Adrian Edmondson and The Bad Shepherds.
Adrian Edmondson is probably best known in this country for his role as Vyvyan in British television's The Young Ones, the early-80s series about a shambolic household of students. Or his follow-up series, Bottom, in which he played Eddie Hitler in a tale of two slightly older but no less maniacal men.
What is less known is that for the past five years Edmondson has fronted a trio of musicians called The Bad Shepherds, who play punk rock with folk instruments.
Edmondson is lead singer and mandolin player in The Bad Shepherds, along with uilleann pipes player Troy Donockley and folk fiddler Andy Dinan.
The trio will perform for the first time at the Perth International Comedy Festival in a concert billed as the festival's "first straight musical show". Ade Edmondson not fooling around on stage with the customary manic glee of his television characters, but appearing as a serious musician? Come on.
It would appear from a phone interview that Edmondson has left well behind his crazy student past and early television years and now performs with the talent and enthusiasm of the professional musician he has always aspired to be.
But performing the songs of the Clash, Sex Pistols, Stranglers, Undertones, Ramones, the Jam and other punk favourites in the folk idiom is surely spoofing something - or someone?
Is it spoofing punk or is it making fun of folk? Neither, responds Edmondson. "No, we're not a comedy band," he explains patiently. "We don't spoof either. Punk music has always had the same instincts as folk music. A lot of people who have heard us think the punk songs are brilliantly done this way.
"Punk music is much better than some people think and it can be argued that punk was the folk music of its day. You didn't go to music school to learn punk, the same as folk musicians never went to music school. Our motto for The Bad Shepherds is maximum joy, which is about having fun with music and communicating with people."
TROY DONOCKLEY AT GONZO
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