Mighty trendy

NOEL Fielding has been described as "a curiously sexy indie demi-god"."No way! It's not every day someone writes that about you. Wow! Who wrote that? My mum?" Noel laughed.

If you've never heard of The Mighty Boosh, you probably don't read the NME or watch late night television.

The Mighty Boosh are Vince Noir, played by Noel, a would-be rock god for whom looks are all important, and Howard Moon, played by Julian Barratt, a gloriously un-trendy jazz musician, who are seeking fame and fortune and share a flat with their own shaman and a six-foot talking gorilla called Bollo.

Their TV show is surreal and has been compared with everything from Monty Python to the League of Gentlemen and now the boys are taking it on tour for the first time, playing Blackburn on March 17.

"The Kaiser Chiefs watch our DVD on tour," Julian said. "It's really nice actually. Musicians are quite into comedy and comedians all want to be musicians. We cross over. It's fun."

"It's quite mental," Noel said. "Maybe that's our audience indie bands. I guess we appeal to our friends, and a lot of our friends are in bands."

Are they the Franz Ferdinand of comedy?

"I don't like Franz Ferdinand," Noel said. "A bit bland for me. I'm a typical art student.

"I like strange whimsical stuff. I like David Bowie and Frank Zappa, weird stuff."

Julian agreed they have cult appeal: "There's a lot of references to guitarists from the 80s and 70s.

"All the characters are based on weird people from our dads' record collections, so young folk with similar interests relate to that.

"It's not a mainstream thing. And people at the top of the TV chain don't know what it's about.

"They often only get into it via their kids: Junior likes this strange show, we'll give them a shot on TV!'"

Not only are they big with the kids, comedy giant Stewart Lee (of Jerry Springer The Opera fame) is their "comedy uncle" and they're mates with Little Britain's David Walliams.

Bizarrely, if you're a female from "Oop North" then chances are you are a fan too.

"According to the BBC we have the biggest demographic of northern women as fans," Noel laughed.

Their comic alter-egos, Vince Noir and Howard Moon, are said to be disarmingly similar to their real characters.

"Julian's kind of a good character for comedy because he has self doubt and he wants to better himself and his dreams and he's quite sensitive," Noel said.

"He tries really hard and always falls on his ass. My character effortlessly achieves what he wants to do, which is probably annoying for Julian.

"He gets himself into trouble and I get him out. It's a big brother, little brother relationship.

"We're quite different. He's sort of brooding and sexy. A lot of women fancy him," he said, explaining their appeal.

Despite their cult following, the boys don't have huge fame.

"Fame is quite ephemeral. You can be the hot thing one week then a couple years later no-one cares," Julian said.

"Look at Big Brother. You just have to be on TV. I want to feel good about why I'm famous."

The second series of The Mighty Boosh is currently being shown on Monday nights on BBC2. Having originally been broadcast on BBC3, they threaten to become more mainstream, even though it is on the graveyard slot of 11.20pm.

But it's touring that they love.

"It's just phenomenal. With TV you do it then after that, other than people texting you, you don't know how it's gone.

"Touring is like a big party, much more personal, more intimate.

"I like to get intimate with the crowd, with our demographic northern girls!"

The Mighty Boosh: First UK Live Tour is coming to King George's Hall, Blackburn, on Friday, March 17, details from the box office on 01254 582582.