The Mighty Boosh: behind-the-scenes photographs
The Telegraph | 23 October 2013 | Dave Brown
For over a decade, Dave Brown has been taking photographs of his Mighty Boosh collaborators Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt. Ahead of a new exhibition, Dave (better known as Bollo the gorilla) explains why he always kept a camera handy
High-wire act: Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt (Photo: Dave Brown)
If Noel Fielding had said to me, on the first day of university, as he sat down next to me looking like a slightly wonky Evan Dando crossed with the love child of David Ginola and Bruce Forsyth: “Hey, I’m Noel, nice to meet you - in the next 20 years we’ll take the Edinburgh Fringe by storm, sell out Brixton Academy for a record seven nights, hang out with heroes like Tim Burgess, Gary Numan and the Beastie Boys, headline our own festival, play at the Roxy in LA in front of a very excited Robin Williams, sell out Wembley and the O2 Arena, create a bestselling book, record an album at Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland Studios in New York, have a member of Led Zeppelin tell us ‘You Rock!’, and spend the best part of a year touring the country having the time of our lives, partying with our mates on a tour bus bigger than this classroom,” I would probably have deemed him a complete and utter fruitloop and gone and sat somewhere else.
Double date: Noel and Michael Fielding at Blackpool Pleasure Beach (Dave Brown)
That was back in 1992, at Bucks New University. Three years later, myself, Nigel Coan (flatmate, Boosh animator and now co-creator & director of Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy), sat in the audience at the Edinburgh Fringe watching Noel come second to Frankie Boyle in the Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award final.
Noel always wanted to be a stand-up, from that first day back at uni. He was very clear about his ambition. After his success in the Open Mic Award, he was signed to Avalon Management and found himself on the comedy network with comedians like Chris Addison, Lee Mack and a guy called Julian Barratt, a brilliant stand-up from Leeds who had also won the Open Mic.
Siamese Vince: Noel Fielding backstage (Dave Brown)
After spending time together on the circuit and a with a growing love of each other’s material, Noel and Julian started to write together and The Mighty Boosh was born. I’ve had a camera in my hand pretty much since then. A radio show, three TV series, two live tours, a festival and an album later, I’m still snapping away, never tiring of the ridiculously rich visual subject matter.
Where am I? Julian Barratt gets dressed (Dave Brown)
People often ask why the Boosh became so popular, why the fans are so obsessed and loyal. Many forget that when it first aired on BBC3 the viewing rates and reviews were average at best. It went out in a graveyard slot, lost amidst the popular mainstream sea of reality and sketch shows. It was a slow burner, like a difficult album, but just like a difficult album, once you get into it, you’re hooked. Those that did seemed to love it like a family pet.
Ring toss: Noel Fielding (Dave Brown)
It was a total Marmite show, yet those who loved it did so for the fact that it was like nothing else they’d seen. They loved the creativity, the magic, the colour. The costumes, the makeup, the escapism, the silliness. They loved how ridiculously ambitious each episode was, jam-packed with characters, music, dance, animation. But above all they loved how funny it was and how brilliant the double act at the centre of it all was.
Bus brothers: Michael and Noel Fielding (Dave Brown)
Whole families, I’m told, would watch it together. Parents - reminded of The Goodies, Python and the Young Ones - would sit on the sofa next to their kids, all laughing at the two nincompoops throwing satsumas at each other in their pants, or the lunatic American dancing to 10CC. Or the tiny shamen and the gorilla, Bollo (that was me), on a flying carpet, talking to the moon. Or the wolves dressed as mods, dancing in the jungle next to a man made of cheese. Billy Bragg once told us that it was the only time his family sat and laughed together.
Pre-show stretch: Noel Fielding and Rich Fulcher (Dave Brown)
I’ll never tire of hearing Howard and Vince (Julian and Noel) riffing off each other. Like all my favourite double acts - Pete and Dud, Fry and Laurie, Vic and Bob - something special happens when Noel and Julian get together. I still listen to some of those long ad-libbed monologues in the radio series and wet myself laughing; they have a very special dynamic.
After eight crimps: Barratt and Fielding (Dave Brown)
It has been a pleasure being their comedy remora fish over the years. I feel very privileged to have been involved in it all, and very proud of myself for having the foresight to keep a camera with me at all times, to document it all. Most of all very happy that Noel sat next to me on that first day at university, and not Alan Dibben.
