Music regrets and a gig to forget

Music regrets and a gig to forget: From Court Cases to Space Elevators

In this episode of 'Fun Facts and Sidetracks,' hosts Marty and Al explore the controversial world of music plagiarism, discussing famous cases such as George Harrison's 'My Sweet Lord' vs. The Chiffons' 'He's So Fine', Vanilla Ice vs. Queen and David Bowie, and many others. The episode delves into the nuances of creativity, subconscious influences, and some downright weird aspects of music litigation.

The boys then shift to share fascinating facts about the history of flight, from the first hot air balloons to the rapid progression from the Wright brothers' first flight to the moon landing, and even talk about future concepts like Japan's space elevator. As usual Mart has a hilarious stories about a gig he’d rather forget and the  lively English-style pub parties at his home in suburban Brisbane.  

00:00 Welcome to Fun Facts and Sidetracks

00:27 Exploring Famous Plagiarism Cases in Music

01:07 The George Harrison vs. The Chiffons Case

04:09 Vanilla Ice and the Under Pressure Controversy

04:46 John Fogarty Sued for Sounding Like Himself

05:40 Blurred Lines and Marvin Gaye's Legacy

06:58 The Rolling Stones vs. The Verve

07:52 Ghostbusters and Huey Lewis

09:43 The Beatles and Chuck Berry

11:38 A Regrettable Job Experience

17:57 Fun Facts About Flight

19:42 Man Lands on the Moon: A Giant Leap in 66 Years

20:32 The International Space Station: Orbiting Every 90 Minutes

21:28 NASA's Countdown: Inspired by a Silent Movie

22:29 Bert Hinkler Museum: A Tribute to Aviation

26:25 Space Elevator: The Future of Space Travel

30:26 Growing Up as a 10 Pound Pom in Australia

32:26 Building Bars and Boxing Day Parties

37:15 Conclusion 

If you have a fun fact you’d like us to share, send us an email to: funfactsandsidetracks@gmail.com or leave us a comment online at our social pages on Facebook or Instagram Thanks for listening and never be afraid to get sidetracked.

The boring disclaimer: We do try to double-check all of the facts we talk about. If something isn’t quite correct, we humbly apologise. Credit to our many sources including, A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs, Tim from Kicking Harold, Mental Floss, Wikipedia and so many more.

Transcript

Al and Marty: 0:16

Hey Al. Hey, Mart. Here we are. Welcome to Fun Facts and Sidetracks. I'm Marty. And I'm Al. Shall we kick off? Yes, let's do it. Okay. Our music segment today is a little bit different. Mart. I'm ready for it. You ready for it? I reckon it'd be good to talk about plagiarism in music. Oh, wow. Because there are a lot of really famous court cases. Yeah. And it kind of raises the question of whether sometimes people are blatantly being influenced by what they've heard before. Yeah. Subconsciously or otherwise, or sometimes it's simply that there are only so many chords to go around and so many chord progressions and tunes and things. Yeah, that's it. I, that's what I believe. Yeah. But there are some pretty famous ones. I thought we might touch on a few of them. Okay. What have we got? Probably one that went for the longest time was, George Harrison's my sweet Lord. I remember that. And The Chiffons. He's so fine. He's so fine. Which of course, those three notes, he's so fine. Yeah. Is exactly the same as My sweet Lord. Wow. Yeah. And then there's a bunch of other stuff in there where it, it actually kind of has a, chord change that is exactly the same. Wow. So, the people that own the rights to The Chiffons. Music, were pretty keen to take George Harrison to court and it actually went for five years. The court case went for five years, which is a bloody long time. In that time, the guy who was behind the publishing rights for The Chiffons music had them record a version of My Sweet Lord. Oh, yeah. Which didn't do George Harrison any good in the court case because they were able to prove that there's such a similarity between the two tunes. Oh, wow. Intended or otherwise. I mean, it, it, I find it hard to believe that he would need to follow some crappy sixties song, you know? Yeah. But in his book, he actually says that. He was really influenced by an Indian swami who, kind of claimed that if there's a God, you must see him. You know? So rather than just believing stuff, he's saying, if there's a God, you must meet him. And that's why he went, Hey, that's the one for me. Yeah. Which is why all that lyric is about, I really want to know you or really wanna see you. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think there was a much higher, cause at Stake for George in writing that song, but whatever the case, it ended up costing him, $587,000 in 1981. I thought you were gonna say $587. Yeah, that's right. That's right. After court costs, that's what they got. Yeah. And interestingly, the person behind Bright Songs was the label that had, he's so fine. Yeah. And it was Alan Klein. And Alan Klein had a fairly mixed past in managing the Beatles. So, he knew his way around making money off. Music. That's for sure. So it's basically a leech? Yeah. Or you said it, not me. Okay. He was a nice guy. Send, send all legal messages to, yeah. Anyway, that's a pretty interesting one and one that a lot of people would know.

Al and Marty: 3:34

I did really want to play some music samples on this segment because it's a lot easier Yeah. To explain them. But when you start Googling, using music on podcasts. You get scared away pretty quickly. Yeah. Well, you think, I don't wanna spend any time in jail. The money we make out of this podcast. I know you'd come bail me out, wouldn't you? So, no, not a good idea. So we're gonna kind of use examples that people will know or examples that are so bizarre that you don't even need to hear the music to know that this is just. Odd. A really good example of that is Vanilla Ice. And Queen and David Bowie. Yes. So that pretty famous bass line from Under Pressure. But isn't that also ding, ding, ding, dinga ding ding. Yeah. Okay. Now you would think that that's just a sample and he's got approval to use that. Yeah. He didn't, and Vanilla Ice actually claimed that, that wasn't the same and that he wasn't ripping them off. Wow. Yeah. Nice. So he should have stopped, collaborated, and listened. I suspect. I hate myself for saying that already. Ah. Um okay, so let's quickly move on, a really odd one is Credence Clearwater Revival. John Fogarty, the lead singer. Yeah. When he went solo, the band Credence Clearwater Revival, or at least their record company, sued John Fogarty for sounding like Credence Clearwater Revival. I wonder why that was. Geez. So they were claiming that his song from his solo album, the Old Man Down the Road Yeah. Was pretty well just a rehashed version of Run Through the Jungle. Oh, wow. So the Record Company, Fantasy Inc. , owned the rights to that. And so they were claiming that he'd ripped himself off. Um, so they, they got away with it? No, not surprisingly, it was kicked out. The judge ruled that an artist cannot plagiarize themselves. Yeah. Rightly so. But you know Yeah. Just shows you that in licensing. Yeah. It's everyone's fair game, right? They are.

Al and Marty: 5:40

One of the most famous ones recently is, do you know that song, Blurred Lines? Robin Thicke and Pharrell. Yes. Yeah. About 10 years or so back. Marvin Gaye, or the estate of Marvin Gaye, took them to court because it sounds an awful lot like one of his songs called, Got to Give It Up. Yeah. Um, well, it does, it does. I know we've had the advantage of sort of comparing them side by side. Yeah. And not surprisingly, the estate of Marvin Gaye won the court case. They were rewarded $7.4 million and, that was lowered to $5.3 million later. But, it's. It actually probably says a lot about how terrific Marvin Gaye was because the estate of Marvin Gaye seems to be incredibly litigious and they seem to win quite a lot. Yeah, yeah. Similarly, Radiohead and Creep is a song that they've been sued by people like the Hollies for copying The air that I breathe. Wow. But equally, Lana Del Rey has a track, which, sounds so much like the same chords, the same kind of atmospheric thing as Creep. And again, they sued her. So a lot of these things, just even a tone, you know, it's pretty amazing. The Rolling Stones sued The Verve. They were saying that Bittersweet Symphony sounds an awful lot like The Last Time. Yeah. Yeah. And, often it's managers that are instigating these things, not the bands themselves. So The Verve was actually sued by, I guess the managers. Yeah. The management of the Stones for $1.7 million in royalties and credits. And Jagger and Richards actually gave the rights back to, Richard Ashcroft, the lead singer. Really? From The Verve. Yeah. So, geez, that's a pretty cool thing to do. Pretty good guys. Yeah. So I think he was pretty happy to get those rights back. Wow. As you would be. But that's pretty decent, isn't it? Yeah, very decent. I know the Stone's made a lot of money, but you know, it's still pretty decent. Yeah, you don't hear that too often.

Al and Marty: 7:52

Another really good one I reckon is the song Ghostbusters. Yeah. Yeah. So Ray Parker, Jr. Mm-hmm. Who you gonna call Ghostbusters. Exactly. So the story goes that, Huey Lewis from Huey Lewis and the News Yeah. Was, originally supposed to compose a theme song for the movie Ghostbusters. And when he declined, they actually bought in Ray Parker, Jr. But they wanted something that still sounded like, Huey Lewis and the News. And apparently they were getting really down to the wire in terms of the film was pretty well edited. Yeah. And it was ready to go and they needed to get the movie out. So they put the pressure on Ray Parker Jr. To create a song that sounded a lot like Huey Lewis. And if you think about the two songs, Ghostbusters and I Want a New Drug. Yeah, it's pretty well, got the same. So did he get sued? He did get sued. He get, and basically Huey Lewis claimed that he just went a bit too far and copying his style. Yeah. And when you, when you line up Ghostbusters and I want a new drug. Yeah, they're pretty close. Apparently they settled in 1995. And part of the agreement was that the two artists would never talk publicly about it. Okay. Alright. But then apparently, Huey Lewis sort of spilled his beans on it, on a TV show on VH One. So then Ray Parker Jr. sued him for breaching their agreement. Oh. Parker then claimed that he won the money back from his second lawsuit out of court, so, wow. It's a pretty tangled web, right. Oh, dear. Yeah. Geez. Makes you want, doesn't it? It does a bit just to have a job and go to work. Yeah. Okay.

Al and Marty: 9:42

One last one. And this is The Beatles song. Come together. Yeah. We're both Beatles tragics, and Come together is an awesome song. It is. Yeah. Come together right now. Awesome song. When John Lennon wrote, come together and presented it to the band, McCartney actually said That sounds pretty similar to a Chuck Berry song called You Can't Catch Me. And when you listen to it, it does, it does. And there's a lyric in there about, here come old flat top , he come groovin' up slowly. And there's a sort of a chunking, kind of a driving rhythm behind it. Yeah, slightly different, but it's, it's there. Anyway, most lawsuits come down to money, but in this case, they decided that it would be an out of court settlement, that if Lennon could cover more Chuck Berry songs. Then they'd be happy for him to use that track. Wow. Without any legal recourse because that would be good for business if they had Lennon covering a whole bunch of Chuck Berry's. Sure. Yeah. Well, you see him playing on stage with him. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. Doing lots of songs and, yeah, and I mean, Lennon did that Rock and Roll album, which was all covers, yeah. Benny King and all that stuff. Yeah, but apparently the story goes that Lennon hated every minute of recording that album, and it's something that he really regretted It put him off music for a long time, actually. But pretty interesting. Yeah. So yeah, there's all sorts of these and we could probably do another segment on more of them sometime because Yeah. I think we should. It's a shame we can't play the tracks. Yeah, I know. We need you whistling or something. No, we'll play the spoons. Yeah. Alright.

Al and Marty: 11:39

Okay, Mart. Now talking about jobs that you kind of regret after the event. Mm. Don't go there. I've got so many. You have shared a few with me in the past. What comes to mind? Look. I've got a lot being in the music industry, but one stands, well, one stands in mind and um, I already told you one, the Expo. Yeah. But, um, for anyone listening who hasn't checked out episode three. Yeah. Uh, Costello, Carrie and the Crazy Expo bike, I think it's called. Yeah. Well this was a, this was a job, like I was work, I was driving down to a place called Robina. Down the coast from Brisbane and it used to take me, geez, probably about an hour and quarter to get down there and then set up and play for four hours on a Friday night. Mm-hmm. And we used to have a great time. It was myself and this other friend of mine, Nick used to sing with me and we had a great time and the crowd were behind us and the manager come up me and he says, listen, we're having a big, fair, massive, big thing happening on Sunday, the so and so. He said, we'd love you to play there on the afternoon. In the courtyard and I thought, yeah, okay, sounds good. Nick said, yeah, yeah, I'm in. He said, but I'm gonna be about two hours late. And I said, that's fine. I can go in there anyway. So I'm all hyped up about this and they've hyped me all about, it's gonna be a great day. They're gonna have, you know, jumping castles and all this sort of thing. I just thought I was gonna be in the courtyard, so I've turned up with my gear. There's nothing happening out the back. It's just like a normal Sunday and I'm thinking, oh, it's okay. They'll just put me in the courtyard and I'll entertain the people. It's all good. So they put me and there's a big field out the back with a massive big lake in the field. It's huge. I don't know how many hectares or acres it was, but it was huge. And um, he said to me, well, we better put you out here. And he put me about 60 meters from the back of the courtyard in the middle of this field, this cow paddock, like, and I'm thinking it's the middle of summer, like what sort of temperatures we get in summer. It was so hot, right? See, no, no marquee, no shade. He's put me out the middle of this field. Yeah. So I'm about 60 meters from the, the courtyard where the people are. My speakers were really good for distance anyway, but anyway, so I'm set up and I start playing and I'm getting hotter and hotter and hotter. And then my, sequencer of the recorded music starts playing up cause it's so hot. So I g o to the guy and I say, look, you've gotta get me an umbrella. Or something. Yep. So I set up like a beach umbrella over my gear and a little bit of me and I, I must have looked really bad anyway, so I'm playing away. And then this RV turns up this, it was something like out of Ren and Stimpy, or you know, this RV turns up and the door opens up and this kid jumps out and he's probably about nine or ten, right? He's got a cowboy hat on that's taller than he is. He's got this massive big belt with a massive big buckle. He's got a road crew. He's got like his mom and dad and this, this other guy, I think he was his agent. He was done up like a cowboy as well. So they've come in between me and them, so they're about, no even closer. They were closer to the courtyard Uhhuh. And I'm thinking, they said, you don't mind if he does a little? I went, no, sure. Great. He's got out this, sorry. He's a 10-year-old with a cowboy hat on. He even, this is back before phones were like everyone had a phone. Mm-hmm. If you had a phone, it was a big deal. Anyway, he even had a phone and this kid, his name was Scotty Scurving. Okay. He gets out, he does his little boot scoot and dance, the recorded music. Okay. Like a country type boot scoot, and he had the big boots on and everything, and I'm thinking, you never work with kids and animals. This isn't looking good because I'm getting no one's, everyone's ignoring me like what I've done so far, but they're just going crazy over this kid. Then he sings this song called. I like beer and he sort of goes like, I like beer. It makes me a jolly good fellow, he's a 10-year-old, I like beer! Inappropriate sville. And sometimes it makes me feel mellow. Makes him feel mellow. And so he goes on about all these drinks that he drinks, you know, in the song. And as soon as he's there, he's walked around a little walk, you know, in the crowd. Probably signing autographs. I don't know what he was doing, but they loved him. They got in this RV and took off. Right. So I'm back to the middle of the field. It was just a really bad afternoon, and my mate Nick didn't turn up. Oh. He only did about an hour with me. Wow. Yeah. I had this massive migraine headache for being in the sun for so long. Yeah. But hey, listen, skipping forward about. Oh, I don't know, 25 years I'm working in the house. I got the radio playing was on 4BH I think, country sort of songs and bits and pieces and they had a talk back and he said, we've got a young fellow coming. We've got a young guy that's doing the Buddy Holly, Buddy Holly story at the moment that's touring round Australia. His name's, I don't know, I can't remember what his name was, but started chatting away to him and he's going, yeah, yeah. And tell me, listen. You used to have a different name. You used to go under a different name. And he went, yes, I did. And he said, what name was that? He said it was actually Scotty Scurving. Was that triggering at that point? Look, I actually thought, well, bloody good on you. Yeah. You know, like, here's his kid who's upstage me. And then I'm playing, I'm working away. And I hear he's on radio and he's, he's doing all right. Oh, wow. Yeah. Good on him. Yeah. I, I thought you were gonna say it was, you know, Keith Urban or somebody No, no, no. It's gotta scare me. No, it would be nice if it was Keith. I wouldn't mind. Oh, how good, Mart. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. That was the job that I wish I never took on. Yeah. One of many. Yes.

Al and Marty: 17:57

I thought it might be interesting to talk about flight. Have some fun facts about flight. Oh yeah. I'd love to hear that. This, well, you know, just recently we saw, Katy Perry. Oh yeah. Wasn't that great. Sneak out into.... was, was that real? That's right. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's probably the, where the future's going, where it's just like, taking a little, a joy trip. Isn't it extravagant? It's a little bit, yeah. But, but hey, if you can do it, I guess good luck. Yeah. Yeah. But it did make me kind of ponder, flight in general. Mm-hmm. Yep. And so I did a little bit of research the first flight. It was actually two French brothers named Joseph, Michelle and Jacques Ettienne. Yeah. And , they actually demonstrated hot air ballooning flight. They didn't have passengers in the first ones. But they did have animals and eventually they actually tethered a flight with humans aboard. Okay, so that's in, uh, November 21st, 1783. So 1783. Yes. 1783. So we'll fast forward, a couple of centuries. And as we know, the Wright brothers were the first ones to actually undertake, a successful flight of a heavy than than air manned and powered aircraft. Yeah. So that's 1903, right? Yep. And they did that at, Kitty Hawk in North Carolina. Flight lasted for 12 seconds and it went for 120 feet. Yeah. But the thing that blows me away about this, so you've got, Orville and Wilbur Wright in 1903. Yeah. Now it's only 1969 that we saw man land on the moon. Planted on the Moon. Thank you for that authentic sound effect. That's only 66 years. Yeah, I know from a flight that lasts for 120 feet to yeah, sending people into orbit and obviously people were in space before then. Well that's sort of exponential, isn't it? But to kick the moon 66 years later is, I just think amazing. It is. And they're talking again, going to Mars and Yeah. And what they're doing. Yeah. Well, that's it. So, 1903 to current is only 122 years, so again. It's, oh, you wanna go for a joy flight out outside the atmosphere, then Yeah. You can do that if you've got enough money. Wow. Like, it's not long in the scheme of things. Right. Some of this stuff blows me away.

Al and Marty: 20:34

The International Space Station. Mm-hmm. I mean, I knew it was, I. Pretty fast. Yeah, he said using understatement for effect. How fast is it? But it orbits the earth every 90 minutes. Oh my goodness. How does it not run into stuff or how does stuff not run into it? Well, how do you feel inside it? Yeah. Is it like being on the Big Zipper? Uh, maybe. How fast is that again? Well, maybe you just pinned to your chair going, whoa! But they don't, they float around inside. Yeah. Well, so how does that work? Oh, greater minds and mine will explain that to you, Mart. How do they work it all that when they'd never been there before. Yeah. Oh, goodness. And how do they dock onto it? At that speed. Yeah. And everything looks like it's not moving when they do it. Like on the James Bond movies. That's right. It's um, it's pretty wild. Here's a fun fact. Yeah. NASA uses a countdown, but they don't really need to, they use a countdown because of a sci-fi movie. Oh, wow. Yeah. So Fritz Lang, who was a famous filmmaker back in the twenties made this silent movie called Frau Monde, which is the Woman in the Moon. Yeah. And, for effect, they used this countdown to, you know, to countdown before the big blast off. Yeah. NASA have no reason to use a countdown. They can abort the, launch anytime they want to. They can pause it, but they actually use, you know, so much like on the Thunderbirds, you know, the countdown.. 10,9,8,7 Oh. So yeah. But yeah, I wonder why they wanted use a countdown. I don't know. But it's, it's pretty wild. For a 1929 silent movie. Actually kind of influences everything that happens at Cape Canaveral and, you know, all these places. Ah, yeah. It's pretty wild. It is.

Al and Marty: 22:29

Have you ever been speaking of flight? Have you ever been to the Bert Hinkler Museum? No, I haven't now in Bundaberg. No. I've heard all about it. Mate, it's amazing. It is. It, yeah. It's pretty amazing. Yeah. Well, you know, if you nerd out on this stuff. Yeah. Um, I must say that my wife Carole, was less than impressed. She kind of headed for the gift shop, but I, I kind, it's a man thing. I think so. But, the two things that struck me, the size of the planes, they were just tiny. Yeah. They were these tiny little planes and they. Did not look all that stable. Let's face it. Um, I see there'd be like a moth, like a little, yeah. Yeah. You've seen like moth get blown around with the wind and butterflies, but being an airplane, could you imagine some of the things that actually happened when they're up there and they've just got a big gust of wind? Yeah. Turbulence Yeah. But honestly, like you'd put them in a two car garage sort of thing. No, tiny. Oh wow. Yeah. Anyway. But the amazing thing up there is they've also got this kind of a little video display on the Challenger space shuttle. Oh yeah. The one that exploded. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So to kind of symbolize this progression of, you know, man, moving forward with flight, they actually got a piece of timber from Bert Hinkler's plane. They wrapped it up in plastic and they took it up with them. Yeah. On the Challenger shuttle, right? Yeah. And so, so at at the Hinkler Museum, you're sitting in this kind of circular theatre. And they show this movie of, what happened, but they also talk about how they took this piece of Bert Hink ler's plane as this symbolic kind of, moving in, moving on. Yeah. Anyway, they show the vision of what happened, but when the rescue crews were out there collecting whatever they could find what's floating on the surface, but this little plastic bag with this piece of timber in it. Wow. So every, I mean, you've seen, everyone's seen that footage, right? Yeah. Yeah. The whole bloody thing disintegrates. But here's this little piece of plastic and they've got it. They've got it next to the screen, and it just makes me go misty every time I think of it because Wow, this little humble little piece of timber survived all of that. Yeah. And yeah, it's very cool. Yeah, there's just something in it, isn't it? I reckon a thing like that should have just disintegrated. If bodies disintegrated, it will. Yeah. It's pretty wild. It's just got blown and, and it was over the ocean, wasn't it? Yeah, it was. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So if you have a In Bundaberg Yeah. And I haven't seen that for a while, so I assume it's still there. I hope it hasn't been replaced with, you know, a shopping mall or something. But if you get to the Hinkler Museum, it's well worth a look. Or a coffee shop. Yeah, that's right. An all you can eat , we do not have enough coffee shops. Let's face it, the Burke Hinkler special. What, what do they serve at the Hinkler Coffee Shop? Mart? The Bert Hinkler special. It's a jumbo size Oh, flight. I like it. I like where you got it. And it comes with a little, um, balsa wood piece wrapped in plastic. Authentic, oh dear. That you stir coffee with. Oh, you only just got that. You thought it was a little gift. Oh dear. Sorry about that. Oh, that's too good. That's funny.

Al and Marty: 26:24

Okay, Al. Mm-hmm. Now I've seen this, uh, the Japanese are working on a space elevator, okay? Mm-hmm. Also called, called a space bridge or star ladder or orbital lift. Orbital lift. Yeah, an orbital lift. Wow. Yeah, so. And how does that work? Well, it's a cable of design and it's, it's been modelled on a spider's web. 'cause it's apparently, that web, if you look at it really closely, it's the strongest weave. And I don't know. What's the material that you're using? Probably silk. Okay. And they make this cable goes up into space and there'll be like a lab up there. So it's attached to the earth. So it's like a big click clack. Yeah. Right. So it's, it's spinning around the earth, so it must be spinning even faster than the earth. 'cause you think about it, it's a lot, lot further around. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, and they're doing it so more people can go up into space and look down at the earth. And so you said it's an elevator. What, what's the go with it like? Well, it's, yeah. It's, it's an elevator and so it's clamped to with, you know, like a like. Two big three big rollers say, and two of them push in, two of them push out. So it sort of creates this tension. Mm. And then the motors come on and then it starts to lift, right? This is what they showed you it all, they're working on it. They're gonna do it. And that's it. I wonder how fast it goes like to. Floor. First of all, men's wear, going down ladies' underwear. Yeah. No. So that's, that's what they're working on. Wow. And that's scary. I don't think I'd go up in it. I wouldn't trust it. It's probably a Toyota I get. Um, I get a bit nervous getting into our lift at work, which goes up 18 floors, so I think I might wait until they kind of iron out the bugs on that one. So I'm not sure how it goes. I'd love to get you drunk and then shove you in it and just shut the door and hit. Top floor, but hit all the floors in between. I wonder what all the other stops are. It's like the, the stratosphere and, yeah. Yeah. Cloud, cloud nine heaven. Oh dear. No, with, yeah. That's pretty amazing, isn't it? But they're doing it. Yeah. This, these are all these things that they're doing. Yeah. Yeah. And mimicking nature. Yeah. With the spider thing. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. Believe it or not, imagine going to work and, you know, coming home at the end of the day and somebody says, oh, how was your day? And it's like, oh yeah, I'm just, you know, working on this cable that Yeah. Will be anchored in out of space. And I just dunno how they're gonna get it out into space. Yeah. I think some gonna gotta throw it. Yeah. Or they're gonna catapult it or. They'd have to put it on some sort of, I'll get a rocket. And then one of those really rockets from cracker night, you know, tied to one of them. The double bunger. Yeah, that's it. No, but they might get something out there and just like the space station and just drop a rope and just keep letting the rope go so it gets down to earth. Just try and catch it. There's gonna be one really tired spider at the end of it. Or better still. Just get a spider to do it. Oh, the spiders from Mars. There's the connection. There you go. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Took a while. Yeah, I think, I think that's enough silliness in this house. Oh, in joke. Okay. Yeah. That's what they're doing. It's a good fact, mate. I like it.

Al and Marty: 30:18

Mart, we had some terrific feedback from a few listeners about your description of being a 10 pound pom. Really? Yeah. Okay. Uh, some That's nice. Some people who themselves were 10 pound poms. Oh, good. Hello? Yeah. Hello Governor. And if they weren't 10 pound poms, they had immigrated from England under their own steam, if you like. Yeah. Uh, but I think at the time we said that there were other stories that you could share about, oh, there's lots of things that. We're different growing up in Australia, and I love Australia and I love the fact that I'm here. It's such a great place, especially now, isn't it? Like, that's awesome. Yeah. It's such a good mix. Well, when I think back, say in the seventies when I was, you know, 16, 17. When I left school, I couldn't read or write. I was, I was not, not the academic. But I jumped into a job that I really loved and that was laying bricks and it just suited me, it burnt me out. 'cause it was just physical work. I. And I loved it. I loved the laying of the bricks and what it was all about and I felt a part of something. Mm. Anyway, it was my dad said to me, okay, you lay a brick. It was my first year of my apprenticeship and I was learning a lot, and he said, we're gonna brick in underneath the house. Under this, I guess it was a house home and it was on stumps. So we hand mixed all the slabs underneath my brothers and myself. Um, and our mates that were roped into it, hand mixed, all the slabs, the concrete slabs underneath the house. Wow. Yeah. And then not with a mixer, just on the ground. Like a big volcano you'd made. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, and we did that. And then dad bought me all these bricks and we started laying the bricks. I started laying the bricks and you can see my brick laying, getting better and better over the years. 'cause I was doing it on a Saturday. Every Saturday he make me sort of, but I built this bar underneath the house, so the external brick work. And then inside I, I built something like all up was probably about 16 arches. And I built a garage on the side of the house, which had like an arch, you know, veranda on the back that had three arches. Wow. And there was these black bricks he gave me. They were like cobblestone looking bricks with all these black bricks and timber. And he made this like pub underneath the house. And it was a bar. We had a slate bar. My, my brother Benny, he was a concreter /landscaper and he built a slate bar and we got upholstered at top on it. So it was just like being in a pub and we had a pool table, dart board of course. Yeah. Full English pub treatment, huh? Yeah. And, and so, and this is just in our suburb where we grew up in Brisbane, here. And there were so many English families that moved to this suburb. Mm-hmm. And they all built little bars underneath their homes. So it was like Wednesday night at Frankie Boys and Maxie Boy Williams was over his place on the Thursday and Big Terry and Bob, who was a boxer, he actually sparred with bloody Muhammad Ali. Yeah. He went to the Russian Olympics. Wow. He's this massive guy who was a gentle giant. You know, he'd just, he'd have a few drinks and maybe 'cause of the boxing, but he'd have a few drinks and all he'd say for the rest of the night is, I don't believe it. I don't believe it. You know, so you got, just going, going, I don't believe it. And he'd be playing pool and it was like coming home to a nuthouse. When you come home and they're all, you know, three quarters full, laughing and playing pool. So all the hours in, in, you know, yeah. So they're out most nights playing pool at each other's bars that they created. And I dunno if that happened anywhere else in Australia, but it certainly happened in my life. And, uh, I think the best thing for Dad was that I was a bricklayer and my brother was a concreter. And my other brother was a good, hard worker. Yeah. My other brother missed out 'cause he was too young and he became a builder anyway, right? Yeah, he did. He became a carpenter. Yeah. Wow. So. But that's what a lot of them did. But the parties they had were huge. You know, it got outta hand, it just ended up getting outta hand. Yeah, like, 'cause you had my three brothers, my two brothers at the time, my youngest brother was too young for this, but my other two brothers were older. We'd go out in the town and and invite people and they'd have a Boxing Day party and it all led up to this Boxing Day party. And so my brother would invite just anyone, my other brother invite. Just anyone. I'd invite all my Greek, I had heap of Greek friends 'cause they thought I was Greek, 'cause I had black hair. So it was just this multicultural. There was Irish and then there was all dad's friends that were Irish and Scottish and, and Aussies and it all Greek. And they would come on a Sunday and it was started at about 12 o'clock and it went to like. The Boxing Day party just went and in the end there were bikies turning up and it just got out of hand. You know, it was, it was just, you know, as full as a Caterpillar's sock drawer, as they say. Yeah. Yeah. It, it was like, and we, the security were just us, but you'd have all these people that we didn't even know that got word. Oh, there's a party on this massive Boxing Day party. Wow. So these people that turn up and. In the end, we had, you know, these bloody bikies turned up and they were, and the guy next door was a big unit. He was a big young guy. He was a, you know, rugby player. And he, I remember him standing there one day and this guy said, don't touch my bike. And he went, I won't touch your bike mate. He said, I've got some. He said, I've got some, uh, some big friends, some rough friends. He went. Don't worry, I've got some big friends too. He was big footballer. Uh oh. And like it was, I'm thinking..... this is my house. Yeah. And this is when I'm sort of probably about 19. Yeah. And I'm just starting to realie, wow, I. There's this, all these people in my home and I don't know half of them. Yeah. And they're all, some of are bringing alcohol. Some of 'em are. All my dad's going is Did he bring booze? Did he bring booze? Like, anyway, all good fun. Yeah. Wow. It's a good story. Yeah.

Al and Marty: 37:15

Now it's time to say goodbye. No, it is time to say goodbye. I think we've done enough today. What do you reckon? Uh, I think we've definitely had enough. What if I'm singing the Mickey Mouse theme? No look. Hey, if you think we've got something wrong or you'd like to give u s a bit of input, we'd love to hear from you. Yep. Jump on our Facebook or Instagram pages or send us an email. Email. Yeah, send us an email to fun facts and sidetracks@gmail.com. We'll see you now. See you Mark. Thanks for popping in.