Wavis O` Shave

Wavis O'Shave is a surreal English musician and comedian who regularly appeared on Channel 4's music show THE TUBE (1982-1987)(9) with his many original comedy characterisations including the cult figure 'The Hard' and who recorded the cult hit album of 1980 - 'Anna Ford's Bum', named after the ITN newsreader Anna Ford.(1,10,11,12) Another of O'Shave's tracks 'Mauve shoes are awful' has been included on the Stateside Hyped2death compilation 'Messthetics no 4' (2). A relatively recent appraisal of Wavis' days on THE TUBE was recounted by Andrew Collins '"What other music show would give copious airtime to local comic Wavis O'Shave and his alter ego, a surreal geordie psychopath called 'the Hard'? ("I felt...nowt [nothing] !")(3) Original co-founder and Editor of the VIZ Comic, Chris Donald, recounts in his autobiography 'Rude Kids' .."A new Anti-Pop album called 'Anna Ford's Bum' was causing a bigger stir on both radio and in the music press. None of his fans knew what he looked like. Wavis would become better known in later years as 'The Hard', a bizarre character who made brief appearances on The Tube hitting his hand with a hammer and saying 'I felt nowt!"(4)Following 'Anna Ford's Bum', Wavis recorded a second album entitled 'Texican Raveloni' under the name Foffo Spearjig from which came the single 'Tie your laces tight' backed with 'You won't catch me on the 503.'Wavis' last tv appearance was on the Granada TV show 'Stars In Their Eyes' performing Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel's 'Make me smile (Come up and see me)' in 1994 (5) and in 2004 he recorded a cd single 'Katie Derham's Bum' in adoration of ITN newsreader Katie Derham.(6)

References

*(1) Gazette, South Tyneside "Cheeky Anna song made me famous' Nov 24th 2003 pages 12-13
*(2) http://www.hyped2death.com/ MESSTHETICS UK 1978-82
*(3) 'WORD' issue 49 July 2005 page 134 'Newcastle-upon-a-time' THE TUBE by Andrew Collins
*(4 & 5) citebook|title=Rude Kids: The unfeasible story of VIZ|author= Chris Donald |publisher=HarperCollins|year= 2004| pages =34, 70-71|id=ISBN 0007190964
*(6) NOW Celebrity magazine 1st September 2004 page 68
*(8) Sunday People Dec 16th 1979 http://homepage.ntlworld.com/t.welbourn/Wavis%20O'Shave.html
*(9) Daily Telegraph THE TUBE DVD REVIEW; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtmlxml=/arts/2005/05/28/chunks/bfdvds28_page_2.xml-44k
*(10) 'ROCK BOTTOM - The Book of Pop Atrocities by Muck Raker, Proteus Books 1981 pages 11-12
*(11) International Discography of the New Wave Volume 1982/83 (Defoe) Omnibus Press page 297
*(12)'INDIE HITS 1980-1989' compiled by Barry Lazell Cherry Red Books 1997 page 167
*(13)FAMOUS GEORDIES http://www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/g/ge/geordie.html

External links

*Wavis currently resides at Falling A Records [http://www.dynamitevision.com/inc/sdetail/1165]
*Myspace link; [http://www.myspace.com/wavisoshave]