Al Murray is bringing his much-loved comedy creation, the Pub Landlord, back to his roots – right here in Aberdeen.
The larger-than-life jovial barman – with a distaste for anything “un-British” – might not have been born here, but he certainly took his first steps in the Granite City’s own Lemon Tree.
“He was born in the Edinburgh Fringe by accident in a show in 1994, but he was learning to walk in the Lemon Tree,” said Al.
He explained the Pub Landlord came about when he was performing at the Fringe with Harry Hill and fellow performer Matt Bradstock-Smith, as a pub band.
“We needed a link in and I said as we were playing in a bar, why don’t we say the barman has offered to fill in because the compere hasn’t turned up. So we did three weeks of Edinburgh and by the end of it I had a compering turn worked out,” said the comedian.
Al Murray has fond memories of raucous gig at the Lemon Tree
“That was how I first started doing the Pub Landlord, in that turn. Then we went on tour and we played a really brilliant, raucous gig at the Lemon Tree. It’s one of those gigs I remember really fondly.”
Now, almost 40 years later, Al is heading back to Aberdeen for a one-night stand at the Music Hall with Al Murray: Landlord Of Hope And Glory on Sunday June 26.
He’s arriving as part of a national tour – one that Al himself thought might never happen again after the pandemic shut down theatres and venues.
“By March last year, I was pretty convinced we might never come back into theatres. My mind was pretty made up of not ever performing again, or not on the scale I was used to,” he said.
“I had a good run and thought that part of my life was going to end. But I said to myself that’s all right. You’ve been doing this a long time, you get to hang with the family, not have to go up and down the motorway eating horrible sandwiches at service stations. Embrace the positive.
“And I felt I didn’t need the laughs the way I did when I first started.
Pandemic experience fed through the ‘mangle’ of the Pub Landlord
A turning point, though, came when a friend started putting gigs on in a pub garden and asked Al to come along. Initially reluctant, he decided to pick up the mic again.
“I was sky high for the following week with how it had gone, the excitement of talking to an audience. I’m not a whole person, I do need the laughs of strangers,” said Al, laughing.
Not only is he back, but Al has found the shared experience of a global pandemic is a rich vein of comedy to be mined.
“As a writer, we have an event now that literally everyone has in common,” he said. “They locked all of us in our houses and you never get an event that has that deep a reach.
“Two and a half years ago, if I had talked about AstraZenaca no one would have heard of it. Now we all know.
“Also, home schooling was a thing for weirdos – no offence to home-schooling readers – but it was a peculiar thing. Now everyone’s done some.
“To have an event that touched everyone, the grammar of it is insane. Everyone knows what you are talking about and that’s really interesting. Then, obviously, it has to be fed through the mangle of the Pub Landlord.”
Al thinks it’s hilarious when people think the Pub Landlord is serious
The Pub Landlord, with his jingoistic views on Britain versus the world, is a comedy pastiche. But for all that, there are those that think he’s a character to be taken seriously – and Al loves that.
“I think it’s hilarious,” he said, laughing again. “It strikes me as another joke, another element of misrule. Comics are awfully serious these days and misrule and chaos are surely part of the job.
“If someone takes the Pub Landlord for real or as a role model, that’s just another bit of the lasagne.”
There is far more to Al than just his comedy. He plays in a band, Fat Cops, that opened for the Happy Mondays at the Music Hall four years ago.
He is also a history buff with his own podcast. Called We Have Ways Of Making You Talk, it’s about the Second World War and features Al and historian James Holland.
“Over the last two years, especially during the pandemic, that has really blossomed into something, to the point where we will have a festival in July with 40 speakers, living historians, and demonstrations of equipment and the use of the equipment,” he said.
In addition to the festival, being held in Silverstone from July 22 to 24, Al has now written a history book – Command: How The Allies Learned To Win The Second World War, which is due out in October.
How to get tickets to see Al Murray’s Pub Landlord at the Music Hall
“That was like putting on a very different set of clothes. Comedians are all supposed to want to play Hamlet. This feels rather like my attempt to play Hamlet, to do something serious.”
Before any of that, he’s looking forward to bringing the Pub Landlord home to Aberdeen.
And he has a message for people coming along to see him on Sunday.
“If you’re in the front, wear waterproofs,” he said.
For information and tickets for Al Murray: Landlord Of Hope And Glory, visit aberdeenperformingarts.com
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