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Steve Coogan is Alan Partridge and Other Less Successful Characters
at Echo Arena show!
THE star of I’m Alan Partridge,
Saxondale and creator of Paul and Pauline Calf will be touring the
country in 2008, appearing at the Echo Arena Liverpool on 13 October
2008. Steve Coogan is returning in a show featuring the characters
that have made him a BAFTA and British Comedy Award winning Comedy
Legend. His last live show played 200 performances and was seen by
350,000 people, so get your tickets now!
Over the past decade, Steve Coogan has established himself as one of
the most popular, charismatic and versatile comic actors working in
Britain today.
It was as a comedy performer that Coogan's greatest success came,
and the first hint of this was in the series Saturday Zoo (1993),
where he created the boorish, ghastly Paul Calf, who briefly became
as much a 90s archetype of the 'New Lad' as Harry Enfield's 'Loadsamoney'
had been of the 80s. This character, along with his equally horrible
sister Pauline, was resurrected in various guises in such television
comedies as Paul Calf's Video Diary (BBC, 1993) and Pauline Calf's
Wedding Video (BBC, 1994). The latter, shown shortly after Four
Weddings And A Funeral (d. Mike Newell, 1994) rejoiced in the
knowing subtitle 'Three Fights, Two Weddings and a Funeral', as well
as boasting a cameo from John Hannah.
The figure for whom Coogan is best known, perhaps to the extent that
his other work has been dwarfed by it, is Alan Partridge. Partridge
first appeared in Chris Morris' and Armando Iannucci's BBC Radio 4
satire show On The Hour (1991), which then became The Day Today
(BBC, 1994). Coogan was very much part of an ensemble cast, but the
figure of an inept, pompous sports reporter was considered to have
enough comic mileage for him, along with Iannucci and Patrick Marber,
to use the character in a spin-off spoof chat show called Knowing
Me, Knowing You (BBC, 1994). Again, this had its roots in the radio
programme of the same time, in 1992. While Coogan also invented the
less successful figure of an uber-macho Latin American crooner named
Tony Ferrino, it was Partridge who proved the most popular figure,
as could eventually be seen by the enormous success of the 'sitcom'
I'm Alan Partridge (BBC, 1997-2002). In the first series, at least,
Coogan, Iannucci, and co-writer Peter Baynham, looked forward to the
later plotless, character-driven comedies of Ricky Gervais and
Caroline Aherne, turning Partridge into a laughable yet oddly
sympathetic figure with consummate skill. Around this time, he also
attempted to diversify in his series Coogan's Run (BBC, 1995), with
his repellent salesman Gareth Cheeseman in particular standing out
as a clear precursor to Gervais' David Brent in The Office (BBC,
2001-3).
His film career proper began inauspiciously, with a cameo in The
Indian in the Cupboard (USA, 1995), and a part (as Mole) in Terry
Jones' The Wind in the Willows (1996) which allowed him little scope
for comedy. Apart from a small part in the Alan Ayckbourn misfire
The Revenger's Comedies, (UK/France, d. Malcolm Mowbray, 1998), his
first significant cinematic role was the lead of The Parole Officer
(d. John Duigan, 2001). While enjoyable enough, Coogan reprised
Partridge in all but name in what proved a surprisingly
old-fashioned comic romp. However, his performance as real-life
Factory Records founder and Granada TV presenter Tony Wilson in
Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People (UK/ France/
Netherlands, 2002) still kept him very much within the parameters of
comic, Partridge-esque acting (Wilson had apparently been one of the
main inspirations for Partridge), but allowed him to hint at a more
knowing, self-aware style of performance, especially in the drily
postmodern voiceover.
His reunion with Winterbottom, A Cock and Bull Story (2005), allowed
him to play himself to great comic effect, especially in the
hilarious scenes in which he played against Rob Brydon. His
appearance in Sofia Coppola's Marie-Antoinette (US, 2006) could
hardly be called typecasting, and indicates his diversity.
Coogan also founded Baby Cow Productions with Henry Normal, which
has produced such acclaimed and new-wave comedy as The Mighty Boosh
(BBC, 2004) and Julia Davis' Nighty Night (BBC, 20004-5), as well as
keeping Coogan's old friend Brydon in work, firstly with the
brilliant, tragicomic Marion and Geoff (BBC, 2000), and then, in
somewhat lighter vein, with The Keith Barret Show (BBC, 2004),
which, with its deconstruction of the talk format, turned what
Coogan had begun with Partridge full circle.
Tickets go on sale on Monday, 17 March 2008 at 9am.
To book tickets log on to
www.accliverpool.com or
call the Echo Arena Box Office on 0844 8000 400. |
Winner of the Pleasureland Junior Fame Melanie Waite releases a
singe
MELANIE WAITE,
from Leyland in Lancashire, won the Junior Fame, Search For a Star
final back in
2005 at Pleasureland, now eighteen
year old, she is standing on the threshold of national recognition
with her first release. The highly talented singer started her
singing career at the age of 10, by winning local and regional
talent competitions with her solo performances of Soul and Jazz
music. It is pleasing for all of us, at Southport Reporter, to see
her doing so well and that the legacy of the Fame competitions lives
on. Her first single is entitled "Together Again?" and
was produced by Plug In Promotion on the Leloftmusic.com label.
Melanie Waite draws on the influences of the great Motown singers
such as Martha Reeves, Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross. In this first
release, she blends these influences into something uniquely her own
from the sultry, funky Single Mix to belting the high notes in the
Dance Mix. It is to be noted that she recorded both versions in one
take; a breathtaking accomplishment in an age of Autotune. She is
currently in the studio recording an album with producer and
co-writer Alan Olive at Leloftmusic.com Studios and looking forward
to the 4 April 2008 release date. Furthermore, Powerpromotions and
Leloftmusic are working on the Club Mix for the national club and DJ
campaign.
Melanie is already picking up airplay in Dorset on Forrest FM and in
Central Lancashire on Chorley FM, as the campaign builds. We wish
her all the best in her development of her career and we hope her
release will do well.
If you would like to support her then look out in the record shops
for:-
"TOGETHER AGAIN?" (SINGLE MIX)
Performed by:- MELANIE WAITE
Written by:- ALAN OLIVE AND STEPHEN WAITE
Produced by:- ALAN OLIVE
LABEL:- www.leloftmusic.com
or
"TOGETHER AGAIN?" (DANCE MIX)
Performed by:- MELANIE WAITE
Written by:- ALAN OLIVE AND STEPHEN WAITE
Produced by:- ALAN OLIVE
CATALOGUE NUMBER:- LLCD2
PPL:- GBRJY0700002 AND GBRJY0700003
LABEL:-
www.leloftmusic.com
To read about here performance back in
December 2005, please click on
here
to go to that report.
Good
Friday Walk Of Witness
ON 21 March
2008, Good Friday, the Churches Together in Formby are holding
their annual Walk of Witness, from the usual locations
including Formby library car park, where they will be meeting at
11:00am to proceed to the village centre, Chapel Lane, Formby,
for the 11:30 service, lead by the Bishop of Warrington.
Everyone who wishes
to take part will be warmly welcomed.
Weather Prediction Might Spoil Easter Fun
WINTRY
weather is predicted in the run up to Easter 2008 with heavy
downpours and winds from a Northerly direction. This inclement
weather my persist through to Good Friday, or even on to Easter
Saturday (22 March 2008). There are hopes things could
improve by Easter Sunday and Easter Bank Holiday Monday, but the
cold conditions will remain.
Let's hope this will
be like the severe gales, and does not affect Merseyside! |
