Novelty albums are always great to have, and luckily, Comic Relief was pretty good at churning out some highly entertaining stuff (check out their Doctor Who story "The Curse Of Fatal Death", which is excellent all the way through), and this is no exception. Building on the popularity of The Young Ones, we are treated to those four lovable lads vastly improving a terribly boring Cliff Richard song. And yes, fans of the series, this is THE Cliff Richard whom Rik fantasises over, and provides the means to their eventual demise by obscuring a Cliff face (by a poster of... Cliff's face!) I must admit, I've never understood the appeal of Cliff Richard, and the man is in his late hundreds by now, so perhaps it's time to put him down. Luckily The Young Ones' absurdist humour is easy to condense into smelly bottom humour, it often went their itself, so this single was able to reach a broad audience, and make a fair amout of money for Oxfam and the Save the Children Fund. I feel guilty about buying this kinda thing through the second-hand market, but the amount of records I have brought via Oxfam stores does kinda aleviate this a bit. Charity shops are the best place to buy Vinyl. It saddens me that Comic Relief is no more, now replaced by SPORTS RELIEF, which runs on the notion that while most people may enjoy people making fools of themselves for entertainment, EVERYBODY enjoys watching ego-centric celebrities moan about how much their joints ache after running a marathon. Bring back Comic Relief, it's all I will say on the matter.
The A-Side starts with The Young Ones cast introducing the not at all homosexual Cliff Richard who comes in over the bland rythm singing the bland chorus. After one go round, we're treated to the cast adding their manic chaos making the track interesting with random mutterings, sound effects, shouting of the title 'LIVING DOLL' and just singing along. The instrumental break sends up Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells by mentioning the name of an instrument before breaking it. Then the guys take their go at singing the song fully, each singing a line. The noise of their voices creates a nice random texture, only improved with Rik Mayal's attempts at just TEENAGE NOISE.
Side number B comes in starting with a rocking number until the sound of glass breaking introduces us to a Young Ones sketch. Sound effects come from Vivian (Ade Edmonson) hitting people around the head. Double Entendres commence and the characters fully play themselves to the top. This is a pretty usual Young Ones sketch, comedy slapstick violence (though audio) and bickering over nothing, but lacking the visuals of the TV show, is kinda lacking. It's entertaining though not Laugh Out Loud funny, though Vivian eating trousers/underpants does make me smirk. The singalong section at the end is just cute. Plus every song should end with the line 'Now it's time to end this song, because it's so fucking bad'.
Essentially it's harmless fun, and a charity record, so we can't expect Captain Beefheart quality here. For 99p or less, it's a steal and will provide you with enjoyment. Novelty records are good, and neat little treasures to get hold of. Especially if you are just hanging with friends/significant other/pets/childhood teddy bear and want to lighten the mood and have a wee bit of a laugh. It's good, and y'all should give it a gander.
BONUS: Here's the music video for your consumption. ENJOY!
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