Timperley Blues: Frank Sidebottom’s 10 greatest parody songs
Parody songs have always spanned the spectrum from the toe-curlingly godawful to the comically brilliant; it is a tricky art to master. Frank Sidebottom, on the other hand, occupies an entirely different, unpinnable space within the musical realm, having created a litany of bizarre and yet incredibly endearing parody songs, homages, and cover versions over the course of his existence.
It was in 1984 that Beatles obsessive and frontman of the woefully underrated outfit The Freshies, Chris Sievey, first donned his huge papier-mâché head, in doing so birthing a cult hero who would become a core part of his existence right up until his untimely death in 2010. Originally, Frank Sidebottom had been envisioned as a support act-slash-groupie for The Freshies, but his world soon blossomed into a complex tapestry of art, music, comics, TV shows, and performances.
A core part of those performances concerned Sidebottom parodying and deconstructing a litany of popular songs, ranging from the pioneering psychedelia of Sgt Pepper’s era Beatles to the jangly indie heroism of The Smiths. With his trusty keyboard and, more often than not, Little Frank in tow, Sidebottom created some of the greatest parody songs ever performed, rightly amassing a devoted cult following in the process.
While it was live performances where the talents of Frank Sidebottom truly shone, the Timperley-based local hero also amassed a sizeable discography during his extensive tenure, albeit many of the records, tapes, and CDs he put out were entirely self-released and often self-distributed to order. Among those recordings, the magic of Frank is still plain to hear, and his cult status has never seemed to wane as a result.
Here, we have plucked out ten prime cuts from Frank’s extensive discography, capturing both the spirit of that legendary comic character and the utter musical obsession which drove the man behind the head, Chris Sievey.
Frank Sidebottom’s 10 greatest parody songs:
‘Twist ‘N’ Shout’
It is no secret that Chris Sievey, the man behind the giant papier-mâché head, was a colossal Beatles nut. In fact, in the documentary Being Frank, it was revealed that he spent many of his final days, while suffering from cancer, consuming as much information about the Fab Four as humanly possible. It is no surprise, then, that Frank parodied and paid homage to the band on a multitude of occasions, perhaps most famously his version of ‘Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite’.
Nevertheless, his fan-favourite rendition of their much earlier track, ‘Twist ‘N’ Shout’, is deserving of a spot on this list, if only for the amount of physical strain the performer put upon himself to deliver the blood-curdling screams and screeches of the song’s iconic vocal crescendo. At countless gigs, Sidebottom would descend into increasingly maddening screams before returning to the working men’s club-style rendition of the song as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. Genius.
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
Such was Frank’s appreciation for the mainstream rock sounds of Queen that he was known occasionally to don an impressive moustache and yellow leather jacket a la Live Aid-era Freddie Mercury.
Sidebottom himself had his own Wembley experience when he was – bizarrely – asked to introduce boy band Bros onstage in 1989, being booed by thousands of young girls for his stage patter: “Hands up if you like Matt, hands up if you like Luke, hands up if you like Bros… hands up if you’ve got Betamax.”
Luckily, that experience did little to damage Sidebottom’s adoration of Queen, and his rendition of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is among his finest moments, appearing on the 1985 EP Firm Favourites and uttering the eternal question, “Is this the real life, or is this just Timperley?”
‘Material Boy’
Madonna might have been the ‘Queen of Pop’ back in the 1980s, but Frank Sidebottom was hot on her heels and, again on his Firm Favourites EP, he saw fit to record his own gender-swapped version of her smash hit ‘Material Girl’.
Expectedly, the lyrics were far more understated and relatable than Madonna’s celebration of western capitalism, with Sidebottom instead citing his love of football and television, while also slimming the four-minute track down to a far more digestible 65 seconds. Perhaps Madonna should have taken note.
‘Life On Mars’
Taking on David Bowie, even within the realm of parody, is no easy task; not only is the Starman pretty untouchable in his musical skill, but his music was already so far-out and otherworldly that any attempt to turn up the weirdness would be pretty superfluous. Then again, nobody counted on the emergence of Frank Sidebottom, who, on his 1986 Sci-Fi EP, tackled one of Bowie’s most beloved efforts, ‘Life On Mars’.
One of his more off-the-wall parodies, Sidebottom renders the song in a kind of George Formby style, cutting back Bowie’s nearly four-minute glam rock masterpiece to 46 seconds of unadulterated joy, discussing “the girl with the mouse in her hair” before reflecting that, on balance, Frank Sidebottom does believe there is life on Mars, after all.
‘Indie Medley’
For those of you who have never had the pleasure of strolling down Timperley highstreet, or viewing the Frank Sidebottom statue in all its glory, the village isn’t all that far from the musical haven of inner-city Manchester, so it is only fitting that Frank Sidebottom paid homage to a wealth of different Mancunian artists over the years.
On his ‘Indie Medley’, issued on a flexi-disc by Blah Blah Blah Magazine in 1987, Sidebottom exercises his musical mastery by blending a multitude of different songs together, predominantly Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart Again’, The Smiths’ ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’, The Fall’s ‘How I Wrote Elastic Man’, and Camper Van Beethoven’s ‘Take The Skinheads Bowling’, the latter inclusion breaking with the Mancunian spirit of the medley somewhat. Nevertheless, the medley remains one of Frank’s finest.
‘Timperley Sunset’
It is difficult to look at a man in very big shorts and with a very big papier-mâché head on and think of romance. Nevertheless, on his 1987 EP, the Timperley EP, Sidebottom took on one of the greatest love songs in music history: The Kinks’ ‘Waterloo Sunset’, with the location changed to reflect Frank’s unwavering hometown pride.
Swapping that “dirty old river” for a “dirty old canal” and listing the virtues of public transportation, Sidebottom’s version might not be quite as genuine as Ray Davies’ ultimate masterpiece, but it retains a certain charm that is genuinely endearing – not only for its comedy value, either. Ironically, of course, Timperley doesn’t have a train station at all, only a tram stop opened several years after Sidebottom released this track (perhaps somebody at the council was swept along by the romance of his rendition).
‘Hit the North’
Frank Sidebottom shared quite a lot in common with Mark E. Smith and The Fall: both were outsider artists from the outskirts of Manchester, famed for their bizarre and often improvisational performances, and each with their own obsessive cult following. Back in 1988, then, Sidebottom recorded his own triumphant version of The Fall’s hit record ‘Hit The North’, espousing the virtues of his northern surroundings, with a particular emphasis on seaside arcades (of course).
As well as appearing on his 13:9:88 album, Frank’s version of ‘Hit The North’ was a firm favourite for his live performances, capturing the wonderful weirdness of his character and his claim as an icon of northern culture. According to an NME report from the time, Mark E Smith wasn’t bowled over by the idea of the cover, but that didn’t stop Frank from doing it anyway, thankfully.
‘Timperley Blues’
‘Summertime Blues’ by Eddie Cochran is one of the greatest explorations of youth angst and rock rebellion that has ever been recorded, and of its countless cover versions – including The Who’s Live at Leeds recording – Frank Sidebottom certainly achieved the most unique. Released on 1990’s Medium Play release, a few months after Sidebottom performed the cover on the short-lived and utterly bizarre Channel 4 chat show Kazuko’s Karaoke Klub, ‘Timperley Blues’ is one of the performer’s most memorable moments.
Featuring backing vocals from Little Frank, Sidebottom laments the angst of “doing shopping for me mum” and announces his desire to “take my puppets to the US of A” in a way that both satirises and celebrates the original track. In a strange kind of way, ‘Timperley Blues’ is about as close to replicating the source material as Frank ever got.
‘Anarchy In Timperley’
Despite arriving in 1978, in the midst of Manchester’s punk explosion, Chris Sievey – both during his Freshies days and behind the head of Frank – never fully embraced the style, preferring to offer a brightly-coloured alternative to that chorus of anarchic destruction. No track reflects that unique relationship more than Sidebottom’s cover of the Sex Pistols’ punk anthem ‘Anarchy in the UK’.
Setting the roots of an anarchist punk revolution in the leafy village of Timperley, with a jaunty seaside melody rather than the abrasive guitar distortion of Steve Jones, is as surreal as it is profound (and profoundly funny). No matter how many times the song is replayed, it is near-enough impossible not to crack a smile at Frank’s light-hearted, music hall-esque declaration of “I am the anti-christ”.
‘Panic’
Another moment in which Frank chose to celebrate and satirise the musical icons of his nearby Manchester, 1993’s ‘Panic’ saw him take on The Smiths’ indie existentialism, focusing on the many local issues encountered by our papier-mache hero during his quiet life in Timperley.
As the song marches on, Frank Sidebottom uses the opportunity to pay tribute to one of Britain’s finest broadcasters, Radio One’s Annie Nightingale, or “Anne the DJ” as Frank so affectionately calls her. “I waited for your roadshow, but your roadshow never came,” he sings. Years later, in 2015, Nightingale revealed, “I was deeply moved by Frank Sidebottom making this cover version about me.”
Released during the arguable peak of Frank’s cultural relevance, in the wake of his Fantastic Shed Show TV show – mentioned quite heavily in the song’s lyrics – ‘Panic’ is a pretty triumphant effort from the performer, and it comes complete with a brilliant music video too. You know it does, it really does.
