Get out More...Gig Review

TED CHIPPINGTON(Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath)

28-02-2007

Dave Travis yields to no one in his admiration for Ted Chippington. You can see a previous appreciation of the great Midlands comedian here. But as for his first Brum gig on years…oh dear, oh dear, oh dear…

The Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath was packed out last Saturday night with a discerning crowd eagerly anticipating the homecoming of sorts of Ted Chippington, the newly celebrated cult comedian. Ted has attracted rave press and adoring star studded accolades over the last few weeks.

I went to ‘Tedstock' at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London earlier this month and saw an array of hugely talented comedians, and Simon Amstell, trot out tributes to the greatness of Ted Chippington.

Despite the fact that the publicity for Tedstock declared that Ted would not be attending the event, he was unable to resist turning up for a short performance, and to participate in a grand finale rendition of ‘Rocking with Rita'.

Bizarrely, most of the London audience (Lee and Herring fans) seemed bemused and non-plussed by Ted's rambling, surreal set.

No chance of non-plussing the Ted-aware Kings Heath crowd of afficionados, though. A big chance, however, of seriously pissing most of them off by falling drunkenly offstage and allowing the drummer in your “band” to bash away like a lunatic for a 30 minute (yes, 30 long minutes) drum solo. Unfortunately this is exactly what happened at the Hare and Hounds last Saturday night.

Don't get me wrong, I like a dash of rock and roll chaos as much as the next man, but I draw the line at paying £7 to watch a drum rehearsal.

I'm not suggesting that Ted should change. I shudder to think of him styled by image consultants and top flight London agents into some media friendly entity. Watching a performance by Ted Chippington is not meant to be pleasant.

However, as one of the audience on Saturday night said to me after the gig; “I fit kitchens for a living, but I wait until I've finished a job before I get pissed. Otherwise the customers tend to get a bit cross…”

Ted's contribution to British comedy is undeniable, I just expected a little more. Maybe I'm at fault. Maybe this is the response Ted wanted to engineer. Maybe I should have drunk as much as Ted. I'm in a bit of a dilemma now, although I used to have a Toyota quandry.

Were you at the gig? Was it as shambolic as Dave suggests? Leave a comment on the “Music, Poetry etc” section of our messageboard.