2011 was The Velvet Onion’s second year in operation, and whaddya know – it turned out to be quite an eventful one! If you’ve joined us more recently, or if you’ve lost a few brain cells over the festive period and can’t remember much before December, here’s Part 1 of our review of 2011 to bring you up to speed on the TVO events of the year:

January

The year started by looking backwards, with The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year sadly not quite taking retro to its logical conclusion, but reuniting Noel Fielding and Richard Ayoade nonetheless. TVO were also feeling reflective, as we considered our first birthday! We interviewed James Pilkington, the director of early Boosh-starring short Sweet, about his latest feature.

On the live front Paul Foot & Colin Hoult were busy announcing send-offs for their 2010 Edinburgh shows, and Kim Noble was taking his hit show Kim Noble Must Die to New York City.

For Noel & Julian, however, this was a period of new adventures – and the pair couldn’t have chosen more varied career paths if they tried. Noel’s appearance on Comic Relief’s supporting talent show Let’s Dance was announced, and while Boosh fandom debated exactly what he’d perform, Julian’s acting chops were about to be stretched as he began work on Treasure Island and was announced as the one of the lead roles in Government Inspector at The Young Vic.

February

February began on a sad note, with the passing of much loved actress Margaret John. Best known for her roles in Gavin & Stacey, Run Fatboy Run and Doctor Who, she was forever immortalised in Booshdom by her apperance as the wicked Nanatoo in the Nanageddon episode of The Mighty Boosh. She was 84.

On a more positive note, IAMX unleashed the first fruits of their latest album, and DeadDogInBlackBag returned to the London stage with a one-off gig, with TVO on hand to document proceedings. And whilst Matt Berry unleashed an x-rated iPhone app, the careers of his TVO cohorts couldn’t be more different – as a whole bevvy of names cropped up on CBBC throughout the month.

In other news this month, Chris Morris became a BAFTA winner, although champions of the passing-fad, the NME, decided Noel Fielding and Never Mind The Buzzcocks didn’t deserve an award this year. The world of mainstream rnb seemed to disagree – in one of the weirdest stories we’ve come across for TVO, cyber-singer T-Pain sang an interpolation of the Boosh track Electroboy for Benny Benassi’s dancefloor hit, ‘Electroman‘. Somehow, it just about worked…

TVO took the time to speak to the fabulous Colin Hoult as he brought his 2010 Edinburgh Show, Enemy Of The World, to the Soho Theatre for a final hurrah, and we also interviewed Diva Zappa ahead of her exhibition at Maison Bertaux.

But February’s big interview came from Fielding himself – as we celebrated his appearance on Let’s Dance For Comic Relief with a two part interview about the show, and his career past, present and future. As Kate Bush, Noel whizzed around with startling precision to Wuthering Heights, sending fangirls across the land a-flutter – and he made it through to the final the following month..

March

The big news this month came in the form of Submarine – the debut directorial feature by Richard Ayoade, which was released on March 18th, debuting just outside the UK top ten despite seeing only a limited release.

On the live circuit, Colin Hoult launched the first of his regular New Adventures club nights, whilst Dan Clark started his lengthy UK tour as the month concluded.

Noel reached the finale of Let’s Dance, with a little help from Julian as Heathcliffe, no less – but was sadly pipped to the post by Charlie Baker’s tapdancing exploits. However, his red dress went on to raise £5,600 for Comic Relief in a charity auction!

TVO’s big interview this month came in the form of Paul Foot, at the conclusion of his Ash In The Attic dates. We also spoke to Nemo frontman James Cook about his debut solo album, Arts & Sciences. Oh, and Dave Brown became a father, which we were all very chuffed about!

Look out for the next instalment of our Review of 2011 coming soon…

We’d like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a very Happy New Year! A huge thank you to you, our lovely peelers, for continuing to come and visit us on a regular basis and for liking what we’re doing. We wouldn’t be here without you. A seriously big thank you too to the artists that we cover on these here pages. Thanks for giving us plenty of amazing stuff to write about and for being so supportive of our efforts.  Here’s to a brilliant 2012 for everyone!