Three Men in a Bow Tie has never really lived up to its name because we have rarely been three men in a bow tie.
The trio started out in 1993 doing annual Christmas concerts at Shrewsbury School. The original line up was BBC radio producer and broadcaster Chris Eldon Lee, diary farmer Martin “Monologue” Jones, Shrewsbury School’s Director of Music John Moore and satirist and songwriter Fred Phipps.
With the aid of a Lottery Grant the foursome started touring Shropshire village halls in the autumn of 1996. In February 1999 the group featured largely in a BBC 2 TV special about the state of farming. In fact we were the only funny thing in the whole programme.
In September 1999 Fred retired from regular performing but was soon replaced by the infamous agricultural stand-up starlet Freda Brace-cock, who has warmed many a farmhand’s heart on a cold and stormy night. This was the line-up that did a two-week run at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We won a Four Star review, managed to break even and were booked for tour of leafy Cheshire.
In 2004 (in order to comply with European Equal Opportunities Legislation) the very blonde BBC bombshell Nonny James joined the group. So now we never know who will be playing the piano. Nonny soon became very popular on tour, especially in Lancashire where they don’t see many real blondes.
We are now touring regularly and have played venues from Sussex to Scotland. Bearing in mind our background, we seem to go down especially well with rural audiences. |
