“Let’s move on,” joked actor and comedian Ricky Gervais, looking back at a photograph of him during the early 1980s as one half of the new wave, synth-pop duo Seona Dancing during a 2016 interview on The Graham Norton Show. Carefully dodging questions about his former musical life, he did address how unrecognizable he was in those earlier days, noticeably thinner with his hair slicked back.
“I’m not embarrassed by that, I’m embarrassed by this,” Gervais added, pointing to himself. “Everyone’s going, ‘What the f– k happened?’ I’ll tell you what happened: Pizza happened.’”
Made up of Gervais on lead vocals and keyboardist Bill Macrae, who were schoolmates at University College London, Seona Dancing formed in London in 1982 and were signed to London Records. The duo released two singles in 1983, which they co-wrote, but didn’t find much chart success before disbanding a year later.
Though Macrae and Gervais went their separate ways after Seona Dancing split, the comedian joked, “I hope he got fat, too” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2014.
Videos by American Songwriter
Music was always a first love for Gervais, so he later found ways to incorporate it into his television roles.
In 2001, Gervais wrote the song “Freelove Freeway,” which he performed as his character on The Office, David Brent, during an employee training seminar, and then played more songs he wrote with his former band Foregone Conclusion. Oasis‘ Noel Gallagher later recorded”Freelove Freeway” with Gervais for The Office Christmas Specials DVD in 2004.
“I loved science and nature, and then maybe 13, 14, I got into music,” Gervais told Kelly Clarkson on her show in 2021. “When I was a teenager, I discovered David Bowie, and I went to university and did sciences, but then I realized ‘No, I want to join a band.’”
He added, “And I started a band, and we got signed, and it was over as quick as it started. My rock career was one year long.”
From his earlier days trying to make it onto the pop charts to a random song for his “hero” Bowie and a song that made the closing credits on The Simpsons, here’s a look behind some of the songs Gervais wrote.
“More to Lose” (1983)
Written by Ricky Gervais and Bill Macrae
Released as Seona Dancing’s debut single, “More to Lose” gained the duo some attention, though it only peaked at No. 117 in the UK. Along with its B-side, “You’re on My Side,” also written by Gervais and Macrae, “More to Lose” wasn’t well known in the UK but surprisingly became a hit in the Philippines a year after Seona Dancing split.
I thought it over
And it was plain to see the love you said
You once needed
Could just not come from me
And now it’s over
Both of us free
And I feel colder
A thousand tortured lives have fallen
Wounded, dying cut down by the
Questions that we’ve sharpened
Just to save our losing days
We thought with nothing more to lose
We’d tear our hearts with jagged truths
And everything we’d clung to for so long
Just slipped away
“Bitter Heart” (1983)
Written by Ricky Gervais and Bill Macrae
Seona Dancind’s second single, “Bitter Heart,” didn’t make much movement from the first and was released with the B-side “Tell Her.” The song tells of a toxic relationship that eventually comes to a head. Gervais and Macrae also made a music video for “Bitter Heart,” featuring a woman jilted on her wedding day, which went to No. 79 on the UK Singles chart and stayed in the top 100 for three weeks.
You’re losing out now
Your scowl and shout
Irrational accusations as I turn my head
You’re threats and trials
My carven smiles
Revolts you in your torturous insecurities
With pleasured last goodbyes
I break the noise, and we silently fly apart
I’ll end the angered cries and the twisted joys
That rage in a bitter heart
Go on, hit me, do
I won’t hit you
You’d love that too much, ’cause it means that they’d all hear
Tell them you’re free
And tell lies of me
I’m out of range now, so there’s nothing more to fear
“Little Fat Man,” David Bowie (2006)
Written by Ricky Gervais
In 2005, two years after leaving his hit BBC sitcom The Office, Gervais premiered his new show Extras, which ran through 2007 on the BBC and HBO. In it, Gervais played the aspiring actor Andy Millman, who can only land roles as an extra, and brought on special guest stars including Ben Stiller, Samuel L. Jackson, Kate Winslet, Patrick Stewart, and more.
David Bowie also made a guest appearance during the second season of Extras in 2006. After getting harsh reviews of the sitcom he’s starring in, When the Whistle Blows, Millman (Gervais) finds himself in a VIP lounge where he tries to talk to Bowie, who only ridicules him even more for his failures.
While talking at a table, Bowie starts singing Little fat man who sold his soul / Little fat man who sold his dream—a song Gervais wrote for the episode. After singing the first few lines of “Little Fat Man,” Bowie turns around and finishes the song on the piano.
Little fat man who sold his soul
Little fat man who sold his dream
Chubby little loser, national joke…
Pathetic little fat man
No one’s bloody laughing
The clown that no one laughs at
They all just wish he’d die
“I remember I sent him [Bowie] the lyrics, and I called him up and said, ‘Did you get the lyrics?’” recalled Gervais in 2024. “And he went ‘Yeah, yeah.’And I said, ‘Give me something sort of retro, like ‘Life On Mars.’ And he went ‘Oh yeah, I’ll knock off a quick f– king ‘Life On Mars’ for you’.” Bowie then composed the music for the song.
He added, “I realized that was so insulting. He’s doing my little sitcom, and [I’m asking] ‘Do your opus.’ I just sort of laughed, and then he came, and he was just really funny. He was really charming, really smart, really funny.”
Gervais called working with Bowie “One of the best days of my life.” He added, “He was a hero of mine. Properly my hero, I’d say.”
Bowie’s Extras cameo marked his final appearance on television before his death in 2016.
“Lady Riff,” The Simpsons (2006)
Written by Ricky Gervais
In the Simpsons episode “Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife” in 2006, the family signs up to star on a reality TV show, Wife Swap, where Marge becomes the matriarch of another family, and Homer also gets a temporary “new wife.” In the episode, written by Gervais, he also stars as Marge’s reality husband Charles, who he based on his Office character, David Brent.
“He caught our tone exactly,” said Simpsons creator Matt Groening, “and then added his own Ricky Gervais/David Brent patheticness.”
During the closing credits of the episode, Gervais can be heard singing the song “Lady Riff,” a mostly instrumental, spoken-word song he wrote for the show.
Oh, yeah, can you feel it?
Just over the credits, just riffing now
Words. And chords
Not the poetry in the real thing, but not bad for an ad lib
Not good, but…
And it’s not long enough, so I’ll just do a little bit more of this, nearly done
That’s the final credit
Yeah, that’s the end
“I sneak a song into everything I do,” Gervais told Graham Norton. “I wrote a song for ‘The Simpsons,’ I wrote a song with David Bowie for ‘Extras.’ I’m a frustrated, failed musician.”
Photo: Fin Costello/Redferns
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.