David Quantick

David Quantick (born 1961, Wortley, South Yorkshire) is a freelance journalist, writer and critic who specialises in music and comedy.

He began writing for the music publication NME in 1983 alongside such luminaries as Danny Baker and Paul Morley. Along with Steven Wells he contributed to many of the humorous, snippet sections in the paper. He gained a reputation for incisive and witty observations on popular culture and music. Alongside rock journalism he was also submitting gags and sketches to British comedy shows such as Spitting Image.

Quantick built his profile steadily and his name began to appear more and more often in print, radio and television. In 1992 Armando Ianucci asked him to join the writing team for the radio comedy On The Hour after which he made the natural progression to the television follow up The Day Today (1994). Both shows were highly acclaimed within the industry, winning awards and marshalling a loyal fan base.

At this stage Quantick was still submitting copy to the NME, only giving up in 1995 after an unusually long association with the paper. Around this time he was appearing regularly on Collins and Maconie's Hit Parade (BBC Radio 1 1994–1997), waxing critical about music's stars. This developed into his own named slot in the format: Quantick's World. His relationship with Maconie continued in parallel on the weekly show, The Treament on BBC Radio Five Live — an hour long satirical news round-up.

In 1995 Carlton Television broadcast a set of 6 pilot television shows, one of which was Now What?. The series was not picked up for development but Quantick found a writing partner through these proceedings in Jane Bussman. The two went on to write and perform Bussman & Quantick — Kingsize (1998) — a series of sketches and monologues.

Quantick rejoined the Chris Morris/Armando Ianucci axis to write for Brass Eye in 1997. The show caused huge controversy as Morris often does, and though Quantick's association with him on Jam (2000) was less explosive, the Brass Eye — Paedophile Special was so controversial that Government ministers initially condemned the programme (without having seen it).

Throughout this period he contributed to less provocative fare such as Smack the Pony (1999–2001), Harry Enfield's Brand Spanking New Show and could be heard on BBC Radio 4's 99p Challenge.

But most importantly Quantick and Bussman were making history. In 2000 they created the world's first Internet sitcom Junkies about three heroin addicts. Quantick also claimed it as the first docusitcom (documentary/sitcom), though some argue a competing claim is made by The Osbournes. It starred long time Morris collaborator Peter Baynham, with Sally Phillips (Smack the Pony) and Peter Serafinowicz (Look Around You). It is still available for download — see External media. The project grew out of the writing pair's frustration with the commissioning process. The average sitcom, they said, costs £200,000 to make and finding funds is too difficult. So they secured the services of cast and crew on a voluntary basis and made a show for less than £4,000. The site received over a million visits in the first eight months.

In 2001 Quantick collaborated with Collins and Maconie again on Lloyd Cole Knew My Father, a live show where the three recounted "humorous" tales of working as rock "journalists". Part of the conceit was that, far from being a tale of sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll, stories centred on the deflating aspects of the job: the boredom, missing assignments, the idiosyncrasies of fan letters. Quantick missed one performance at Edinburgh's Pleasance Theatre when he went for a walk up a large hill — Arthur's Seat — and froze from exposure. He had to be rescued by firemen.

A performance was later broadcast on BBC Radio 2 as a six episode serial.Around this time there was an explosion of nostalgic list shows on British television themed around decades past: I Love the 1980s and I Love the 1990s etc. Quantick was in his element (as was Maconie) scraping the pith from cultural icons and ephemera.

In 2003 and 2005 Quantick contributed material to sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Sound.

Throughout, Quantick worked on biographies of musicians and comedians (The Clash, Beck, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks).

Quantick continues to write, and co-presents a weekly program One Way Single Parent Family Favourites on art radio station Resonance FM. He is also part of the writing team of Harry Hill's TV Burp.

Bibliography

Grumpy Old Men on Holiday — (HarperCollins Entertainment) — Hardcover — May 16 2005 — ISBN 0007201850
Grumpy Old Men — (HarperCollins Entertainment) — Hardcover — May 31 2004 — ISBN 0007189931
Revolution: making of the Beatles White Album (The Vinyl Frontier) — (MQ Publications Ltd) — Paperback — June 30 2002 — ISBN 1903318556
Lenny Bruce (The Cutting Edge) ~David Quantick (Editor) — MQ Publications Ltd — Paperback — November 30 2001 — ISBN 1903318300
Chris Rock (The Cutting Edge) ~David Quantick (Editor) — MQ Publications Ltd — Paperback — November 30, 2001 — ISBN 1903318297
Richard Pryor (The Cutting Edge) ~David Quantick (Editor) — MQ Publications Ltd — Paperback — November 30, 2001 — ISBN 1903318289
Bill Hicks (The Cutting Edge) ~David Quantick (Editor) — MQ Publications Ltd — Paperback — November 30, 2001 — ISBN 1903318270
Beck (Kill Your Idols Series) (Thunder's Mouth Press) — Paperback — January 1 2001 — ISBN 1560253029
The Clash (Kill Your Idols) — with John Aizlewood (Editor) (Thunder's Mouth Press) — Paperback — October 1 2000 — ISBN 1560252693
Dress to Kill (Kill Your Idols) (Virgin Books) — Paperback — June 9 2000 — ISBN 0753504790

Further reading

*Collins, Maconie and Quantick — Some of the Corpses Are Amusing (SOTCAA) — A detailed history of the three men's work to 2001.

External links

*Direct link to Junkies (pilot episode) in Real Video
*Junkies Archive at Cookd and Bombd — archive of the series in DivX format.
*Collins & Maconie's Hit Parade Audio — SOTCAA — Real Audio clips from the radio series.
*SOTCAA article 'Collins, Maconie and Quantick
*Scroll down to Collins and Maconies' Hit Parade clip — Radio Zone
*David Quantick — Amanda Howard Associates (Quantick's Agency) — Quantick's entry at his agency's website
*Resonance FM