No more of a connection with yesterday’s Mr Lightfoot than a first name, we hark back now to 1978 and a punk-pop comedy number from former Manchester Polytechnic student Graham Fellows playing the sulky teenager John, whose girlfriend Julie has gone off with the eponymous better-looking Gordon. Steeped in hilarious lines of bitter jealousy, some younger listeners may find some of the phrasing a bit politically incorrect and dated, but it documents the language of the time perfectly. Scenes of bus-stops and chip shops will strike a chord with many from their own adolescent days, and the band, seen here on an episode of BBC1's Top of the Pops (try to see past the dubious presenter), enact a wonderful level of anarchy. The record was produced by Martin Hannett, the genius at Factory Records who also honed the sound of Joy Division, as well as producing The Duritti Column, John Cooper Clarke, The Buzzcocks, Magazine and other Manchester bands. Two, three, four!
Who's this bloke, I asked her
Goooooordon, she replied
Not THAT puff, I said dismayed
Yes but he's no puff, she cried.
He's more of a man than you'll ever be
Here we go, two three four!
I was so upset that I cried,
all the way to the chip shop
When I came out there was Gordon,
standing at the bus-stop.
And guess who was with him?
Yeah, Julie, and they were both laughing at me …
Fellows now is better known as the keyboard playing standup comedian John Shuttleworth, but he has a number of other stage characters, including Brian Appleton, a rock musicologist and media studies lecturer, who claims to have known all the greats on the scene, and Dave Tordoff, a builder from Goole specialising in 'laser screed' concrete flooring with ambitions to become an after-dinner speaker. Actor, writer and oddball talent, Fellows was spotted by the Song Bar Landlord reviving Jilted John at London’s 100 Club this spring’, and next year the band will do a full 40th anniversary tour.
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