Jasper Carrott

b. Robert Davies, 14 March 1945, Birmingham, England. Comedian Carrott has long been a fixture of British television in shows including Canned Carrott for the BBC. However, his grounding in live entertainment came on the Midlands folk circuit, and many of his comic sketches involved the prop of an acoustic guitar. A brief flirtation with pop stardom came when he enjoyed an unlikely UK number 5 chart hit in August 1975 with ‘Funky Moped’ - a eulogy to his former choice of transport. Those bemused by its success included the BBC, though in truth its appeal lay principally in the b-side, ‘Magic Roundabout’. This coarse but excruciatingly funny satire of the popular children’s television show of the period was what truly lay behind the single’s unlikely sales profile. ‘Funky Moped’ has been Carrott’s only foray into the charts so far, though his comedy albums, released throughout the 70s and 80s, before video became the dominant medium for comics, also sold well.
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