speaker-0: Andy Macleod has written two books. He's taken his solo show to Edinburgh Fringe. He's been a musician, he's been a promoter, he's been a manager, he's been a label boss, and he's also a Tottenham fan for his sins. So we're going to talk about all that. But what I like to do at the start, Andy's great back to the start, was like life like for a young Andy McLeod growing up.
speaker-1: Oh, go, go back to my child. I just had a thing flash up on my screen. It's gone away now. That's good. Growing up. Right. Well, I was born in London. I'm like a sort of plastic Scott, really, because both my parents from Edinburgh and they moved down. I was we were always on the move a bit. So I grew up in London, start off in Chelsea, then down to Dulles. I should really support Chelsea, shouldn't I? I was born in Chelsea. But they are my don't start me on Chelsea. God. Maybe. Yeah, Chelsea then down to South London, Dulwich, then we moved up to out of London to Oxfordshire, then down to Sussex, near Brighton, so Winnie the Pooh country. And then when I was about 17, I went back up to London. Just all I had in my mind was to form a band, really. So I I I scraped into a poly City of London poly. And I thought I've got three years. I'm going to form a band and that's what I did. But you probably want to go, do you want to go earlier into child? Does it get Freudian?
speaker-0: I'm of touching with what was life like in the house. Did you have a musical upbringing at an early age?
speaker-1: Not at all really, no. It was really football for me as a young kid. I can remember seeing West Ham v Fulham FA Cup final 1975 and that sort of green rectangle on the screen. My dad, he was more a rugby guy. He didn't really like football but I just would badger. And where we were living, there was not really any near, we were kind of out in the suburbs so wasn't any foot, Oxford United for a bit and then Brighton but they... And I remember I even wrote a letter to my dad, go, please, can we, and I'd become an obsessed Liverpool fan because it was the era of Kenny Dalglish and Soonus and they were like the best team. So yeah, for me, it was all football. I go around in a Liverpool football kit and football boots and I wanted to be a professional footballer. So you can see where this is going. That, that, that then gets replaced by wanting to be a rock star, you know. Yeah. Eventually went, yeah, it was, was just captivated by the stadium. Eventually went to see Liverpool v Arsenal Charity Shield. Then went to see England, Argentina at Wembley. Like just magical trips to London. Saw Maradona's first ever game. Mine was about 10 or 11. And yeah, so football, it was all consuming. And at some point, I don't know what it was, you know, that start teenage, you go from a kind of innocence to adolescence and suddenly it's music, top of the pops. And
speaker-0: Yeah
speaker-1: then... Yeah, the dream shifts. It's like, actually, that looks even more fun.
speaker-0: Yeah, think that's it. They think most people in the music industry are field footballers, aren't they? I think it's glory hunting.
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: How did you chef the Liverpool to talk them then?
speaker-1: Well, when I then got to London back to being a student, I had a sort of weekend job working at Arsenal in Tottenham selling like the hot dogs for a catering company. So one Saturday I'd do Arsenal, the next Saturday I'd be at Tottenham. And I was living in Golders Green at the time. And everyone was, my flatmate, Jeff the chef was a big Arsenal fan. And I just suddenly realized this was the era of George Graham's Arsenal winning one nil boring, boring Arsenal. and then I go to Tottenham and it would be Gascoigne, Lineker, you didn't know what it would be five, three, four all. And Gascoigne really, just, and I suddenly thought, why do I support Liverpool? I just got won over by Tottenham. I think there was the FA Cup. I suddenly thought, yeah, I'm gonna become a Tottenham fan. And also a lot of Tottenham fans deep down, they support Tottenham because they hate Arsenal so much. You're not an Arsenal fan, are
speaker-0: No, not that though.
speaker-1: you? Yeah, so. There's that kind of, but there's a love hate thing with Arsenal. It's more a hate hate with Chelsea because they just beat us all the time. But coming out this season just as an aside, yeah, it just became like potential living nightmare. Everyone where I live now, everyone's dressed in red as Arsenal and they're to get the quadruple and we're going to get relegated. So, but luckily it didn't come to pass. We, yeah.
speaker-0: My brother-in-law is a West Ham fan, so he'll be listening to that one.
speaker-1: The London clubs hate Tottenham. really, they all, We're more popular with the Man City's and Liverpool Man U, you know, I think. But we're not popular in London.
speaker-0: Obviously I'm a Celtic fan so,
speaker-1: Okay.
speaker-0: like the Ange Post of Koglo thing as well. He should never have left us. I knew when he left and went to use, thought his style of fat bashing was going to be welcomed in there. He won us a European trophy and you still get rid of him.
speaker-1: I loved him. wish he'd been given another chance. I think after we won that European Cup, I'd love to have seen him with the full team back. then, of course, there was the final game. We'd won the European Cup and there was a final game against Brighton. And the players came out and they were still pissed. And they scored and it was 1-0. And then Brighton thumped us for one. I thought, oh, he's gone now because... But yeah, I think the players would have all been great to see. I loved him. Yeah, I shame but...
speaker-0: I think if you get that guy then you've got him for life man, there's something about
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: him. We've
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: never been the same for your life man. We won a double last season, it was still one of the worst seasons we've had.
speaker-1: Maybe he'll go back. Is he with anyone at the moment?
speaker-0: I don't think he does that either. I don't think he goes back in his career.
speaker-1: It's very forwards, isn't it? Yeah.
speaker-0: So musically then once you got to London and you were interested in forming a band, what was your sort of musical influences at that time?
speaker-1: Well, the band that really stole my heart initially were Madness. I mean, I was just the biggest Madness fan. I just loved their kind of... And then I got quite big into all the sort of Simple Minds U2, that kind of era mid, the big Simple Minds fan. Weirdly, it was 40 years since the Milton Keynes Bowl show they did in 1986 with 60,000... And I went dressed as Jim... and I was like literally the only person of 60,000 people. I borrowed my light. I wore a big white shirt, black leggings. I borrowed my grand's beret. I feel everyone would be dressed as Jim Kerr. I got there. It's like, who's this guy dressed as a leprechaun? And of course my mum said, if you lose that beret, you're gonna be in trouble. someone, first thing that happened, someone grabbed it off my head and chucked it during Don't You Forget About Me. And I got bollocked. But funny, I'm... Fast forward, my brother said, at least you're not dressing up as pop stars anymore. And of course I'm in a Cure tribute band. yeah, it has a shape. But yeah, then from, Simple Mize, you too, I kind of then got a bit more Indian. I really then fell for like The Smiths, The Cure, Echo and The Bunny Men. And then, and from that was just entering that kind of, I loved that kind of world of NME, all those bands. so I kind of arrived in London, just that's it. I couldn't really, I could just barely play guitar really. I could. new three chords. And I was just on such a mission, I thought, yeah, that's what I want to do. And so I was just on a recruitment drive. thought I'd get better musicians in and that's what kind of did, you know.
speaker-0: And how did that recruitment drive go then? How did you meet all your bandmates?
speaker-1: Yeah, literally first day of college I was just in the lecture room. I mean, this is kind of the story of the first book, which has annoyed my head how I failed to make it as a Brit pop indie rock star. It kind of tells the story of arriving London. I'm like the first day in the lecture, I'm looking around who could be in a band. There's this poor guy, Marcus, doing a politics degree. And someone said the book's actually about this poor guy from the Midlands that comes down to London to make life better for the disadvantaged and meets this complete nutter. that promises him the big time. we went on a kind of, and he'd actually auditioned to play Adrian Mole in the ITV show. So I thought, yeah, he's pretty much famous. So, and he couldn't play any instruments, but I just thought we got a flat together. I said, you've got to learn the bass. And he kind of, the thespian in him kind of went, okay, I'm up for this. The disadvantage can wait. And then I got my brother. His best mate were they were both really good musicians. They I got them in on the band and then there was a succession of different drummers, of course and that by the end of three years we pretty much had a band and we got you know, we got we got we were a bit schizophrenic, know, we change your identity one minute we're gonna like want to be like You know grunge and then with this and we hadn't really found our identity. But what what did happen we got? a we did quite a good demo and that fell into the hands of a young Ricky Gervais who was the ENCE officer at London University and he rang up by this point I'd graduated working in record shop and I got this call from this random guy called Ricky saying I managed Swade and I want to have you got a manager so I went to meet him and then he became our manager for about six months through which time we were trying to ditch him for someone for the the song more serious because the bad boys are going to be joker you know so that's that's the basic.
speaker-0: So was Ricky like then? Did he have that comedian side even then? Was it hard to take him serious?
speaker-1: Yeah, I mean, that's the kind of the joke of the book. It's like he he was a croc. He was a bit like David Brent in some ways, but he was more self aware. So he was he was very obviously. But none of us would have none of us in a million years would have foreseen what was going to happen because we just thought he was a bit of a joker. You know, I liked him because he liked us, you know, and he he but he was quite. I mean, we did a demo and he jumped on vocals. You know, I've got an idea, you know, and he was great energy and and all of that. But we You know, and to his credit, he got us an agent and he got us in the studio, but I'm still to this day flabbergasted by. We became the band that didn't make it, but our manager did. was the wrong way round.
speaker-0: The guy's stratospheric, isn't he? Whatever he touches turns to gold nowadays.
speaker-1: And the joke is a little bit with this new Edinburgh show, I'm kind of going up there, know, trying to vanquish him, you know, from like, if only, you know, just this one last chance, he could get our demo on the radio, but you know.
speaker-0: So obviously the band, am I right to say, was it called Pointy Birds?
speaker-1: The pointy birds, yeah, might be one of the reasons why we didn't.
speaker-0: Yeah, so who came up with the name? Was that Wacky?
speaker-1: yeah, no, that was me. I mean, I think that's why Ricky liked us. Because I loved that film. Part of the reason, one of the many reasons why we didn't make it is I had this thought, no one's mixing music and comedy. And I thought, you know, I think I at the time liked the inter-song band for as much as the songs. And I think Ricky, so we should have probably done the comedy circuit really, but the Steve Martin film, The Pointy Birds, pointy pointy, my head anointy anointy. So that's the best. The band name came first, then everything was shoehorned into it. Well, were five, 88 we formed, I kind of went to uni and we split up by 93. So yeah, it was all early 90s, pre-Brit pop. was that sort of shoegade through Manchester, shoegaze, a bit of grunge. So we went from baggy, we were kind of like a baggy shoegraze grunge band, you know, and a bit like weirdly, Blur, Suede, all those bands were on the same trajectory, the same time, doing the same thing, but they kind of found their... obviously found their voice and they would take it far more seriously than us. They weren't such a joke band, you know.
speaker-0: So, like, around that time, you'd be gagging as well, were you gagging with any of these bands?
speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, we wrote, yeah, they were, I mean, there's one amazing flyer of the Camden Falcon and it's something like, there's the pointy birds playing with like mad cow disease on a Monday night. on the rest of the flyer, there's like PJ Harvey, The Verve, Divine Comedy. There's just like all these bands that are gonna go on and you just see that vibrant hotbed that was going on then, you know, and yeah, they would... We were crossed, I think Brett from Swade came, we knew someone that knew Brett and he was thinking, you know, we're to get on the Swade support and he came to see us and the gig was a disaster. But we, yeah, it was always, they were just a few steps ahead, you know, and Ricky was like their ex promoter manager. So we thought, yeah, we're next. But yeah, it didn't happen.
speaker-0: Ultimately through this, through the band and all the connections you made, it set you instead for what's to come the rest of your days really. So when did you decide to get into promoting stuff like that?
speaker-1: Well, I then, I went again, I did another band, we're called Big Slice, and I didn't really, we decided to drop the comedy. And then what happened with that is we had a Moog player, a player came in on Moog, and I used to tell him to turn down in the rehearsal, because it was ruining the songs. And then his side project was the low fidelity All Stars. And we went on to see them and did a side project, you know, and they got a deal on the nine. I thought, God, everyone's bloody making it. Even the record shop I was in. was on the cover of the Oasis, What's the Story, Morning Glory cover. So even the shop was becoming famous. thought, and at that point, Sean, our guitarist, was also a music promoter. And he thought, sorry, I'm going to manage the lo-fi's. And he said to me, do you want to do the Tuesdays at the Camden Falcon? And I was like, I don't want to become a music promoter, you know, but I was 27. And I thought I'd do a one-off. I did this one night at the Falcon, booked three bands, it was 100 quid to hire the room. You put on three bands, keep the ticket money, pay the bands and the rest, you know, and I loved it. I just did this one, you know, kind of night was busy. People, I thought, oh, well, maybe this is what I could do. And then one gig led to another. And I just, it's like the kind of door opened. And then also it's weird, I think with bands, you don't really ever see the competition because either if you see a band that's better than you, you just go, oh, wankers. But when you're a promoter, start seeing things through a more commercial lens. You see lots of bands and that kind of made me start to realize, oh yeah, I was not quite as good as I thought we were. You maybe it starts to realize my limitations. And I liked, I think I'm quite a natural, like I need, I like that compulsion to spread the word or to share. If I think something's good, there's, my dad was a sale, there's an inner salesman in me maybe. And I then I met this guy, Simon, I started, came across this demo of these three girls called Tiny Two who were like, in my head it was Abba meets Nirvana. It was around the time of Spice Girls and I thought they're gonna be massive. We're gonna sign a massive deal and I got them a deal. A little bit with this indie called Fierce Panda and they were the label that did singles. And if you did a single on Fierce Panda you were gonna get a big deal. But during the gig, Simon came down to see them. During the gig the guitarist, strings broke and I kind of grabbed the guitar and I said look and I ran out of the venue I ran down the road to my mate Williams house think he'd be in and he wasn't in it's an absolute nightmare and I kind of ran back to the venue five minutes later they're still on stage and I gave them back the guitar everyone's cheering and it was still broken like what that's my career management over but then Simon came up he goes that was brilliant do you want to deal on Fierce Panda and it saved my skin Then Simon and me that was the start of an amazing relationship because he was working with me He was releasing loads of singles and I was doing gigs. So we we formed a 25 year partnership really of We both loved gigs and we end we ended up doing like 400 shows a year at one point and we ended up doing like coming, you know that whole Post-Brit pop into that indie, you know, we stumbled across all these massive bands who at the time none of us would have known it's a bit like the Ricky thing you know we came across Coldplay and a Pub and Bean and Arctic Monkeys, Killers just at the time you know there was millions of other bands but they're the ones we talk about because they all went on you know.
speaker-0: Yeah, so I mean Simon is a previous guest on the podcast and I kind of when doing the research on you and the Club Fandango hadn't come up so I went back and listened to it and honest he's one of my early guests and listening back to it last night I thought that's one of the best interviews I've ever done man, he's a brilliant guest. Obviously the Rickiger-based connection there obviously with you and he had him at XFM and all that so it seems as if yous were made to kind of be together.
speaker-1: But
speaker-0: Maybe you were the replacement for Steve Lamac, because he seemed to be his nemesis in his early career.
speaker-1: Yeah, definitely. was, I think I was the sort of, we fit really well because he, I just remember thinking, well, we're both Tottenham fans, you know, we both bonded, we kind of met and then it was like, well, we're wearing the same color trainers, Adidas things. We both support Tottenham, we both agree, Talk Talk, Spirit of Eden was the greatest album of all time. There's a, we like Midsummer Murder, we had just a lot in common. And his energy for bands, I mean, I'd never met anyone that was just so into. gigs and new music, I thought I was and he was like, oh my God, and he was a magnet for bands as well because he had his label that was then growing. So my role ended up becoming, I used to try and pull the reins on him, you know, like, you he'd be like, I'll decide that, do that. And I'd be like, wow, we've already got a lot on. But it worked, yeah, it worked really well. With our heyday was that sort of fandango in the early noughties. Yeah, it was great time really, yeah.
speaker-0: So obviously you mentioned some of the bands, so like for instance like An Arctic Monkey, so like an early Arctic Monkey and you look at what they've been going to achieve and they've evolved time and time again. So what was it like kind of working with them at the start?
speaker-1: Well, the word I got sent, was a weird one though, because you had that sort of MySpace had just come out. It hadn't kind of kicked in yet because it was right on the end of that period of the music industry where the gig was still the reveal of the band. know, the A &R had to see the gig to know what the band sounded like. And they kind of perceived it as the first MySpace band where, you know, you could put your music up and build this audience. But it hadn't really, it was a few years off, really transforming the industry where A &R no longer needed to go to gig or they'd only go to gig if they liked the sound of them. So I got sent, I bet you look good on the dance floor as a demo and I just thought I played it like three times, you know, it's like what a track and I phoned the manager and I said do you want a Dublin gig at Dublin Castle and he turned out he'd been in this, I kind of knew him vaguely that... He'd been in this band Seafoot. So he came down to the Dublin Castle to see it because they were from Sheffield. And he said, yeah, we want a headline. And I was a bit like, no one wanted the headline slot was the graveyard slot in those days because we were kind like an A &R club. And what you wanted was the first on slot or the middle slot because the A &R, you were trying to get a deal and they'd all come in early and then they'd go off. They didn't want to hang around till the end of the night. So I said, really? He said, yeah, we're going to sell this out with the kids and we don't want any industry. And it was like this sort of fighting tour. thought, yeah, I didn't really believe. said, no, but this demo is going, and it was a crazy, it was such a masterclass because what happened then in the build up to the gig, it did sell out in advance. And the industry were then like, we have to be at this gig. And the phone just wouldn't stop ringing. And I kept saying, the manager, got like, it's going up the food chain. Now you've got the head of there, the head of EMI, and it's going up to the. to chairman, all that, the PA to the chairman, we must be at this gig and he was going, no one. And what transpired, two mad things transpired was one, we took the phone off the hook in the office and it still rang because if a phone's too many people trying to ring a number, it will still ring in an emergency. So that kind of give you an idea of the amount of people ringing. I mean, it sounds like a kind of, and then the sound check sold out. got, because obviously everyone thought, well, we can't get the gig. The sound check. Sound check was packed with A &R and industry trying to ingratiate themselves with the band and it was on this one song and of course the manager arrived with Lawrence from Domino a few industry goes you sneak these in and the gig was mental it was just sort of like this and I thought well god are this band gonna be any good and it was like it me of the Hobbits that all the rings coming through this crowd I thought and they was just stage invasions and someone had recorded it there it went around a few about a year ago they played the Emirates Stadium and someone unearthed a recording of that gig at the Dublin Castle and I'm really pissed going this band are going to be massive so I sound like I probably say that for every band but you know and I probably have like so they were the band I did I sort of them to London and then they got their deal so they do they owe me a pint which I'm gonna get one day
speaker-0: So with that's where, like, obviously you said all the big music industry people were there. With that's where, Connor McNicholas, would you even at this?
speaker-1: Possibly. Yeah, I it was just really you know, because I think those a and R guy if you weren't in that gig you you could be You can get the sack, you know, it's like you your job is to be ingratiate itself the band say Because said benefit if the labels gonna put the deal in do you want that relationship already there? the hard thing with a and R they'd say they'd have to ingratiate themselves with everyone in case that was the band, you know But
speaker-0: Yeah.
speaker-1: they wouldn't commit, know, but yeah Quite possibly would have been there. Yeah
speaker-0: I can mind a comment from Conor McNicholas, he said that when he seen the Arctic Monkeys live and he heard all the fans singing the songs back before they'd even been out, he says he knew then that the music had shifted and it was a different model and the music press had lost their power.
speaker-1: Yeah, well there was like this lovely, they were just, think what it was even more was they just so, they'd reinvented the wheel, they're just a great, great band. And he was funny, that thing about music and comedy that I'd always dreamt of doing, they were doing it in a really kind of more subtle, witty way, that the stories were hilarious, you know, being chucked out of a nightclub. All the kids could relate to it. And then they're just the energy of the, it was like the Beatles, really garagy kind of. And then, yeah, every song was being stopped and started because the kids were just every word. Yeah. Brilliant. Really good.
speaker-0: And what's the situation with Club Fandango now and promoting? Where are we at now, all these years later?
speaker-1: Yeah, we didn't. Well, we went, we got to around about 2019 and we were going to launch a radio, radio fandango. We'd been doing loads and loads of gigs and then probably because our main patch was really Camden and we do Soho a bit. I think around that, everything moved east and we were all getting a bit older, the new promoters coming in and those grassroot gigs to survive, you had to really run them for free. because there was just after 2012, music and dance, Boris Johnson brought that in. It was kind of to help venues in the regions, but what happened in London is just everything became a venue. So those venues, we were using those kind of, you know, the kind of Bull and Gates and the Dub, the ones that were proper music venues ended up going, it was a disaster in some ways. It was good for artists to be able to play, but then you book a band, they go, yeah, we've done five gigs already this week. So then the audience was saturated. Yeah. And then there was no, we ended up getting for 10 years quite addicted to Arts Council money because it was the only way we could survive. We had to fill out these forms because we were booking bands from all around the country, but it became just unsustainable. We couldn't do hundreds of gigs to, to play to no one, you know, and then, and then just have this Arts Council covering the deficit. We were kind of like, well, this has to change. So we, we were going to form this radio fandango as a sort of platform. then COVID hit. We had a three and that just kind of knocked it out. And also I turned 50 at that kind of point. My parents both got sick. And I then went on this, I went kind of the other way. went, actually, I'm gonna, I'd been writing a bit and I had this book finished. So I just went for the book. I'm still, and I'm still managing and promoting, but I scaled it right back. And then the book and the shows and all that, that was just meant to be like a. just get the book out and for my bandmates really and it had a whole life of its own and it still has and now I've signed this deal with Omnibus for the new book I'm doing Edinburgh it's been a lovely journey but not one I was expecting at all yeah now I'm here
speaker-0: Yeah, we'll get onto the books in a minute, obviously, sticking on the promoting, obviously you mentioned all these bands, so one of the more recent ones is Fontaine's DC.
speaker-1: Yep.
speaker-0: like, I mean, this band are massive now. What's it like working with them and seeing their journey?
speaker-1: Well, I... Chris in the office would take credit for them because by that point when we did Fontaines I was bit more floating out getting the names of the bands wrong like who we got this week? Fon Watt and he got them over three times they played. He got them over from Ireland and we put them on at the Finsbury and you know and then they went you know kind of they... I wouldn't have foreseen how big they got but when they went back to Finsbury Park played Finsbury Park two years ago, they put up the Club Fandango flyer, you know, like back to where it started, because they played the little pub Finsbury and then they're playing the big one. I, Chris would know more about the ins and outs of work with them because I would, by that point we had this sort of office and I was, I was at that point more trying to keep the company going rather than being involved in the booking. And Chris was a student that come through the London Met where we did some lecturing. He was amazing. He kind of was. had that energy to find the new bands and do all that.
speaker-0: Because when you look at them now, obviously I'm up in Glasgow, I managed a band for about a year and a half there, I no longer gave it up. So see going to gigs and seeing all these grassroot bands, see the amount of bands that would throw in a Fontaine's DC cover. It seems to be that band's the main influence for the up and coming bands of the day at the moment.
speaker-1: We did a gig with our, jumping in a little bit, did our Incurable's Cure tribute band with Nontains SC. They're a Nontains tribute from Sheffield and they're absolutely amazing. But you can just see just even them, the energy that they get and they've got this crazy fan base now. But for Fontaine's, they're just something, I think it's just really soulful. It's got that punk ethos, but it's quite soulful. Yeah, just again, it's just they're really... I think my theory is you've got to 10 out of 10 or 7 out of 10 to make it. And they're one of the 10 out of 10s. They're just really good at what they do and they're their own sound.
speaker-0: They seem to come out, I think they kind of appeared at the same time as, or to me, they appeared at the same time as the clockworks. think
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: Alan McGee got behind the clockworks. I prefer Fontaine's.
speaker-1: Yeah, there's something about them. Yeah.
speaker-0: Maybe it's the Celtic top, might be that. So at that point, obviously you had the first book,
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: so that was coming up. Obviously when I got Simon on, he'd just released his book, so was a bit of competition between the two of yous.
speaker-1: No, really, because I'd always thought, you know, Simon's just one of the best writers I know. And I'd sort of, you know, I got to see English, you know, I'm not a writer really, but I had lots of stories. just had some stories that I wanted to tell the story of the pointy birds because I just thought it was a good, you know, it's a book about failure really, it's a book. And I didn't really realize it's all, know, memoirs and all about, people that make it. So the idea was a memoir of a failed rock star. And then of course, there's a huge audience for failed rock stars because the vast majority of in bands fail, don't they? only, know, there's a lot of side habits. So I was in a band that failed, so was I, because I put the word failure in. And I don't think I even realized I'd failed until I wrote, because my brother said, why don't you say how I failed? Because I was going to how I tried to make it. I go, I didn't fail. But I did, I did the book. And I think Simon probably thought I kept, I badgered Simon. I said, why don't you? He's such a good writer. And he was always a bit like, no, no, no. And then he just, think one of the reasons might may have been seeing, I got a book out and then he goes, yeah, I better get this done. And he went through all various, if you know Simon's stories, it became very cathartic for him after what he went through, which all documented in his book. it's been a great journey for him. And he's, yeah, he's now doing his Chris book, but it's been really nice, the two of us, because of. had this promoting partnership and now we want our books. Our first books came out soon and now the second books. He's, you know, we'll meet up in the good mix. He's telling me all, I won't do a spoiler, all about the plan he's got for his new one, you know. So it's great, yeah.
speaker-0: brilliant. And then 2022 you brought this, you brought the book to the fringe, you adapted it into a solo show. the same as you're going to be doing this year. So how do you go about bringing that to stage?
speaker-1: bloody difficult because I you know the first one it was I mean such a learning I can't believe I'm doing love but that you the audiobook is about seven hours long you know so you've got to try and condense that down to 52 minutes and but yet 52 minutes is so it's no time because you don't want us but then it's a long time as well to stand on stage but I this amazing you know just through different people who had done it before and directors and just talk to people. This one guy said the comedian Phil Nichols, I don't know, do you know him? The Canadian comedian. Mel set me up with him to... And he sort of said this amazing thing is he said, your character Horace, that's my nickname, he wants to be a rock star, from my book, he's surrounded by four people within the book. One is Ricky Gervais saying, you can do it. There's Brett Anderson who's saying, I've already done it. There's my guy in the record shop, Phil, my boss going, you can't do this. And then Marcus, my mate from Coventry, I've shoe-worn did the bank. Are we really going to do it? And he said, just every scene you do, just have one of those four. And then the game changer was playing some of the pointy bird songs. So I hadn't picked up the guitar for 30 years. I thought, oh, I can't do that. And there was this lovely moment where I kind of realized, oh, I can play the songs, but I'll play them for laughs now. So the show became the story of the Pointy Bears and then there was actually a battle between the older me and my younger me and the younger me by the fact I'm going back on stage, maybe my younger self is coming back. So I had these sunglasses. And so it just became a real fantastic experience where I sort of, yeah, I was playing the songs again, people were laughing, but I didn't mind. was like, can you believe you thought this would go to number one? And I just had real fun with it. And also my parents and My mum had died just before Edinburgh, my dad was ill and I knew he was going to die when I got back. So it became quite a profound, and they were both from Edinburgh, so it became this sort of mad, obviously, back to where I'd sort of spent child back to them. And I had this kind of very, through death there becomes a kind of, you know, realisation, life's short. And so I had this responsibility. I thought I've got to enjoy every second of this. So it became quite profound experience in lots of ways that I was at last going to the Fringe to do what I'd always dreamt of doing it. And then for them and all of that. And this is all kind of seeped into the new show a bit as well. yeah, and I love Edinburgh. You're probably Glaswegian like bloody Edinburgh.
speaker-0: Yeah, I mean, I'm more swayed to Glasgow than Edinburgh, I have in recent years started branching out to Edinburgh. some of the gigs you can get in Glasgow, so I need to go to Edinburgh now. Going
speaker-1: Well, I was... Yeah.
speaker-0: to see Oasis at Murrayfield, that's the first time I've been at Murrayfield last year.
speaker-1: okay, yeah.
speaker-0: Absolute brilliant experience. But I think I got a couple of gigs coming up this year in Edinburgh. And I'm going to try and make it to yourself at the Fringe because
speaker-1: Okay, brilliant.
speaker-0: I think that will be cracking to see your next show. What's the dates for that? Have you got the dates?
speaker-1: Yeah, it runs from the 6th of August to the 17th. It may be extended, but I thought I'd do a shorter one. now, yeah, so I'm in the, with just the tonic in the, where am I? The castroom in the Mash House, the Mash House down on Cowgate. So it's kind of dingy, dirty, dingy venue, but it suits because it's in the world of gigs and that kind of thing. it's effectively, it's the same. similar show but I'm trying to make it a rockstar then as manager and then maybe and it's brought up to the present day a little bit.
speaker-0: Yeah, and where can people get your books, your physical books as well? And apologies, obviously, I've no read them yet. I only kind of got the, got in touch with you in the last week, so something that I'll be going back and reading. But for the listeners, whereabouts can you get them?
speaker-1: Well, the first one, they're both through Omnibus Press, they're coming out on July the 16th. So they're actually not out at the moment because they're reissuing the first one. As for the new cover and then, so there's Annoy in My Head, How I Failed to Make It as a Brit Poppity Rockstar is the one that came out in 2021 and being reissued. And then the new one is Soho Days, Camden Nights. the chronicles of a failed indie rock star. I'm doubling down on the failure here. And yeah, July 16th, then you can get them from wherever they'll be in bookshops or platforms and audio books and all that sort of thing. And I'll have some for sale at the show as well if anyone can make it to the Edinburgh show.
speaker-0: Yeah, I mean that's perfect timing for me mid-July because I've got a couple of weeks off so I'll get there and I'll smash him out then.
speaker-1: They're quite fast, mean it's quite a light, they're quite, that's a nice thing. I spent a long time with them to make them as quick a read as possible. I wanted to try and write a funny book about music, trying to make it in music really.
speaker-0: I mean in the last few years, obviously Simon's book. Simon's book was a brilliant read. And I read Steve Diggle's book
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: last summer. Absolute brilliant book again man. So I've got right back into my reading the last few years.
speaker-1: There seems to be a real thing of a lot of people in music writing now. mean a lot of memoirs and things coming out. It's become a real, yeah maybe we're all, don't know what else to do or something, but yeah, some great stuff out there.
speaker-0: If you look at the Britpop guys are going round doing the audience with tours as well and Brown out a book off the bucket. I Steve Craddock's done it, think John Power's done it and Danny Neymar, I'm speaking to him on Friday, I think he's going out on the road next year to do a Spoken Word tour accompanying his book.
speaker-1: think people like the story behind the story, don't they? know, like, because this music's not going away, it? You know, like, the different scenes, it keeps going bigger and bigger and then eventually people go, well, what was it like? You know, what these bands like? What's the story? And people love all that stuff, you know. Yeah. So, yeah.
speaker-0: So, August 6th to the 17th I think you said for Edinburgh Friends shows. I'll post all the links and the show notes for people. The last part of the podcast, obviously it's called Time for Heroes. I
speaker-1: Yes.
speaker-0: asked my guest to pick four heroes to come for dinner.
speaker-1: yeah.
speaker-0: Why are they your heroes and what would you cook for them? can be... They can be dead or alive, can be musicians, sports people, whatever you want.
speaker-1: Yeah
speaker-0: But I four heroes, if you can whittle it down. Some people have ended up picking about 15.
speaker-1: Oh yeah, good, could go on. got, I start writing to other people. Well, immediately it springs to mind I'd have Billy Connolly. Because I mean, the guy more than anyone, I mean, what he could, I'm just going to wet myself when he starts talking. And I just love everything, you know, his stories and the, yeah. And then he's kind of all his history stuff and he's just enthusiasm and his interest for stuff, but just, he's just the funniest person ever, I think. And I grew up with him. Scottish connection so I definitely have Billy Connolly there. I'd also as a writer, P.G. Woodhouse again, someone put me onto his books, you know, maybe about 10 years ago. I thought oh is it just like Jeeves and Worcester it might be a bit like the TV show which I never really found that funny with Fry and Laurie and I got to the books oh my god I just, just the sort of innocence of them and how funny they were, the writing and he wrote like 90 odd books and they're just... every line and it's beyond genius you kind of go I'd put him for me I mean he's even beyond a Shakespeare for me Sir P.G. Woodhouse I didn't want to I was thinking about this I thought I don't want to be picking all blokes as well because it was just like then I was going to say Robert Smith of The Cure and I thought god this is a very blokey kind of thing so I I draw is it sort of people that have inspired you or
speaker-0: Whatever's kind of had an influence in your life, whatever's had a drive or whatever, whatever you...
speaker-1: There's a show I went to see, I'm gonna make it little bit more up to date and I was really talking about, can I do this, Edwin Shire? And I've written this sort of thing, thinking, this is just what I've, you know, when you're about to give up on something. And then I went to see Weir with Natalie Pellidez, I think that's her name. She's from LA and she does these one-woman shows and that was 90 minutes in Walthamstow of the best theater I've ever seen. It was absolutely unbelievable what she did. As far as and it was just what you can do with a stage and she had a thousand people on the edge of their seats and it was hilarious it was dramatic and she just did it on her own and it was kind of Yeah, so I'm gonna stick her in there Yeah, yeah, she's had this kind of really cult Yeah, but I think as far as if you're doing a one-person show she You wouldn't get any better than that. they kind of come It was like a retelling of Romeo and Juliet meets kind of Bugs Bunny via 80s Brat Pat movies. I mean, it was just unbelievable. So I was really inspired. Why else am I? else? Maybe I could put football. Yeah, Robert Smith would have to go in there because, as I've subsequently become now being Robert Smith in a Cure tribute.
speaker-0: Yes, so we never spoke about that actually, so how did that come about?
speaker-1: As a kind of mad one, I mean, because part of the show, you know, I'm sort of complaining about with Camden, one of the things that ended the heyday a bit was not just kids going east, there was this sort of gastropub, the venue started shutting and then they'd sort of reopen with lovely triple fried chips cooked in goose fat. then, and I sort of go on, the other big threat to the venues was tribute bands. You you're putting on these new bands and then... no one's there and then a tribute band sells out the venue so they became the enemy for a while. So in a kind of calm beat and joy in a moment, years later I went to see the Smythes at the Electric Ballroom under duress, know, I don't really want to go to this but I'll pop by and I just had the best night, know, just singing along the Smiths songs and then the next day think it popped in my head like, a Cure tribute band of course, it was like a destiny call, like the sky opened and like... When I was in the Poyd Post people said, oh you sound a bit like Robert Smith. And I'd been to a Halloween party a bit earlier and everyone thought I'd gone as Robert Smith because when I put the wig on, it's all you Robert Smith. And so I put all these things together and I went up to this guy at my local Lido swimming pool I said, do you want to form a Cure tribute band? And he went, oh they're my favourite band. He said, my best mate's a bass player and he's a big Cure fan. went, okay. And then the next day this guy, Jeremy, came up to me and goes, are you forming a Cure tribute band? And I said, we might be. Yeah, why? And he said, I play keyboards. I said, you're in, you know. And then someone said, well, we just need a drummer now. On day three, this guy goes, you should ring Jimmy, you know. And Jimmy was this guy I'd met at something and I phoned Jimmy and he goes, I've been waiting for this call. I said, Cure tribute band? And he went, it was like Ocean's Eleven. And we booked a rehearsal room and I mean it turns out Jimmy used to play for the Commodores. I mean we've got the best band and we just, that thing about the chemistry it was like, okay. So then we put a one gig in at the Dublin Castle, sold out, people sung along, we started, you know, these decisions like do you wear a wig or not? And it's just been a total joy, you know, we just do these shows now. We're now headlining the Electric Ballroom next January on an all day. We sold out the 100 Club. the
speaker-0: Amazing,
speaker-1: narrative of the failed rock stuff failed is sort of, everyone's going, this is book three, isn't it? You know, kind of end up going full circle. So it's, yeah, no, it's just been great fun. I don't know where it's going to end the tribute stuff, but I'm fully behind. And also I think tribute bands are helping venues now because without them, these venues are going to close. They kind of... It helped keep those venues right so they can support new music. it's more of a friend than a foe, think now.
speaker-0: I mean you get full festivals that are tribute bands and stuff like that. And there's so much. I had probably in about the same time I spoke to Simon all the years ago, I had a teenage fan club tribute band on the podcast. were they called? They were called Star Sign. Oh, They were out in Australia. one of the singers slash guitarists, he moved to Glasgow. to be in a band and he was here six months and him and his girlfriend got deported. it wasn't until he went back to Australia that he formed this teenage fan club band. And you were that close, you could have been actually up on stage playing with Jerry Love and all that. you had to travel across the world and back again to do it.
speaker-1: Yeah, amazing. Yeah.
speaker-0: Yeah, so I am you said you were going to talk in a footballer like a footballer to check a footballer in there as
speaker-1: Any dog leash.
speaker-0: well. Do you know what I see the guys are certain vintage. had the I had them the drummer for smaller on. I think he was my last guest. Obviously, he's for Liverpool, but that's who he chose as well.
speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, I mean that was like I love I mean there's so many football and I love Gascoigne and But yes, there's also a bit of a Scottish cadet I mean I could go on and on there's just so many So many bit Mark Hollis from Talk Talk. I think they are the greatest. He's the greatest of them all There's a review of the album Spirit of Eden on Pitchfork where you know that that They're very stingy on their votes. They'll give out something like 7.4, 7.5. You get an eight out of 10, but it's 8.1, and it's all these top music critics. But Talk Talk is 10 out of 10, Spirit of Eden. And the review, the essay on why it's a 10 out of 10 is almost as good as the album. It's like, yeah, it's just a masterpiece. And the interviews with Mark Hollis, with him talking about Spirit of Eden, because he then disappeared. the music disappeared, like his albums became more more ambient and by the final one, it's not the band split up, they just like vanished, you know, and he vanished. that I'd love to love to, and Simon interviewed Mark Collis as well. So that was like, wow, God.
speaker-0: It has been an absolute pleasure speaking to you today Andy.
speaker-1: Thank
speaker-0: Really enjoyable hour speaking to you. Your story's fantastic. I'll reiterate for the viewers Andy's show at the Fringe August the 6th to the 17th. I'll post all your links on your websites, links for it and all that.
speaker-1: could do a flyer and stuff as well if that's any use.
speaker-0: That would be grand. An absolute pleasure speaking to you.
speaker-1: Okay, good.
speaker-0: But aye, thank you very much.
speaker-1: Thank you. Thank you too. Brilliant.
speaker-1: Oh, go, go back to my child. I just had a thing flash up on my screen. It's gone away now. That's good. Growing up. Right. Well, I was born in London. I'm like a sort of plastic Scott, really, because both my parents from Edinburgh and they moved down. I was we were always on the move a bit. So I grew up in London, start off in Chelsea, then down to Dulles. I should really support Chelsea, shouldn't I? I was born in Chelsea. But they are my don't start me on Chelsea. God. Maybe. Yeah, Chelsea then down to South London, Dulwich, then we moved up to out of London to Oxfordshire, then down to Sussex, near Brighton, so Winnie the Pooh country. And then when I was about 17, I went back up to London. Just all I had in my mind was to form a band, really. So I I I scraped into a poly City of London poly. And I thought I've got three years. I'm going to form a band and that's what I did. But you probably want to go, do you want to go earlier into child? Does it get Freudian?
speaker-0: I'm of touching with what was life like in the house. Did you have a musical upbringing at an early age?
speaker-1: Not at all really, no. It was really football for me as a young kid. I can remember seeing West Ham v Fulham FA Cup final 1975 and that sort of green rectangle on the screen. My dad, he was more a rugby guy. He didn't really like football but I just would badger. And where we were living, there was not really any near, we were kind of out in the suburbs so wasn't any foot, Oxford United for a bit and then Brighton but they... And I remember I even wrote a letter to my dad, go, please, can we, and I'd become an obsessed Liverpool fan because it was the era of Kenny Dalglish and Soonus and they were like the best team. So yeah, for me, it was all football. I go around in a Liverpool football kit and football boots and I wanted to be a professional footballer. So you can see where this is going. That, that, that then gets replaced by wanting to be a rock star, you know. Yeah. Eventually went, yeah, it was, was just captivated by the stadium. Eventually went to see Liverpool v Arsenal Charity Shield. Then went to see England, Argentina at Wembley. Like just magical trips to London. Saw Maradona's first ever game. Mine was about 10 or 11. And yeah, so football, it was all consuming. And at some point, I don't know what it was, you know, that start teenage, you go from a kind of innocence to adolescence and suddenly it's music, top of the pops. And
speaker-0: Yeah
speaker-1: then... Yeah, the dream shifts. It's like, actually, that looks even more fun.
speaker-0: Yeah, think that's it. They think most people in the music industry are field footballers, aren't they? I think it's glory hunting.
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: How did you chef the Liverpool to talk them then?
speaker-1: Well, when I then got to London back to being a student, I had a sort of weekend job working at Arsenal in Tottenham selling like the hot dogs for a catering company. So one Saturday I'd do Arsenal, the next Saturday I'd be at Tottenham. And I was living in Golders Green at the time. And everyone was, my flatmate, Jeff the chef was a big Arsenal fan. And I just suddenly realized this was the era of George Graham's Arsenal winning one nil boring, boring Arsenal. and then I go to Tottenham and it would be Gascoigne, Lineker, you didn't know what it would be five, three, four all. And Gascoigne really, just, and I suddenly thought, why do I support Liverpool? I just got won over by Tottenham. I think there was the FA Cup. I suddenly thought, yeah, I'm gonna become a Tottenham fan. And also a lot of Tottenham fans deep down, they support Tottenham because they hate Arsenal so much. You're not an Arsenal fan, are
speaker-0: No, not that though.
speaker-1: you? Yeah, so. There's that kind of, but there's a love hate thing with Arsenal. It's more a hate hate with Chelsea because they just beat us all the time. But coming out this season just as an aside, yeah, it just became like potential living nightmare. Everyone where I live now, everyone's dressed in red as Arsenal and they're to get the quadruple and we're going to get relegated. So, but luckily it didn't come to pass. We, yeah.
speaker-0: My brother-in-law is a West Ham fan, so he'll be listening to that one.
speaker-1: The London clubs hate Tottenham. really, they all, We're more popular with the Man City's and Liverpool Man U, you know, I think. But we're not popular in London.
speaker-0: Obviously I'm a Celtic fan so,
speaker-1: Okay.
speaker-0: like the Ange Post of Koglo thing as well. He should never have left us. I knew when he left and went to use, thought his style of fat bashing was going to be welcomed in there. He won us a European trophy and you still get rid of him.
speaker-1: I loved him. wish he'd been given another chance. I think after we won that European Cup, I'd love to have seen him with the full team back. then, of course, there was the final game. We'd won the European Cup and there was a final game against Brighton. And the players came out and they were still pissed. And they scored and it was 1-0. And then Brighton thumped us for one. I thought, oh, he's gone now because... But yeah, I think the players would have all been great to see. I loved him. Yeah, I shame but...
speaker-0: I think if you get that guy then you've got him for life man, there's something about
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: him. We've
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: never been the same for your life man. We won a double last season, it was still one of the worst seasons we've had.
speaker-1: Maybe he'll go back. Is he with anyone at the moment?
speaker-0: I don't think he does that either. I don't think he goes back in his career.
speaker-1: It's very forwards, isn't it? Yeah.
speaker-0: So musically then once you got to London and you were interested in forming a band, what was your sort of musical influences at that time?
speaker-1: Well, the band that really stole my heart initially were Madness. I mean, I was just the biggest Madness fan. I just loved their kind of... And then I got quite big into all the sort of Simple Minds U2, that kind of era mid, the big Simple Minds fan. Weirdly, it was 40 years since the Milton Keynes Bowl show they did in 1986 with 60,000... And I went dressed as Jim... and I was like literally the only person of 60,000 people. I borrowed my light. I wore a big white shirt, black leggings. I borrowed my grand's beret. I feel everyone would be dressed as Jim Kerr. I got there. It's like, who's this guy dressed as a leprechaun? And of course my mum said, if you lose that beret, you're gonna be in trouble. someone, first thing that happened, someone grabbed it off my head and chucked it during Don't You Forget About Me. And I got bollocked. But funny, I'm... Fast forward, my brother said, at least you're not dressing up as pop stars anymore. And of course I'm in a Cure tribute band. yeah, it has a shape. But yeah, then from, Simple Mize, you too, I kind of then got a bit more Indian. I really then fell for like The Smiths, The Cure, Echo and The Bunny Men. And then, and from that was just entering that kind of, I loved that kind of world of NME, all those bands. so I kind of arrived in London, just that's it. I couldn't really, I could just barely play guitar really. I could. new three chords. And I was just on such a mission, I thought, yeah, that's what I want to do. And so I was just on a recruitment drive. thought I'd get better musicians in and that's what kind of did, you know.
speaker-0: And how did that recruitment drive go then? How did you meet all your bandmates?
speaker-1: Yeah, literally first day of college I was just in the lecture room. I mean, this is kind of the story of the first book, which has annoyed my head how I failed to make it as a Brit pop indie rock star. It kind of tells the story of arriving London. I'm like the first day in the lecture, I'm looking around who could be in a band. There's this poor guy, Marcus, doing a politics degree. And someone said the book's actually about this poor guy from the Midlands that comes down to London to make life better for the disadvantaged and meets this complete nutter. that promises him the big time. we went on a kind of, and he'd actually auditioned to play Adrian Mole in the ITV show. So I thought, yeah, he's pretty much famous. So, and he couldn't play any instruments, but I just thought we got a flat together. I said, you've got to learn the bass. And he kind of, the thespian in him kind of went, okay, I'm up for this. The disadvantage can wait. And then I got my brother. His best mate were they were both really good musicians. They I got them in on the band and then there was a succession of different drummers, of course and that by the end of three years we pretty much had a band and we got you know, we got we got we were a bit schizophrenic, know, we change your identity one minute we're gonna like want to be like You know grunge and then with this and we hadn't really found our identity. But what what did happen we got? a we did quite a good demo and that fell into the hands of a young Ricky Gervais who was the ENCE officer at London University and he rang up by this point I'd graduated working in record shop and I got this call from this random guy called Ricky saying I managed Swade and I want to have you got a manager so I went to meet him and then he became our manager for about six months through which time we were trying to ditch him for someone for the the song more serious because the bad boys are going to be joker you know so that's that's the basic.
speaker-0: So was Ricky like then? Did he have that comedian side even then? Was it hard to take him serious?
speaker-1: Yeah, I mean, that's the kind of the joke of the book. It's like he he was a croc. He was a bit like David Brent in some ways, but he was more self aware. So he was he was very obviously. But none of us would have none of us in a million years would have foreseen what was going to happen because we just thought he was a bit of a joker. You know, I liked him because he liked us, you know, and he he but he was quite. I mean, we did a demo and he jumped on vocals. You know, I've got an idea, you know, and he was great energy and and all of that. But we You know, and to his credit, he got us an agent and he got us in the studio, but I'm still to this day flabbergasted by. We became the band that didn't make it, but our manager did. was the wrong way round.
speaker-0: The guy's stratospheric, isn't he? Whatever he touches turns to gold nowadays.
speaker-1: And the joke is a little bit with this new Edinburgh show, I'm kind of going up there, know, trying to vanquish him, you know, from like, if only, you know, just this one last chance, he could get our demo on the radio, but you know.
speaker-0: So obviously the band, am I right to say, was it called Pointy Birds?
speaker-1: The pointy birds, yeah, might be one of the reasons why we didn't.
speaker-0: Yeah, so who came up with the name? Was that Wacky?
speaker-1: yeah, no, that was me. I mean, I think that's why Ricky liked us. Because I loved that film. Part of the reason, one of the many reasons why we didn't make it is I had this thought, no one's mixing music and comedy. And I thought, you know, I think I at the time liked the inter-song band for as much as the songs. And I think Ricky, so we should have probably done the comedy circuit really, but the Steve Martin film, The Pointy Birds, pointy pointy, my head anointy anointy. So that's the best. The band name came first, then everything was shoehorned into it. Well, were five, 88 we formed, I kind of went to uni and we split up by 93. So yeah, it was all early 90s, pre-Brit pop. was that sort of shoegade through Manchester, shoegaze, a bit of grunge. So we went from baggy, we were kind of like a baggy shoegraze grunge band, you know, and a bit like weirdly, Blur, Suede, all those bands were on the same trajectory, the same time, doing the same thing, but they kind of found their... obviously found their voice and they would take it far more seriously than us. They weren't such a joke band, you know.
speaker-0: So, like, around that time, you'd be gagging as well, were you gagging with any of these bands?
speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, we wrote, yeah, they were, I mean, there's one amazing flyer of the Camden Falcon and it's something like, there's the pointy birds playing with like mad cow disease on a Monday night. on the rest of the flyer, there's like PJ Harvey, The Verve, Divine Comedy. There's just like all these bands that are gonna go on and you just see that vibrant hotbed that was going on then, you know, and yeah, they would... We were crossed, I think Brett from Swade came, we knew someone that knew Brett and he was thinking, you know, we're to get on the Swade support and he came to see us and the gig was a disaster. But we, yeah, it was always, they were just a few steps ahead, you know, and Ricky was like their ex promoter manager. So we thought, yeah, we're next. But yeah, it didn't happen.
speaker-0: Ultimately through this, through the band and all the connections you made, it set you instead for what's to come the rest of your days really. So when did you decide to get into promoting stuff like that?
speaker-1: Well, I then, I went again, I did another band, we're called Big Slice, and I didn't really, we decided to drop the comedy. And then what happened with that is we had a Moog player, a player came in on Moog, and I used to tell him to turn down in the rehearsal, because it was ruining the songs. And then his side project was the low fidelity All Stars. And we went on to see them and did a side project, you know, and they got a deal on the nine. I thought, God, everyone's bloody making it. Even the record shop I was in. was on the cover of the Oasis, What's the Story, Morning Glory cover. So even the shop was becoming famous. thought, and at that point, Sean, our guitarist, was also a music promoter. And he thought, sorry, I'm going to manage the lo-fi's. And he said to me, do you want to do the Tuesdays at the Camden Falcon? And I was like, I don't want to become a music promoter, you know, but I was 27. And I thought I'd do a one-off. I did this one night at the Falcon, booked three bands, it was 100 quid to hire the room. You put on three bands, keep the ticket money, pay the bands and the rest, you know, and I loved it. I just did this one, you know, kind of night was busy. People, I thought, oh, well, maybe this is what I could do. And then one gig led to another. And I just, it's like the kind of door opened. And then also it's weird, I think with bands, you don't really ever see the competition because either if you see a band that's better than you, you just go, oh, wankers. But when you're a promoter, start seeing things through a more commercial lens. You see lots of bands and that kind of made me start to realize, oh yeah, I was not quite as good as I thought we were. You maybe it starts to realize my limitations. And I liked, I think I'm quite a natural, like I need, I like that compulsion to spread the word or to share. If I think something's good, there's, my dad was a sale, there's an inner salesman in me maybe. And I then I met this guy, Simon, I started, came across this demo of these three girls called Tiny Two who were like, in my head it was Abba meets Nirvana. It was around the time of Spice Girls and I thought they're gonna be massive. We're gonna sign a massive deal and I got them a deal. A little bit with this indie called Fierce Panda and they were the label that did singles. And if you did a single on Fierce Panda you were gonna get a big deal. But during the gig, Simon came down to see them. During the gig the guitarist, strings broke and I kind of grabbed the guitar and I said look and I ran out of the venue I ran down the road to my mate Williams house think he'd be in and he wasn't in it's an absolute nightmare and I kind of ran back to the venue five minutes later they're still on stage and I gave them back the guitar everyone's cheering and it was still broken like what that's my career management over but then Simon came up he goes that was brilliant do you want to deal on Fierce Panda and it saved my skin Then Simon and me that was the start of an amazing relationship because he was working with me He was releasing loads of singles and I was doing gigs. So we we formed a 25 year partnership really of We both loved gigs and we end we ended up doing like 400 shows a year at one point and we ended up doing like coming, you know that whole Post-Brit pop into that indie, you know, we stumbled across all these massive bands who at the time none of us would have known it's a bit like the Ricky thing you know we came across Coldplay and a Pub and Bean and Arctic Monkeys, Killers just at the time you know there was millions of other bands but they're the ones we talk about because they all went on you know.
speaker-0: Yeah, so I mean Simon is a previous guest on the podcast and I kind of when doing the research on you and the Club Fandango hadn't come up so I went back and listened to it and honest he's one of my early guests and listening back to it last night I thought that's one of the best interviews I've ever done man, he's a brilliant guest. Obviously the Rickiger-based connection there obviously with you and he had him at XFM and all that so it seems as if yous were made to kind of be together.
speaker-1: But
speaker-0: Maybe you were the replacement for Steve Lamac, because he seemed to be his nemesis in his early career.
speaker-1: Yeah, definitely. was, I think I was the sort of, we fit really well because he, I just remember thinking, well, we're both Tottenham fans, you know, we both bonded, we kind of met and then it was like, well, we're wearing the same color trainers, Adidas things. We both support Tottenham, we both agree, Talk Talk, Spirit of Eden was the greatest album of all time. There's a, we like Midsummer Murder, we had just a lot in common. And his energy for bands, I mean, I'd never met anyone that was just so into. gigs and new music, I thought I was and he was like, oh my God, and he was a magnet for bands as well because he had his label that was then growing. So my role ended up becoming, I used to try and pull the reins on him, you know, like, you he'd be like, I'll decide that, do that. And I'd be like, wow, we've already got a lot on. But it worked, yeah, it worked really well. With our heyday was that sort of fandango in the early noughties. Yeah, it was great time really, yeah.
speaker-0: So obviously you mentioned some of the bands, so like for instance like An Arctic Monkey, so like an early Arctic Monkey and you look at what they've been going to achieve and they've evolved time and time again. So what was it like kind of working with them at the start?
speaker-1: Well, the word I got sent, was a weird one though, because you had that sort of MySpace had just come out. It hadn't kind of kicked in yet because it was right on the end of that period of the music industry where the gig was still the reveal of the band. know, the A &R had to see the gig to know what the band sounded like. And they kind of perceived it as the first MySpace band where, you know, you could put your music up and build this audience. But it hadn't really, it was a few years off, really transforming the industry where A &R no longer needed to go to gig or they'd only go to gig if they liked the sound of them. So I got sent, I bet you look good on the dance floor as a demo and I just thought I played it like three times, you know, it's like what a track and I phoned the manager and I said do you want a Dublin gig at Dublin Castle and he turned out he'd been in this, I kind of knew him vaguely that... He'd been in this band Seafoot. So he came down to the Dublin Castle to see it because they were from Sheffield. And he said, yeah, we want a headline. And I was a bit like, no one wanted the headline slot was the graveyard slot in those days because we were kind like an A &R club. And what you wanted was the first on slot or the middle slot because the A &R, you were trying to get a deal and they'd all come in early and then they'd go off. They didn't want to hang around till the end of the night. So I said, really? He said, yeah, we're going to sell this out with the kids and we don't want any industry. And it was like this sort of fighting tour. thought, yeah, I didn't really believe. said, no, but this demo is going, and it was a crazy, it was such a masterclass because what happened then in the build up to the gig, it did sell out in advance. And the industry were then like, we have to be at this gig. And the phone just wouldn't stop ringing. And I kept saying, the manager, got like, it's going up the food chain. Now you've got the head of there, the head of EMI, and it's going up to the. to chairman, all that, the PA to the chairman, we must be at this gig and he was going, no one. And what transpired, two mad things transpired was one, we took the phone off the hook in the office and it still rang because if a phone's too many people trying to ring a number, it will still ring in an emergency. So that kind of give you an idea of the amount of people ringing. I mean, it sounds like a kind of, and then the sound check sold out. got, because obviously everyone thought, well, we can't get the gig. The sound check. Sound check was packed with A &R and industry trying to ingratiate themselves with the band and it was on this one song and of course the manager arrived with Lawrence from Domino a few industry goes you sneak these in and the gig was mental it was just sort of like this and I thought well god are this band gonna be any good and it was like it me of the Hobbits that all the rings coming through this crowd I thought and they was just stage invasions and someone had recorded it there it went around a few about a year ago they played the Emirates Stadium and someone unearthed a recording of that gig at the Dublin Castle and I'm really pissed going this band are going to be massive so I sound like I probably say that for every band but you know and I probably have like so they were the band I did I sort of them to London and then they got their deal so they do they owe me a pint which I'm gonna get one day
speaker-0: So with that's where, like, obviously you said all the big music industry people were there. With that's where, Connor McNicholas, would you even at this?
speaker-1: Possibly. Yeah, I it was just really you know, because I think those a and R guy if you weren't in that gig you you could be You can get the sack, you know, it's like you your job is to be ingratiate itself the band say Because said benefit if the labels gonna put the deal in do you want that relationship already there? the hard thing with a and R they'd say they'd have to ingratiate themselves with everyone in case that was the band, you know But
speaker-0: Yeah.
speaker-1: they wouldn't commit, know, but yeah Quite possibly would have been there. Yeah
speaker-0: I can mind a comment from Conor McNicholas, he said that when he seen the Arctic Monkeys live and he heard all the fans singing the songs back before they'd even been out, he says he knew then that the music had shifted and it was a different model and the music press had lost their power.
speaker-1: Yeah, well there was like this lovely, they were just, think what it was even more was they just so, they'd reinvented the wheel, they're just a great, great band. And he was funny, that thing about music and comedy that I'd always dreamt of doing, they were doing it in a really kind of more subtle, witty way, that the stories were hilarious, you know, being chucked out of a nightclub. All the kids could relate to it. And then they're just the energy of the, it was like the Beatles, really garagy kind of. And then, yeah, every song was being stopped and started because the kids were just every word. Yeah. Brilliant. Really good.
speaker-0: And what's the situation with Club Fandango now and promoting? Where are we at now, all these years later?
speaker-1: Yeah, we didn't. Well, we went, we got to around about 2019 and we were going to launch a radio, radio fandango. We'd been doing loads and loads of gigs and then probably because our main patch was really Camden and we do Soho a bit. I think around that, everything moved east and we were all getting a bit older, the new promoters coming in and those grassroot gigs to survive, you had to really run them for free. because there was just after 2012, music and dance, Boris Johnson brought that in. It was kind of to help venues in the regions, but what happened in London is just everything became a venue. So those venues, we were using those kind of, you know, the kind of Bull and Gates and the Dub, the ones that were proper music venues ended up going, it was a disaster in some ways. It was good for artists to be able to play, but then you book a band, they go, yeah, we've done five gigs already this week. So then the audience was saturated. Yeah. And then there was no, we ended up getting for 10 years quite addicted to Arts Council money because it was the only way we could survive. We had to fill out these forms because we were booking bands from all around the country, but it became just unsustainable. We couldn't do hundreds of gigs to, to play to no one, you know, and then, and then just have this Arts Council covering the deficit. We were kind of like, well, this has to change. So we, we were going to form this radio fandango as a sort of platform. then COVID hit. We had a three and that just kind of knocked it out. And also I turned 50 at that kind of point. My parents both got sick. And I then went on this, I went kind of the other way. went, actually, I'm gonna, I'd been writing a bit and I had this book finished. So I just went for the book. I'm still, and I'm still managing and promoting, but I scaled it right back. And then the book and the shows and all that, that was just meant to be like a. just get the book out and for my bandmates really and it had a whole life of its own and it still has and now I've signed this deal with Omnibus for the new book I'm doing Edinburgh it's been a lovely journey but not one I was expecting at all yeah now I'm here
speaker-0: Yeah, we'll get onto the books in a minute, obviously, sticking on the promoting, obviously you mentioned all these bands, so one of the more recent ones is Fontaine's DC.
speaker-1: Yep.
speaker-0: like, I mean, this band are massive now. What's it like working with them and seeing their journey?
speaker-1: Well, I... Chris in the office would take credit for them because by that point when we did Fontaines I was bit more floating out getting the names of the bands wrong like who we got this week? Fon Watt and he got them over three times they played. He got them over from Ireland and we put them on at the Finsbury and you know and then they went you know kind of they... I wouldn't have foreseen how big they got but when they went back to Finsbury Park played Finsbury Park two years ago, they put up the Club Fandango flyer, you know, like back to where it started, because they played the little pub Finsbury and then they're playing the big one. I, Chris would know more about the ins and outs of work with them because I would, by that point we had this sort of office and I was, I was at that point more trying to keep the company going rather than being involved in the booking. And Chris was a student that come through the London Met where we did some lecturing. He was amazing. He kind of was. had that energy to find the new bands and do all that.
speaker-0: Because when you look at them now, obviously I'm up in Glasgow, I managed a band for about a year and a half there, I no longer gave it up. So see going to gigs and seeing all these grassroot bands, see the amount of bands that would throw in a Fontaine's DC cover. It seems to be that band's the main influence for the up and coming bands of the day at the moment.
speaker-1: We did a gig with our, jumping in a little bit, did our Incurable's Cure tribute band with Nontains SC. They're a Nontains tribute from Sheffield and they're absolutely amazing. But you can just see just even them, the energy that they get and they've got this crazy fan base now. But for Fontaine's, they're just something, I think it's just really soulful. It's got that punk ethos, but it's quite soulful. Yeah, just again, it's just they're really... I think my theory is you've got to 10 out of 10 or 7 out of 10 to make it. And they're one of the 10 out of 10s. They're just really good at what they do and they're their own sound.
speaker-0: They seem to come out, I think they kind of appeared at the same time as, or to me, they appeared at the same time as the clockworks. think
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: Alan McGee got behind the clockworks. I prefer Fontaine's.
speaker-1: Yeah, there's something about them. Yeah.
speaker-0: Maybe it's the Celtic top, might be that. So at that point, obviously you had the first book,
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: so that was coming up. Obviously when I got Simon on, he'd just released his book, so was a bit of competition between the two of yous.
speaker-1: No, really, because I'd always thought, you know, Simon's just one of the best writers I know. And I'd sort of, you know, I got to see English, you know, I'm not a writer really, but I had lots of stories. just had some stories that I wanted to tell the story of the pointy birds because I just thought it was a good, you know, it's a book about failure really, it's a book. And I didn't really realize it's all, know, memoirs and all about, people that make it. So the idea was a memoir of a failed rock star. And then of course, there's a huge audience for failed rock stars because the vast majority of in bands fail, don't they? only, know, there's a lot of side habits. So I was in a band that failed, so was I, because I put the word failure in. And I don't think I even realized I'd failed until I wrote, because my brother said, why don't you say how I failed? Because I was going to how I tried to make it. I go, I didn't fail. But I did, I did the book. And I think Simon probably thought I kept, I badgered Simon. I said, why don't you? He's such a good writer. And he was always a bit like, no, no, no. And then he just, think one of the reasons might may have been seeing, I got a book out and then he goes, yeah, I better get this done. And he went through all various, if you know Simon's stories, it became very cathartic for him after what he went through, which all documented in his book. it's been a great journey for him. And he's, yeah, he's now doing his Chris book, but it's been really nice, the two of us, because of. had this promoting partnership and now we want our books. Our first books came out soon and now the second books. He's, you know, we'll meet up in the good mix. He's telling me all, I won't do a spoiler, all about the plan he's got for his new one, you know. So it's great, yeah.
speaker-0: brilliant. And then 2022 you brought this, you brought the book to the fringe, you adapted it into a solo show. the same as you're going to be doing this year. So how do you go about bringing that to stage?
speaker-1: bloody difficult because I you know the first one it was I mean such a learning I can't believe I'm doing love but that you the audiobook is about seven hours long you know so you've got to try and condense that down to 52 minutes and but yet 52 minutes is so it's no time because you don't want us but then it's a long time as well to stand on stage but I this amazing you know just through different people who had done it before and directors and just talk to people. This one guy said the comedian Phil Nichols, I don't know, do you know him? The Canadian comedian. Mel set me up with him to... And he sort of said this amazing thing is he said, your character Horace, that's my nickname, he wants to be a rock star, from my book, he's surrounded by four people within the book. One is Ricky Gervais saying, you can do it. There's Brett Anderson who's saying, I've already done it. There's my guy in the record shop, Phil, my boss going, you can't do this. And then Marcus, my mate from Coventry, I've shoe-worn did the bank. Are we really going to do it? And he said, just every scene you do, just have one of those four. And then the game changer was playing some of the pointy bird songs. So I hadn't picked up the guitar for 30 years. I thought, oh, I can't do that. And there was this lovely moment where I kind of realized, oh, I can play the songs, but I'll play them for laughs now. So the show became the story of the Pointy Bears and then there was actually a battle between the older me and my younger me and the younger me by the fact I'm going back on stage, maybe my younger self is coming back. So I had these sunglasses. And so it just became a real fantastic experience where I sort of, yeah, I was playing the songs again, people were laughing, but I didn't mind. was like, can you believe you thought this would go to number one? And I just had real fun with it. And also my parents and My mum had died just before Edinburgh, my dad was ill and I knew he was going to die when I got back. So it became quite a profound, and they were both from Edinburgh, so it became this sort of mad, obviously, back to where I'd sort of spent child back to them. And I had this kind of very, through death there becomes a kind of, you know, realisation, life's short. And so I had this responsibility. I thought I've got to enjoy every second of this. So it became quite profound experience in lots of ways that I was at last going to the Fringe to do what I'd always dreamt of doing it. And then for them and all of that. And this is all kind of seeped into the new show a bit as well. yeah, and I love Edinburgh. You're probably Glaswegian like bloody Edinburgh.
speaker-0: Yeah, I mean, I'm more swayed to Glasgow than Edinburgh, I have in recent years started branching out to Edinburgh. some of the gigs you can get in Glasgow, so I need to go to Edinburgh now. Going
speaker-1: Well, I was... Yeah.
speaker-0: to see Oasis at Murrayfield, that's the first time I've been at Murrayfield last year.
speaker-1: okay, yeah.
speaker-0: Absolute brilliant experience. But I think I got a couple of gigs coming up this year in Edinburgh. And I'm going to try and make it to yourself at the Fringe because
speaker-1: Okay, brilliant.
speaker-0: I think that will be cracking to see your next show. What's the dates for that? Have you got the dates?
speaker-1: Yeah, it runs from the 6th of August to the 17th. It may be extended, but I thought I'd do a shorter one. now, yeah, so I'm in the, with just the tonic in the, where am I? The castroom in the Mash House, the Mash House down on Cowgate. So it's kind of dingy, dirty, dingy venue, but it suits because it's in the world of gigs and that kind of thing. it's effectively, it's the same. similar show but I'm trying to make it a rockstar then as manager and then maybe and it's brought up to the present day a little bit.
speaker-0: Yeah, and where can people get your books, your physical books as well? And apologies, obviously, I've no read them yet. I only kind of got the, got in touch with you in the last week, so something that I'll be going back and reading. But for the listeners, whereabouts can you get them?
speaker-1: Well, the first one, they're both through Omnibus Press, they're coming out on July the 16th. So they're actually not out at the moment because they're reissuing the first one. As for the new cover and then, so there's Annoy in My Head, How I Failed to Make It as a Brit Poppity Rockstar is the one that came out in 2021 and being reissued. And then the new one is Soho Days, Camden Nights. the chronicles of a failed indie rock star. I'm doubling down on the failure here. And yeah, July 16th, then you can get them from wherever they'll be in bookshops or platforms and audio books and all that sort of thing. And I'll have some for sale at the show as well if anyone can make it to the Edinburgh show.
speaker-0: Yeah, I mean that's perfect timing for me mid-July because I've got a couple of weeks off so I'll get there and I'll smash him out then.
speaker-1: They're quite fast, mean it's quite a light, they're quite, that's a nice thing. I spent a long time with them to make them as quick a read as possible. I wanted to try and write a funny book about music, trying to make it in music really.
speaker-0: I mean in the last few years, obviously Simon's book. Simon's book was a brilliant read. And I read Steve Diggle's book
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: last summer. Absolute brilliant book again man. So I've got right back into my reading the last few years.
speaker-1: There seems to be a real thing of a lot of people in music writing now. mean a lot of memoirs and things coming out. It's become a real, yeah maybe we're all, don't know what else to do or something, but yeah, some great stuff out there.
speaker-0: If you look at the Britpop guys are going round doing the audience with tours as well and Brown out a book off the bucket. I Steve Craddock's done it, think John Power's done it and Danny Neymar, I'm speaking to him on Friday, I think he's going out on the road next year to do a Spoken Word tour accompanying his book.
speaker-1: think people like the story behind the story, don't they? know, like, because this music's not going away, it? You know, like, the different scenes, it keeps going bigger and bigger and then eventually people go, well, what was it like? You know, what these bands like? What's the story? And people love all that stuff, you know. Yeah. So, yeah.
speaker-0: So, August 6th to the 17th I think you said for Edinburgh Friends shows. I'll post all the links and the show notes for people. The last part of the podcast, obviously it's called Time for Heroes. I
speaker-1: Yes.
speaker-0: asked my guest to pick four heroes to come for dinner.
speaker-1: yeah.
speaker-0: Why are they your heroes and what would you cook for them? can be... They can be dead or alive, can be musicians, sports people, whatever you want.
speaker-1: Yeah
speaker-0: But I four heroes, if you can whittle it down. Some people have ended up picking about 15.
speaker-1: Oh yeah, good, could go on. got, I start writing to other people. Well, immediately it springs to mind I'd have Billy Connolly. Because I mean, the guy more than anyone, I mean, what he could, I'm just going to wet myself when he starts talking. And I just love everything, you know, his stories and the, yeah. And then he's kind of all his history stuff and he's just enthusiasm and his interest for stuff, but just, he's just the funniest person ever, I think. And I grew up with him. Scottish connection so I definitely have Billy Connolly there. I'd also as a writer, P.G. Woodhouse again, someone put me onto his books, you know, maybe about 10 years ago. I thought oh is it just like Jeeves and Worcester it might be a bit like the TV show which I never really found that funny with Fry and Laurie and I got to the books oh my god I just, just the sort of innocence of them and how funny they were, the writing and he wrote like 90 odd books and they're just... every line and it's beyond genius you kind of go I'd put him for me I mean he's even beyond a Shakespeare for me Sir P.G. Woodhouse I didn't want to I was thinking about this I thought I don't want to be picking all blokes as well because it was just like then I was going to say Robert Smith of The Cure and I thought god this is a very blokey kind of thing so I I draw is it sort of people that have inspired you or
speaker-0: Whatever's kind of had an influence in your life, whatever's had a drive or whatever, whatever you...
speaker-1: There's a show I went to see, I'm gonna make it little bit more up to date and I was really talking about, can I do this, Edwin Shire? And I've written this sort of thing, thinking, this is just what I've, you know, when you're about to give up on something. And then I went to see Weir with Natalie Pellidez, I think that's her name. She's from LA and she does these one-woman shows and that was 90 minutes in Walthamstow of the best theater I've ever seen. It was absolutely unbelievable what she did. As far as and it was just what you can do with a stage and she had a thousand people on the edge of their seats and it was hilarious it was dramatic and she just did it on her own and it was kind of Yeah, so I'm gonna stick her in there Yeah, yeah, she's had this kind of really cult Yeah, but I think as far as if you're doing a one-person show she You wouldn't get any better than that. they kind of come It was like a retelling of Romeo and Juliet meets kind of Bugs Bunny via 80s Brat Pat movies. I mean, it was just unbelievable. So I was really inspired. Why else am I? else? Maybe I could put football. Yeah, Robert Smith would have to go in there because, as I've subsequently become now being Robert Smith in a Cure tribute.
speaker-0: Yes, so we never spoke about that actually, so how did that come about?
speaker-1: As a kind of mad one, I mean, because part of the show, you know, I'm sort of complaining about with Camden, one of the things that ended the heyday a bit was not just kids going east, there was this sort of gastropub, the venue started shutting and then they'd sort of reopen with lovely triple fried chips cooked in goose fat. then, and I sort of go on, the other big threat to the venues was tribute bands. You you're putting on these new bands and then... no one's there and then a tribute band sells out the venue so they became the enemy for a while. So in a kind of calm beat and joy in a moment, years later I went to see the Smythes at the Electric Ballroom under duress, know, I don't really want to go to this but I'll pop by and I just had the best night, know, just singing along the Smiths songs and then the next day think it popped in my head like, a Cure tribute band of course, it was like a destiny call, like the sky opened and like... When I was in the Poyd Post people said, oh you sound a bit like Robert Smith. And I'd been to a Halloween party a bit earlier and everyone thought I'd gone as Robert Smith because when I put the wig on, it's all you Robert Smith. And so I put all these things together and I went up to this guy at my local Lido swimming pool I said, do you want to form a Cure tribute band? And he went, oh they're my favourite band. He said, my best mate's a bass player and he's a big Cure fan. went, okay. And then the next day this guy, Jeremy, came up to me and goes, are you forming a Cure tribute band? And I said, we might be. Yeah, why? And he said, I play keyboards. I said, you're in, you know. And then someone said, well, we just need a drummer now. On day three, this guy goes, you should ring Jimmy, you know. And Jimmy was this guy I'd met at something and I phoned Jimmy and he goes, I've been waiting for this call. I said, Cure tribute band? And he went, it was like Ocean's Eleven. And we booked a rehearsal room and I mean it turns out Jimmy used to play for the Commodores. I mean we've got the best band and we just, that thing about the chemistry it was like, okay. So then we put a one gig in at the Dublin Castle, sold out, people sung along, we started, you know, these decisions like do you wear a wig or not? And it's just been a total joy, you know, we just do these shows now. We're now headlining the Electric Ballroom next January on an all day. We sold out the 100 Club. the
speaker-0: Amazing,
speaker-1: narrative of the failed rock stuff failed is sort of, everyone's going, this is book three, isn't it? You know, kind of end up going full circle. So it's, yeah, no, it's just been great fun. I don't know where it's going to end the tribute stuff, but I'm fully behind. And also I think tribute bands are helping venues now because without them, these venues are going to close. They kind of... It helped keep those venues right so they can support new music. it's more of a friend than a foe, think now.
speaker-0: I mean you get full festivals that are tribute bands and stuff like that. And there's so much. I had probably in about the same time I spoke to Simon all the years ago, I had a teenage fan club tribute band on the podcast. were they called? They were called Star Sign. Oh, They were out in Australia. one of the singers slash guitarists, he moved to Glasgow. to be in a band and he was here six months and him and his girlfriend got deported. it wasn't until he went back to Australia that he formed this teenage fan club band. And you were that close, you could have been actually up on stage playing with Jerry Love and all that. you had to travel across the world and back again to do it.
speaker-1: Yeah, amazing. Yeah.
speaker-0: Yeah, so I am you said you were going to talk in a footballer like a footballer to check a footballer in there as
speaker-1: Any dog leash.
speaker-0: well. Do you know what I see the guys are certain vintage. had the I had them the drummer for smaller on. I think he was my last guest. Obviously, he's for Liverpool, but that's who he chose as well.
speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, I mean that was like I love I mean there's so many football and I love Gascoigne and But yes, there's also a bit of a Scottish cadet I mean I could go on and on there's just so many So many bit Mark Hollis from Talk Talk. I think they are the greatest. He's the greatest of them all There's a review of the album Spirit of Eden on Pitchfork where you know that that They're very stingy on their votes. They'll give out something like 7.4, 7.5. You get an eight out of 10, but it's 8.1, and it's all these top music critics. But Talk Talk is 10 out of 10, Spirit of Eden. And the review, the essay on why it's a 10 out of 10 is almost as good as the album. It's like, yeah, it's just a masterpiece. And the interviews with Mark Hollis, with him talking about Spirit of Eden, because he then disappeared. the music disappeared, like his albums became more more ambient and by the final one, it's not the band split up, they just like vanished, you know, and he vanished. that I'd love to love to, and Simon interviewed Mark Collis as well. So that was like, wow, God.
speaker-0: It has been an absolute pleasure speaking to you today Andy.
speaker-1: Thank
speaker-0: Really enjoyable hour speaking to you. Your story's fantastic. I'll reiterate for the viewers Andy's show at the Fringe August the 6th to the 17th. I'll post all your links on your websites, links for it and all that.
speaker-1: could do a flyer and stuff as well if that's any use.
speaker-0: That would be grand. An absolute pleasure speaking to you.
speaker-1: Okay, good.
speaker-0: But aye, thank you very much.
speaker-1: Thank you. Thank you too. Brilliant.
