The Twelfth Man

For other uses, see The Twelfth Man (disambiguation).

The Twelfth Man
Birth nameBilly Birmingham
Genres
InstrumentVocals
Years active1984–2015
Labels
Websitethe12thman.com

The Twelfth Man (also known as The 12th Man) is the name for a series of comedy productions by Australian satirist Billy Birmingham. Birmingham, a skilled impersonator, is generally known for parodying Australian sports commentators' voices. As befits the name (a reference to the non-playing reserve in an eleven-player cricket side), Birmingham focused in particular on cricket commentators such as Richie Benaud, Bill Lawry, Ian Chappell and Tony Greig. This is also because many of Australia's cricket commentators have distinctive and easily identifiable voices and accents.

The album parodies are designed as a comical look "behind the scenes" of the Nine Network's cricket commentary. Birmingham traditionally plays all the roles (with the exception of Ken Sutcliffe, who played himself; and some minor female characters, such as Richie Benaud's secretary). Benaud himself sent a critique of each CD to Birmingham and was known to have a mixed opinion of the recordings, due predominantly to Birmingham's use of profanity.[1] All albums were produced and engineered by David Frogatt.

The Twelfth Man is the only Australian recording artist in history to have seven consecutive number one albums.[2] In an article in the Sydney Morning Herald on 22 November 2009, Birmingham announced that Boned! would be his last studio album as The Twelfth Man.[3]

  1. ^ "Billy Birmingham interviewed by Shane Warne and Mark Nicholas". YouTube. 27 November 2013. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  2. ^ "Box Set, The". JBHiFi. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  3. ^ Proszenko, Adrian (22 November 2009). "The 12th man finally declares". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax News (Australia). Retrieved 12 September 2017.