The sound of Mitch Benn comes to Aylesbury (From Bucks Free Press)

The sound of Mitch Benn comes to Aylesbury

12:40pm Friday 17th February 2012 in Freetime By James Nadal

SOME may know him as the guy who is on BBC Radio 4 before the Archers comes on, but Mitch Benn has been entertaining a whole range of comedy fans since the late 1990s.

The 42 year-old exponent of musical comedy is pleased to count people from children to grandparents among his audience and he hopes for more of the same when he comes to Aylesbury this month.

A regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's The Now Show and Radio 2's It's Been A Bad Week, he now has two of his own BBC Radio series.

Mitch Benn's Crimes Against Music completed its third series in 2006 and he is also hosted a second series of The Mitch Benn Music Show on BBC Radio 7.

So, how does he describe his tour, which is coming to Bucks on February 18?

“It's two hours of me and my band covering almost every musical style imagine and people have the best time when they come and see us, it's great fun,” he told Freetime.

“It's a large age range – from kids to their grandparents, across the generations.

“Because I'm on BBC Radio 4 before the Archers, so I get those kind of people coming in as well.

“We've had a great tour so far, with lots of people coming in.”

The Ode Warrior Tour has been going on Since November and finishes in May.

Asked how the theatre performances compare to the radio work, he said: “This is the most complete version of the things I do and is very satisfying.

“A lot of the stuff we do came from what we wrote for the various radio shows and so it's very broadcastable.”

He explained that he was a fan of radio comedy growing up, listening to various shows during the 1980s.

“It's strange because now that's me,” he reflected.

“I tend to forget how long I've been doing it – since 1999. It's amazing, people come having grown up listening to me on the radio, it doesn't seem as long as that.”

Mitch mainly plays guitar but dabbles with other instruments too.

The south west London resident had this message for Free Time readers: “Please come along, the more people who turn up the more fun we have.”

See him on February 18 at the Queens Park Centre, Aylesbury, where copies of his new album will be available ahead of the official release.

www.mitchbenn.com