It may be hard to believe, but Ricky Gervais first left his mark on the entertainment world nearly 20 years before The Office debuted on British television. In 1982, the future Golden Globes host was more interested in becoming a pop star than anything else, and formed a new wave band called Seona Dancing with his friend, Bill Macrae. The group released two singles during its brief run and parted ways in 1984. Take a look at one of their music videos below; we assure you it’s 100% real and not something thrown together using AI.
Gervais didn’t completely abandon the music industry after Seona Dancing failed to catch on. He also had some involvement with the popular English rock band Suede (a.k.a. The London Suede) when it was starting out. If you’re not familiar with the band’s work, here’s the video for one of its biggest hits, “Trash,” from 1996:
While Gervais has been referred to as Suede’s former manager by a number of sources, including Gervais’s official website, several people who were around at that time have questioned whether or not what he did for the band could be considered “managing.” What everyone seems to agree on is that he worked for Suede’s management company and sent its demo around to some record labels at one point. But according to lead singer Brett Anderson, “It’s one of those things that’s become inflated out of proportion.”
In a segment during the 2015 NME Awards, Gervais weighed in on the story while presenting Suede with that year’s Godlike Genius Award. As he explained, “I did help out this band a little bit in the early years. ‘Manager’ is a very strong term, though. Um, although, I did send their demo tape to Saul Galpern at Nude Records” (Galpern signed Suede in 1992). David Barnett, who wrote the Suede biography, Love and Poison, had a similar assessment in 2003. While being interviewed for 3:AM Magazine, Barnett said that calling Gervais the band’s manager was “probably too grandiose.” “The simple answer is that [Gervais] was one of three university [entertainment] managers helping out the band.”
Gervais also joked that no tears were shed when he told the band that he couldn’t “manage” them anymore. “They didn’t beg. And that’s when their career really took off,” he quipped.
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