Comedian and musician Graham Fellows is touring Jilted John for the first time in a celebration of the first character he came up with some 40 years ago

To celebrate Jilted John’s 40th anniversary and relive the summer of 1978, which saw millions chanting “Gordon is a moron!”, the legendary musician/actor/median Graham Fellows – also known as John Shuttleworth – is on tour this autumn with a band for his first character's first ever tour.

‘Ere We Go 2… 3… 40’, will see Jilted John, hailed as “The King of Wimp Rock” by NME, perform not only the song voted “best one hit wonder of all time” by listeners to Steve Lamac’s 6 Music Show in 2015, but also the very best of JJ’s classic 1978 album ‘True Love Stories’. In addition, expect crowd favourites like ‘Mrs Pickering’, the almost legendary anthem ‘Keira Knightly, Eat Your Dinner!’ and maybe something new from the pen of the man once described by Tony Parsons as “a mild-mannered drama sponge”.

But while Jilted John may be mild mannered, that doesn’t mean he hasn’t got attitude. You'd better watch out, especially if you're called Gordon. "Every time I meet someone called Gordon (it happens quite a lot), they don't punch me on the nose but shake me heartily by the hand as they joke about how Jilted John made their life a misery," says Fellows. "Does this mean that that Gordons really are morons - or just polite and erm.. mild mannered, like Jilted John?"

Special guest for the tour is rock and roll’s greatest self-proclaimed failure John Otway, although he's hardly a failure - John's song "Beware of the Flowers Cause I'm Sure They're Going to Get You Yeah" was voted the seventh greatest lyric of all time in a BBC poll. His hit records include Bunsen Burner and of course, the classic punk anthem Really Free, a song which Jilted John freely admits was a huge influence on him. "He's more of a man than I'll ever be," laughs Jilted.

"This is a celebration of that hot Summer of 78, when aerosols were first banned (and the neutron bomb), the first test tube baby was born, and pubs, playgrounds, streets and football terraces rang to the resounding chorus of "Gordon..is..a..mor..ron!," says Fellows. "Come along, and be as exuberant or as mild mannered as you like!"

Fellows was a drama student at Manchester Polytechnic when he first came to prominence in August 1978 as the eponymous singer of the novelty record Jilted John, a first-person narrative of an embittered teenager whose girlfriend Julie had left him for another man named Gordon, "just 'cause he's better lookin' than me/just 'cause he's cool and trendy". The song became known for the refrain "Gordon is a moron" repeated several times.

Fellows was signed up to and Jilted John immediately received several enthusiastic plays on by John Peel on his late night Radio 1 show. When daytime DJs like Simon Bates started playing it, and Factory boss,Tony Wilson featured it on his Granada TV show, 'So It Goes', Rabid knew they had a hit on their hands. Ten weeks in the top 30 followed with five weeks in the Top 10 and three performances on Top of the Pops.

Outside of Jilted John, Graham is best known for his comic creation John Shuttleworth, for which he was nominated for the coveted Perrier Award in 1992 and has toured extensively and created numerous TV and radio series including five series of Sony award winning The Shuttleworths as well as Radio Shuttleworth, Guide To Stardom, Shuttleworth’s Open Mind, and most recently John Shuttleworth's Lounge Music, all for BBC Radio 4. TV credits as Shuttleworth include a Eurovision Special, Europigeon, (BBC 2) Vic and Bob’s Xmas Special (BBC 2), Packin Em In, Saturday Zoo, Later With Jools Holland (all Channel 4), and Count Arthur Strong (BBC1). As an actor, Graham has starred as Les Charlton in Coronation Street (ITV) and portrayed Eric Sykes in Hattie, the acclaimed BBC biopic drama.

  • Jilted John Ere We Go 2… 3… 40!!! 40th Anniversary Tour: Sunday, October 14, Middlesbrough Town Hall. W: jiltedjohn.co.uk