Jupitus: I almost quit Buzzcocks

Phill unhappy with host Amstell

Phill Jupitus has revealed that he almost quit Never Mind The Buzzcocks because he thought host Simon Amstell was too bitchy.

The 48-year-old has been a team captain on the show since it started 14 years ago, but said he was unhappy when Amstell replaced original host Mark Lamarr.

In a new book, Jupitus writes: ‘It struck me with Simon that people were being booked especially to have the piss taken out of them in a very overt fashion.

‘Mark didn't book people to rag on them, it was just in the flow of the show that people suddenly went a bit weird and Mark could turn on them.

‘It became something else with Simon and started to get a bit wearing.’

However, Amstell left the show last year and Jupitus will be back for the new series next month, when it returns with a series of guest hosts.

Jupitus’s new book –Good Morning Nantwich: Adventures in Breakfast Radio – is largely about his time with BBC6 Music, which he quit following a bust-up with controller Lesley Douglas over the playlist.

He says that quitting stand-up to do the breakfast show was 'the biggest mistake of the whole endeavour'.

He added: 'I could do gigs and tour really easily but I'd need six months of doing clubs to build the act up again. Standup is a young man's game. There are some remarkable acts out there, people are doing the O2 Arena. It has moved on. I haven't.'

The book has just been published by HarperCollins. Click here to order it.

Published: 9 Aug 2010

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