THE TWELFTH MAN

Billy Birmingham, a skilled impersonator, is generally known for parodying Australian sports commentators' voices. From the period 1987 to 2006 he recorded as the The Twelfth Man (also known as The 12th Man). As befits the name (a reference to the non-playing reserve in an eleven-player cricket side), Birmingham particularly focused on cricket commentators such as Richie Benaud, Bill Lawry and Tony Greig. This was also because many of Australia's cricket commentators have distinctive and easily identifiable voices and accents.

The parodies, released periodically on albums, were designed as a comical look "behind the scenes" of the Nine Network's cricket commentary during that period. Birmingham traditionally played all the roles (with the exception of Ken Sutcliffe and some minor female characters, such as Richie Benaud's secretary). Benaud himself sent a critique of each CD to Birmingham and was known to have a mixed opinion of the recordings, due predominantly to Birmingham's use of profanity. All albums were produced and engineered by David Frogatt. All seven of his albums went to #1 on the ARIA charts.

The 12th Man's most popular song was "Marvellous!" featuring all the main three commentators. It was first recorded as a single in 1992, with backing vocals by Jimmy Barnes, John Farnham, Diesel and Glenn Shorrock among others. An updated version, with some of the commentators changed, was featured on 'Still the 12th Man'. He has since released an updated version of the song entitled "Marvellous 2006" on his last album 'Boned!'. In an article in the Sydney Morning Herald on 22 November 2009, Birmingham announced that 'Boned!' would be his last studio album as The Twelfth Man.

SINGLES

It's Just Not Cricket

1984

#1

Marvelous

1993

#1

Bruce 2000: A "Special" Tribute

18 DEC '00

#5

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelfth_Man

http://top100singles.blogspot.com.au/