In Jupitus' Orbit

Phill Jupitus is one of the best-known comedians on UK television. As a team captain on Never Mind The Buzzcocks and regular guest on QI, Mock The Week and a host of other shows, he tickles our funnybones with impressive regularity.

But Mr. Jupitus is a man of many talents. He started his career as a performance poet supporting the likes of Billy Bragg and Paul Weller, directed music videos for the former and the late Kirsty MacColl and did a stint in music PR with The Housemartins. More recently he was a breakfast DJ on BBC 6 Music from 2002 to 2007, an experience he explores compellingly in his book Good Morning Nantwich.
And to this multi-stringed bow he has also added musical star, performing in Hairspray and now as King Arthur in the Monty Python spoof Spamalot which will entertain crowds in the Grand Canal Theatre in May. Here on the promo trail for said production Jupitus is sparkling company, open, warm and unerringly polite.
“I thought it would be fun to do another musical, especially straight after Hairspray,” he enthuses. “I love doing musicals. When I did Hairspray I found it was so outside any experience I’d had. When you’re doing stand-up there’s a real lone gunman thing, especially when you’re touring. It’s just you, your support act and the tour manager. Three of you in a car for two months. They’re the only people you really see.
“Every night you go for a curry and every night you have dhansak, spinach and a peshwari naan,” he adds. “And then you go to the next town and go for a curry and say, ‘Well I’ll have the dhansak and spinach and a peshwari naan and then you go to the next town and you have dhansak...”
He continues in a mock forlorn manner.
“And you’re in the hotel room looking at the sachets of coffee, teabags and milk in little things. It just becomes a bit... Whereas with musicals suddenly there’s a gang of you! There’s 50 of you putting this show together every night and it’s, ‘He did that and he was pissed last night and they’ve broken up and this and that.’ Suddenly you’re at school again and it’s so gregarious and social.”
And how does he balance his Never Mind The Buzzcocks duties with his musical forays?
“When I was doing Hairspray the deal was if I had a Buzzcocks recording I don’t do it. They call them NAs in theatre. The audience are told in advance.”
David O’Doherty’s appearances on the show have created quite a buzz, with the Irish comedian getting glowing reviews.
“DOD is just one of those singular comedy minds,” gushes Jupitus. “I’m not being funny but one of the best books I’ve read over the past 10 years is his 100 Facts About Pandas. I have that out at home so people stumble across it and say, ‘What is this?’. And I say, ‘It’s one of the finest comedy books ever written.’
“The fact that he did it with his missus is so charming,” he continues. “David is great. The time you spend hanging around with him is so enriching. In fact the last time I saw him we were with Terry Wogan and it turned out David’s dad used to go to school with Terry!”
Another appearance on Buzzcocks which caused a stir was that of Russell Brand. But this was due to the fact that it was postponed from being broadcast for nearly two years because of the Andrew Sachs debacle.
“That was a story which broke 10 days after it happened,” points out Jupitus. “It was a godsend to Andrew Sachs who couldn’t get arrested. Suddenly he’s back and getting lots of work. The BBC lost one of their best presenters.
“Jonathan (Ross) is a bit of a Marmite presenter in that you either love him or hate him,” Phill expands. “My mum doesn’t care for Jonathan. My mum reads The Daily Mail and the The Daily Mail has been bashing him for the best part of 20 years because it doesn’t like the fact that he enjoys his life and makes money doing television. It feels people shouldn’t do that, people should be miserable and not like immigrants. That’s its mandate in life. We should all do what our conservative lords and masters tell us and get back to the sweat shops. So bringing down Jonathan and Russell was just great, they’ve achieved their objectives and the BBC is culturally the poorer for it.”
Phil’s other BBC role, that of DJ on BBC 6 Music, came to an acrimonious end in 2007 when Jupitus left due to creative differences.
“I think it was a question that I jumped before I was pushed,” he asserts. “There was never any talk of that but I think they were lining someone up. I was very opinionated and when I was asked to play Razorlight and Coldplay... millions of people love Razorlight and Coldplay, but I however don’t and I was no good at hiding that. Great DJs are, they’ll let it drift by and then play something they do like whereas I couldn’t not externalise. I can understand how that would rub people up, and especially people in charge, the wrong way.”
He is philosophical about the events at the formerly beleagured station.
“The brilliant thing now is that because of all the hoo-ha about it being shut down that raised the awareness of 6 Music and people are listening to it now,” he says. “As a joke I used to say that I could probably have gotten more listeners driving around the West End with the windows down playing my stereo loud. And that probably wasn’t a joke!”
Phill is still an avid music fan and has DJ-ed several times at Glastonbury.
“Billy Bragg has invited me to be the DJ in his Left Field tent but I’m not sure yet what the rest of the year holds. That’s a luxurious position to be in! Hmm, will I do Glastonbury or not? I feel like the cultural Marie Antoinette – let them pitch tents!”
Another larger-than-life figure that Phill crossed paths with was Ian Dury. He developed a friendship with the musician and had the honour of compering Ian’s last show.
“It was brilliant fun but Ian couldn’t stand so they had a big rostrum on stage that he sat on to sing the songs,” notes Jupitus. “I remember getting a sense halfway through the gig that he might have realised this is the last one. Even though there were more shows booked for the next week. Afterwards the rest of the gigs were cancelled and within a month he was dead.”
Throughout our chat Phill speaks warmly about his many visits to Ireland and remembers his appearance on The Panel with particular fondness.
“I love The Panel! It’s brilliant,” he exclaims. “Funnily enough I saw the executive producer Seamus Cassidy today. I always have to hold back from saying it but I really wanted to go, ‘You don’t need me to do The Panel again do you?’ I loved it so much, it was such a laugh.
“I really loved it when we had that former Agricultural Minister on and he referred to the Taoiseach as Biffo,” he laughs. “And he went (affects accent) ‘Agh, of course he doesn’t like us calling him Biffo now and if we do in the Dáil he gets all upset!’ I just love the way there is such a different mindset over here, it is just amazing.”

Spamalot is in the Grand Canal Theatre, Dublin from May 9 to 14