Frank Skinner, Stewart Lee, Al Murray & Alex Lowe open music gigs
He famously topped the charts with the England anthem Three Lions (Football's Coming Home) alongside David Baddiel and The Lightning Seeds.
But now Frank Skinner is making another bid for musical stardom, opening for prog rock icon Steven Wilson in concert and starring in a new video for emo rock band Hot Milk.
Skinner is one of four comedians supporting former Porcupine Tree frontman Wilson when he plays the London Palladium on the 12th, 13th, 19th and 20th of May, with Alex Lowe appearing on the first night of the run as his pseudo clairvoyant character Clinton Baptiste, followed by Al Murray as The Pub Landlord, Stewart Lee and Skinner respectively.
Skinner went to see multiple Grammy-nominee Wilson, dubbed "probably the most successful British artist you've never heard of" by the Telegraph, at Space Rocks, an event held at the BFI IMAX in London last month, in which the singer performed alongside talks from astrophysicist Mark McCaughrean and solar physicist Miho Janvier.
Invited to meet Wilson afterwards, Skinner was surprised by what followed.
"So I went over and 'how are you doing?' and all that" he recalled on his Frank Off The Radio podcast. "And he said 'I'm doing a gig at the Palladium, do you want to be my support act?'"
The comic marvelled: "What I didn't expect to hear was a job offer! ... Well, I said yes.
"The last time I did this was for Lloyd Cole and The Commotions in about 1989! It went pretty well.
"It was suggested to me that this could be a tough gig because his audience really just want Steven Wilson, they don't want anything else."
However, announcing the dates, Wilson said: "I'm a huge fan of stand-up and I've frequently been confronted by my listeners at stand-up shows, usually in a state of shock at discovering I'm not as humourless as my music (!).
"I decided to approach four of my absolute favourite British stand-up comedians with invitations to open one Palladium show each. And I'm extremely honoured to say they've all accepted. Each one's very different in style and they're all free to make me, my music and you the listeners the butt of their comedy."
Wilson is not the first musician to employ comedians as a support act. Lee's great inspiration Ted Chippington opened for The Nightingales, Phill Jupitus appeared with The Clash as his alter-ego Porky The Poet and Raymond Mearns toured with Pete Doherty and was described as a "bad influence" on the hard-living former Libertines singer.
Jimmy Carr pretended to be a roadie for The Killers at Glastonbury, while post-punk outfit Yard Act called on Harry Hill, Rose Matafeo, Lolly Adefope and Nish Kumar to open for them on tour in 2023.
Meanwhile, Skinner also appears in the apocalyptic video for Hot Milk's new track 90 Seconds To Midnight, channelling the poet John Betjeman as he happily strolls through the bombing of a concrete shopping centre and contemplates a grim fried breakfast in a greasy spoon café, with the promo opening with a St George's flag burning in a bin.