A subreddit for fans of comedian Ricky Gervais, and his frequent collaborators Steve Merchant and Karl Pilkington
Gervais, merchant, sturgess all on it. No pilk yet, but im only a few mins in.
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Any mention of karl? Oh and uh, have a good christmas
It's fucking bizarre how Gervais at a couple of points awkwardly manauvers around mentioning Steve's name at all. By contrast, Steve genially recounts his time with Ricky without issue. Weird innit?
Whether any of them were in the doc or not though, I thought it was a cracking little tale. And also good to see Strugess has kept clean for many Christmases since.
Still thieving though
Theff
No, say it again...
Feffth
I read they fell out during Brent: Life on The Road because Steve wanted some producer rights or involvement in the film and Ricky basically told him to do one. Steve has said in interviews there’s not much for them to talk about anymore. It seems there’s something bigger than just a argument over producing a film
No evidence for that just maaade it up. Ricky stopped mentioning him years before
Eyes bulging with imagined riches.
Eyes bigger than your stomach... Steve
To be fair they always had different interests, different friend groups and spent their free time away from each other. They were work colleagues with a great working relationship and had a great time working and producing together. But they werent in each other's pockets. Now Steve is in LA, writing and starring in things and Ricky is between New York and London there's no commonality for them to talk or even work with each other on.
They don't need to have fallen out to just not speak any more. They both have completely different lives now.
Obviously none of us know anything, but I think the "work colleagues" thing is a recent (ten years at least lol) bit of revisionism. Karl explicitly describes Steve as "your [Ricky's] best mate" during one discussion (don't remember which).
I don't think that's right. Karl says that in a comment when making a point which isn't great evidence as that will always be conditioned in it's use for the context of the point. If we listen to them over the course of the shows and then talking about life outside of work it's pretty clear they don't hang out. Steve jokes about not getting invited to Ross's stuff, Steve's going out stories being about clubbing, Ricky's about being in his local. Ricky and Steve go for lunch when they are writing together and Steve remarks how that winds him up.
It sounds like it's just something you never picked up on before.
Albino watching that
No one wants that, baby
Pop it in the bin
Destroyed a man…
To the deeeepthhhsss
For his GREED
And selfishness
I always thought it was "Destroyed da man"...?
Thank you very much for your comment.
Fly and dope
This is news (old's) to me. What's it called?
Kick Out The Jams. It’s on Prime and looks at the early days of XFM before it got taken over by Capital (the Series 0 era so Before Karl).
As someone who was in their late teens at that point in time I found it very nostalgic. There is a lovely moment where Sturgess gets very choked and says it was the best time of her life.
She might have been high on skag during that interview though.
Bit harsh, she got clean for Christmas
Oh, and errr, have a clean Christmas
I was in my early teens at the time, and XFM was the only station I'd listen to as a 14 year old who'd just discovered soft drugs and hard rock. I have fond memories of sneaking back up to my bedroom, more stoned than I'd ever be in my life, listening to them play Metallica's S&M ('Call of Ktulu' hopefully, but I can't remember) and scratching out a pretty decent self-portrait in pencil - I had this big mirror-panel fitted wardrobe, and yes I did talk to people through it.
I only ever listened to The Ricky Gervais Show once though, around 2004, so XFM to me then had nothing to do with RSK, whereas now it's almost synonymous.
Why yes I have had a couple of cans of weak lager, sue me. So...
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21341378
If anyone has a copy could you send it in
What, so you receive 100 copies and then send 99 back?
If you posted that many I'm surprised I haven't received one!
Panned and scanned on vhs
Saw it on pirate. It’s shit.
Don't make me put you out on the balcony.
I heard the cameraman worked for peanuts. Turns out...
shoddy tinpot documentary
It's an interesting snapshot into that period.
XFM was chasing a zeitgeist that had been and gone by the time they got on air - Radiohead and Spiritualized had killed Britpop and all that was left was JJ72, Terris and Crashland. Like most 90s indie kids Jacobs thought he had Peel-like tastes but was only interested in white kids with guitars (I think one of the presenters alludes to this in the playlist meetings they had) that he ended up running NME radio is no great surprise.
Oh and they all basically admit they had a two year long party on this guys money, then resented him for selling to capital.
The Britpop era is a fascinating time for me. I turned 11 in 96, and as far as I'm concerned, I came of age in the Summer of Love, Jimi Hendrix played Happy Birthday for me with his teeth, and every other childhood can faaack offff (if you're not picturing Liam Gallagher giving two fingers, well, could you? Please?).
But. I can acknowledge that it probably came off as commodified in a 'forced fun' sort of way to those who'd lived through the late 60s, 70s, and early 80s. I'll always heart the 90s, and the quality of those 'white kids with guitar' bands was fucking immense - one Suede is worth at least a dozen Coldplays, and even Travis (the Coldplay of the 90s) were so much better than I gave them credit for at the time.
I'm obsessed with 20th century music, and while I can say 'Nina Simone - Blue Prelude [1959]' and point to something so much more painfully raw and organic, it's not 'water good/fire bad', I fucking love Kula Shaker and Ocean Colour Scene. What I mean is, I love a bloody good roast dinner, it's not all about your fancy French restaurants. Like a hungry moon, I will consume everything.
And no more picking on Four Non Blondes. That's, like, part of the new way.
Did that just go out?
It felt forced because it was - Stuart Maconie literally invented it as a rebuttal to Grunge when the most noteworthy things in British pop were Jamiroquai and Eternal. the media tried to force it first with The Auteurs, then Suede, then it finally took with a pair of serial plagiarizers from Manchester who, once they'd run out of Real People material to rob came up with Be Here Now.
The Guardian's review for said album was on the cover - THE COVER, worse still it was effusive and made out like they were the new Lennon and McCartney.
By September of 1997 (when XFM launched) 'Britpop' was taking pictures of taking pictures.
Sturgess claims The Bluetones and Catatonia were 'important' with a straight face - these were people very much living in a world of their own creation and they tried desperately to keep it going, still believing their own hype and living under the delusion that if they could repeat the process the party wouldn't have to stop.
You can say all that, but the music was still fantastic. I don't care if half the shite that's clogged the airwaves for the past two decades is twice as organic, it's just not as good.
My favourite decade of music is the 70s, then the 50s, then 60s, then it's between the 90s and the 30s. I fucking love music, and I'm 100% down with snobbery, because to love with this much passion means I'll also despise that which others merely dislike. But it's about the music, not the scene.
'Save a Prayer' or 'The Chauffeur' are both great Duran Duran songs, I don't give a shit if they were seen as the Take That of their time. 'Back for Good' and 'A Million Love Songs' are good Take That songs, even if they're the antithesis of the hard bop jazz scene of the 50s.
'Fleeting Mind' and 'Get Blown Away' by Ocean Colour Scene are excellent, and Oasis fucking rocked regardless of any criticisms. Led Zeppelin ripped off just about every one of their songs from another artist, they're rightly criticised for that, but they were excellent.
It's music, not philosophy, just move me - that's all I care about.
I loved the bass player in JJ72 🥰
Can he hear us?
Terris! You don’t see those guys mentioned much anymore.
Panned and Scanned
Weak observations, poorly performed
Have we heard Wendy's views on it?
Almost certainly not.
We’ve done this. Had some great replies from people who actually worked at XFM and even some who’d watched the whole documentary before deciding to post a thread!
Do a little search before posting next time mate sniff