Music has always played a crucial part in Bill Bailey’s comedy routines, his shows brilliantly straddling the line between stand-up and musical performance, basically a gig that you’re allowed to laugh at without making the band feel bad. Back when Bailey first took to the stage though, there were no jokes involved. Speaking to him recently as part of Classic Rock’s The Soundtrack Of My Life feature, he recalled his debut gig as he went into detail the first song he ever performed live.
“I was in a band called Behind Closed Doors and we had a gig in Bridgwater at the community hall, our first gig in a public place,” Bailey recounted. “I played You Really Got Me by The Kinks. That was my very first public guitar solo, or my attempt at a solo. It went alright. I was really worried about it, I’d worked out the first few notes and then it went a bit off-piste, like ‘I don’t know what I’m doing now… but I like this, this is great!’. It was a bit of a seminal moment.”
After that uncertain start, though, Bailey on his way to becoming the rock-omedian (needs work) we all know and love, a man whose routines now grace the biggest venues in the UK. His is an act that deserves the big stages, such as this occasion when he demonstrated what U2’s The Edge might sound like without his delay pedal:
- “It was a fantastic idea. I would have liked a ménage à trois with Brian Jones and his girlfriend”: The Kinks guitarist Dave Davies’ wild tales of Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Led Zeppelin and more
- “There was chicken-wire around the stage. Al Jourgensen was climbing around like a caged beast. I knew this was a guy for me”: Billy Gibbons’ wild tales of Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards, Muddy Waters and Ministry
Or here, when he unveiled his gratuitously excellent six-neck guitar:
And, for when he fancies a rest from his six-string/thirty-six string, there’s always this that the metal-loving comic can turn to, his unrivalled air-horn take on the Metallica classic Enter Sandman:
