MC Devvo
(real name Darren Devonshire) is a is a satirical fictional character and popular internet personality (also called an internet meme) portrayed by the English comedian Christian Pickup originally from Kingston upon Hull who, as well as the aliases "MC Devvo" and "Darren Devonshire".
The character of MC Devvo is a humorous and irreverent play on British chav culture. The character was created in late 2004, and the first appearance of the character at the fat-pie.com site spawned dozens more web episodes. Christian Pickup in character as Devvo has since been seen in numerous television appearances and at live gigs and festivals, and also a DVD/album double-disc about the character, From Yorkshire 2 New York
, was released in 2007.
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MC DEVVO TICKETS
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Character
The character of
MC Devvo is a young, male,
British,
white,
working class wannabe rapper. He is an openly aggressive, obnoxious, unintelligent, delinquent
Burberry and
Lonsdale-wearing
hooligan. The character plays on the
stereotype of the British "
chav". MC Devvo mispronounces words, frequently uses profanity and is generally unpleasant and confrontational to other people in the street, especially those who appear to be involved in other British
sub-cultures such as
indie music and
emos who are notorious enemies of the "chav"; namely those with "long gay hair" as Devvo himself puts it.
It is unclear exactly where Devvo hails from or where the web episodes were made, although it is clearly stated to be somewhere
urban in
Yorkshire. In some videos, MC Devvo has claimed to hail from "Hull" (
Kingston upon Hull), whilst in others he claims to hail from "Bradstar" (
Bradford) and yet in others from "Donny" (
Doncaster). He has a brother who is in prison, his mother is a
drug addict and Devvo fights with her boyfriend. Devvo finds this entirely normal and even amusing. In some episodes Devvo claims he has children, usually in a drug-fuelled stupor, and in others he claims he doesn't have any kids. It is unknown whether he does or not, as the number of children he has, and their names, often changes, if he even claims he has any.
Some episodes feature other characters such as Bezzin, a character very similar to Devvo, and his "fellow rapper", Shady Piez. Devvo regularly advocates the taking of
recreational drugs, preferring
marijuana,
ketamine and
ecstasy, and in some videos appears to be intoxicated by said drugs, although often he can't remember which ones. His music and films also show that he enjoys hardcore group
Scooter along with
White Lightning, a brand name of cheap, strong white cider sold in the
United Kingdom. He does however hate
moshers and
emos, as those who follow
rock music and
indie music and have "long gay hair" are the presumed arch-enemy of all chavs. Devvo's anti-social behaviour is not limited to these people however, and his outbursts can be fairly random and aimed at complete strangers in the street, and even his own fellow chavs and even the cameraman on occasion.
As well as harassing the public in streets and shops, MC Devvo is portrayed as often hanging out in abandoned houses and disused factories, which he further demolishes for his own amusement. He also hangs out in these places to hide out from the authorities and away from "people who want to talk to me" or attempt to offer him gainful employment. Devvo is a
compulsive liar and many of Devvo's claims are clearly dubious and made in an attempt to impress his fellow chavs, such as spending time in prison for various offences, although some claims are fairly repulsive and potentially offensive due to his extremely derogatory attitude towards women, foreigners and
homosexuals. He often demands money, clothes or other possessions from people in the street. In one video he was actively shown
joyriding and burning out the stolen car afterwards.
Origins
Pickup met animator
David Firth at schools in both
Kingston upon Hull and
Doncaster. Firth is currently the
webmaster of the "fat pie"
flash animation and
adult humor website, the original homepage of MC Devvo. Pickup and Firth started working together on numerous amateur animated projects in 1999 along with
David Ellis in the 'Foyf, Ellis and Pickup' team. However these did not gain great prominence until 2004. Pickup does voice acting on many of Firth's productions. He is also a co-writer of the popular
Salad Fingers series.
First appearance
MC Devvo's first appearance was on the fat-pie.com site in late 2004
[1] The cameraman was
David Firth making a real
documentary about the "chav phenomenon" in Britain along with numerous other chavs. MC Devvo proved the most popular though, and was a hit on the site, and so was kept as a regular fixture. In his first appearance, entitled
An interview with Darren "Devvo" Devonshire
, MC Devvo was seen as a homeless, illiterate, foul mouthed, boastful and randomly aggressive youth who allowed the journalist to follow him around and film him for "bits of loose change, cigarettes and cider." He also claimed to be intoxicated by
magic mushrooms and
ecstasy pills, told the cameraman he had stolen his
baseball cap from another group of youths and attempted to sell it to the cameraman for £20, and then requested to stay at his house.
Internet appearances
Since then, there have been dozens of videos and interviews on the fat-pie.com site. Some of these include:
At Home with Devvo
This was the second web episode made, and featured MC Devvo in his home, actually a disused, abandoned and fully dilapidated factory in which he is
squatting. Devvo proclaimed the factory was his own, in use and from which he ran a successful business, and that the
graffiti on the walls was actually a kind of
post-it note from his friends/business partners, that the rubbish on the floor was his paperwork and that he drives a sports car to this workplace every day. He warns the cameraman not to step out onto a balcony, as that would be "trespassing". Devvo believed this web episode to be his own version of
MTV's
Cribs
although he snorted
aerosol cans to get "buzzin" and "blazin", and also made claims of taking numerous other drugs such as
angel dust. Devvo writes down a scientific equation for his own cocktail of drugs (actually a random series of squiggles and meaningless symbols) which he refers to as "smackdown", and explained some of his turbulent family history. He also told some very strange stories and made some extremely dubious claims regarding previous crimes he has committed, such as stealing groceries from an elderly woman and killing his previous girlfriend but was able to cover up the evidence because he had a friend who works as a
funeral director. Later he admitted to working at
Kwiksave but had to add that he steals much from the warehouse.
Monday with Devvo
This was the third web episode made, and in which Devvo agrees to let journalist Carlton Question spend a few week days following him with the camera to see what he gets up to. It's Monday, and Devvo goes to pick his
dole money up from the
Job Centre, so presumably he had been fired from his
Kwiksave job since his last video and is newly unemployed. He claims that he is going to going to add to his collection of
Rolex watches,
gold chains and
sovereign rings when he gets his
unemployment benefits (although Devvo clearly has none of any of these, not even any fake imitations.) Before setting off to the Job Centre, a jovial Devvo claims to have taken over 20
ecstacy pills and smoked dozens of
cannabis joints and he doesn't manage to string a coherent sentence together, although he does relate a nasty story about selling drugs to a 13-year-old the Sunday night before, although it is certainly made up on the spot due to his drug-fuelled rantings because of the involvement of a
bouncer whom Devvo mistakenly believes is his friend and drug business partner. Finally at the Job Centre, Devvo claims to have an "ill leg", fakes a
limp and provides a sick note which he claims was written by his doctor, but was actually written by one of Devvo's friends, presumably Bezzin or Shady Piez. Upon successfully receiving his "wages", he buys much-needed "supplies", actually
White Lightning, so that he can have a "brew". The episode ends with Devvo drunk and relating stories about his girlfriend, who works at
Matalan and steals clothes for their children, and Devvo states that he has a baby daughter called Sebella and a nine-year-old son named Gordy who does drugs with him. This contradicts what he said in the previous web episode where he claimed his girlfriend was pregnant to another boy and Devvo killed her. Presumably Devvo has never had a girlfriend.
Tuesday with Devvo
This was the fourth web episode made, and once again Devvo starts the day off with a bottle of strong, cheap
cider and then shows us what he gets up to most afternoons. This involves writing a swear word on a wall with a marker (and spelling it wrong) and then going to a
motorway flyover from which he shouts at and spits at cars passing by underneath. Devvo finds this highly anti-social behaviour normal and even highly amusing. The rest of the episode is a compilation of various shenanigans Devvo gets up to, and is fairly light-hearted compared to much of his material, although he relates a story of sexual behaviour on a train to
Beverley with a woman he met in the personal ads.
Wednesday with Devvo
Devvo takes the cameraman down to the
Humber Estuary where he spends a lot of time "grebbing" (
spitting) into the water and
tagging. Devvo tells how he was beaten up at school for being a "gyppo." Devvo then offers the cameraman the opportunity to be the "boss of the swings" at a park in exchange for him buying Devvo super-strength lager. He then explains that he lost his virginity on the slide at the park when he was seven years old, and then requests cigarettes. He then begins a tirade about somebody called "Dane", although it is never explained who Dane is, and Devvo then gets aggressive with the cameraman, and leaves walking like
John Wayne.
Thursday with Devvo
At presumably Bezzin or Shady Piez's house, Devvo talks about a
knock off film he has acquired through a "friend of a friend",
Top Gun 2
, which he claims is a
prequel to
Top Gun
yet somehow set in the future. Instead of
Tom Cruise in the lead role, it has
Jimmy Nail as the titular
fighter ace, and who flys
Ferrari airplanes. Devvo then claims he may have imagined it due to being on
ketamine at the time, and that the film may actually have been the original
Top Gun
and not another film at all. Devvo then proceeds to get high on
bongs laced with
LSD and tell
tall tales and fondly reminisce about his school days in his own unique fashion regarding bullying, drugs and girls, and especially his fondness for
biology class. In the second half of the web episode Devvo takes some extremely potent ecstacy pills laced with numerous other
class A drugs, and the film cuts to some time later in the night, when Devvo is acting much more strange then usual and clearly out of his head, although he suddenly claims he hasn't taken any drugs and that he couldn't get hold of any. He walks in circles using exaggerated hand movements and head movements, with strange expressions on his face, and becomes acutely
claustrophobic, saying that he "can't get out." At one point he refers to the camerman as "Firth", the real name of
David Firth and begins shouting "where am I going?" Devvo then runs away from the cameraman saying that his eyes have gone purple and he is looking at him funny.
Friday with Devvo
This web episode was removed from the fat-pie.com site for unknown reasons. Presumably Devvo was a bit grouchy and on a severe
comedown from the night before.
Christmas with Devvo 2004
Running at 12 minutes, this web episode is one of the longest. After spending a night in the police cells for
assault and being
drunk and disorderly (which Devvo refers to as "drunk and elderly"), Devvo shows us how he usually spends the festive season. It is
Christmas Eve and Devvo attempts to find a cigarette on the floor to smoke and tells some dubious stories about the surrounding woods. He then requests to stay at the cameraman's house and open his presents, because "his mum said so". Devvo then begs passers by for 20p off passers by so that he can ring his friends "in Japan." After giving us his insight into problems in Africa, he chases a man who he has seen smoking a cigarette. Devvo ends up at the cameraman's house and eating all the chocolates out of his
advent calendar whilst telling him criminal stories about his family. He then gets aggressive, makes the cameraman apologize, and leaves, but not before putting a bottle of spirits down his trousers.
After Christmas Extra Bits
An extension of the previous web episode, Devvo shows off his Christmas presents, and explains how he acquired them. He also tells us about the girl of his dreams, Lindsay Marcus, who works on the tills at
Aldi.
Devvo As Owt
The first web episode filmed in 2005, a few days after Christmas 2004. In this episode, an apparently intoxicated Devvo finds himself a shopping trolley on a plot of waste ground next to the now demolished
Belle Vue stadium in
Doncaster, and sticks by it in the hope that the previous user will come along and retrieve the £1 from inside it. Devvo explains that later on in the day, he will "do his eyes up like a panda" and go "mosher bashing". Devvo then tries out his new money scam, in which he will attempt to sell a stolen all-day savers bus ticket to a passerby. The first such innocent stranger has long hair, and Devvo becomes very confrontational and aggressive with him. Devvo flips a coin for the bus ticket, and loses, so he loses his temper and chases after the stranger, who gets away with the bus ticket. Devvo however manages to steal the stranger's coat and "sells it his mates' grandma" by leaving the coat in her house and taking £20 from her wallet. Devvo then shouts abuse at a passing bus as a "gay bus." At the end of the episode, Devvo gets high by sniffing gas cans and shouts abuse at passersby on bicycles.
Another Episode Of Devvo
Devvo's back after a short while inside, and greets us in the familiar old location of the disused factory. Devvo's got himself a lovely new coat he took from a Chinese man. After telling some stories in his own fashion, he begins to eat out of bins, and attempts to steal petrol out of a parked car. He also explains to us about his "danger room" and smashes a window before asking who did it.
Appearances on television
On 7 July 2006, the British
digital television channel
E4 Comedy aired an 10-minute-long episode called
Funny Cuts
which was based upon the popular internet Devvo series at fat-pie.com, but was essentially a new episode of Devvo's antics. In this episode, Devvo revealed his home to be under an
A63 flyover in the
Hull area, and stated his intentions to buy a
widescreen plasma television for the wall. On going to the
Job Centre to pick up his
dole, he kicks a dead pigeon, which gets him in trouble with passers by. He then goes into an
off licence and attempts to purchase dozens of cans of super-strength lager in a bargain bin for the combined sum of 50p. After he is caught
shoplifting, he attempts to buy more cans with fake Scottish notes. At a park, he gets aggressive with a stranger and then asks him to push him on a roundabout, and then shouts abuse at some ducks and swans in the pond. He then introduces the audience to some "lyrical madness" along with his "fellow rappers" Bezzin and Shady Piez in their makeshift music studio and proceed to have an amateur
rap battle which ends up in a fight. At the end of the episode, Devvo burns out a stolen car.
Another episode,
Devvo In The Park
aired on the first episode of
Whatever
on
Channel 4 on 26 August 2006 in the UK. After over 2 million hits on the internet, and his prior appearance on digital television, this was Devvo's first appearance on
terrestrial television. The short episode includes Devvo at a
skate park, threatening to steal someone's bike and disrupting a small football game and stealing the football. He is also seen explaining about drug dealers in the park, abusing the play area and taking "gas". Another episode, named
Devvo at the Seaside
, was also aired on
Whatever
on Channel 4 on 22 September 2006 and was fairly similar to the other, in which he abuses passers by, steals candy from a vender and shouts insults at the sand and the sea.
Over the past few years, interviews with MC Devvo have appeared regularly on the television channels
E4 and
BBC3. Devvo has appeared on many other spontaneous occasions within the last year, including a few commercials and on 6 December 2007 a segment of
Comedy: Shuffle
with
Adam Buxton of
The Adam and Joe Show.
Live appearances
MC Devvo has also appeared numerous times at live gigs as well as on television. He appeared at the 2005
Leeds Festival whereupon he was bemused that so many people were familiar with him. As could be expected, Devvo got aggressive with numerous revellers and stole beer from others, yet with some he had a good old rave. This video is available for viewing on YouTube and the Fat-Pie.com sites.
In 2006, MC Devvo and "fellow rapper" DJ Shady Piez performed live at
Beached Festival in
Scarborough. Devvo performed
Crystal Meffin
, but couldn't remember the words ("I can't remember the words, I was fucked when I wrote this song".) They performed with a large cast of previously unseen characters. After their set Devvo refused to leave and instead danced onstage throughout the next act, a then-little-known
indie band called
The Enemy who have since had much mainstream success (the sub-cultures of indie music and chav culture are notorious enemies.) This episode has not been made/uploaded to the fat-pie.com site yet, but a short clip has been uploaded to YouTube.
Devvo has also appeared live in
Sheffield supporting
Goldie Lookin' Chain at
The Plug and has played various other gigs in
Carlisle and
Sheffield in early 2007. MC Devvo did a tour of
Barfly venues across the UK in August 2007. MC Devvo has also made an appearance at
Leeds Festival, and in 2008 at live gigs in
York,
Wakefield,
Manchester and
Hartlepool.
Devvo's most recent performance was the weekend of the 24th April 2009 at the
Bang Face Weekender in Camber Sands, England.
Music videos
MC Devvo has made dozens of
music videos for the fat-pie.com website in which he displays his complete ineptitude at rapping. In the web episode on entitled
In the Studio with Devvo
, Devvo shows us his
music studio, where he and his fellow rapper Shady Piez make music. The "studio" appears to be a burnt out garage with an old sofa, a bin bag and a handmade cardboard sign stuck to the wall, before Devvo introduces a music video for his Song
Crystal Meffin
. Most of these music videos are also available for viewing on
YouTube. His music videos include:
- Crystal Meffin – Devvo's shortest but most well known song which features his first music video.
- Devvo on a Pill (Eastenders VS Coronation Street Mix) – A song remixed with the Eastenders
and Coronation Street
theme tunes.
- Euronob – A Happy Hardcore song, most similar to Devvo on a Pill.
- Boys on the beach – Devvo's longest song, where he raps about drugs the sun and how he doesn't like Asians or Michael Dalton, backed with a house style tune. The third music video was created for Boys on the Beach. It features a shorter version of the song in which references to drugs, race and swearing are censored in order to make it more acceptable to mainstream audiences.
- Donny Soldier – A laid back tune featuring the second music video, Donny referring to Doncaster. He also raps about girls "lezzing."
- Takin Es wi Bob Marley – A song featuring previous Bob Marley recordings. The original recording of Easy Skanking
has been cut so the original line of "Take it Easy" now sounds like "Taking Es", or ecstasy.
- Train to Devvoville – Devvo's latest song, which is not included on the DVD or album. Available to listen on Devvo's MySpace profile (see external links.)
- Cosmic Lazer – The B Side to Donny Soldier and available on itunes and also there is an animated video on YouTube. [2] The song also uses the main title theme from the 1980s cartoon theme Heathcliff
for the tune of the songs chorus. The song is a drug-fuelled "shout out" to aliens.
Critical reception
MC Devvo and Shady Piez, upon launching their official
MySpace page in 2006, were within a few weeks listed as the number two
unsigned band in the entire UK, above the likes of
Klaxons and
Enter Shikari, and are still to this day in the top 10. Devvo was described as "The most vile creation in Britain" by the Sun newspaper
[3] [4]
Collectables
Five limited edition picture discs were available on the auction site,
eBay, in February 2007, also featuring a new song entitled
Fuck 'em yung
. This was confirmed by MC Devvo's official MySpace page to be a real auction and the disks were finally sold for over £40 each. Further copies were later made available, and those who purchased the first discs received specially-autographed copies and a variety of other Devvo collectables. 995 7-inch
vinyl singles were also made available, which sold out in two weeks. The final copies of the vinyl are to be put onto www.fatpierecords.com to be purchased for £5.
DVD and album double-disc
MC Devvo and Shady Piez released a 14-track long
album on Fat Pie Records and Hungry Kid Records in September 2007 entitled
From Yorkshire 2 New York
, because Devvo believes he will crack the American market. The album contained MC Devvo's songs and also
instrumental and
accapella versions.
[5] A
DVD featuring a compilation of MC Devvo's internet videos and television appearances, other videos made but never before aired, and also never-before-seen outtakes, and commentaries, was also released under the same name. The DVD and album are both available from
HMV,
Asda and
amazon.com as a double-disc album and dvd. Some of these scenes are also available for viewing on
YouTube.
[6]
References in other media
British
breakcore artist
Shitmat sampled MC Devvo heavily in his 2005 album
The Lesser Spotted Burberry
, and specifically on the track
Ellesse Warrior
, in line with the mock chav theme of the album.
DJ Lisa Lashes has also sampled Devvo's voice. Upon hearing this Devvo seemed angry and demanded money from the "scratty cow."
Devvo also appears on the video for the
Blackout Crew song "
Dialled".
References
- http://www.fat-pie.com/chavs.htm
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smGIswITvVU
- The Sun Newspaper October 11th 2006
- http://www.normanrecords.com/records/92848
- http://www.amazon.com/From-Yorkshire-to-New-York/dp/B000V6S8RU
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF_aKLydmqI&feature=PlayList&p=C5C541FE19CD3A73&index=3