Chris Sievey

Frank, usually dressed in a 1950s-style sharp suit, was portrayed as an aspiring pop star from the small village of Timperley, near Altrincham.

His character was cheerfully optimistic, enthusiastic, and seemingly oblivious to his own failings.

Although supposedly 35 years old (the age always attributed to Frank irrespective of the passage of time), he still lived at home with his mother, to whom he made frequent references.

His mother was apparently unaware of her son's popularity.

Frank sometimes had a sidekick in the form of "Little Frank", a hand puppet who was otherwise a perfect copy of Frank.

Comedy character Mrs Merton started out as Frank's sidekick on his radio show Radio Timperley, and the similarity of the characters is evident, exuding a sense of great ambition which belies a domestic lifestyle in the North of England.

Sidebottom's former Oh Blimey Big Band members include Mark Radcliffe and Jon Ronson, and his driver was Chris Evans.

Immediately after creating the character, Sievey would record an in-character cover 'Material Boy ', and send it to several major labels with the note I'm thinking of getting into showbiz.

Do you have any pamphlets?''" EMI were interested and offered him an interview. Chris appeared in character as Frank, and was signed to their sub-label Regal Zonophone.

Christopher Mark Sievey (25 August 1955 – 21 June 2010) was an English musician, comedian and artist known for fronting the band the Freshies in the late 1970s and early 1980s and for his comic persona Frank Sidebottom from 1984 onwards.

In 1969, when he was 14, Sievey began writing and recording his own music, and by the age of 15 was playing in local bands.

In 1971, he hitch-hiked to London with his brother, staging a sit-in at the Apple Records HQ, demanding to see one of The Beatles.

When they were asked to leave they insisted on recording something, and were booked into the studio after playing a song to head of A&R Tony King.

Sievey subsequently recorded several demos, which he sent to record companies, receiving many rejection letters which he later compiled into a book.

Unable to get a deal, he set up his own Razz label in 1974.

Sievey released two cassettes under his own name in 1975 and 1976 – Girl in My Blue Jeans and All Sleeps Secrets.

In 1977 Sievey formed the Freshies, with various other musicians involved including Martin Jackson, Billy Duffy and former Nosebleeds bassist Rick Sarko.

A string of singles and several cassettes were released between 1978 and 1983.

Most of these were credited to the Freshies, but were occasionally listed as Chris Sievey & the Freshies.

Sievey, under the guise of Sidebottom, made regular appearances on North West television throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, even becoming a reporter for Granada Reports.

Later, he presented Frank Sidebottom's Proper Telly Show in B/W for the Manchester-based television station Channel M.

Throughout his career, Sidebottom made appearances on radio stations such as Manchester's Piccadilly Radio and on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 5, alongside Mark and Lard.

Sievey grew up in Ashton-on-Mersey, Sale, Cheshire (2.5 miles from Timperley).

In 1981, Sievey played on "Some Boys" by Going Red?, the band formed by former Jilted John star Graham Fellows.

The Freshies biggest UK hit was "I'm in Love with the Girl on the Manchester Virgin Megastore Checkout Desk", released initially on his own Razz label (RAZZ 10), it was reissued by the US giant MCA Records with a slightly different title ("I'm in Love with the Girl on a Certain Manchester Megastore Checkout Desk") as there were objections about using the Virgin brand name.

The record peaked at No 54.

They had regional success in the Manchester area with "My Tape's Gone", "No Money" / "Oh Girl" and "Yellow Spot".

Radio 1, and in particular Mike Read, gave the Freshies a lot of airplay, especially the MCA release.

After the "success" of "I'm in Love with the Girl on the Manchester Virgin Megastore Checkout Desk", the group released further singles, "Wrap Up the Rockets" and "I Can't Get 'Bouncing Babies' by the Teardrop Explodes", and although commercially successful in the Manchester area, they failed to make the national charts.

They released two further cassettes, Manchester Plays the Freshies and London Plays the Freshies; these were both essentially radio interviews with local and national DJs and concert recordings from each city.

Sievey had written his first LP by this stage, The Johnny Radar Story, which, owing to contractual complications, was never released on vinyl.

There are master copies on cassette in circulation though (albeit very few).

In February 1982, Sievey abandoned the quartet lineup of the Freshies, and reformed it as a duo with Barbara O'Donovan.

The duo version of the Freshies released one single, "Fasten Your Seat Belts".

In 1982, he released the mini-album Denigration Now, his first work outside the Freshies since 1976's All Sleeps Secrets.

The following year he had a solo release, "Camouflage", with the A-side a song, and the B-side being computer programming.

The Frank Sidebottom character first appeared on an untitled 1984 EP by Chris Sievey & the Freshies, in a spoken-word track wherein Frank talks to Sievey.

The character was instantly recognisable by his large spheroidal head, styled like an early Max Fleischer cartoon.

This was initially made from papier-mâché, but later of fibreglass.

In the documentary Being Frank, Martin Sievey (Chris's brother) states this was made using plaster of Paris.