Frank Sidebottom was the comic creation of Chris Sievey (1955-2010), recognisable by Sidebottom’s oversize and disturbing cartoon head stuck on to the body of what could be an ordinary human being. According to the Sievey Enterprises official website, at age 35, Sidebottom “shot to stardom in the most unlikely of circumstances: broadcasting from his garden shed. In between shopping trips in Timperley for his mum, he and his puppet Little Frank captured the imagination of the nation with his “Frank’s Fantastic Shed Show” TV series and an ongoing presence in weekly music paper, the NME.” It goes on to say that “Frank’s body of work spans all artistic media, and he is widely recognized as the greatest semi-professional entertainer and turtle owner the village of Timperley has ever known”. For those who know no better, Timpeley is a village about six miles from Manchester, England; in 2011 the population was approximately 11,000.
Little Box of Bobbins is a new Sidebottom 3CD box set with 109 tracks, proclaimed as “Frank’s Fantastic Anthology 1985-1993”. Believe it or not, Sidebottom has been the subject of at least seven previous compilations. Here disc one contains the 42 tracks of Frank Sidebottom’s ABC & D… The Best Of…, (1999), with disc two made up of the 31 tracks of E, F, G & H. The Best Of… Volume Two (2009). Disc three consists of 36 tracks that have never been on CD before with 20 of those never having been previously released. This CD content is however somewhat theoretical, at least initially, because unfortunately there was a manufacturing error and the CDs sent out instead feature Icelandic band The Sugarcubes [it is understood that affected consumers can ask for and will receive replacements with the correct content].
Over the years Sidebottom toured up and down the UK (at one time with author Jon Ronson, who played keyboards), thrilling and repelling audiences with his “difficult” cabaret style covers of the songs of popular entertainers like Queen, Kylie Minogue and The Beatles, sometimes punctuated with a raffle to win some cardboard. Many of these covers are included here, sometimes repeatedly, and often quite horrifyingly – “I Should Be So Lucky”, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, an indie melody – “Love Will Tear Us Apart”/”How I Wrote Elastic Man”/”Take The Skinheads Bowling”/”Bigmouth Strikes Again”. Listening for continuous periods is likely to send you over the edge, but that is probably the purpose.
The third disc is likely to be of most interest to superfans, with tracks from Sidebottom’s EPs for the Regal Zonophone label from 1985-1986, and live tracks (all from Manchester, between 1985 and 1988). Former bandmate Mark Radcliffe and Stirling Sievey contribute to the interesting sleeve notes.
Label: Cherry Red Records
Release Date: 19 JUL 2024
Poetic Justice 