Never Mind The Buzzcocks
Never Mind The Buzzcocks is a
comedy panel game show with a
pop and
rock music theme produced by
Talkback Thames for the
BBC and usually aired on
BBC Two. The title is a play on the
Sex Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks album along with the band "
Buzzcocks". The show is infamous for its dry, sarcastic humour and scathing, provocative attacks on the pop industry. Victims of host
Mark Lamarr's attacks include
James Blunt,
Robbie Williams,
Jonathan King,
Phil Collins,
Blue,
Courtney Love,
Peter Andre,
Tommy Scott from Liverpool band
Space,
Westlife,
Geri Halliwell,
Claire Sweeney,
Dido,
Sophie Ellis-Bextor and
Elton John. He also attacks
Patrick Kielty and
Jimmy Carr, although they are comedians, as well as Jimmy Carr actually having appeared on the show as a guest.
In the show, celebrities (usually comedians or musicians) are given tasks, such as guessing which song introduction their team mates are attempting to recreate (with no instruments or props) and guessing which of three implausible stories about a popular musician are true. The show has been running since
1996, presented, and produced since 2004, by
Mark Lamarr (excluding spring 2006: see below) and featuring regular team captains
Phill Jupitus,
Sean Hughes (until 2002) and
Bill Bailey (since 2002).
At the end of 2005, it was announced that Mark Lamarr is to take a break from the show after 150 episodes to concentrate on other projects. The first series in spring 2006 was hosted by guest presenters. Lamarr is set to return later in the year.
Rounds
The first round of the show has varied over the series. Some of the rounds featured are:
Connections, where each team must work out the unlikely connection between two musicians.
Sorry No Refunds, where each team must guess the real reason, out of three given, why a musical act cancelled a
gig.
Indecipherable Lyrics, where each team must work out the real lyrics to a song.
Band Names, a round where the teams are asked to give the origins of the name of a musical act.
Freeze Frame, where each team is shown a music video, and the action is paused half-way. It's up to the teams to guess what happens next. Examples include
Bruce Springsteen's video for "
Dancing In The Dark" when he plucked an unknown
Courteney Cox from the audience and the
AC/DC video "Big Gun" where school uniform-wearing guitarist
Angus Young kicks a cap into the air which is picked up by
Arnold Schwarzenegger whose clothing turns into that of Young's and he takes on the guitar solo.
Word Up, where each team is given a lesser-known word in a song and are asked what that word means. Examples include "Colitas" in
The Eagles song "
Hotel California" or "Beltane" in
T. Rex's "Ride a White Swan".
I Fought The Law, where each team is shown a pop act, and have to guess how they fell foul of the law out of three possible choices. When they have chosen their answer, they are told the actual answer, and for a bonus point, they have to guess who came out on top in the case. Examples include when
The Clash were arrested in
Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the 1970s for stealing pillowcases from a hotel, and
Shaun Ryder of the
Happy Mondays was arrested after crashing his car into a vicar's
Lada before driving off.
Inspector Rock, similar to "I Fought The Law", where each team has to decide how a certain object got an artist/band in trouble with the police. Examples included
Courtney Love and some plumbing, and
Marilyn Manson and his genitals.
Do You Know Who I Am?, a new round introduced in 2005, where the teams are shown a clip of a band, and they have to guess which of three possible answers was an outrageous backstage demand of said artists. Examples are
ZZ Top's livestock on their 1976 world tour, and
Janet Jackson insisting on new black toilet seats being installed wherever she tours.
The second round is the "Intros" round, where each team is given two or three songs, that two of the team must convey the intro (or in one case the instrumental section) of, by
humming, singing, etc, but without using lyrics or words, so their teammate can guess.
The third round is the "Identity Parade", where each team is given the name of a musician, and must spot him or her in a line-up of usually five individuals. Most of the time the individuals could plausibly be the musician named, but there have been some notable exceptions; for example, a semi-regular member of the line-up is a black man, called "Athelston Williams" (gaining a credit at the end of an episode in 2000), who never seems to blink or show facial expression. He is present regardless of the appearance of the hidden musician. He was once included in a lineup for
The Nolan Sisters. On another occasion, Jupitus walked up to him, fell to his knees and demanded "What do you want from us?". One week, when he wasn't available, an Athelston lookalike was brought in. He is a regular in the latest series with guest presenters as the drummer in the pub band in the ending sketches, again he does not move at all.Another semi-regular during 2004 was a man dressed as a pirate holding a sword up, who in his first appearance was forced to drop his sword when Lamarr and all of Phil's team walked out and stared him down until he dropped it. His repeat appearances in the show sometimes resulted in all of the line-up (except the artist themselves) appearing dressed up in pirate clothing, including Athelston on one occasion.
The final round is "Next Lines" round, where each team is given a lyric from a song, and must give the following lyric. Each team must attempt to give as many following lyrics as they can within a time limit. A regular feature of this round is a guest musician on either team being given lyrics from their own songs (and not answering correctly - victims include members of
Steps and
Atomic Kitten).
Since the first series of 2005, Mark Lamarr introduced a new segment after the quiz has ended, where Lamarr tells the audience punchlines which weren't used during the show. Often these have included incongrous references to fingerless gloves.
List of guest hosts
*
Jonathan Ross (13 March 2006)
*
Simon Amstell (20 March 2006)
*
Ricky Wilson (27 March 2006)
*
Lauren Laverne (3 April 2006)
*
Jeremy Clarkson (10 April 2006)
*
Huey Morgan (17 April 2006)
*
Dale Winton (24 April 2006)
(Dates shown are first broadcast on BBC2).International versions
In 2002, an American version of the show hosted by comedian Marc Maron lasted for a month. Three years prior, Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa hosted a similarly-formatted show for USA network in the US called Happy Hour. An Australian show, Spicks and Specks, which is also presented in a similar format, has broadcasted on the ABC from 2005.Book
In 1999, BBC Worldwide published "Never Mind The Buzzcocks: The Book, The CD, The Brief Intense Rush (followed by a feeling of paranoia and insecurity)". The book includes famous moments from the first five series of the show, from selected Identity Parades and Connections rounds, along with collections of Mark Lamarr's one-liners from the show, and some new material written especially for the book. The CD is an Intros round game that you can play at home.Board game
In 2000, Paul Lamond Games released the "Never Mind The Buzzcocks" board game, licensed from the BBC and Talkback. The board game is played as follows: the players arrange themselves into two teams. They have two counters each on the board - one as a point marker along the edge of the board and the other to select the round they have to play on the roll of a dice. There are six rounds that can be played:
*"In The Style Of...", where the team leader has to sing a song in the style of somebody else, for example, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in the style of Mick Jagger or "Start Me Up" in the style of Jeremy Clarkson.
*When I Was Famous", where the team leader asks a trivia question, and the other team members have to guess the answer.
*"Intros round", the only surviving round from the TV show. Each team gets one intro per round.
*"Vital Vinyl", where the team leader asks a trivia question about a song or an album, and anyone from either team can answer.
*"Songs In One Sentence", where the team leader divides their team into two, and one section of the team has to describe a song without mentioning the song title or any lyrics in the song, and the other section has to guess what the song is.
*"Your Number's Up", where the team leader reads the category on the card to the opposite team, for example, name four songs that mention American states in their titles, for which you might answer "Massachusetts" (The Bee Gees), "Hotel California" (The Eagles), "Englishman In New York" (Sting) and "Sweet Home Alabama" (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
The teams earn the number of points given for the round on the card. For "In The Style Of...", it is always one point for the song, and two points for the artist they are doing the song in the style of. At the end of their turn, the team moves their counter on the outer ring clockwise the number of points they scored.
The team that overtakes the other on the squares on the edge of the board wins the game.*UK Gameshows Page: Never Mind the Buzzcocks
*BBC News (14/11/2005): Buzzcocks to get guest presenters
*Complete Episode Guide
