Go Faster Stripe
Production company | |
Industry | Film, Publishing, distribution |
Genre | Comedy |
Founded | 2005 |
Headquarters | Cardiff, United Kingdom |
Key people | Chris Evans |
Website | http://www.gofasterstripe.com |
Go Faster Stripe is an independent film production and distribution company that operates out of the Chapter Arts Centre, in Cardiff, Wales. The company specialises in the recording of live shows by stand-up comedians who, while in the public eye, may not normally be able to get a DVD released through a major label, or who want to avoid forms of censorship that they feel may come with mainstream releases.[1]
Initially a baby clothes retailer, the company used its internet presence to diversify into comedy releases in 2005.[2] Go Faster Stripe are closely associated with Stewart Lee and Richard Herring, who first became famous as the Lee and Herring double act in the 1990s, and whose work they have often published. In addition to Herring and Lee, the company has produced media for acts such as Simon Munnery, Lucy Porter and Robin Ince.[3][4]
As well as CDs and DVDs, they have also released a 10" vinyl and a number of books.
History
When comedy fan Chris Evans (Not That One)[1] wished to purchase a DVD of comedian Stewart Lee's (co-writer of Jerry Springer: The Opera)[5] latest live show (90s Comedian) he learned there would not be one: the comic's previous release (Stewart Lee - Stand Up Comedian, released by 2 Entertain) had sold insufficient copies for a major label to consider a future release profitable. Furthermore, the comedy website Chortle claimed that the show's controversial content dissuaded major distribution companies because of fear of retribution from the fundamentalist Christian movement.[6] However, Evans felt that the critically acclaimed show should be recorded. He used the name of his existing clothes retail company, Go Faster Stripe, to produce a CD of the show.[2][6][7] The CD sold well enough to generate a profit, and Evans quickly shifted the business towards comedy material. Initially specialising in the work of Lee and Herring, Go Faster Stripe has since diversified into a broader range of comedians.
In 2014, Chris Evans won the Chortle Award for best offstage contribution.[8]
Censorship and Policy
Go Faster Stripe claim to only release material by comedians whose work they enjoy.[9] Recently, this has involved returning to previously unreleased work, such as Lee and Herring's television show Fist of Fun.[10] So far around 50% of the comedians that have been approached by Go Faster Stripe have had their work recorded. The company does not ask artists to change their show, and does not censor material. For example, in Richard Herring's ménage à un, he talks explicitly about being masturbated via the hole in the hand of Jesus Christ, which Herring claims most likely have been edited for a mainstream DVD release.[1] In an interview with Australian comedy listings guide The Groggy Squirrel, Richard Herring said of Go Faster Stripe:
Go Faster don't tell us what we can or can't say and are happy to give faithful representations of the material.[1]
Products
Comedian | Title | Type | Cat |
---|---|---|---|
Stewart Lee | 90s Comedian | DVD | GFS-1 |
Richard Herring | The Twelve Tasks of Hercules Terrace | DVD | GFS-2 |
Richard Herring | Someone Likes Yoghurt | DVD | GFS-3 |
Stewart Lee | Pea Green Boat | CD & Vinyl | GFS-4 |
Simon Munnery | Hello | DVD | GFS-5 |
Robin Ince | Is as Dumb as You | DVD | GFS-6 |
Richard Herring | Ménage à Un | DVD | GFS-7 |
Lucy Porter[11] | The Good Life | DVD | GFS-8 |
Wil Hodgson | Skinheads, Readers' Wives and My Little Ponies | DVD | GFS-10 |
John Hegley & Tony Curtis | John Hegley & Tony Curtis | DVD | GFS-11 |
Richard Herring | Oh Fuck, I'm 40! | DVD | GFS-12 |
Tony Law | An Hour and Some of some Tony Law | DVD | GFS-13 |
Richard Herring | Bye Bye Balham | Book | GFS-14 |
Andrew Collins | Where Did It All Go Right? | CD | GFS-15 |
Stewart Lee | What Would Judas Do? | CD | GFS-16 |
John Shuttleworth | The Minor Tour | DVD | GFS-17 |
Robin Ince & Friends | Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People | DVD | GFS-18 |
Richard Herring | The Headmaster's Son | DVD | GFS-19 |
Collings and Herrin | The Best of Earth, Wind and Fire (and Water) | CD | GFS-20 |
Richard Herring | Hitler Moustache | DVD | GFS-21 |
Craig Campbell | Death of a Badger | DVD | GFS-22 |
Various | Peacock Season | DVD | GFS-23 |
Richard Herring | As It Occurs To Me - Secret Standup | DVD | GFS-24 |
Collings and Herrin | War and Peace, Crime and Punishment | DVD | GFS-25 |
Andrew Collins | Secret Dancing | DVD | GFS-26 |
Kevin Eldon | Is Titting About | DVD | GFS-27 |
Tony Law | Brainporium | DVD | GFS-28 |
Baba Brinkman | The Rap Guide to Human Nature | DVD | GFS-29 |
Wil Hodgson | Hatful of Hodgson | DVD | GFS-30 |
Stewart Lee | The Jazz Cellar Tape | CD | GFS-31 |
Kevin Eldon & Simon Munnery | Mr Bartlett and Mr Willis | CD | GFS-32 |
Robin Ince & Friends | Ten Lessons and Carols for Godless People | CD | GFS-33 |
Boothby Graffoe | The Boothby Graffoe Mish-Mash | DVD | GFS-34 |
Richard Herring | Christ on a Bike | DVD | GFS-35 |
Richard Herring | AIOTM - The Complete Cumpkin | DVD | GFS-37 |
Simon Donald | Comic to Comic | DVD | GFS-38 |
Norman Lovett | Outside The Box | DVD | GFS-39 |
Lee and Herring | Fist of Fun - Series 1 | DVD | GFS-40 |
Arnold Brown | Jokes I Have Known | DVD | GFS-41 |
Robert Wringham | You Are Nothing | Book | GFS-42 |
Tony Law | Go! Mr Tony Go! | Download | GFS-43 |
Richard Herring | What Is Love, Anyway? | DVD | GFS-44 |
Lee and Herring | Fist of Fun - Series 2 | DVD | GFS-45 |
Robin Ince & Friends | More Nine Lessons and Carols For Godless People | DVD | GFS-46 |
Richard Herring | The Box Lady and Other Pesticles | Book | GFS-47 |
Richard Herring | Talking Cock | Book | COCK-1 |
Robin Ince | Happiness Through Science | DVD | GFS-48 |
Lee and Herring | Fist of Fun series 1 and 2 | DVD | GFS-49 |
Simon Munnery | Fylm Makker | DVD | GFS-50 |
Richard Herring | 10 | DVD | GFS-51 |
Richard Herring | Talking Cock | DVD | GFS-52 |
Robin Ince | The Very Least Worst Of Robin Ince | DVD | GFS-53 |
Sean Hughes | Life Becomes Noises | DVD | GFS-54 |
Miles Jupp | Fibber In The Heat | CD/DVD | GFS-55 |
Barry Cryer & Ronnie Golden | Live 'Actually' | DVD | GFS-56 |
Simon Munnery | Fylm | DVD | GFS-57 |
Sean Hughes | Penguins | DVD | GFS-58 |
Richard Herring | We're All Going To Die | DVD | GFS-59 |
Austentatious | Live at the Leicester Square Theatre | DVD | GFS-60 |
Ian D Montfort | Unbelievable | DVD | GFS-61 |
See also
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Go Faster Stripe". The Groggy Squirrel. 6 March 2007. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
- 1 2 Lee, Stewart (2011). How I Escaped My Certain Fate. Faber and Faber. p. 214. ISBN 978-0-571-25481-1.
- ↑ "Go Faster Stripe". The Sprout. 9 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
- ↑ "Go Faster Stripe are very good indeed". Noise to Signal. 23 November 2006. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
- ↑ "Stewart Lee". NOTBBC. April 2007. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
- 1 2 "Laughs through a lens". Chortle. 12 December 2007. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
- ↑ "Comic release: New DVDs from cult comedians". Chortle. 21 March 2007. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
- ↑ http://www.chortle.co.uk/awards/2014/01/10/19382/chortle_awards
- ↑ "Go Faster Stripe - About Us". Go Faster Stripe. 2008. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
- ↑ "Spring news". Richard Herring. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
- ↑ http://www.laughriot.co.uk/2007/08/17/lucy-porter-dvd-recording/