While albums by Bowie and Beyoncé were two of the biggest surprises of 2013, Brent didn’t need to release a full-length collection to mark his return to the music scene last year. Instead it was one song, a re-recording of a track written with his former band Foregone Conclusion, which brought the part-time rep back into the lives of the public, via his favourite charity, Comic Relief. In a collaboration with protégé Dom Johnson that was “mega racial, but anti-racist”, ‘Equality Street’ was a melting pot of a song that delivered a message to the world and a message to Brent himself: We want more!
Following a series of online guitar lessons (including some of the classics caught on camera during the Wernham Hogg documentary), and in between selling dusters and tampons, David Brent announced a series of dates with Foregone Conclusion last year. They sold out in seconds. A support slot with Coldplay and rumours of Glastonbury later, the band are back with two dates in Oxford and two in London. (It’s worth pointing out that it’s a Guns N’ Roses style set-up, with none of the original members performing due to them being “too old”, despite Brent being “40s”. There is a family tie, however, as founder and guitarist Craig “Mammogram” Monkford – currently serving time for sexual assault – is replaced by his nephew Stuart, who receives a round of applause for not following in the footsteps of his uncle, yet.)
Ploughing through their back catalogue, Brent’s quick to inform the audience that this is a rock show. ‘Ooh La La’ opens, welcoming sing-a-longs and handclaps, followed by ‘Thank Fuck It’s Friday’ (“Take children outside… only if they’re your own!”) and ‘Life On The Road’, which showcases how his songwriting is influenced by his idols, including Des’ree and Dolly Parton. Unafraid of obvious rhymes (“Then to Gloucester, I get a Costa. Hard shoulder? Coffee holder”) and cheesy lines (“At the end of the road is a golden gate, it let in love it don’t let in hate, no” from ‘Equality Street’) he’s a man who sings what he sees, just as he said it during the documentary. Introduced as the Sammy Davis to his Frank Sinatra and the Jay-Z to his Chris Martin (“I’ve got one too”), Dom Johnson joins his manager onstage for their Comic Relief track, as well as the Americana flavoured ‘Lonely Cowboy’ and ‘Ain’t No Trouble’, where the Brentmeister general imitates an old Rastafarian, much to Johnson’s disgust.
It’s the slower songs that steal the show, however, including a tribute to his beloved Slough (“And you know just where you’re heading, it’s equidistant ‘tween London and Reading”) and a ballad about the night he lost his virginity to a lady gypsy, called ‘Lady Gypsy’ (“She laid me down on a bed of heather, she said, “Please be careful – this is what I sell.” / I said, “You’re a hooker?”, she said “No, I mean the heather. I sell the heather like a lucky spell.”). While his cover of ‘If You Don’t Know Me By Now’ (recorded following his payout from Wernham Hogg on his own label, Juxtaposition Records) and ‘The Serpent Who Guards The Gates Of Hell’ are sadly missing from the set, the evening’s brought to a fitting close with ‘Freelove Freeway’.
It might be decades after he dreamt he’d make it, and it might be costing him more than he’s making (the band are expensive, he tells us, and never like to drink with him) but David Brent finally has an audience for the rock and roll star viewers of the documentary knew were hiding behind the suit. But Texas – who once supported Forgone Conclusion – couldn’t rep in the day and gig at night… Or maybe that’s what they have been doing since their demise from the charts, and we have them to thank for spurring Brent on.
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Dan Bull
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