Transcript
Speaker: Go. This is going to be a dramatic reading. Ooh. Just another rainbow hanging over me. Just another rainbow dripping from my tree. Welcome to our podcast, episode 20.
Speaker: So that was obviously the exceptional lyrics from the fabulous 2024 Smash, Just Another Rainbow by Liam Gallagher and John Squires. Oh, of course, Just Another Rainbow. Some incredible lyrics there. My favourite bit of the song is the bit where he recites the colours of the rainbow.
Speaker: Oh my God, I've not heard it all the way through. Do you want to pause the podcast? What, to go and listen to it? No. I got about 30 seconds in and I had to turn it off. You need to listen to it. It's quite a piece of work. My goodness, I can't believe you went to the trouble of notating the lyrics. They don't take much notating. Oh well. I particularly like the line, dripping from my tree.
Speaker: It's Sunday. Yes. I've got a feeling this podcast going to have a bit of a bit more of a Sunday vibe. I'm feeling a little bit tired. Oh, well, look, we'll pick it up. You know, we've got some interesting stuff to talk about. Yeah. Okay. And we've got another submission for entrance to the halls, which is a good one. Yeah. Have you got anything you want to talk about in relation to the last podcast before we get into that?
Speaker: Did you want to like, did you want to sort of like tie up any loose ends? Anything else occurred to you about rock school? Oh, just it's great. And I've watched a little bit of it because it's all on YouTube. And it's just the fact that Jeff, the drummer, does look like a sixth form technician. And he's just got that grumpy kind of just
Speaker: Just the positioning of his teeth is just sublime. And what a ragtag group of people they are. They don't look like a band in any sense. I think we all need to go and explore that.
Speaker: But yeah, it's great. I can't see me watching the whole thing, but very much like the later albums of The Fall and the continued existence of King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, I don't need to know about it. I'm just glad it's there. Cool. Okay. So here we are. We're going to enter the eternal hall of the four track dogs.
Speaker: Yes, we had a submission from an old friend of ours called Russell. Now, I've been thinking about Russell. He's really pivotal.
Speaker: Pivotal. Pivotal. In us getting involved in music. Pivotal. Because prior to when we started hanging out with Russell in 1987, my God, that's a long time ago, I used to record little songs on my Casio keyboard straight into a tape deck. In secret, I did all this. And I'm pretty sure you found the tapes and just took the piss. Probably. Yeah, you probably did. You're an older brother. Probably it's the sort of thing.
Speaker: The thing about these tapes, they don't exist anymore. And I don't have a tape deck anyway. So even if they did exist, we can't hear them. So then we started hanging out with Russell. He was in your year at school, wasn't he? Yeah, he was the weirder. Yeah, but when did you start hanging out with him? Oh, like towards the end of school. Yeah, like, you know, year 11.
Speaker: Yeah. That's fifth year in old money. Yeah, yeah. When we were doing our GCSEs. Yeah. And, you know, he was like an interesting person at the school. And I was, I became like a trainee, trainee interesting person. Yeah. I went around with Russell trying to learn interesting stuff. Yeah. Like how to backcomb your hair.
Speaker: Absolutely. Russell was the king of that. And applied blue lipstick and listened to music. Weird music. Not big country. No, no, no. I mean, you were into the Smiths and I discovered, well, we both discovered the B -52s and I think that was one of the things that kind of linked us with Russell. Yeah. So we just used to come around our house.
Speaker: Yeah, we used to listen to records and then you went to France with school when you left school. Is that right? Yeah. And then Russell came in and we started writing songs. Yeah. And that was kind of it. And we'd not really done anything prior to that. But yeah, that was, that was kind of the start of it. Anyway, he sent us a song. He sent us a song.
Speaker: What's going on with that piano? I've got a theory. You've got a theory. Yeah. So this is a psychedelic jam and you know, we've all done it. We've all been there with the psychedelic jams and the eternal hall of the four track gods is a broad church. So yeah, I mean, you know, it's definitely got potential. Yeah.
Speaker: It's, you know, you just get in a room with some guys or whoever and you just dig in. Dig in on that chord or two chords and, you know, rock out. We've all done it. We did it. We've got tapes of this kind of shit.
Speaker: I mean, my theory of listening to it, Russell was banging into loop. He was so into loop. It was ridiculous. That's loop. The psychedelic rock band, trance rock band formed in 1986. Yeah. Crap rock influence. I saw them at the Reading Festival in 1989. They were possibly the loudest and possibly, I'm sorry, but I thought they were probably one of the most boring bands I've ever seen.
Speaker: I can't see them going down particularly well at a festival. It kind of dissipated, the trance -like rock dissipated because it was outside, where I think it would probably work better inside a club. Yeah. But that recording that we just heard by Russell's band 69, that to me is the sound of what would happen if Loop ever played on Jules Holland. And Jules is there on the piano.
Speaker: There he is, there's Jules on the piano. He's just trying to get involved. He is, isn't he? He's giving it a go. And you know, actually, you know, I've listened to this recording and towards the very end of it, the piano player starts trying to get a little bit more kind of boogie woogie. Does he? Yeah, he does. I mean, I've listened to it. Listen to the end. Also, there's a really good bit in it where the tape cuts out. I think someone's kind of recorded over part of the
Speaker: the jam so we'll listen to that so we can hear anything in the background
Speaker: Oh.
Speaker: Oh yeah. So he chooses expanding his part there. Yeah, but then it just stops.
Speaker: getting a bit rhythmical. It was like a salsa beat with that left hand. A bit dorsey. So yeah, I like that. So that's Jules Holland, sorry, that's Loop on the Jules Holland show from 1980, 88.
Speaker: That's good. I think it's got to go into the eternal halls of the four track. Is it going in on merit or is it going in on the fact that it's Russell?
Speaker: It's going on a combination of features. I believe okay. Okay go obviously as I said Russell Russell pivotal pivotal member of the history of our musical family tree and also Now you've said it's Jules Holland Playing with loop. I'm really digging it now because I've got the visual picture of
Speaker: It's a nice image, isn't it? It's a good image, right? So you've kind of... I've sold it to you. You've sold it to me, basically. So yeah, so that's it. So t -shirt on the way, Russell. What do you think Luke would have said to the classic Jules Holland question? What was the first music you ever heard?
Speaker: He probably would have said the 13th floor elevators or something. Possibly, yeah. I don't know, I hope it would come up with something more interesting. But you know, probably not. Now obviously Russell was a member of our probably first proper -ish band, The Lovelies.
Speaker: We actually sold tapes. We recorded tapes and sold them. And I remember I was in my last year at school. I was in my fifth year, year 11, whatever you want to call it. And kids in my year bought tapes off me. Cool. It was good.
Speaker: Yeah, it got us into the whole music thing. And the Lovelies were a bit of a thing for a while. We wrote some songs. We're going to listen to one, aren't we? I think this one's probably the apex of the Lovelies recorded output. Yeah, now this is a room recording. And this is the Lovelies. I think you're playing bass. Russell's on guitar. I'm playing really annoying keyboards. And we've got the drum machine. And there's a lady singing it.
Speaker: Yeah. What I like about this is it sounds a little bit like we've kidnapped somebody and we've put them in a basement and we're forcing them to sing on the song. Which is possibly quite similar to what actually happened. It is similar, but I don't think it was for legal reasons. Let's stress it wasn't actual kidnap or abduction. Her name was Eloise.
Speaker: you
Speaker: That's the horse and that is Russell getting his t -shirt and a bit of the lovelies. Russell's going to get a yellow t -shirt. Okay.
Speaker: because I've not got many t -shirts left. So I'm going to give him the yellow one. But if anybody else has any more recordings that you'd like to send in, we will consider them for entry into the halls. And yeah, we like hearing the stuff. We like hearing the stuff. And if you've got any stories to go with them, that is brilliant as well. Otherwise, we'll just make up things like It's Loop with Jules Holland.
Speaker: So now we're going to have two songs which are going to go head to head for a potential place on the second frame of the best of Johnny Domino. God, that's a very long link, isn't it? Yeah. Let's just say, here we go. This is what we normally do. We're going to listen to some songs that we read and talk about them. Okay.
Speaker: Now, this is another one where we have an introduction from our friend Jim, former lead vocalist in Johnny Domino, the later years. Hello, Giles. Hello, Steve. And hello, dear listeners. I'm Jim. To me, Carrion Domino is an obvious candidate for a Johnny Domino best of.
Speaker: and it's one of several songs that are a collage of Giles and My Lyrical Offcuts. Now, I had intended to say a fair bit about this approach to songwriting, about songwriting in general, and about parts of this song, but I've changed my mind
Speaker: Instead, I've decided to present to you an audio word cloud for the song. It may help if you imagine it being read by the guy who used to read the football scores on grandstand or as a shipping forecast. So, here goes.
Speaker: Marks Camera Action Niven Flynn Resistance Pimlico Passport Ken Hattie Babs Sid Phantom Flan Flinger Sally James Large Cool Store
Speaker: Alex Harvey Sensational One man His dog Lollop British Rail Tea Cup
Speaker: Treat us as your natural resources Put us down like empty horses Short -term aims make you who you are Ignorance will get you far No matter how they insist You must try to resist We tried it once but we didn't
Speaker: We tried it once but we didn't like it They said it was bad for our health We tried it once but we didn't like it
Speaker: So we put it back on the shelf We tried it once but we, we didn't like it They said it was back for a half I'm talking a long -time sentence For the kids to be the presenter Who's the blueprint?
Speaker: In a fridge in the glancing twine You won't let me out We tried it once but we didn't like it So we put it back on the shelf We tried it once but we didn't like it They said it was bad for our health
Speaker: We tried it once but we didn't like it So we put it back on the shelf We tried it once but we didn't like it They said it was bad for our health We tried it once but we didn't like it
Speaker: We tried it once but we didn't like it
Speaker: Her ghost sits next to me
Speaker: Stressed up like 1953 Stir the spoons around our heads Reminding us that we're not dead Stir the spoons around our heads Reminding us that we're not dead We're stir the spoons around our heads
Speaker: Reminding us that we're not dead
Speaker: I like the end bit. It's like we really have to make sure that everybody has left the room. It's bonkers.
Speaker: It's like, let's make sure everybody's gone. Yes. Make sure everyone stopped listening. We're going to just do this bit at the end for too long. Did we used to end sets with that song? Yeah, probably. I think we might have done. Yeah. Jesus. I've just been reading the notes on the band camp. Now there was a version of it which was released on a seven inch compilation single called Flying Time Number One. I don't think there was ever a Flying Time Number Two.
Speaker: and it was released on a mini label called the Octane Foil Recording Company. Split seven inch single featuring us and obviously one, two, three, five other bands on a seven inch. And that's an alternate version to that one. Yes, it's got ridiculous Ronnie Hazelhurst trumpets. Oh, I kind of want to hear that.
Speaker: So that one's on the album, the first 100 years, which is the Miserable album by Johnny Domino. I think there was an interview that I think you did with, was it City Lights magazine? And I think you called it the Soul album.
Speaker: Yeah. It says, the first 100 years is definitely less abstract, maybe a bit more emotional. It's our solo album. That's a direct quote from the article. Listening to it now, my view has changed. It's pretty miserable. I think it is our miserable album. And I find it quite hard to listen to out of all of our stuff. Yeah. So, you know, I'm not 100 % wholeheartedly recommending it to anybody at the moment.
Speaker: But maybe that might change. I mean, other people might find stuff in it that's good. But, I mean, if it helps, Carry On Domino is the only track on the album that sounds like that. Everything else does not sound like that. No. You know what? That song's based on. Not really, no. Musically, it is entirely based on Why Does It Always Rain On Me by Travis.
Speaker: Wow. I wasn't expecting that. That is what it is. I think about God, I think it was 90, was it 2000 I think. And yeah, they were ruling the world.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I had that album, actually. It's got a lolliping beat that's kind of like, why does it always rain on me? That's exactly what it was. A lolliping thing. Yeah. But it's got an added layer of horribleness to it. Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, it's not the Cardiacs, because it's not as mad as the Cardiacs. There's something there, yeah, yeah. But it's kind of got a bit of that sort of thing going on, which is kind of weird. Jim sounded like he quite liked it, which is good. Which is good. Can I listen to what he does? Yeah. And he kind of got into his word collage there. I love that. So you can sort of see where he's coming from with it. It's kind of retro British.
Speaker: like a carry -on film, I suppose. So yeah, I mean, what's your favourite carry -on film? Carry -on Screaming. Is it? It's either Screaming or Camping. No, Kyber. Up the Kyber. Up the Kyber is the best for me. Just the title is a Doublin Tondre. What about Follow That Camel?
Speaker: good one too. That's the one with Phil Silvers in it. But it's a lost version of Britain, isn't it? It's a Britain that is no more. Yeah, disappearing. The kind of Johnny Foreigner, very arrogant view of the world. Yeah. Very, very sexist. Yeah. And I don't know. I mean, it's like, I think we were kind of probably laughing at it.
Speaker: in that song. The other thing that it reminds me of is Rent -A -Ghost. Do you remember Rent -A -Ghost? Oh yeah. And there's a bit with the keyboard, which is, it's like a horrible keyboard sound. It's like,
Speaker: It sounds like a really cheap, terrible keyboard. So we probably used one of Mark's expensive keyboards and made it sound bad. Made it sound cheap. Yeah, it sounds like Rent -A -Ghost, which I don't really remember much about, but it's just like a weird sort of like distant memory of a program that was on kids TV. That's really old though. That's really old. Loads of people won't remember that.
Speaker: the people that we are possibly talking to. All the other Stephen Giles is out there. All those other Stephen Giles will remember Rent -A -Ghost. Yeah, maybe. I can't remember anything about it. I don't even know what the business was. Rent -A -Ghost. Why would you want to rent a ghost? What was the deal? And there was Miss Popoff. She was one of them. Oh, yeah. And there's a pantomime horse. Yeah, Rent -A -Ghost.
Speaker: Rent a Ghost was a British children's television comedy show, originally broadcast by the BBC between 1976 and 1984. The show's plot centred on the antics of a number of ghosts who worked for a firm called Rent a Ghost, which hired out the spirits for various tasks.
Speaker: The firm was originally run by Fred Mumford, a recently deceased loser who felt he could find work for ghosts whose lives were as unsuccessful as his. His first and only recruits are Timothy Claypole, a mischievous medieval jester with a comical lack of knowledge about modern technology, and Hubert Davenport, a delicate Victorian era gentleman who was morally shocked by the modern world. But yeah, I don't know, it's a...
Speaker: It's a weird Joy Domino song, that one. That isn't really strange. Yeah. And I think that was probably the last time I wrote a bit of music and taught everyone basically what to play. Yeah. And I don't know if everyone just revolted after that. Yeah. That was the last song that you wrote in entirety. And I think we all kind of
Speaker: was slightly weirded out by it, but went along for the ride. But I think you were getting quite a weird influence from various places.
Speaker: Yeah, we've mentioned Daniel Clow's comic eight more before. And we were very much into it. And there was a story in the first, I think, first 10 issues of it called, like a velvet glove cast in iron. Now, when that story finished, and it's a weird story, a man who goes in search of his wife,
Speaker: And it takes in sort of very extreme violence and a woman who looks like a fish called Tina. And when the story finished,
Speaker: There was a little advert in April that said, if you would like to buy the soundtrack album, you can buy it here. And it was by a band. Well, we thought it was a band at the time called Victor Banana. And John and Albert managed to buy it for me. They bought it for my birthday. They bought it from, was it page 45, the comic shop in Nottingham?
Speaker: It's still a good comic shop. Is it still there? It's still a good comic shop. Excellent. Well, that's great. If you're in Nottingham, get that. On the road that will always be selected this street. Yeah. So they bought a copy of it for me on CD and it's about 10 or 12 minutes long, 10 songs. And it's absolutely nuts. It's really weird. Let's just have a little snippet of it. I mean, it's only a minute and a half long.
Speaker: Slumber precious crumpled horse heads in the ash can leap in sleep Viscous paste will fall in love as you shut down and say
Speaker: Wow. And there's a whole album of stuff that's as weird as that. Yeah. And I would describe it as a very strange and very particular sonic
Speaker: Sensibility. Yeah. You know, it doesn't really sound like anything else. No. And I think you were definitely getting some of the chords and... Oh, yeah. The sort of sensibility of that definitely in the carry -on domino. Yeah. But yeah, it was really, really odd.
Speaker: But we got quite into it. And I remember when we, probably a few years later, we started sending tapes to record labels. We sent one to the label that released that, which was called Jenkins Peabody. And we wrote a very fawning letter about, oh, you've released the work of Victor Banana, AKA Tim Hensley. And we think he's a genius. Have a listen to our stuff. Hope you like it.
Speaker: And Jenkins Peabody was actually run by Tim Hensley. So he wrote back to us. So we'd written this hot fawning letter about what a genius he was. And he wrote back to us and he liked our stuff. And he sent us a copy of his album, which was refrained by Neil Smythe, which is available to listen to on Spotify and is great.
Speaker: But that last song is not on Spotify. It's not on Spotify. So that's our first entry into the songs that are not on Spotify. Yes. Which is something that you haven't mentioned before. It's going to be a new feature. Is it? Okay. Yeah. Songs that are on Spotify. You've got to find them. And I think that's a pretty hot entry into that. So well done for mentioning the first one. It's a pleasure. We'll see what else we can come up with.
Speaker: Yes. Okay. Now the second song, second Johnny Domino song for possible inclusion on the next volume of our best of tape is a song called This Is A Tune. Yeah. Do you want to say anything about it before we play it?
Speaker: Yeah, this is a bit of a bluesy type song from the Erewash Delta. Yes. And the phrase, this is a tune, is a phrase that was much used in the dance music culture. Yes. I was, as I previously mentioned, I was on the fringes of during this point in my life.
Speaker: People would say, this is a tune, quite a lot, while listening to a DJ dropping a banger. And I decided I wanted to use it in a non -dance context. And I think the song is about anything other than the fact that music's great, really. One, two, three.
Speaker: I've been rolling around white labels on my back Building a following to respect me to the max I won an award for pretending I'm not white I feel like a drama queen on soap off for a night Yeah, it's not far from the truth Been spending my money on my youth Been spending it good up in Spain
Speaker: When the people are looking lonely Look above their heads now, something like an angel plays
Speaker: Purchase it, stuff that I don't need Now I can't fight in it for a week Say, do you find it hard to give? Yes I do, I feel like you do Well that's alright, that's fine You know, you know what yours is Mine, mine, mine Don't want to make no babies Got no eggs to fight Yeah, it's alright
Speaker: Look above your head, mind Something like an angel playing
Speaker: I've been riding a wave, I've been dancing like a freak My knuckles are white and I can't speak I'm riding the lights with popi, gay before I women and a car full of dope, yeah It's not that far from the start I spent it all and then they
Speaker: When the people in the street are looking lonely Look above their heads and have something like an angel play
Speaker: Lovely. Yeah, you end it on a little bit of a musical joke there at the end as well, I think. What? Yeah. Don't you think? Yeah, I think so, yeah. I mean, especially, I even think that little guitar riff right at the end there. I mean, it's kind of silly.
Speaker: Yeah. I've got a good memory of recording that because there's, there's two tracks. So I'm playing guitar and you're playing drums on one track. And then another track, I'm talking about acoustic guitar. Then the other track is acoustic guitar and you playing percussion. Oh yeah. Like just with one mic, picking them both up. Yeah. That's pretty nice. Good bedroom recording that one. Very good. Yeah. Yeah. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. Um, I liked the line.
Speaker: I'm writing there like the Pope. I'm writing there like the Pope. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I don't really know. I mean, I think it is just about liking music really and different aspects of liking music. And it's a pretentious thing to say, but you know, sod it. It's kind of like a religion, isn't it? Yeah.
Speaker: in a way, you know, you get obsessed with it and you worship at the altar. And I think that's what I was sort of thinking about really, because I don't really subscribe to any actual religion, probably music is it? You know, that's what gives it, that's kind of meaning. And that's what I was talking about with the angels, I think really. Music is my first love and it will be my last.
Speaker: on the bandcamp page i called it the delta blues of the traveling dj and that was all i said no okay that's quite good that's quite good you can have that yeah so what have we learned we've learned what have we learned what have we learned today well we've learned what loupe would have sounded like if they'd been on jules holland we've learned that
Speaker: Sometimes you can just be too angular to make any sense whatsoever. And we've learned that we like music. Basically, nicely summed up. That's pretty much it, isn't it? I don't know which, I mean, I think the thing is, the carry -on domino, it probably should be on the best of.
Speaker: Because it's.
Speaker: I've changed my mind though. In the middle of saying that sentence, I've changed my mind. I don't think it should be. I think we'll go with this as a tune. Though it is a bit predictable that we like that one. Because we kind of go, we like in this more acoustic duo kind of stuff. No, not really. Last episode, it was all band stuff that was up for conscription onto the tape. Conscription? Being conscripted onto the tape. I think, you know,
Speaker: The thing I like about the bedroom recordings is because they all quite varied. And yeah, Carry On Domino, it's such a peculiar song. But yeah, I think this is a tune's an easier listen. It is. It's an easier listen. I'm going to use the word. It's more nimble. It's more nimble. Whereas I think Carry On Domino is quite lolloping. It's a big monster of a beast of a thing. Yeah.
Speaker: I think, yeah, I'm happy with that. I'm happy with that, but I do appreciate Jim's intro. I think my favourite bit of the whole Carry On Domino segment was Jim's word cloud. Yeah, it was good. Better than the song. Let's hear from him again soon, hopefully. Thank you very much for listening to the podcast. Yes, and thank you, but you're forgetting again that we always have a bit of an end section. Okay, what's the end section then?
Speaker: The end section today. I'm sorry, I hope you're going to forgive me, but I'm going to have to do Save Country Music Part 2. Okay. I'm cool with that. As opposed to Part 1, which was last episode, where we were discussing how bad country music that happens now should go away and we should go back to the true meaning of country music, which is the songs of the underdog. Yeah.
Speaker: Right? And the working man. And I've been on a bit of a journey since I got into Lefty Frizzell. And I've found lots more, actually. But there's a particular song that I want you all to go away and listen to this week, which is a song called The Highway Patrol by Red Simpson.
Speaker: And Red Simpson was a well -respected singer of Trucker -themed country songs. And he, you know, he was from, you know, recorded this particular track in 1966. And he was recording right up to the end of his life. And one of the last things he recorded is called Hey Bin Laden, about the events of September the 11th.
Speaker: Which is another song that's not on Spotify actually, so I'm gonna enter that one in too. Songs that are not on Spotify. But it is on YouTube. Hey Bin Laden. Hey Bin Laden. It's got the great lines, we got Hitler and Mussolini and we'll get you. Which is a good chorus. Anyway, going back to 1966, the highway patrolman is, I think, a musically bizarre
Speaker: kind of song really, sonically interesting. I don't see what you think. To me, it's got a little bit of devo to it. It's certainly retro futurism.
Speaker: It's from the viewpoint of a highway patrolman who's normally in country songs is a kind of, you know, either the villain or the stooge really that the narrator gets gets won over. But on this particular song, it's from the viewpoint of the highway patrolman, which I really like. And it's just about a guy, a working guy, really is just doing his job. And he says my hours are long and my pay is low. And, you know, he's basically just a regular blue collar guy.
Speaker: doing his job the best he can, trying to keep people safe. And I really like it. I find it very refreshing as a song. And that, again, is what country music can be. It can be from an unusual viewpoint.
Speaker: Well, if you're driving too fast, like you shouldn't do, you can bet your boots. I'm coming after you. If you want to race, then get on a racetrack. Cause if you try and run away, I'm going to bring you back. I'm just to doing my job. I'm the highway patrol. That's the highway patrol by Red Simpson. It's a good song.
Speaker: He also does another song from an unusual viewpoint called Hello, I'm a Truck, which is the view of the truck driving life, but from the view of the truck, which is less good. It's a less good song though. So Red Simpson, a country singer who's sung from an unusual perspective. That's the end of the bit.
Speaker: Beautiful. Thank you very much for listening to the podcast. If you're enjoying it, please tell a friend. If you're enjoying it and you're on a platform that takes reviews, please leave us a rating review and subscribe and follow wherever you're listening right now. Hey, we got through it. We did all right today.
Speaker: I thought we might not manage it. I was feeling a little bit under the weather. A bit tired, a bit ill, but I think it's all right. I think we did okay. Yeah, Karyan Domino nearly broke me, to be honest. Okay. Anyway, thank you very much, Steve. Thank you, Giles. Goodbye, everybody.
Speaker: Ding, ding, ding, ding. Yeah.
