By Gee. By Jingo. By Crikey. The Commentary Team is back… in a way.
A long standing tradition of Australian Test Cricket since the 1980s, comedian Billy Birmingham aka ‘The 12th Man‘ gets a few runs off the vegetable of bat with the collections of comedy albums that follow cricket commentators Richie Benaud and his Commentary Team over the summer of cricket.
With his spot-on impressions, Birmingham takes Benaud and Co. on bizarre trips of what is considered a boring sport for cricket outsiders, amplifying the actions to comedic acumen.
Since the very first single on vinyl – 1984’s It’s Just Not Cricket, impersonating sporting profiles and commercials of the era, to concentrating directly on the cricket commentary box in 1990’s The 12th Man Again!, leading to 2006’s Boned! covering the infamous axing of Channel 9 personalities – Birmingham didn’t shy away from lampooning anyone.
Seven albums were produced, not to forget two ‘best of’ albums and four singles. Many people have worn out their records, cassette tapes and scratched the buggery out of their CDs. Now you can have it all on Spotify, for ‘free’ – that meaning you will get the odd commercial if you don’t have a paid subscription.
Relive moments when Max Walker takes out the male model from Mudgee Ken Suttcliffe in order to win a central hosting role on Wired World Of Sports (II), Bill Lawry getting a front row feature of his life in Bill Lawry – This Is Your Life, Bruce McAvaney getting thrills out of commentating the Olympics in Bruce 2000, and Richie Benaud trying to keep his head above water in The 12th Man Again! / Still The 12th Man! / The Final Dig / Boned!.
You can also buy the digital versions here.
Got ’em yess!!!
