Noel Fielding

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Noel Fielding
Noel Fielding in 2006
Noel Fielding in 2006
Born May 21, 1973 (1973-05-21) (age 35)
Westminster, London
England
Medium Stand-up, television, radio
Nationality English
Years active 1997 – Present
Notable works and roles Vince Noir
in The Mighty Boosh Richmond
in The IT Crowd

Noel Fielding (born 21 May 1973 in Westminster, London) is an English artist, comedian and actor. He is also known for his role as Vince Noir in The Mighty Boosh, which he also co-writes. He has recently won sexiest male of the year at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2008.

Contents

Career

The Mighty Boosh

Main article: The Mighty Boosh

Fielding is best known for playing the role of Vince Noir opposite Julian Barratt (Howard Moon) and his brother Michael Fielding (Naboo) in the cult comedy series The Mighty Boosh. Fielding met Julian Barratt, the other half to his comedian act in The Mighty Boosh, when Julian was performing a gig - and Julian offered Noel a place to perform. Julian was impressed by Noel's skill (especially the joke about back to front rams legs which repeated about 100 times), and the two formed a partnership. They often compare their relationship to a marriage.

His character as well as gay icon and would-be musician ("Vince Noir - rock 'n' roll star!" or, "King of the mods") is a kind, somewhat naive and loyal friend to Howard Moon. He can talk to animals, earning him the nickname "Mowgli in Flares". Vince has a 'run-between-the-train tracks' quality about him, giving him the ability to land on his head in the most easy of situations. He is largely popular with most of the other characters (and comically, almost all of the characters played by Rich Fulcher), much to the annoyance of Howard.

Fielding trained as a visual artist and is responsible for much of Boosh's distinctive sets and characters, including the polo theme that occurs in many episodes (e.g. The Hitcher's eye, the background of the main titles, the Ape of Death's costume).

Vince has a very feminine aspect to his attire, often being confused as Howard Moon's "wife" by supporting characters. This is due to his androgynous dress sense, which commonly includes lots of different coloured/print skinnies, boots with heels, a mirror-ball suit, faux-fur leopard skin jackets, sparkly accessories or clothes from high-street store Topshop.

Other

Outside of his work on The Mighty Boosh, Fielding has also had bit parts in many of Channel 4's somewhat off beat comedy programmes, including Nathan Barley, The IT Crowd, AD/BC: A Rock Opera and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, more often than not appearing alongside Mighty Boosh partner Julian Barratt. He also appeared in 1998 sketch show Unnatural Acts. In February 2007, Fielding appeared on Never Mind the Buzzcocks as a panelist. Fielding has also made a short appearance in the film Plunkett & Macleane as a bystander to Robert Carlyle's scuffle in a brothel.

He replaced Bill Bailey as team captain for three episodes in the Season 21 of Never Mind The Buzzcocks at Bill's request. Noel also achieved a record for the highest team score ever on the show. When Bill returned Presenter Simon Amstell made various jokes about Noel's departure. According to Neil Gaiman's blog, Fielding was scheduled to appear in the film Stardust, but had to drop out due to ill health[1].

Radio

Fielding starred in the 2001 Mighty Boosh radio series as Vince Noir, and other characters. It was broadcast on BBC London Live. He also appeared on The Russell Brand Show on BBC Radio 2 on 26 May 2007 and 13 October 2007, and Team Disgusting's show on Life fm as a co-host for one episode along with fellow members of Team Disgusting Melvis and Birdy.

In November 2007 a new series began on BBC Radio 2, Vic Reeves' House Arrest. Fielding stars in all six episodes as a local vagrant who knocks on Reeves' door once a week to ask for work.[2] His character is often given seemingly pointless tasks, such as building a galleon out of sausages, and is paid in small change.

Music

Fielding has appeared in several music videos, including Mint Royale's "Blue Song", alongside Julian Barratt and Nick Frost and Razorlight's "In the Morning". He also appeared in the music video for the Robots In Disguise song, Girl, alongside Chris Corner who is boyfriend to Sue Denim. Fielding is friends with the members of Razorlight, and involved them in the "The Priest and the Beast" episode of The Mighty Boosh. Fielding also appeared at one of their concerts, dressed as The Mighty Boosh character, The Hitcher, to introduce the band; This was not well received and he was heckled by several members of the audience. Noel has since decided that his request to appear ahead of the show was a mistake "I don't know what I was thinking, there were all these teenage girls excited to see Razorlight and there's this ponce dressed in green dancing round the stage like a plum, they didn't know what to make of it".[3] Fielding lent his voice to the Midfield General song "Midfielding". Fielding also sometimes slaps bass for IAMX. He has also been known to DJ, often playing at The Barfly in London with the rest of The Mighty Boosh or with his DJ collective known as Team Disgusting along with six girls and the Rev from Towers of London.

Goth Detectives

In December 2006, Fielding appeared alongside Russell Brand in the yearly panel show The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, hosted by Jimmy Carr. The pair won with 39 points thanks to the 22 points they got for one question (a joke that Carr offered, assuming that they would not know). Due to much joking on the show, involving Bob Skeleton ("Indie Detective"), which led to Fielding and Brand describing a fictional scenario in which they were "Goth Detectives", this led to the decision to perform a Goth Detectives themed show for the Teenage Cancer Trust event at the Royal Albert Hall on 28 March 2007.

On a broadcast of Russell Brand's Radio 2 show, the pair admitted that they were going to appear in the 2007 version of the Big Fat Quiz of the Year in a bid to defend their title. However, this year, they placed last and were not awarded a large amount of points like they were the previous year.

Art

Fielding was training at art college before going into comedy. He returned to art and had his first exhibition, titled Psychedelic Dreams of the Jelly Fox at the Gallery Maison Bertaux in Soho, London in 2008. The exhibition runs to early April. He has claimed that he gets inspiration from Henri Rousseau, Rene Magritte, Willem de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein and Dexter Dalwood.

Personal life

Fielding currently resides in Camden, London with his long-term girlfriend, Robots In Disguise's Dee Plume. Fielding's parents are named Diane and Ray Fielding. His brother is Michael Fielding, who appears as Naboo on The Mighty Boosh. He also revealed on Russell Brand's radio show (13 October 2007) that he has a French grandmother. He was educated at Croydon Art College and Buckingham Chilterns University College.[4]

In recent years he has become something of a regular on the London celebrity social scene, often photographed out and about at gigs, clubs, pubs and events with various celebrity friends: his Mighty Boosh co-stars, actor Rhys Ifans, members of Razorlight, The Horrors, Robots In Disguise, IAMX, Kasabian, Dirty Pretty Things, and Courtney Love.

Fielding has stated that he has no middle name, was never baptised and does not follow a religion.[5] He has a penchant for celebrity clothing, wearing Johnny Depp's hat and Freddie Mercury's coat during the filming of The Mighty Boosh.

He was also given the awards for Sexiest Man and Best Dressed at the NME Awards 2008, and was nominated for Hero Of The Year but lost out to Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty.

Filmography

Acting roles

Television appearances

  • Episode 2x02 (2007)
  • 21x02-21x04 (2007) Team Captain
  • Episode 20x02 (2007)
  • Episode 11x10 (2006)
  • interview (2006)
  • TRL (2006)
  • Alan Partridge Presents: The Cream of British Comedy (2005)
  • BBC Breakfast
  • Episode 1x04 (2000)
  • Comedy Café (1999)
  • Episode 1x07
  • Gas (1997)

Awards

External links

References

  1. ^ Neil Gaiman - Neil Gaiman's Journal: Stardust news
  2. ^ BBC - Radio 2 Comedy - Vic Reeves' House Arrest
  3. ^ Noel Fielding interviews Gary Numan for the Times Podcast (2006)
  4. ^ Jones, Sam (2007-12-14). He's a Mick Jagger of comedy ... sweet but unbelievably mischievous and naughty, like a very cheeky puppy (English). The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-12-14.
  5. ^ Life FM – Team Disgusting Show 1 June 2007
v • d • e
The Mighty Boosh
Julian Barratt · Noel Fielding
Dave Brown · Michael Fielding · Rich Fulcher
Main characters
TV series
1 · 2 · 3
Radio series
Stage productions
Related articles
The Mighty Boosh Official Website
v • d • e
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
List of episodes · List of Identity Parade guests
Presenters
Simon Amstell (2006 – present) · Mark Lamarr (1996 – 2005)
Jonathan Ross · Ricky Wilson · Lauren Laverne · Jeremy Clarkson · Huey Morgan · Dale Winton (Guest presenters, 2006)
Team captains
Phill Jupitus · Bill Bailey (2002 – present) · Sean Hughes (1996 – 2002) · Noel Fielding (Guest captain, 2007)