First glimpse of David Brent and his new ‘Life on the Road’
Since the early 2000’s, David Brent has been considered Britain’s favorite middle manager in The Office. Ten years later, having cashed in his pension, the former manager of the Slough branch of Wernham Hogg Paper Merchants started a new career as a talent manager in the music industry, trying to help urban solo artist Dom Johnson, played by UK rapper Doc Brown, a.k.a. Ben Bailey Smith, secure his big break.
Now, in his new film, Life on the Road, we return to the sometimes painful-to-watch world of David Brent and follow his last-ditch attempt to be a rock star…and, of course, all that that implies. Brent assumes the film director is making a rock documentary in the vein of Martin Scorsese’s film about the Rolling Stones. Unfortunately, it turns into a ‘where are they now’ film about the former paper merchant turned traveling cleaning product salesman. Sadly, we all know what it means to ‘assume’ something.
Putting Brent’s ‘life on the road’ into perspective, Gervais has said of the film. “He’s had to take two weeks off work and cash in his pension, because the session musicians in the band are costing him more than he’s getting in ticket sales.” Accompanying Brent on the road will, again, be Doc Brown
Music is in David Brent’s blood. You may remember from one episode on The Office when David Brent showcased his musical ability by taking over his training session with an impromptu song recital of “Freelove Freeway”, a song he used to sing with his original rock band, Foregone Conclusion.
During his post-paper company years, Brent continued to hang on to his musical desires with his YouTube series, “Learn Guitar with David Brent”. And, then, there was this haunting yet very soulful cover version of “If You Don’t Know Me by Now”, originally made famous by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes.
Life on the Road will feature a number of new cringe-worthy Forgone Conclusion tracks in addition to the ever-popular classic “Slough”, an ode to Brent’s hometown. “One has Brent singing about the plight of the Native American Indian. As you can imagine he got his information off Wikipedia and it’s horrendously pompous and wrong and accidentally insulting. Another is called Don’t Cry it’s Christmas, it’s Brent’s Christmas song. It’s a song about an orphan he knew,” said Gervais.
Life on the Road is set to premiere in Summer 2016.
