Fellows was a drama student at Manchester Polytechnic[1] when he first came to prominence in August 1978 as the eponymous singer of the novelty record "Jilted John", a first-person narrative of a boorish, bitter teenager whose girlfriend Julie had left him for another boy named Gordon, "just 'cause he's better lookin' than me, just 'cause he's cool and trendy".

Fellows revived the Jilted John character at the 2008 Big Chill festival, along with Bernard Kelly, premiering a new song about Keira Knightley's ultra-thin figure.

[15] Two further Fellows creations followed, firstly Brian Appleton, a rock musicologist and media studies lecturer from a college of further education in the Newcastle-under-Lyme area although originally he hails from Selly Oak in Birmingham.

He is convinced that he has been instrumental in helping many rock acts to achieve megastardom and yet received no credit for his efforts, such as being the cause for the gap in "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)" by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, inadvertently launching the vocal career of Phil Collins at a failed audition for the lead singer of Genesis after the departure of Peter Gabriel and giving Howard Jones the idea for using a mime artist in the hit "New Song" while working opposite him at a Clingfilm factory in High Wycombe.

[19] Fellows released one more album in 1985 under his own name on Wicked Frog records entitled Love at the Haçienda, which was later reissued on Chic Ken in 2005 with four extra tracks.

[22] Prior to creating Shuttleworth, Fellows appeared in Coronation Street as Les Charlton, a young biker chasing the affections of married Gail Platt (then Tilsley).

[24] In July 2009 he read Radio 4's Book of the Week, You're Coming With Me Lad by Mike Pannett, a Metropolitan Police officer's semi-autobiographical account of his experiences in the North Yorkshire town of Malton.

[25] A one-off UK 7" single was released in 1980 under the band name Going Red – "Some Boys"/"Tune Kevin's Strings"[26] – with a picture sleeve depicting Graham in the shower, fully clothed.

The band, as credited on the single sleeve, was Graham Fellows (vocals/guitar), Mervin Cloud (guitar/vocals), Russell Giant (percussion) and Francis Charlton (bass guitar).

The A-side was an uptempo new wave-style rocker, whilst the humorous B-side features fake crowd noises and predictable heavy metal riffing.

[23] Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Midweek programme on 3 June 2015, Fellows said he had recently converted a disused church on the Orkney island of Rousay into an eco-friendly recording studio and artists' retreat.