Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais was born in Whitley, Berkshire in 1961. Before Ricky achieved success with the award winning TV Sitcom ‘The Office’, he was part of a new wave pop duo called ‘Seona Dancing’ with Bill Macrae.  They formed in 1983 during his last year of University College, London and were soon signed by London Records who helped them release two of their singles ‘More to Lose’ and ‘Bitter Heart’. However the singles failed to break into the Top 40, with ‘More to Lose’ charting at No.117 and ‘Bitter Heart’ at No.70 in the UK Singles Chart.  A poor showing in the charts were coupled with critics’ scathing reviews such as describing the band as “An obvious rip off of David Bowie”. Judging by his appearance in the bands’ music videos, Ricky styled himself on David Bowie’s appearance, wearing makeup and having a gelled hair style.

This led to the band splitting up in 1984. Even though they weren’t successful in the UK, Seona Dancing’s ‘More to Lose’ was a surprisingly popular hit in the Philippines in 1985. The reason behind this was that a radio station in Manila misinterpreted one of their songs and their listeners couldn’t find the song.  They would therefore have to keep tuning in to their local radio station just to find out what the correct name of the song was called.

Despite the band splitting up, Ricky stayed in the music business by managing the band ‘Suede’ and DJing at various venues. While broadcasting on ‘The Ricky Gervais Show’ on XFM radio in December 2003, Ricky also said he later formed a band called ‘Sacred Hearts’, which fellow radio broadcaster Ian Camfield described as Ricky’s “Bon Jovi phase”.