Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Eventim Apollo

These two nights at the Hammersmith Apollo, tying in with the David Brent: Life On The Road movie, will do nothing to dispel the notion that Ricky Gervais is using his most famous creation to living out his thwarted rock-star dreams.

Backing band Foregone Conclusion are in darkness for the entire show; this is Gervais, the former Seona Dancing frontman, dominating the spotlight. And while Brent, as hygiene product sales rep is supposed to be a deluded failure, here Gervais plays it straight: rocking out to a sold-out 3,000 seater that his character, by rights, should never play, hoping that for those who have come for comedy, the ironically clunky lyrics speak for themselves.

Certainly, if you came for banter between the songs, there’s not much of that, the occasional trademark nervous laugh notwithstanding. But on the rare occasions he does give us something more, it raises the comedy quotient – especially when he complains, in true Spinal Tap style, about the stage design not being what he’d envisaged. He wanted his initials DB behind him in lights, but they’ve made them in lower case, the ‘db’ resembling ‘a stumpy pair of bollocks’.

With a No.3 album, as well as the film, Brent’s musical repertoire is becoming well-known. He’s got inappropriate numbers about gypsies, about black people (several times), the disabled (ditto), Native Americans, little orphans… a tick-box of minorities he stumbles into insulting through his clumsy attempt to show a political correctness that’s alien to him.

While this was genuinely innovative in The Office, but has lost some of its potency, now that way of speaking has not only entered common currency, but even been embraced by those Brent-types Gervais created the character to mock. Quarters of his audience seem more boorish than Brent could ever be. Swathes of people talked their way through excellent support act Joe Lycett, lit the auditorium up with their phones throughout and booed like a bullying lynch mob at Ewen MacIntosh introducing the act as his Office character Keith.

There are some gloriously tactless lyrics in this show, but his decade-old shtick of awkwardly depersonalising minority groups wears thin when it’s the basis of so many songs. More innovative are tracks that break that format, such as the mundane paean to Slough or the sub-Bowie Spaceman.

But often the songs overstay the lyrics. Sure, you can get away with repeating the same line over and over in a song; but is that an excuse to use it so often? In terms of comic value, it feels like padding in a set that’s only a smidgeon over the hour anyway.

Nonetheless, the gig holds up reasonably well musically; these could have been minor hits of the 1980s or 1990s, Brent hardly being cutting edge cool. Thank Fuck It’s Friday is a dependable pub-rock foot-stomper (and the biggest offender for endlessly repeating the same refrain). Life On The Road itself is genuinely catchy, and some of the reggae songs resemble UB40 knock-offs. Doc Brown/Ben Bailey Smith came along to rap along to these, to the delight of the audience, even if the sound mix lost some of the subtleties of his lyrics.

Gervais is virtually critic-proof these days, and relishes sneering at those who dare question his genius, having built up a hefty army of fans. He got a sizeable standing ovation tonight, it’d be remiss not to mention that, and the twitter response is generally euphoric.

But not everyone was happy. One chap who was such a fan he’d spent £250 on StubHub for a pair of back-of-the-stalls tickets, approached me, having spotted my notebook, to let me know just how awful he thought the show was.

Even paying face value, the show seemed middling, so his disappointment was certainly understandable.

SET LIST

Ooh La La
Life On The Road
Slough
Thank Fuck It’s Friday
Native American
Lady Gypsy
Please Don’t Make Fun Of The Disabled
Spaceman
Equality Street
Lonely Cowboy

AIn’t No Trouble

Don’t Cry It’s Christmas

ENCORE

Goodnight My Sweet Princess
Freelove Freeway

Review date: 9 Sep 2016
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett