Love Britpop? Then you'll love Marc Burrows' The Britpop Hour. That's essentially the pitch here. Music journalist and comedian Marc Burrows certainly loves a lot of it and is the perfect person to write a comedy show about the likes of Blur, Suede, Pulp and, of course Fringe devotees Oasis. The Britpop Hour will make you laugh your bucket hat off and will also get you singing your heart out.
It's essentially a cross between a love letter, a Ted Talk and a bit of rock star wish fulfilment, with Burrows whipping out his guitar, riffing away and dancing to a full house as if its him at Glasto 1995 and not Jarvis Cocker.
You can’t have a show about Britpop without a few controversial theories though. Burrows’ divisive opinion comes when he picks his holy trinity of Britpop icons. And they aren’t all who you’d expect.
Elsewhere he points out the utter lack of diversity in the movement, puts a gentle boot into some of the people he doesn’t admire and wonders if there will ever be anything like it again in an era when young people would rather be hunched over their phones than wearing Fred Perry shirts and listening to the wit and wisdom of Damon Albarn.
Kids, it seems, have moved on. His teenage stepson, for example, is as obsessed with anime as Burrows was with Pulp. Although, in a sweet subtext, ultimately Britpop does bring them together.
As I said, if you love Britpop you’ll love The Britpop Hour. It’s deftly contructed with clips and images peppering the patter. And if you don’t want to intellectualise about it there’s some fab music as well as sharp, funny lines.
If you are a bit older, well, comedian Andrew O’Neill is doing a show about the History of Punk at the Edinburgh Fringe this year too and there are also shows about The Police and Blondie among others.
I don’t know if comedy is the new rock and roll but at the Fringe this year it seems as if rock and roll is the new comedy.
Until August 25. Buy tickets here.
Picture by Alexis Dubus
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