John Dowie (humourist)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Dowie (born 1950 in Birmingham) is a British comedian, musician, and writer. He began performing stand-up comedy in 1969. In 1977, he had a top ten hit in the Netherlands with the song: British Tourist.
Dowie was among the inaugural acts on Tony Wilson's legendary Factory Records label. In 1978 Dowie contributed three comedic songs to the very first Factory music release, A Factory Sample, along with Joy Division, The Durutti Column, and Cabaret Voltaire. In 1981 a 7" single followed, the Martin Hannett-produced "It's Hard to be an Egg", which Dowie describes as a flop. It is noteworthy as having unusual packaging even by Factory standards: the disc is white vinyl with a "yolk" printed on the label, and is packaged in a clear plastic sleeve with a real white feather. Dowie's final Factory contribution was a VHS video entitled simply Dowie, a recording of a live performance at the Edinburgh fringe festival with Ralph Steadman cover art.
In 2005, Dowie collaborated with Phill Jupitus and Neil Innes on a musical comedy CD for children.
In 2006, Dowie recorded a remake of British Tourist, with the Dutch computer music group, the POW Ensemble for X-OR Records.
