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Bobby Thompson - The Little Waster

"Bobby Thompson - the man who has been acclaimed, with justification, as the North-East's finest comic." (BBC )

Bobby Thompson, "The Little Waster", was perhaps the greatest comedian to have emerged, from the North-East of England. Born in a miner's family in County Durham in 1910, he started performing on stage at the tender age of 11. He left St. Joseph School and started working at the North Biddick pit for 59p a week.

Early Success

Bobby worked at North Biddick pit for eight years, before it closed in 1931. The following eight years, spent on the dole, had set Bobby on the road to fame as a teller of comic stories based on the harsh reality of debt and the dole. His hilarious portrayal of working class life and his tales of debt and how to avoid paying.

His first radio performance came in 1934, as a member of a mouth organ band, in a show produced at the Newcastle studios of the BBC. However nothing came of this broadcast until 1951 when Bobby Thompson got his big chance.
It came at those same Newcastle studios in a show called "Wot Cheor Geordie". It was an instant hit and by the end of the 50's Bobby Thompson was a household name in his native North-East. He was earning £400 per week, more than any other comedians of national fame would have earned at that time.

Bobby on TV

The move to television came in 1959 with twelve episodes of "The Bobby Thompson Show", a situation comedy set in the North-East. Bobby's wife, Phyllis, appeared in these shows and the first two were a great success. But that was about it as the rest were a total disaster, as according to the show's producer, Bobby couldn't make the switch from story telling style to the comedy sketch format required of him.
The failure of his TV show had a devastating effect on Bobby's career. In twelve months he went from earning £400 per week to £6 per week. In 1961 Bobby was in court for non payment of National Insurance. He started drinking heavily and then he found it impossible to get work.
It looked as if Bobby had reached a dead end in his career, but in 1967, Brian Shelly, took on the task of agent for Bobby and transformed him into a tea-total star once again.
By the mid 1980's Bobby was once more the ruler of comedy in the North-East.

Two characters dominated his act, "The Little Waster" and "The Old Soldier".

"The Little Waster" showed Bobby at his best. looking like a real life Andy Capp, he would tell his tales of dept, the dole and wife trouble that were reality for many a man in the North-East at that time.
"The dole is my shepherd. I shall not work."

"The Old Soldier" gave Bobby the chance to tell the hilarious account of his Second World War relationships with King George and Field Marshall Montgomery, not to mention Hitler.
"I was talkin to Hitler in the fish shop. Aww, he liked his batter."
With these two characters he had his audiences in stitches right unto the end. He commanded high earnings and large crowds.
In the last years of his life Bobby Thompson finally made it onto national TV. He preformed his stage routines on half hour shows on Channel 4. These appearances at last brought him national tributes and at the age of 74 he made his debut at the London Palladium.

Bobby lived in the same rented house in Whitley Bay for more than twenty years. Phyllis, his second wife, died in the 1960's, and in 1982 he married Cissie, who had been housekeeper to Bobby and Michael, one of his sons, for many years.
Bobby Thompson died in 1986. He was admired and loved as a hero of the working class, who was able to turn tales of harsh experiences into the stuff of laughter, while striking a chord by talking about ordinary happenings and the hardships of life with an infectious sense of humour and surreal imagination.

Quotes
" "The dole is my shepherd, I shall not work."
" "I'll give y'u a bottle o' Brandy if you can tell us you pay the 'lectric bill before you get the red letter."
" "A man come to oor door. I says come in, take a seat. He says 'I'm coming in to take the lot.'"
" "Wu got off the train at Blackpool, the porter came up an' asked if 'e could carry me baggage. I said 'Na, let 'er walk'."
" "Wu went into the restaurant an' asked for a coffee. The waiter asked if wu wanted black or white. She says 'I'll have black wi' milk in'."
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Thompson"

Recordings

Including the songs:
Dreamin'
You Little Waster
When I Was A Lad
The Golden Voice Of Bobby

“You don't care what you spend,” Bobby used to say, “as long as it's debt.” A little higher up the social scale, it's called credit, and at the top end (among members of the plutocracy, like committee men's wives) goods are obtained on account.

Bobby had a knack for detecting and exposing the pretences and petty snobberies of everyday life. His gift of mimicry and uncanny insight into people's minds made audiences explode with laughter at the revelation of their own thoughts.

Triple CD pack featuring:
The Little Waster
The Bobby Thompson Laugh-In
The Bobby Thompson Story (exclusive archive recordings)

Including a rare personal interview with Frank Wappat
and the song Am I A Toy Or A Treasure

Bobby's humour typifies the spirit of the North East, the ability of the Geordies to laugh at themselves and to encourage others to laugh with them.

The Little Waster
Recorded at Ryhope Poplars Club; 14 August 1978

The Army
Recorded at the Mayfair Ballroom, Newcastle; 19 July 1978

Two recordings of the legendary Bobby Thompson at his best. His hilarious portrayal of working class life and his tales of debt and how to avoid paying have audiences in fits of laughter.

Bobby was a born comedian of the kind that possibly only emerges once in a generation. He struck a chord the audience by talking about ordinary happenings and the hardships of life. But although Bobby spoke from his own experience of coming up the hard way, his infectious sense of humour and surreal imagination embellished every anecdote.