Limited edition of 1,000 LPs, priced £36 each

James Acaster’s Hecklers Welcome show is to be released as a limited edition vinyl.

Just 1,000 copies of the album will be pressed, and released by Decca Records on November 1 priced £35.99, some of which wil have signed inserts.

The show was recorded at the Lighthouse Theatre in Acaster’s home town of Kettering in May this year.

The comic said: ‘It’s an honour and a privilege to release this show on wax with Decca, especially because we recorded it in Kettering in a venue I’ve been going to since I was seven. 

‘I’m also delighted because we managed to capture one of the more chaotic gigs of the tour, full of moments that never happened before or since.’

In the show, Acaster tried to loosen his stand-up style by embracing any interruptions from the audience, while discussing the formative childhood experiences at the root of his love/hate relationship with performance.

The Lighthouse Theatre is part of the troubled Kettering Leisure Village, which Acaster has helped fight to keep open.  The site was last year put in the market with a £6million price tag. 

Decca Records has been releasing comedy albums since 1931, when it put out the novelty  Rhymes by Jack Hylton and his Orchestra.

In the 1950s and 60s it put out LPs by the likes of Ivor Cutler, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Frankie Howard, recorded predominantly at Decca’s Broadhurst Gardens studios in West Hampstead. In 1978, Decca went full circle and released another version of Rhymes with added lyrics by Spike Milligan.

The label is also remastering old albums from Spike Milligan, Frankie Howard and Marty Feldman to be made available on  stream for the first time, but could not reveal details of exactly which titles would be released.

• Order James Acaster: Hecklers Welcome, Live at the KLV, Kettering here

Published: 16 Oct 2024