33⅓ (Thirty-Three and a Third) is a series of books written about music albums, featuring one author per album. Published by Bloomsbury Publishing, the series is edited by David Barker. The series title refers to the speed (33⅓ revolutions per minute) of an LP album.

Published titles[link]

As of June 2012, 86 books have been published.

[*] Intentionally mis-numbered

Forthcoming titles[link]

• Exile in Guyville, by Gina Arnold, on the album by Liz Phair (1993)
• The Dreaming, by Ann Powers, on the album by Kate Bush (1982)
• Boys for Pele, by Elizabeth Merrick, on the album by Tori Amos (1996)
• Maggot Brain, by Matt Rogers, on the album by Funkadelic (1971)
• London Calling, by Tommy Tompkins, on the album by The Clash (1979)
• Lucinda Williams, by Anders Smith Lindall, on the album by Lucinda Williams (1988)

External links[link]

• Official blog for the series
• TimesOnline on the book series.
• PopMatters on the book series.

Ted Chippington (real name Francis Smyth; born February 1962, Stoke-on-Trent, England) is a British stand-up comedian. His act is one in which the conventions of his chosen craft are routinely flouted. Assuming a diffident on-stage persona (in contrast to the self-confident aura of most comics) and delivering his material in a West Midlands monotone, he eschews observational comedy in favour of anti-humour and jokes which are mostly variations on the same theme, interspersed with his own versions of well-known songs performed in a similarly listless style. This approach has left many audiences bemused or even hostile (his expertise at dealing with hecklers comes from frequent practice).

His deadpan style has won him a small but devoted number of followers. Probably his most notable fan is Stewart Lee, who has often cited Chippington as the reason he started doing stand-up comedy himself, and has described Chippington's act as being "a mixture of surrealism and insolent provocation and uncompromising boredom".^[1] Another admirer, Richard Herring, talks of Chippington's "contempt for the very idea of jokes".^[2] For his part Chippington - who describes his own act as being influenced by Lenny Bruce and Owd Grandad Piggott ^[3] - says he is an "anti-comedian" and that he only started doing his act "to annoy people". He has even claimed that his main reason for retiring from the stage in the 1990s was that he was becoming too popular.

Early years[link]

Chippington started performing in 1981 under the name "Eddie Chippington" before changing to Ted "due to maturity and baldness". He first came to national prominence when a gig he had performed in Birmingham in 1984 supporting The Fall (his favourite band) was released by local record label Vindaloo on a 7" EP entitled Non Stop Party Hits of the 50s 60s and 70s. The EP title refers to his penchant for performing his own versions of classic hits, including on this occasion his rendering of Ottawan's "D.I.S.C.O.". The record was played by John Peel on his BBC Radio One programme - a rare occurrence for a comedian.

In 1986 he released an album, Man in a Suitcase - a collection of live recordings plus some more songs, included his versions of "She Loves You" and Alvin Stardust's "I Feel Like Buddy Holly" - which reached the Top 10 indie album chart. "She Loves You" received wider exposure after Steve Wright repeatedly played it on his Radio 1 show, which in turn led to the track being released as a single by Warner Brothers. It narrowly failed to make the Top 75 but Chippington claims that the deal with Warners earned him "£1,000 and a nice curry".^[4]

Despite its failure to crack the charts, "She Loves You" raised Chippington's profile considerably and led to numerous media appearances, including a turn on the BBC's lunchtime magazine show Pebble Mill at One, the latter fulfilling a lifelong ambition.

Chippington also fielded interviews with the New Musical Express, Birmingham's BRMB (where he managed to thoroughly baffle his interviewer) and, bizarrely, the colour supplement of The Mail on Sunday. He also performed at the Glastonbury and Reading festivals.

Chippington once again came close to mainstream UK singles chart success with a recording of his theme tune "Rockin' with Rita (Head To Toe)" which he performed with his fellow Vindaloo artists The Nightingales and We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It. A further single followed with his reading of Dion's "The Wanderer", in which the boastfulness of the original lyrics was turned on its head: "I'm not the wanderer, I'm not the wanderer...not too keen on roaming around and around and around".

In spite of all this, Chippington's ruthless disregard for the conventions of stand-up made him a perennial outcast from the 1980s comedy scene. At a time when the alternative comedy boom was at its peak, Chippington - who once claimed his favourite comedian was Bernard Manning ^[5] - struggled to break through to a wider audience.

Retirement[link]

In 1990, feeling overwhelmed by the media attention, Chippington retired from show business to pursue a career in truck-driving in the US. This ended ignominiously when his lorry shed its load on the Pacific Coast Highway. After this he tried his hand as a cook in various restaurants in Mexico, before returning to the UK, getting married and settling in Torquay.

Return to performing[link]

In 2006 he started performing again. He now styles himself "The Reverend Ted Chippington" and has ditched his old Teddy Boy stage outfit in favour of a vicar's dog-collar. He has also changed much of his material.

In 2007 a CD boxset of Chippington's earlier work, entitled Walking Down The Road, was released on Robert Lloyd's Big Print label. A tribute to Chippington entitled "Tedstock", featuring Stewart Lee, Richard Herring and numerous other stand-up comedians, was held at London's Bloomsbury Theatre in order to fund this release.^[6] This event led to a new flurry of media appearances for Chippington, including articles in national newspapers ^[7][8] and television and radio appearances.^[4][9]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• Man in a Suitcase (1986) Vindaloo (UK indie #5)^[10]
• The Real Truth About Trucking (1988) Sincere
• Walking Down The Road (box set) (2007) Big Print

Singles[link]

• Non-Stop Party Hits of the 50's, 60's & 70's EP (1985) Vindaloo
• "She Loves You" (1986) Vindaloo (UK #77)^[11]
• "Rockin' With Rita (Head to Toe)" (1986) Vindaloo (as part of The Vindaloo Summer Special) (UK #56)^[12]
• "(I'm Not) The Wanderer" (1987) Vindaloo (UK Indie #28)^[10]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Article about Ted Chippington including some sound clips
• Ted's MySpace page

Amanda McBroom (born August 9, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter actress and cabaret performer. Notable among the songs she has written is "The Rose", which Bette Midler sang in the film of the same name, and which has been covered by many other recording artists. McBroom is also known for her collaborations as lyricist with songwriter Michele Brourman, including some of the songs in the The Land Before Time film series, Balto II: Wolf Quest, and the musical Dangerous Beauty based on the film of the same name, which was scheduled to have its world premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse in February 2011.

McBroom starred in the New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and European productions of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, and made her Broadway debut in the Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields musical Seesaw.^[1]

As an actress, McBroom has had guest-starring or recurring roles on such television series as Starsky and Hutch, Star Trek: The Next Generation ("The Measure of a Man"), Hart to Hart, Taxi, Charlie's Angels, Remington Steele, Hawaii Five-O, Magnum, P.I., M*A*S*H, Lou Grant, Love, American Style and Gunsmoke to her credit. She has also worked as a voice actress for children's cartoon shows, including Wildfire, The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang, Challenge of the GoBots, The Smurfs, Super Friends and The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show and Scrappy Too!

Personal life[link]

McBroom is the daughter of actor David Bruce, and went to high school in Mercedes, Texas, where she participated in many drama extracurricular activities.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

Notes

External links[link]

• McBroom's home-page
• Amanda McBroom at the Internet Movie Database
• Amanda McBroom on the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Amanda McBroom at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)

This article about a United States singer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e