world on a 12in promotional record which came free with the Chris Sievey-created video game The Biz for the ZX Spectrum computer. The Frank Sidebottom character then went on to focus his output on comedy records, many of which were put out on the 'In Tape' record label of Manchester and previous to that, the 'Regal Zonophone' label.
He reached cult status in the late eighties/early nineties thanks to extensive touring of the country, and focusing on smaller towns such as St Helens. Performances were often varied from straight forward stand up comedy and featured novelty components such as tombola, and a lot of crowd interaction. Sometimes the show also included lectures. Contasting against the alternative comedians of the time, Frank Sidebottom comedy was family-friendly, if a little bizarre for some tastes.
Frank was perhaps most popular in the North West region of England, where his success was caught up in that of the Madchester scene, and for a time was a regular on regional ITV station Granada. He even featured as a reporter on its regional news programme, Granada Reports. At one point Frank had his own television show on ITV entitled Frank Sidebottoms Fantastic Shed Show. He also made numerous appearances on Channel 4, including the game show 'Remote Control'.
Along with television, the Frank Sidebottom character also made appearances on radio, on stations such as Manchester station Piccadilly Radio and on Radios 1 and 5, alongside Mark and Lard.
Frank faded into obscurity in the late nineties, rarely appearing both on TV and live, but has an official website.
In 2006, Frank has reappeared on the Greater Manchester regional channel, Channel M. His new show, the Frank Sidebottom Show In Black and White features celebrity guests and animation.
Frank is a supporter of Altrincham F.C..
[edit] External links
- Guardian feature by former Sidebottom keyboard player Jon Ronson
- Frank Sidebottom site, run by Frank's official webmaster, Russ.
- Frank's World, another official site, ostensibly run by Frank himself.
- Little Frank's site
