Graham Fellows to play Wolverhampton
He was a part-time punk who wanted to become an actor. Graham Fellows was intent on a career in the theatre or on TV when he took up a place as a drama student at Manchester Polytechnic.
Punk was in vogue and so Graham was inspired to write a song – Gordon Is A Moron – under the nom de plume Jilted John. He didn’t imagine it would go much further than the poly canteen. How wrong he was.
“It was a series of happy accidents and the result of my naivete. I wrote the song in the canteen of my drama school. Someone showed me how to tune the guitar to an open chord to create that distinctive riff. Then I did a few demos, including one with the guy who was called the moron, Bernard. He was tapping out the rhythm on a monopoly box while I was strumming on an electric guitar that wasn’t plugged in because we didn’t have an amp. I went to a record shop and literally walked from that to see these hippies who had a record label and were releasing stuff by the Buzzcocks. They put it on the machine, liked it and agreed to record it. I think the whole thing must have cost £200.”
Graham describes the night he recorded the song as being the best of his life. Fans agreed and from nowhere, he had a hit.
“It just snowballed. My fellow drama students loved it and went mad. I did a few gigs at that point and the next thing I knew we were doing Top of the Pops.”
An album followed, True Love Stories, in which Jilted John produced a musical diary of John’s tragic love life. But no tours followed, no gigs and not even a launch party – Graham Fellows was back at drama school continuing his studies. Graham went on to create John Shuttleworth and achieve his dream of becoming a famous figure on the theatre circuit including festival performances such as The Big Chill in 2008.
l Jilted John plays Wolverhampton’s Slade Rooms on October 12.
