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4 at the Fringe (BBC Radio 4, 2003)
A special Edinburgh Fringe edition of "4 at the Store", live performance for an audience. Think I did about 15 minutes on the day but it was edited down to around 5. As far as I remember we recorded two songs, "I'm Japanese" and "Prince Charles". Japanese was the one they used, excising the line about "titties" from the middle. The programme also featured Lucy Porter, Adam Hills and Tommy Tiernan.
Crash (Talkback Thames for C4, 2003, not transmitted)
A pilot for a late-night Channel 4 show which never happened, hosted by Simon Amstell with contributions from Rhys Thomas and Sarah Kendall. Gary appeared at the end of the show singing "Is My Toaster Sentient"
Loose Lips (Living TV, 2003)
Gary has done countless live radio interviews over the years but the only one I remember doing on TV was this one. Interviewed by Richard Arnold and Melinda Messenger for an "Eighties special," they made me play a game where I had to complete the lyrics to played-in segments of early 80s hits. They didn't let me sing on this one, sadly. Probably because they had Tony Hadley and Peter Cox singing on it instead.
The Day the Music Died: Series One (BBC Radio 2, 2003)
Appeared in every edition of the first series. The format was basically Gary being interviewed by Andrew Collins, then playing a new, specially-written song. These were frequently rewrites of songs I already had, though a few used exclusive tunes. A vague storyline grew over the series in which Gary was desperately searching for a hit record but continually failing to achieve one. The following songs were recorded specifically for the show:
Warriors of Style (alt version) - untransmitted
Why Doesn't Anyone Buy Singles?
Invasion of the Pop Snatchers
Technology
The Chinese Ghost of Christmas
Teenagers of the Revolution
Look at My Bum
The Cowboy Astronaut of Mother's Day
Goodbye 2003
The Day the Music Died: Series Two (BBC Radio 2, 2004)
This series took place over the summer, and since I was doing Face Academy at the Edinburgh Fringe, I could only take part in four programmes. The vague storyline this time had something to do with Andrew Collins sending Gary on tour as part of his retro record label "Cred Wedge". The exclusive tracks for this series were:
Fun Fun Fun Fun Fun
Cyborg Horse
Harlequin - untransmitted
I Take Rugs
Tour Song (or: Tour-a-lour-a-lour-a-lie-ay)
Newsnight Review (BBC 2, 2004)
Stuart Maconie gave a lukewarm review of my Face Academy show as part of their Edinburgh coverage. Wouldn't mention it but they did a special film of me singing "The Outsider" which was played in between his faintly-praising, faintly-damning comments.
The Day the Music Died: Christmas Special (BBC Radio 2, 2004)
The last song I did for The Day the Music Died, which hasn't been released in any format, yet is probably one of my favourite Le Strange songs. The idea was that Gary had recorded a special charity record (though not for any specific charity) with deep-throated soul singer David Boeing. The interview culminated in Gary falling out with Andrew and walking out of the studio, never to return. The song was called "(Couldn't You Think of) Something Better (?)" and was a rewrite of one I used to do with Simon Farnaby in the Peterford Golf Club days. The recording took place a few days before Christmas, but the show went out on December 27th, the day after the Boxing Day tsunami. With its lyrics about flooding and the repeated refrain of "Hold on to the sea", I was sure the song would get pulled on the day, but it wasn't, and absolutely no one called in to complain about it. Though around ten people did call to complain about the show's gentle ribbing of the recent X-Factor winner Steve Brookstein. Very odd.
28 Acts in 28 Minutes (BBC 3, 2005)
Sang 60 seconds of "Is My Toaster Sentient?"
28 Acts in 28 Minutes (Radio 4, 2006)
Sang 60 seconds of "Secret Wolf"
The World Stands Up (IMWP for Paramount Comedy Channel, 2006)
Live performance for an audience. Did about 30 minutes I think. Would have been shorter but there was a slight problem on the night when the top tier of the audience decided two songs in that they didn't like me (the audience on the club floor seemed to like me well enough), and set about shouting at me for the next 20 minutes. I later learned that the sound wasn't actually reaching the upper seats, so I guess that meant they would miss a lot of what I was doing. Which would make me seem very irritating indeed. As far as I know, the only two songs broadcast were "Is My Toaster Sentient" and "Grey". If you ever see them, bear in mind that I'd been putting up with an insane amount of heckling between the songs. The full set list, I think, was:
Ballerina
I'm Japanese
Individuals
Is My Toaster Sentient
Grey
Out to Lunch (Avalon for BBC Radio 2, 2006)
Lunchtime comedy show recorded for a live audience, hosted by Rob Deering and Russell Howard, with contributions from loads of other brilliant people. Gary appeared once a week throughout the first series to sing a song. And these were:
Ballerina
Is My Toaster Sentient (I think… but can't remember doing it!)
Metal Boy
The Cowboy Astronaut of Mothers Day
Aliens Took My Stereo
All I Ever Do (is sit in my room)
Comedy Cuts (ITV 2, 2007)
Spent a day bombing around London with Stewart Lee and a small, talented crew to make five pop videos. Yes, five in day. Which were...
Seedy Pimp
I'm Japanese
Grey
Geometry
Is My Toaster Sentient
The show aired on ITV2 for ten weeks through the early bit of 2007. Short segments of Seedy Pimp and Toaster happened in a couple of episodes, though three (the aforementioned two plus Grey) were edited into full-length promotional videos which you can still find on the web somewhere, probably. The other two don't appear to have surfaced, which is a shame cos Geometry was easily the best one on the day.
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