Up Yaws ("Fucking Cunt/Awkward Bastard") anonymous comedy 12" - the revival!

[Lee]

That's better.

As promised, I went to a book signing with Robert Llewellyn (the book's called 'Sold Out: How I survived a year of not shopping' - file under Tony Hawks, Danny Wallace, etc), and armed with my knowledge (and iPod), asked him again (he clearly didn't remember being asked before).

It's not him.

Big surprise.

After I mentioned BUCKIM + RISKIT (aka Book 'Em And Risk It) however, things got interesting. He doesn't have particularly fond memories of it, describing it as absolutely awful, but immediately understood the connection. At first he suggested it might have been Rick and Ade, Alexei Sayle, or even Ben Elton, (I think he was more just thinking of people who were in BEARI) but when I suggested the Arden and Frost... well I'm not great at reading people, but there was definetely a lightbulb going on in his head then. Then I played it to him ("Well it's not me, but I wish it was - it's fantastic!") and he reckoned it was probably them. I also mentioned the Damned at that point, which he said may have been possible, but in summation, his very first thought was it sounded most like the Oblivion Boys, even after mentioning Tony Hawks and Brian Conley. The plot thickens...

As an aside, I didn't exactly hold up the queue with this enquiry - staff aside I think there were only 3 of us there. And yes, I was slightly embarrassed at saying "fucking cunt, fucking cunt, awkward bastard" in Waterstones at lunchtime.

EDIT: Oh, and he's an impossibly nice person.

[Ambient Sheep]

Thanks for that Lee, a great bit of first-hand research.

Did you point him towards this thread at all?

[Lee]

I've sent him a link to the MP3, which includes a link to this thread, so...

[weekender]

It's nice to see that the quest to get this issue resolved has got to the point where celebrities are being asked for their input.

I feel a bit bad for Robert Llewellyn if no-one turned up to his book signing though.  Chris Donald (founding Viz editor) had a similar story in his book where he was in a shopping centre signing autographs when Viz was selling millions, and because no-one recognized him they were just ignoring him.  Then they made an announcement over the public address system that the authors of the Viz books were signing autographs, and still no-one came, which is sad but also quite funny.

I had a similar run-in with Terry Molloy at a Doctor Who convention when I was younger.  "Who are you?" I asked.  "Terry Molly" was the answer, so I just said "I'd be grateful that I don't recognise you, to be honest".

Molloy of course played Davros in Doctor Who.

Imagine if you went up to Llewellyn and said "Yeah, you do look like Kryten actually".

I am rambling, sorry.  Robert Llewellyn, if you're reading, I am drunk but I really do think I've spelt your name correctly.  Also, please help us find those responsible for this 12" mystery comedy record. 

[Lee]

I feel a bit bad for Robert Llewellyn if no-one turned up to his book signing though.

It was quite surreal... Here's one of my favourite people on the telly in Chelmsford town centre, and no-one's interested. It's not even like he's been off TV for any length of time - I think he's on Five at the moment, and Scrapheap's on all the time on More 4 and Discovery. Of course, putting him on at lunchtime on a weekday meant there were never going to be crowds, but still, I was surprised. And hey, at least I didn't feel bad when talking to him at length about the record. Plus he was probably getting paid pretty well.

I hope no-one turned up for Richard Madeley's signing the other month.

(And yes, you did spell it correctly.)

[Small Man Big Horse]

Back in about 92 or so I was walking past a bookshop and saw that Sean Hughes was signing copies of his first book, and I was sadly the only person present. I tried chatting to him a bit as there was no queue, but he was a bit of a moody bastard so I gave up pretty quickly. Again it was a middle of the day in the week signing, so perhaps they're never that popular.

[23 Daves]

I feel a bit bad for Robert Llewellyn if no-one turned up to his book signing though.  Chris Donald (founding Viz editor) had a similar story in his book where he was in a shopping centre signing autographs when Viz was selling millions, and because no-one recognized him they were just ignoring him.  Then they made an announcement over the public address system that the authors of the Viz books were signing autographs, and still no-one came, which is sad but also quite funny.

Does anybody ever turn up to people's book signings unless they're Jordan or somebody?  I was present at a reading/ signing in the Oxford Street branch of Borders recently, and in their desperation to get people up to see what was going on they made about ten tannoy announcements.  Trouble is, they made the announcements whilst the author was trying to read excerpts from his book.  The seven people who were there found it extremely amusing as he swore "Yes, that's right, stop fucking interrupting, nobody's interested in coming up to fucking see me".

If you do a signing I think it almost guarantees that the store will get a reasonable amount of copies of your book in stock in anticipation of any extra sales, so my guess is that people do it for those reasons alone.

Anyway, yes... the single... would be good to get answers on this.

[Lee]

I won't copy it here, but I've just had an email back from Robert, and he's going to try and help us out.

See, I told you he was a nice man.

[weekender]

Aw, that's lovely, well done Mr Llewellyn.  I think that if he helps get to the bottom of it we should all club together and buy him something, or make a donation to a charity of his choosing - even if it's just a few quid it all helps doesn't it?  No pressure Mr Llewellyn, if you're reading :) .

On the subject of book signings, I think the shop probably gets a healthy copy of signed books they can flog for a few extra quid.  I bought a Nick Drake biography in Waterstones which was signed by the author Patrick Humphries and I paid an extra pound for a signed copy.  Not a huge amount, admittedly, but they probably made a bit of extra money as a result.

[Lee]

Quick request - can everyone who downloaded the new MP3 either add the name "Unknown Top-Ten Artist" (minus quotes) to the ID artist tag, or download the file again please? The URL's the same, but here it is again:

http://m-pi.com/mixo/Up_Yaws_remastered.mp3

It's all for Last.fm apparently. On behalf of Sheepy, thanks.

[Ambient Sheep]

Without wishing to come over all crawly bum-lick on yo' ass, Lee, no, thank YOU.

Also thanks in advance to Robert Llewellyn, should he be reading this.

[Goldentony]

Direct from Stephen Frost -

NEVER MADE A RECORD IN MY LIFE

STEPHEN

I guess that settles that then

[The Boston Crab]

CAPITYA FL CVUNT

[Goldentony]

And a left field one from Mark Arden -

HI ****. ITS NOTHING BUT A TISSUE OF LIES I TELL YOU ........OR IS IT ....THINK I WOULD HAVE REMEMBERED ..... OR WOULD I?THINK THEY BARKING......... UP WRONG TREE. SEE YA

Mark

Both of them have obviously been drinking Carling Black Label

Only joking, glad they helped out!!

[Beep Cleep Chimney]

[bauer]DAMMIT![/bauer]



"No further questions, your Honour.  Mr Frost, Mr Arden, please step down".

"If it pleases the court, the prosecution calls for Mr C Sensible to take to the stand".

[Goldentony]

Nothing off Sensibles myspace since i asked a long time ago, and there's nothing on The Damned website other than a contact which states BOOKING ONLY.

So i dont know where to go from that

[Lee]

Damn...

Bit of nice news though - radio playback:

http://www.radioseagull.com/ - end of this hour

[Beep Cleep Chimney]

Will this be the 2nd time that Chris B's played it then Lee?

Didn't he play it once before, around the time this thread got resurrected?

[Lee]

Second time yes, but first time out with the new recording. I think this might even a repeat, just with an Up Yaws upgrade.

EDIT: yup, it is.

[Lee]

NOW!

[Beep Cleep Chimney]

Listening to it now. I LOVE that this is being played on a radio station, no matter how obscure and remote that station may be!

[Lee]

Bump, because a) I need someone to remind me to get a cleaner recording of the vinyl at some point soon, and b) I've had an idea.

Earlier in the thread there was talk of the record being linked to Andy's Records. Obviously that's no more, but the eponymous Andy Gray now runs BGO Records, who reissue old rock and jazz records. They have a postal address at the bottom of the page, so I'm thinking writing a letter FAO Mr Gray might not be a bad idea, especially considering he was apparently directly responsible for distributing the records across his stores. It's a long shot, as god knows how many records he's dealt with in his time, but I can't imagine there would have been that many he'd found in anonymous boxes labeled "This record is not for sale and remains the property of the record company"...

[biniput]

Just a bump to say i am trying a hopeful email to someone on this. I found some good stuff on youtube for an upcoming cabradio show very soonish (next week or so) and thought the stuff they did was just the sort of thing this is. I will put up who soon if there is a reply.  The group is the Heebeegebees and maybe Richard Curtis may have something as he was involved in writing some of thier stuff?

[Rev]

Didn't quite work, love.  Everyone loves someone who tries, though!

[biniput]

Didn't quite work, love.  Everyone loves someone who tries, though!

What??????

[biniput]

Didn't quite work, love.  Everyone loves someone who tries, though!

I think i have figured that remark out. I have just read back my original post and it is looking a bit fooked up. What i meant was that i found some stuff by a group called the Heebeegeebees on youtube and thought they may be candidates for this thing so i found some site by one of the members that had a contact email. PLEASE IF ANYONE IS DOING CAB RADIO IN NEXT 2 WEEKS DO NOT PLAY THEM or that's 3 tracks up in smoke as I don't like repeating stuff too much. If i get a reply back i will put up any info i get.

[Ambient Sheep]

I very much doubt it was The HeeBeeGeeBees (who were Philip Pope, Angus Deayton, and Michael Fenton-Stevens).  I'm a big fan of their first album (never heard the second), and the style's quite different.

You never know though, they might know who it is...but to be honest, I think our anonymous tagger last year was probably telling us the truth.  Will be interesting to see if Mr Andy's Records gets back to us though, too.

[Lee]

Just handed over my copy of the record to a trusted friend for recording purposes... hopefully it should be back on the 31st, aptly enough when I see him at a Fucked Up gig.

[Rev]

What??????

Sorry, I thought your message was a wind-up; the HeeBeeGeeBees aren't all that obscure, certainly not by the standards of the caverns that are being explored with this one.  It came across a little like 'that Hey Jude thing?  I've just found out about this band called the Strolling Bones, dunno if you've heard of them...'

[biniput]

they might not be obscure but it's their type of stuff. It could have been a pissaround or whatever but the important thing is they are the type who could have done it. The email i sent was sent back as the domain was unrecognised but a link to the site:

http://www.mikefs.co.uk/HBGB.html