I had a work leaving do in 1999 and dragged a load of work colleagues with me to see him at Ronnie Scott’s in Birmingham. I think I’d seen him on the Sunday Show. No one else who came along had heard of him. He came on stage with his arm in a sling, a black eye and looking like he’d had the shit beaten out of him. He was fucking brilliant though and we were all dying laughing. I’ve never seem him do stand up since, but the in couple of DVDs I saw it seemed he was doing the same set for another 5 years or so.
Phoenix Nights was absolute class. I was at a gig a few weeks ago here in Cleveland, Ohio. When the woman behind the bar heard my accent, she had me down as a Manc immediately. Turned out she’s a huge fan of Phoenix Nights and spent the rest of the night quoting passages of it to me and slinging me the odd free drink ;)