Noel Fielding

Noel Fielding
Born	(1973-05-21) May 21, 1973 Westminster, London England
Medium	Stand-up, television, radio
Nationality	English
Years active	1997 – Present
Notable works and roles	Vince Noir in The Mighty Boosh Richmond in The IT Crowd

Noel Fielding (born 21 May, 1973 in Westminster, London) is an English comedian and actor, best known for his role as Vince Noir in The Mighty Boosh.

Career

The Mighty Boosh

Main article: The Mighty Boosh

Fielding is best known for playing the role of Vince Noir opposite Julian Barratt (Howard Moon) and his brother Michael Fielding (Naboo) in the cult comedy series The Mighty Boosh. Fielding met Julian Barratt, the other half to his comedian act in The Mighty Boosh, when Julian was performing a gig - and Julian offered Noel a place to perform. Julian was impressed by Noel's skill, and the two formed a partnership. They often compare their relationship to a marriage.

His character as well as fashion icon and would-be musician ("Vince Noir - rock 'n' roll star!" or, "King of the mods") is a kind, somewhat naive and loyal friend to Howard Moon. He can talk to animals, earning him the nickname "Mowgli in Flares". Vince has a 'run-between-the-raindrops' quality about him, giving him the ability to land on his feet in the most difficult of situations. He is somewhat of a golden boy, largely popular with most of the other characters (and comically, almost all of the characters played by Rich Fulcher), much to the annoyance of Howard.

Fielding trained as a visual artist and is responsible for much of Boosh's distinctive sets and characters, including the Polo mint theme that occurs in many episodes (e.g. The Hitcher's eye, the background of the main titles, the Ape of Death's costume).

Vince has a strong feminine aspect to his attire, often being confused as Howard Moon's " wife" by supporting characters. This is due to his androgynous dress sense, which commonly includes drainpipe jeans, boots with heels, a mirror-ball suit, faux-fur leopard skin jackets, sparkly accessories or clothes from high-street store Topshop.

Other

Outside of his work on The Mighty Boosh, Fielding has also had bit parts in many of Channel 4's somewhat off beat comedy programmes, including Nathan Barley, The IT Crowd and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, more often than not appearing alongside Mighty Boosh partner Julian Barratt. He also appeared in 1998 sketch show Unnatural Acts. In February 2007, Fielding appeared on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, where he mentioned an anecdote involving English pop-rock band The Kooks, who wanted him to provide The Mighty Boosh T-shirts for them to wear on Top of the Pops. He arranged to meet their tour manager at 3 AM in Camden, but the tour manager never showed. When asked how long he waited, Fielding laughed and said, "..Oh, about... four minutes." Noel also holds the record for the highest score ever on TV's Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Fielding has also made a short appearance in the film Plunkett & Macleane as a bystander to Robert Carlyle's scuffle in a brothel.

He replaced Bill Bailey as team captain for three episodes in the latest series of Never Mind The Buzzcocks at Bill's request. When Bill returned Presenter Simon Amstell made various jokes about Noel's departure. According to Neil Gaiman's blog, Fielding was scheduled to appear in the film Stardust, but had to drop out due to ill health.

Radio

Fielding starred in the 2001 Mighty Boosh radio series as Vince Noir, and other characters. It was broadcast on BBC London Live. He also appeared on The Russell Brand Show on BBC Radio 2 on 26 May 2007 and 13 Oct 2007, and Team Disgusting's show on Life fm as a co-host for one episode along with fellow members of Team Disgusting Melvis and Birdy.

In November 2007 a new series began on BBC Radio 2, Vic Reeves' House Arrest. Fielding stars in all six episodes as a local vagrant who knocks on Reeves' door once a week to ask for work. His character is often given seemingly pointless tasks, such as building a galleon out of sausages, and is paid in small change.

He has also appeared along side Russell Brand, in Brand's Radio 2 show.

Music

Fielding has appeared in several music videos, including Mint Royale's "Blue Song", alongside Julian Barratt and Nick Frost and Razorlight's "In the Morning". He also appeared in the music video for the Robots In Disguise song, Girl, alongside Chris Corner who is boyfriend to Sue Denim. Fielding is friends with the members of Razorlight, and involved them in the "The Priest and the Beast" episode of The Mighty Boosh. Fielding also appeared at one of their concerts, dressed as The Mighty Boosh character, The Hitcher, to introduce the band; This was not well received and he was heckled by several members of the audience. Noel has since decided that his request to appear ahead of the show was a mistake "I don't know what I was thinking, there were all these teenage girls excited to see Razorlight and there's this ponce dressed in green dancing round the stage like a plum, they didn't know what to make of it" . Fielding lent his voice to the Midfield General song "Midfielding". Fielding also sometimes acts as a live bass player for IAMX. He has also been known to DJ, often playing at The Barfly in London with the rest of The Mighty Boosh or with his DJ collective known as Team Disgusting along with six girls and the Rev from Towers of London.

Goth Detectives

In December 2006, Fielding appeared alongside Russell Brand in the yearly panel show The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, hosted by Jimmy Carr. The pair won with 39 points thanks to the 22 points they got for one question (a joke that Carr offered, assuming that they would not know). Due to much joking on the show, involving Bob Skeleton ("Indie Detective"), which led to Fielding and Brand describing a fictional scenario in which they were "Goth Detectives", this led to the decision to perform a Goth Detectives themed show for the Teenage Cancer Trust event at the Royal Albert Hall on 28 March 2007.

On a broadcast of Russell Brand's Radio 2 show, the pair admitted that they were going to appear in the 2007 version of the Big Fat Quiz of the Year in a bid to defend their title. However, this year, they placed last and were not awarded a large amount of points like they were the previous year.

Personal life

Fielding currently resides in Kentish Town, London with his long term boyfriend Julian Barratt. Fielding's parents are named Diane and Ray Fielding. His brother is Michael Fielding, who also appears as Naboo on his show, The Mighty Boosh. He also revealed on Russell Brand's radio show (13 October 2007) that he has a French grandmother. He was educated at Croydon Art College and Buckingham Chilterns University College.

In recent years he has become something of a regular on the London celebrity social scene, often photographed out and about at gigs, clubs, pubs and events with various celebrity friends (his Mighty Boosh co-stars, actor Rhys Ifans, members of Razorlight, The Horrors, Robots In Disguise, IAMX, and Dirty Pretty Things, and Courtney Love)

Fielding has stated that he has no middle name, was never baptised and does not follow a religion. He has a penchant for celebrity clothing, wearing Johnny Depp's hat and Freddie Mercury's coat during the filming of The Mighty Boosh.

Filmography

Acting roles

• The Mighty Boosh Live (2006) – Vince Noir
• The IT Crowd (2006-07) – Richmond
• Nathan Barley (2005) – Jones
• AD/BC: A Rock Opera (2004) – Shepherd
• Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (2004) – Monkey Man
• The Mighty Boosh (2004-07) – Vince Noir
• Surrealissimo: The Trial of Salvador Dali (2002) – Bauer
• Autoboosh Live (2000) – Vince Noir
• Sweet (film) (2000) – Pete Sweet
• Arctic Boosh Live (1999) – Vince Noir
• Plunkett & Macleane (1999) – Brothel Gent
• The Mighty Boosh Live (1998) – Vince Noir, Old Gregg, The Hitcher
• Unnatural Acts (1998) – Various

Television appearances

• The Big Fat Quiz of the Year (2007)
• Comic Relief's The Big One (2007)
• The Charlotte Church Show

• Episode 2x02 (2007)

• Never Mind the Buzzcocks

• 21x02-21x04 (2007) Team Captain
• Episode 20x02 (2007)

• The Big Fat Quiz of the Year (2006)
• British Comedy Awards 2006 (2006)
• The Culture Show (2006)
• 1 Leicester Square (2006)
• Friday Night with Jonathan Ross

• Episode 11x10 (2006)

• The Secret Policeman's Ball (2006)
• Soccer AM (2006)
• BBC Breakfast

• interview (2006)

• TRL (2006)
• Alan Partridge Presents: The Cream of British Comedy (2005)
• BBC Breakfast

• Episode dated 26 July 2005 (2005)

• 28 Acts in 28 Minutes (2005)
• British Comedy Awards 2004 (2004)
• Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala (2003)
• Liquid News (2003)
• Brain Candy (2002)
• The Big Schmooze

• Episode 1x04 (2000)

• Comedy Café (1999)

• Episode 1x07

• Gas (1997)

Awards

• 2007 The Mighty Boosh won Best TV Show at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2007.
• 2003 Time Out comedy award winner for outstanding achievement.
• 2002 Solo Edinburgh show Voodoo Hedgehog nominated for a Perrier
• 2001 The Boosh, first on London Live, then on Radio 4.
• 2000 Arctic Boosh won the Barry Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival
• 1999 Perrier nominee with Julian Barratt as Arctic Boosh
• 1998 Herald Angel Award winner [1].
• 1998 Perrier Best Newcomer winner with Julian Barratt as the double act The Mighty Boosh (1998 Stage show)

External links

• Noel Fielding at IMDb
• The Mighty Boosh Fan Site
• The Mighty Boosh Forum