BOOTHBY GRAFFOE - BANG! IS THIS YOUR VEHICLE, SIR?
DEBUT FULL BAND SET FROM CULT COMEDIAN AND SONGWRITER
Most stand-ups secretly want to be rock stars, their ambitions thwarted only by their
total lack of musical ability.
This man is unique amongst comedians, in that he's
a real musician, who has been moonlighting as a funnyman since re-naming himself
after a Lincolnshire village sometime during the Thatcher era.
Cut from the same
English eccentric curtain as Robyn Hitchcock, with a nod towards the acerbic chansons
of Jake Thackray, Boothby's toured the world, co-stared in a failed US sit-com alongside
Desperate Housewives' Joely Fisher, and had a proposed '90s Channel 5 show shelved
for of a series of American soft porn movies.
But five years ago Boothby had a revelation
at a motorway service station, left London for Leicestershire, sold his one-liners
to Omid Djalili, and concentrated on his guitar playing, proving a crowd-pleasing
opening act on British tours by the Canadian alternative rock veterans Barenaked
Ladies.
Boothby's first album, 2004's Wot Italian?, was a sparse duo with Charlie
Haden and Trilok Gurtu guitarist Antonio Forcione, but his fourth is the symphonic
folk-pop suite supporters suspected he had in him, suggesting the psychedelic sand-pit
of Brian Wilson, had he, like Boothby, been a Butlins redcoat, as well as an LSD
enthusiast.
Boothby's cheerfully pessimistic worldview sets a consistent black comic
tone, contrasted by a variety of musical approaches. Trampoline satirically spikes
pizzicato strings with pro-firearm samples; the baroque guitar flourishes of the
fatalistic The Captain's Address nose dive into the bouncy acoustic pop of Hop. Dude!
Have You Seen The Telly? wraps funky rhythms round abrasive riffs and cathedral chorister
harmonies; Lullaby is a shaggy dog sucker punch stretched out over circling guitars
and Orbital and Fall producer Jimmy Melophonic's Salvation Army brass; the brooding
Busy co-opts the extended metaphors you'd find on a mid-80s Robyn Hitchcock album;
and Another Song For Boo finds universal truths in the temporary loss of a family
pet.
The host of star-guests that have helped Boothby realise his vision include
Barenaked Lady Kevin Hearn, who also plays keyboards for another comedy legend, Lou
Reed; multi-instrumentalist and acclaimed solo artist Nick Pynn, who has served in
Steve Harley's Cockney Rebel and The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, and currently features
alongside members of acid-folkies Trembling Bells in the band of Mike Heron, from
The Incredible String Band; and Hollywood's funny arab of choice Omid Djalili, on
unexpected bongos.
If Bang! Is This Your Vehicle, Sir? has a fault, it's that Graffoe
has varnished every moment with a luxurious gloss of tasteful instrumentation, but
this is also a virtue. Long after the jokes concealed in Graffoe's wittily epigrammatic
lyrics are revealed, the music continues to captivate.
Boothby Graffoe could be a
late blooming national treasure, if only it weren't for the handicap of his name,
foolishly chosen in haste during a long night drive home past a particular Lincolnshire
village, and presumably regretted at leisure.
Stewart Lee, Jan 2012
