Punching the air: John Shuttleworth marks 40 years of bonhomie, bon mots and persistently, perkily mundane yet quirkily profound songs at Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, Sheffield City Hall, King’s Hall, Ilkley, Hull Truck Theatre, The Forum, Northallerton and Scarborough Spa. Picture: Tony Briggs
ACTOR, writer and musician Graham Fellows created his comic alter ego John Shuttleworth, good-natured Sheffield sage and perky Yamaha organ purveyor of charmingly mundane songs, when he was 26.
“John was 46. Very specifically I made him 20 years older than me,” recalls Graham, as Shuttleworth’s 40th anniversary tour, Raise The Off, arrives at Leeds City Varieties Music Hall tonight to herald a run of Yorkshire performances.
After four decades, how old is John now? “Listening to an old radio show from 1999 on Sunday, I was surprised when he said ‘let a man in his late-fifties’, because I still think of him as being in his late-fifties. He has aged slower and slower. Maybe he’s about 62 now – and I don’t really want John to have grandchildren.”
You don’t need to be a mathematician to work out that Graham’s own age has outstripped Shuttleworth’s age: he will turn 66 on May 22.
Ironically, John Shuttleworth, with his leather jacket, slacks, slick side parting, glasses and love of mints, always seemed older than he was. “I think that’s true,” says Graham. “I guess that’s partly because he started as a 46-year-old perceived by a 26-year-old without the knowledge of what it’s like to be 46.
“It’s an interesting subject but extremely difficult to analyse, but I do think he’s still a bit old for his age. He’s still fixated on bands like Sister Sledge and The Pointer Sisters, with lots of references to the Eighties.”
Graham’s Shuttleworth act “hasn’t really changed”, but the audience profile has. “”A lot of them are the same people that have always come to the shows, but some are bringing their sons and daughters and even their grandchildren,” he says.
Could he envisage ever putting Shuttleworth out to grass? “I can’t kill him off, but maybe I’ll make him retire or be inundated with so much DIY work that he can’t tour any more,” says Graham. “But my biggest problem is I’ve always had a bad memory and as an actor I struggled with that. A couple of years ago I had to turn down a big part as I had sleepless nights about remembering the lines.
The book cover artwork for John Shuttleworth Takes The Biscuit!
“Now, I have a banana on stage for the Raise The Oof shows, and [if he goes awry] I’ll take a bite and do a joke about Andy Murray and bananas, and by then I usually remember what I was talking about, though obviously I can’t do that too much in one show.”
The ageing process is kicking in. “My mind is wearing out! My body is wearing out! My memory is wearing out! Now my keyboards are wearing out! I’ve had some bad luck with them,” says Graham. “Even my leather jacket is wearing out.”
Through the years, Shuttleworth has worked his way through more sweaters than slacks and maybe four jackets. That clothes list triggers Graham’s memory of one particular night at Clapham Grand. “It was only when I arrived that I realised my jacket had been left behind in Newcastle-under-Lyme,” he says. “Incredibly, someone in the audience was wearing a very similar jacket and he was encouraged to swap it for my sweater for the night.”
In another sign of the passage of time, “I used to carry a make-up box to apply grey to my hai; now I have grey hair. I used to apply crow’s feet around my eyes, now I don’t have to. In the way that Tintin always looks the same, I always thought John would look the same…though he did wear a cagoule in 500 Bus Stops [John’s 1997 mini TV series].”
Graham has developed further comic characters, such as failed rock historian Brian Appleton and Goole concreter Dave Tordoff, but he acknowledges that John Shuttleworth has “outshone them, out-performed them”. “You go where the money he is,” he says. “But the thing about Shuttleworth is that he has the songs and he has depth and range.”
Putting together Shuttleworth’s 40th anniversary show, with its combination of nostalgia, new stories and a new song, The Ballad Of Dangly Man, Graham says: “I think I know what works, but as you get older, your enthusiasm to do the work and the sheer effort to come up with new stuff, when your energy levels have gone down a bit…
…I look back at the inventiveness of the radio show with four of five characters all being played me and Martin Willis providing me with extra material until he passed away.”
There is no evidence of decreasing energy, however: not only is John Shuttleworth on tour from January 29 to May 16 with tales of his early days with neighbour Ken Worthington, the humorous realities of married life with miserable wife Mary, and his relentless mission to make it big in music, but here come a book and CD, both out now.
The sleeve artwork for John Shuttleworth’s new album, The Pumice Stone & Other Rock Songs
On March 6, Omnibus Press published John Shuttleworth Takes The Biscuit!, A Crumbly Selection of Songs and Stories, full of tales and homespun advice from his life in and around Sheffield, brought to life with cartoons by Graham’s’ long-time friend and collaborator, Kevin Baldwin.
What did Graham learn about Shuttleworth from writing the book? “I learnt that John is a bottomless well and I certainly learnt about myself – that I’m a lazy sod who kept putting it off,” he says. “It was a bit of a struggle to come up with new stories but I’ve also used old stories and Kevin’s wonderful cartoons.
“I felt some of my songs leant themselves to pictures and my girlfriend suggested doing them like a graphic novel, so Kevin, who animated Henry’s Cat, did these graphic novel designs.
“The way he’s depicted Mary and Ken, I’m not sure he’s got them quite right – [making Mary fat and giving Ken ginger hair], but he got John and Joan Chitty just right.”
Look out too for The Pumice Stone & Other Rock Songs album, available at shuttleworths.co.uk and at gigs.
John Shuttleworth: Raise The Oof, Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, tonight (last few tickets) and tomorrow (sold out), 7.30pm. Also playing: Sheffield City Hall, March 26, 8pm; King’s Hall, Ilkley, April 1, 7.30pm; Hull Truck Theatre, April 2, 7.30pm; The Forum, Northallerton, April 10,7.30pm, and Scarborough Spa, April 11, 7.30pm.
Box office: Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com; Sheffield, ticketmaster.co.uk; Ilkley, bradford-theatres.co.uk; Hull, 01 482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk; Scarborough, ticketmaster.co.uk.
The poster for John Shuttleworth’s Raise The Oof! tour
John Shuttleworth on his 40th anniversary tour, Raise The Oof!
“ACTUALLY, I feel rather calm, although after 40 years and still no chart success, perhaps I should be slightly anxious,” muses John. “My wife Mary says I should get a proper job, but there’s not time – I’m about to retire!
“Besides, Comet – where I used to demonstrate audio equipment – no longer exists. As for the sweet factory in the Rotherham area where I worked as a security guard in the 1980s, that’s now an Axe Throwing Centre. Oof!
“But I’m still posting off my songs (on cassette tape with Dolby, so it’s not too hissy) to cutting-edge pop acts like Chris Rea and the Lighthouse Family, plus I’m still being booked for nostalgic singalongs at the local hospice (for petrol money only), so we have every reason to celebrate my long and illustrious career.
“Do come along and join me in punching the air, and helping – in an orderly and controlled fashion – to RAISE THE OOF!”