He became a good friend of Michael Parkinson and made a further fourteen appearances.

In the same year he signed a record deal with Polydor Records, and as well as releasing live comedy albums, enjoyed hit singles including parodies of Tammy Wynette’s song D.I.V.O.R.C.E.  and In The Brownies to the tune of the Village People’s In the Navy.

His popularity continued throughout the 1980’s with live stand up performances at The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball (1981), Live Aid at Wembley (1985) and Comic Relief (1986).  In 1987 he completed his first world tour, including six nights at the Royal Albert Hall in London, which was documented in the Billy and Albert video.

In 1989 he married the Not The Nine O’ Clock News comedian and psychologist Pamela Stephenson and in the 1990’s branched out into acting and has since appeared in such diverse films as Indecent Proposal (1993), Mrs. Brown (1997), for which he was nominated for a BAFTA, The Last Samurai (2003), Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) and The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008).

This year Billy Connolly returns to the stage to perform stand-up with eight nights at London’s Hammersmith Apollo.

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In the late sixties Connolly teamed up with Gerry Rafferty as a folk duo called The Humblebums, they released a couple of albums that enjoyed cult status but not commercial success. When Rafferty left the duo to record a solo album, head of Transatlantic Records Nat Joseph who had signed the Humblebums, suggested that Connolly give up the singing and concentrate on the comedy.

In 1972 the album Billy Connolly Live! was recorded, the album was a mixture of funny songs and short monologues, but it was two years later in 1974 when the ‘live’ double album  Solo Concert was released that Connolly was propelled from local cult status to UK stardom.

Connolly’s unique observational humour would stretch the boundaries of stand up comedy in the seventies and onwards, nothing was too sacred or controversial to be included in his routine. Along with Jasper Carrott whose career had also started on the folk circuit, Connolly would re-shape stand up comedy by telling ‘true’ stories about real people and events that the public could easily identify with in their own lives.

Following his successful tour of Ireland, spread over three month’s in 2008, Billy Connolly will be returning to his native Scotland for the next round of his comedy tour. The ‘Big Yin’ will perform fifteen nights in Scotland running through September and into October, including six nights in Edinburgh to start the tour and finishing with seven nights in Glasgow.

This is a classic clip of  Billy Connolly on Comic Relief in 1986.

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