It's Only Rock n Roll with hosts Phil Blizzard & Russell Mason

Global Backstage: A Rock And Roll Year In Review

• Phil Blizzard + Russell Mason • Season 1 • Episode 10

Share episode

A season’s worth of passports, flight cases, and stories converge in a finale that refuses to fade to black. We trace the hidden arteries of live music—from a retired tour pro’s poolside idea to a globe‑spanning set of conversations with production managers, security pros, artists, superfans, and the die‑hards who kept sound and light alive in deserts, ferries, and freezing tarmacs.

We start where tours truly begin: backstage. Jake Duncan’s leap from a drum shop to Bay City Rollers and Wham captures the chance encounters that bend lives, while Steve Martin drops us into the command centre of Live Aid and the pressure of delivering David Bowie’s vision when a stage design suddenly isn’t big enough. Then the energy tilts to pure rock and roll with Stan Urban, who turns hoovers into instruments, weddings into gigs, and remembers jamming with Robert Plant before Ibiza swapped poets for package flights. It’s messy, joyful, and proof that invention beats perfection when the clock hits showtime.

The road stretches East as promoter Yatzek Slotala guides Pink Floyd past the Iron Curtain with a bag of rubles, a borrowed Air Force plane, and nerves of steel. He helps Tina Turner rebuild Private Dancer on Central European stages with borrowed backlines and bulletproof grace. In India, Rock Machine becomes Indus Creed as Uday Benegal explains why a name can trap you and how original songs, scrappy trains, and a sedated fox terrier named Scooby wrote their origin story. Two superfans rewind to first gigs—Genesis with Peter Gabriel’s theatre and Rory Gallagher’s raw voltage—reminding us why live music burns into memory.

We swing through France on a chaotic bus of Glasgow bands—Franz Ferdinand among them—proving that if your town lacks a scene, you make one, even if chairs go overboard on the ferry. Security steps forward with rare warmth as Ronnie Franklin reflects on three decades protecting George Michael, including a holstered‑gun scare diffused with calm and kindness. Finally, we walk the Memphis Mansion in Denmark, where a Rat Pack‑serenaded piano still sings, and head to the Gulf with the “desert rats,” who fought heat, sand, and fried dimmers so the show could go on.

Hit play for craft, chaos, and heart from Wham to Pink Floyd, Elvis to Indus Creed. If these stories moved you, follow the show, rate us, and share your first live gig memory—what was the song that changed everything?

It's Only Rock and Roll is a Phil Blizzard Radio Production - for your production email philblizzardmedia@gmail.com

SPEAKER_09:

It's rock and roll, we love it, and uh the last episode of the series, but I'm not I'm disappointed, but we've got a new series planned coming up in the new year. But this one's gonna be a great round of what we've done so far. Places we've been to, and we've been right across the world. It's been a rock and roll tour from uh UK, Philippines, India, do I say uh uh uh Moscow, Siberia, and France? That's just a few of them, and number of people we've mess up with, and the number of bands we've been talking about is phenomenal, along with events. So, Russell, a lot to get through. It's gonna be a lot of fun. We're gonna pick up some of our favorite clips from the uh nine, ten episodes we've done. How did it all come about? What was your idea behind this?

SPEAKER_11:

Well, like I think I mentioned in some of the um uh previous episodes. Uh, just you know, uh I retired three years ago. Uh in the early part of my four or five decades career in events organizing, I was in rock and roll. I worked in the music industry, I toured with a lot of big stars in those days, and also uh met a lot of really interesting people. I'm very thankful for that. And I kept in touch with them. Like I said before, they're more acquaintances, work colleagues, but you know, some of the guys you look you you you you have a connection with and you keep in touch with, and uh over the years um that you know became more and more apparent. And as you retire, you do actually become a little nostalgic about all you start to think about or the things you did in your life. And uh a lot of people when I moved to the Philippines said, Oh, we want to come and visit you.

SPEAKER_09:

So as they were, they want to go back to the tropics and uh they come came and visit.

SPEAKER_11:

We you know, we built our dream house here and um sitting by the pool talking to all these people who I was getting to know for a second time, and uh it just came up. They said we really should do a podcast because there were some funny stories. Well, they're funny, but you know, I do appreciate that some of the acts and some of the things were in a you know a time that a lot of younger people probably don't know or understand, but there is still a lot of interest from our age group, if you like. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_09:

A lot of uh these guys were pioneering, weren't they? Think of the guys who were out in the desert in the late 80s, 90s, high temperatures there, then there was like uh Moscow going behind the iron curtain and freezing temperatures, so from minus 20 to plus 40 or something at temperature rate. Yeah, and we we we we featured people in different aspects of the entertainment industry, really, from uh play musicians right through to the uh guys who are taking bands on tour, breaking down the barriers, going behind the curtain. And we started off with an interesting aspect was the tour and production side of things, and a couple of great guys, yeah.

SPEAKER_11:

Jake and Jake and Steve Martin. I worked with Steve Martin uh must have been 1982 or three. Um, I mean, he is ageless looking at him now. He's really fared better than me. And Jake, and Jake obviously I work with on Wham and a few other things. Um, but you know, these guys really are. I mean, they knock spots off of anything that I ever did in in the music industry and production and and tour management. There's nothing they don't know or haven't done. Yeah, sure. It like you quite aptly described it as an A to Z of bands that they've really worked with. Absolutely. One thing I would say about not so much Steve, maybe, but Jake, because I know him uh for a long, long time also, is that he's the ultimate professional, even though he's now retired from touring, um, he's still quite guarded about talking about it. And um, I think we were all like that when we were working, we didn't want to talk about it. Um, and I don't think on this podcast we've disrespected anybody.

SPEAKER_09:

I don't think so, no. And there's great insights, and what I took away from all of the episodes was the professionalism, the passion these guys have still got, you know, some are active, some are retired, but that passion is still there as they talk about what they've achieved and what they did and challenges along the way. And I think um, let's find out from Jake. I mean, how he got started in the business of rock and roll. Is Jake Duncan?

SPEAKER_12:

Uh I was just a local musician in Edinburgh, and um at that point, this band, The Basicity Roars, they'd had one hit. They've covered an old gentry song in 1971 called Keep on Dancing, which made it to number nine in the charts. The band themselves had been going since 1965 locally, and they were quite a phenomenon in Scotland. But you know, they still really hadn't broken that nationally. They traded a little bit off of Keep on Dancing. So I was in the music store, I was a bad drummer picking up some drumsticks, and one of the two crew guys came into the store complaining about the fact that uh he had to drive to Bournemouth for a gig in two days, and the other Roddy had quit. So it was just one of these light bulb moments, and I thought, you know, they're gonna hang drawn and quarter me this weekend if I don't turn up for my own gig. But I think there's an opportunity here. So I just said, hey, I'll do it, I'll go with you. And off I went to the Chelsea village in Bournemouth, which is just across the way from the pavilion that uh Steve and I'll have done a few times. It's gone now. The Chelsea Village. That was me.

SPEAKER_11:

There's not many people who could say that they they stood in for one of the biggest pop bands in the world at that time. I mean, we we we've talked a lot on this podcast about Wham Mania, Beatle Mania, um, you know, all the all the crazy pop bands of the 80s, but Bay City Rollers, and Jake bluffed his way through to be star. So uh yeah.

SPEAKER_09:

That's a great tale, doesn't he? I mean, it was well, Beatlemania, but Bay City Roller Mania, it was phenomenal the reaction those guys were getting, and uh a boy band like that, the pioneering boy bands, you might say.

SPEAKER_11:

So now it does work, it does fit why he would have been approached to take uh George and Andrew, the Wham boys, um, you know, uh because they were an up-and-coming uh boy band, and obviously they were phenomenal success again, and then George Michael.

SPEAKER_09:

Um that's where you come in many ways. Your connection was because of uh working alongside uh absolutely WAM. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um at this point, let's give a few little pointers out to what's happening later on because Wham comes through later on with the security side. We had a fantastic chat with a guy who worked on the security, so that was that's great insight.

SPEAKER_11:

Um, there is one Jake Duncan. I mean, I I talk about Jake and he's a friend of mine, and he's very he's very reluctant. These guys, I would say the majority of the people that we got on the podcast were really reluctant to come on, and I really appreciate that they came on uh because they did me a favor, and I really appreciate that. Um, but Jake, I must say there is another slide to Jake, which uh I don't want to embarrass him, it won't embarrass him, but there is a story, and I won't mention who he was, but we're in Japan, and Jake uh was meeting up with one of the management team that were coming in from publicist or management team, I can't remember who exactly it was. Um, and that we had a night off in Tokyo, and uh the the guy said, Oh, Jake, let's meet up and let's go out. So they went out and they, you know, as you do, they had a few drinks, and which you don't think because Jake's always spick and span, ultra professional, and obviously had uh quite a few too many, and ended up in the hotel and um went to their rooms and their keys wouldn't work. It's happened to all of us, you know, the key doesn't work, and you're like all you want to do is crash out, you know, you've had too much to drink, and they wanted to crash the crash out, but the keys didn't work. So they went down to reception stuff. A guy came up, he said I'm came out to their room and and tried to get them into their room. No, these keys are not the right keys, da da, and they were making a big fuss about it. Anyway, it turned out that they'd actually gone to the wrong hotel.

SPEAKER_09:

Oh dear, oh dear. I bet that's one of uh yeah, it's quite a few stories. That wasn't mentioned, but I wanted to mention that you wanted to mention it, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a classic. But it's you talk about the various people who came on. I think they were, as you said, a bit hesitant, but once they got once we got started, and uh they could see we were pretty friendly, we weren't being heavy or hard or you know, sort of diving into it.

SPEAKER_10:

We're not journalists, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09:

So it's uh you know, nice storytelling over a cup of coffee or whatever a beer, and they all relaxed and they came out with some lovely stories. And uh the other guy on at the same time, Steve Martin. I mean, he worked on so many big events and with so many uh big names, which we'll come up to in a moment. But what about some of the events they get did get involved in?

SPEAKER_11:

Live live aid, bad aid? Oh, yeah, live live aid. Steve Martin was there at the sharp edge of live aid with Paul Smith, Andy's work, Pete Wilson, and he gave us a real insight into the workings. You know, we what I what I found out is that 40% of the world watched that live. Incredible that's an incredible amount of people, 40% of the world's population watched that, and Steve was right at the sharp edge of it, you know, and uh that was amazing, you know. Uh I I I I really enjoyed that story.

SPEAKER_09:

And he worked with some big names, and one of my favorite uh artists, I suppose, because of his flamboyancy and his innovation in music, David Bowiean. And uh I asked Steve what it's like working with such a big star. He came up with some interesting aspects.

SPEAKER_08:

Amazing, uh uh incredible. I I probably to highlight my career. Um, I was in a bit of a role um as a production manager uh again, um, and I I get the feeling that David was very keen to get a few Brits involved. Uh it was um predominantly an American band and um a few American crew, uh, but I think he was very keen to have some Brits around. So I was doing Peter Gabriel, I was doing an incredible amazing production with Peter Gabriel, and I think um I kind of impressed the whoever it was the promoters in those days, Live Nation or or whatever, whoever it was. Um, and um I got a call from Bill Zisplat um to uh would I be interested? And yeah, only slightly, um, but I'd have to fly out to New York to to meet David um at the studio, which I did. And I got on really well with him. I sat in with rehearsals and we had a meeting, and he kind of sketched on a on a pad what how he kind of the concept of the show he wanted. Um, and I'd always obviously I was a huge Bowie fan, you know, and all my girlfriends and friends in those early 70s were had him on posters on the wall. So it for me it was a dream come true. But um and it was good, but I nearly lost the job almost immediately. Um we were doing production rehearsals at Forêt National, and um there was a bit of a cock-up. He wanted um a thrust between the stage and the um and the and and the barrier, and it wasn't anywhere near as big as he was expecting. And um he uh he really tore it. I mean, I I sat down in a meeting room in the catering room, and he was he he caught me off guard. I thought he was just wanted to have a chat about the show, but he, my god, he laid in to me about this thrust. And um, there was people around on the table who were all ducking who were more responsible for it than me. Of course, I didn't want to be, I didn't want to throw anyone under the bus. I'm not not done, but and I I honestly thought I was um I was gonna be sacked before the first show. And I think it was 50-50 for a little while. Um uh, but it was the only crosswords we ever had in about 18 months. Um, and Alan Edwards saved my my job, I think. Alan Edwards was his um, he wasn't the manager. Alan sometimes got mistaken as Bowie's manager, but one thing that Bowie always emphasized is that I don't I don't have management. I have business management, Bill Z Black, but I do not have management. In fact, we put a sign on the door, backstage Bowie Management, and he said, Steve, do me a favor, take that down. I don't have management. Um, but Alan Edwards um spoke up for me and and saved my job, and um and I had a great, I had an amazing uh 18 months with him before I um there was a bit of a natural break in the tour, and um I got asked to go back to do Peter Gabriel because it was such a really intense production with Peter Gabriel. They wasn't keen to have anyone else do the tour. Um, I mean I'm not picking myself up, but it's just natural, you know, to keep the same team. So I ended up taking my Bowie team back to Gabriel and um gave the gig to the wonderful, amazing Bill Libody.

SPEAKER_09:

Steve Martin, they're talking about Peter Gabriel, which is in the episode of uh the first one we did. So if you want to reflect back on these episodes, they're all there online on YouTube, but also Spotify and uh uh Apple and all major podcast uh platforms. And the good thing about that, once you got to Spotify, if you want to go into an episode and you want to go scroll through, you can see the chapters and you can pick out different chapters, different aspects of what the guests were talking about. So that was the first one, tour and production managers, and then we had on board a flamboyant artist, Stan Urban.

SPEAKER_11:

Stan Urban, what a character. He just actually messaged me from Madeira. Um, he's got so much energy, uh, no secret, he's well into his 80s now, and he plays and lives with so much energy of a typical rock and roller, and um, you know, legendary stories, legendary experiences and memories working with Stan, bless him, and a real fan and supporter of the podcast.

SPEAKER_09:

When yeah, he is indeed. Yeah, when we spoke to him, he was in Scotland doing a little tour there, and I know he goes across to Germany to the uh mansion, the Memphis mansion, which we'll find out and hear a bit later on. And uh he came up with some of things like um, well, it's innovation. He used to make uh a sound using a Hoover, was it a vacuum cleaner? He was telling us.

SPEAKER_11:

And every piano he he dismantles before he plays it and adds things to it.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, yeah. And uh and of course, sort of turning up at weddings and things like that, and taking over the piano and being uh an impromptu guest at occasions like that. And I I I recall him talking again, traveling around, he was basing in Ibiza for a while, he was doing a session there or doing a season there, and that's where he met up and started jamming, would you believe, well, yeah, for our listeners, would you believe it, with Robert Plant. This is what he had to say.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, in the old days, Ibitha really was a paradise. Then then well, they opened up a big uh uh a big airport and it started getting a little bit, I don't know what the word is, a bit cheaper. You know, all the artists, all the poets, all the musicians, uh they kind of left and it became the mass tourism, you know. And yeah, I'm jumping ahead, but that was when I decided to leave. But yeah, there would I could always tell there was a band uh in the corner. I knew they were a band because they had long hair. And they sent up the San Francisco cocktails, and they would send up requests for obscure rock and roll stuff like Larry Williams and things like that. So during the break, I went down and I says, You're a group, right? And they said, Yeah. I says, because only a group would know these obscure numbers. And I went and played another set, more San Francisco cocktails, and later on I said, What's the name of your band then? And Led Zeppelin. And you didn't know who they were. I didn't know who it was, and uh I've always admired Robert Plant for that because if it was me, I'd walk into a bar and say, I'm Led Zeppelin. They didn't, but they left, and I got friendly with uh Robert and Morey and his wife then and and two little girls. I had two little girls, uh, and it was just after they had a bad car crash, I believe. Maureen still had a pin in her ankle, but then they came up to my flat later, and uh we got very friendly, and of course we jammed together. He would summertime blues, um, I think bye-bye Johnny, Chuck Berry numbers. He he he he he always liked to come up and sing, so there was just me and Robert Plant.

SPEAKER_11:

I think he still does, you know. I've seen stuff on YouTube where he still does. He just turns up and yeah, uh Robert Plant, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

100% musician. Later on, uh after we played together, up in the flat, I said to him, I know what I know you know what I'm talking about, Robert, but what was the number that you heard and you knew that you would never ever be the same again? And he says, Uh, you tell me yours first, and then I'll tell me uh I'll tell you mine. So I said, for me it was long till Sally, little Richard. And for Robert Plant, it was weekend Eddie Cochran.

SPEAKER_15:

Wow.

SPEAKER_03:

So Eddie Cochran was touring Britain at the time, and uh well, like loads of people, he you know, this is a real live rock and roller. We'd never seen them live before. So it was Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, they were touring Britain at the time. So, like many others, Robert Plant saw saw uh Eddie Cochrane and that was uh that was that that that's the number that got him started, and that's from the from the man himself. He told me that himself.

SPEAKER_09:

So Stan Urban there talking about uh who's jamming sessions with Robert Plant and uh hanging out with Robert Plant's family. I mean a Led Zeppelin. How about that? Stan Urban and Led Zeppelin. And uh Russell, there were some numerous um events and uh well, bizarre ones. What was that he was talking about at one point? Some convention he went to, a stoner's convention. So what's a stoner? What is a stoner?

SPEAKER_11:

All right, well, Stan was notorious and famous for his love of of the wacky backy. Yeah, and just a peace-loving hippie, really, who who liked uh uh uh you know a joint, and um he it was he was famous for it. And um he was invited by the Spanish stoner. Now, a stoner is someone who partakes a lot in smoking uh dope, and um he was invited, all expenses paid, him and his wife, first class treatment, all the way from Denmark to Spain, where they were having a totally legal stoner's convention. You had to be a member, membership only, and he was gonna play with his piano at this stoner's convention. So he flew in, five-star hotel, turns up for sound check, and all these guys around smoking joints and stone, probably. And uh he said, So um, I want to do my sound check. Where's the piano? And they were so stoned that he forgot to get his piano. Everyone was so cool and relaxed, uh obviously, that he said, Oh, don't don't worry, no problem. They said, Well, would you mind judging the the contest? So he said, No, okay. So he spent he spent the rest of the weekend uh um uh partaking and uh judging in their Stoner's Convention contest of all the best blends. But uh Stan told me he said uh when I when I got to 80, I thought I'm old enough now and he he doesn't he doesn't do all that anymore. But uh yeah, until he was 80 years old, he was he was famous for it.

SPEAKER_09:

And he doesn't do that, but he's still tinking the piano, so we will find out later on. And uh here's stan's version of what. You've just been talking about. Let's hear from Stan about the uh for forgetting the piano.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh cannabis was being used for medicinal purposes. It it it lost this kind of junky image. You know, people were starting to realize it isn't all that bad. But anyway, yeah, they advised invited me to do a gig there and uh arrived at the gig. There was no piano. They forgot the piano. That was part of the deal. Yeah, exactly. So I got there, no piano. I said, never mind, do you want to be a judge? I said, okay. So I became a judge, and I was judging the different flavours of marijuana from all over Spain. I think I had five joints in my hand at the one time. They didn't call me Afghanistan for nothing. Afghanistan.

SPEAKER_11:

But all expenses paid, two flights, hotel, and they forgot the piano. I mean, it's it's just you couldn't make it up. You couldn't make it up, could you, really?

SPEAKER_09:

It was great. It was great. But there we are, Stan Urban forgetting the piano. Well, he forgot it this occasion, but he'll be coming along, he'll be cropping up later on with a piano, giving us a few uh notes as he tinkles the ivy IVs when we pop over to the Memphis mansion. Now, from one man and his piano to a big, big production. You can't get much bigger than productions by Pink Floyd. And we're going to find out now with a guy who was responsible for taking Pink Floyd behind the Iron Curtain to the USSR. Who am I talking about, Russ?

SPEAKER_11:

Well, Yatzik Slotala, one of the loveliest men I've ever come across in my career. And uh he sort of reminds me of a sort of Hagrid from Harry Potter character, big and burly and loud, but uh a real gentleman, lovely, lovely fella, and really passionate about music and very knowledgeable, highly intelligent, funny, and uh night, all around nice guy, got a lot of respect for Yatsik, and some funny stories about Pink Floyd. I mean, there were there were numerous, and uh one of my favourites, should I just mention that?

SPEAKER_09:

One of my favorites, oh yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_11:

Uh, was was when when um I was at the airport and and uh and so was Yatsik, and the the handler, let's call him the handler, you know, in the K days of KGB came up and said, there's good news and bad news. And he said, Okay, so uh the good news is um the concert's on or whatever, and uh the tickets are selling really well, and uh the bad news is that I haven't got any hotel rooms for the hundred people that you have traveling on this party. So Yatsik uh went into action and um he uh he sent he dispatched his guy to go and pay people off uh in the Ruskia Hotel, biggest hotel in the world at that time, 4,000 rooms, and basically just bribed them to get the hell out and uh don't care where you go, here's 150 rubles, get the hell out of it. We need your room, and they were like Politburo people, government people as well. And they took the money and ran, you know. So good old Yatsik, resourceful as ever.

SPEAKER_14:

A man from the GOSS concert came to me and he says, Yatsek, there are there are two messages for you. One is good, the other is not that good. I said, Give me the not that good. He says, We're short of 100 hotel rooms in Kotel Russia because there is a political rally uh that was called in the last minute in Moscow, and all the uh uh deputies and all the uh uh guy uh members of parliament and everybody went who came today to Moscow, and they have uh priority to stay in the hotel. So we were knocked out a hundred rooms were knocked out, and we are short one hundred rooms. I I got wet hands and I said what can I do? I said, What's the good news? All concerts are sold out. I turned around, I looked at my I because I had a personal driver who wasn't connected with a Goss concert. I met him through the network, and uh it was uh Armenian uh uh Georgian Armenian guy, uh very, very, very dedicated and very honest, very good guy, who always holds some amount of cash for me in rubles that I didn't want to leave in the hotel. And I said, Bring me the bag, and I took four interpreters whom I trusted, and I said, You take that bag, you go to the hotel, knock at every fucking door, whoever it is, if he's uh a member of parliament, minister, I don't give a shit. Just go there, knock at the door, give him hundred rubles, and tell him to get the fuck out of here. He said, hundred rubles, you crazy, maybe 20. I said, give him hundred rubles. I want to be at that time, 180 rubles was a monthly salary within three hours. I had my hundred rubles.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, so they're talking about the hotel guests being paid to leave. And Russ, I remember his sort of um his approach. I mean, very methodical, he had good contacts, he was able to entice what the Russian Air Force to transport uh kit, pink floor's gear or number bands gear across the entire breadth of uh of USSR. Incredible.

SPEAKER_11:

Well, it reminds me, and if any of our viewers have not seen a documentary, it was on Netflix, look it up, it's really worth a look. It's not a very long documentary, but it's hilarious, and it's a true story about this sort of time when Glasnos was starting to come in and Russia was changing, and things were for sale, you know, uh people were for hire for dollars. And um, that's called Operation Odessa. That's another story. You must watch that documentary if you haven't. It's very funny. And it reminded me of Yatsek because Yatsek had that same feeling. He had a bag of cash and he had to get the job done. And if he wanted to go and get a plane, he would go and have a chat to the top general and do a deal because he had to, because he needed to get uh all the equipment. I think in that case it was from Wishbone Ash to Siberia and back, and so he managed to convince with um they did some free concerts for the army. It started at about 15 or whatever, and uh ended up with a with a few concerts for them. And they got a plane for a week and they were able to fly all the equipment and the band in an army plane down to Siberia to use and come back.

SPEAKER_09:

Great stories, many great stories, and it was indeed a wishbone asso, I think was perhaps a bit of a what a guinea pig for his uh touring uh aspects in the behind the iron curtain. And uh he worked with so many artists, and I I put it to him. What was um perhaps some of his fondest memories and achievements?

SPEAKER_14:

I think it was uh Tina Turner's return into stage, uh, and we did a warm-up tour and the main uh main uh rehearsals in Warsaw in Torvar uh when she was coming back with the private dancer tour before the release of the record yet. And uh uh we uh we sold almost like 90% of tickets only for those, but we managed to do two uh videos for the television, but also for the management of Tina to see what else they have to fix, what else they have to uh correct. Uh we did this in Warsaw, we did that in Katovica, in Prague, and I think she went to Middle East as well, right? You you you had exactly so so uh I think that was incredible because she came without even a backline, without PA system, without backline, nothing. Logistically, that was very difficult as well. Because we had to provide everything what you needed, but she was a phenomenal artist. I mean, phenomenal person to work with. She never complained, she never she she would be saying Yatsek, take it easy. I can work with this. I can do this, I can do that. You see, I need two hours more because the girls need to, the backing vocals need to rehearse. Please hold the people in the hall. You know, she was uh she was a human artist, if you know what I mean. Phenomenal artists. So I live in Pink Floyd, Pink Floyd, Tina, Brocol Harum, and Charles Darslavu. This is my this these are my biggest achievements.

SPEAKER_09:

Well, behind the Iron Curtain, Pink Floyd in the USSR. We're traveling around the world in many ways because we're going to be off to well, well, numerous places. We mentioned we're going to be popping over to France. We got a couple of fans who are, well, so fanatic about live music, and they've been following bands for so many years. Their list of bands they've seen is very impressive. So fans and memorable gigs lost in France. But right now, to India, and this has got some interesting uh aspects, a very interesting uh development of cross-culture, you might say, a band who started off as the Rock Machine. Russell, tell us more.

SPEAKER_11:

Well, Rock Machine, um, they were and still are actually India's top band. They still command huge crowds, and like a lot of bands that reformed and are doing it again, they're probably doing better business than they ever did financially. Um, but they started uh in the 80s, um, and uh they they were one of the first bands to actually uh go away from covers and actually write their own material. And um uh Uday Benigal, the lead singer of Indus Creed, who we speak to in episode four, uh, he describes how you know that was quite a battle to get away from doing covers to doing their own material, and to be accepted. But um yeah, I came across them. Uh uh, I I promoted them in a gig and uh very very funnily um they asked me um to manage them and I asked them why, and they said because I was the only white guy they knew, which was I found quite amusing, but also quite flattering. And I really like the guys, and I must say, three and a half, four years that I managed them, and you know, we had some a little bit of success with them, but it was just the most enjoyable time because they're just a great bunch of guys, lots of wind-ups. I mean, they constantly tease me, uh uh psychologically abuse me in a funny way. Um, but uh it was great. And I described in the podcast it was the the best fifty thousand dollars I ever lost, uh, most enjoyable.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh well, then he started to make some very interesting and uh we had we hated to admit it, but very valid points. He said, uh Rock Machine is is a good name for a college band, and you guys are not a college band anymore. Uh we just started experimenting with a little bit of Indian instrumentation at the time. We'd used uh a tabla in one of our songs, a song that got us a lot of attention. Uh for that and for various other reasons. It was it was a very popular song. And so uh Russell's sort of reasoning went went deeper into if you're looking to uh expand your sound, then a name like Rock Machine will actually only limit you into a very, very small category of music.

SPEAKER_09:

Now I can reflect a little bit back on Indiscreet because they were in Dubai quite often when I was working on the radio station and doing outside broadcasts from events like the Powerboat Racing, and they came along to one of those events, and I remember not so much the band, but they had an entourage of Indian models. What was this all about? They were after you, weren't they?

SPEAKER_11:

It was it. I mean, I think you were misinterpreted, they weren't after the band or me. What it was is that I knew uh one of the models, um uh Sletlan and Kasper, uh, and she was at that time. I mean, it really was the rock and roll of fashion at that time because they had Miss World, Ashraya Rai, they had Sushmita Sen, who was Miss Universe, plus a whole host of other uh Indian celebrity models, and it was it was a really good time for modeling, and Svetlana was was part, and I knew her, and um I so of obviously managed the band. So when I was in Dubai and the band came and the models were there, we tended to congregate together because you know, Indians together and me and that. But um, it was really funny because uh when I I I went to Goa recently and I met up with Uday and I met up with Svetlana, and we had a bit of a joke uh uh uh about that. Um actually Svetlana had just had a bad form and she was really in pain, but she still agreed to do the interview poor thing. I uh uh but anyway, we got a little interview with her and um uh just a little clip. Here it is. Hi Philip, this is today. Uh and uh, take it easy.

SPEAKER_09:

Svetlana, and thanks very much for talking to uh Russell. And uh we'll have a clip coming up from uh Uday in a short while, but I want to go back a little bit because there's so many interesting stories with the uh podcast with Uday, and what was stood out was when they were touring India in their early days of the career of the band, and uh they went on on the train journey to get from one gig to another, and they had an unusual accompaniment on the trip, an unusual passenger, a dog called Scooby. This is what happened.

SPEAKER_00:

So Mark had a fox terrier, and Mark lived Mark and his mum lived together, and and Mark's mother used to organize uh travels and tours for a bunch of well-healed ladies and from South Bombay, and they travel across the world. But usually uh Aunt Claudine was at home taking care of Scooby-Doo and we went on. I mean, we didn't have a lot of gigs in those days, so it wasn't like we went out very often or for long periods of time. And so most often the calendar was fine, it matched okay. But this was one time where we had a gig and Aunt Claudine was off on tour, and we had no choice but to take Scooby-Doo with us on uh on the train. And unfortunately, we were those are the days when we hadn't even developed enough clout to uh to puts aren't allowed. No, they're not allowed to do that.

SPEAKER_11:

Smuggled the dog on.

SPEAKER_00:

We smuggled Scooby-On and we were in a not even in a in a good compartment, we were in the second class. Uh, it was like a pretty, pretty crummy. It probably worked for us actually, because if we'd gone to a nice air conditioned unit, we would have been thrown out right away. But uh and Peter and all animal rights activists, I'm with you. I love animals, I promise you I love them, and we love Scooby-Doo. But we had no choice but to give Scooby a shot of Valium so he could just fall asleep through the entire trip and be tucked under the seat. So Scooby was given little micro doses of Valium and kept asleep so that we wouldn't because if we'd got caught with him, we'd have been thrown off the train somewhere in the middle of India. And it almost actually happened to us once.

SPEAKER_11:

Oh, but it didn't at four o'clock in the morning, didn't they put you on the platform?

SPEAKER_00:

That was yeah, they almost threw Mark out. That was on a way on the way back from Delhi. So Delhi was Delhi, Delhi was a city that taught us our hardest lessons. Delhi uh uh you know, it was love-hate relationship, and I gotta love them for teaching us to the truth, the real truth about rock and roll.

SPEAKER_09:

Interesting train journeys across India, no doubt, even more uh interesting with the band and Scooby. Now, Uday's still busy, isn't he? He's uh I believe relocated. Well, he's he's moved from uh Mumbai or Bombay to uh Goa, where you met up with him. So, what's he doing these days?

SPEAKER_11:

Well, he seems to be very busy. Um, I mean Uday always works, he always does uh voiceovers and uh he's always producing or writing with other artists. What I would say, I get the impression with Uday is that he really does embrace and uh supports younger artists, and that's apparent in what he was telling me with his new project. He talked a bit about it on the podcast, uh, and he talked further when I met him in Goa last week. And um uh he's uh got a solo project which um he's really excited about, but they're very young artists, like maybe 20, 19, 20 years old, and um he he describes it as he's just been waiting for people with voices like that to do all the harmonies and stuff. So I I'm actually quite excited to hear what what's gonna come out the other end, but um yeah, he um he moved to Goa for a bit more of a quieter life, but you wouldn't believe that because in the interview with him we actually couldn't find anywhere that um that was quiet enough, or it was just so noisy. We ended up on the wall on the edge of a car park on a roundabout, which was the quietest place in that particular place was Candleham. However, Uday does live, he lives on the river, which is really quiet, and you know, and and that's that's tranquility in his uh older life as a musician. I think he's really enjoying. Hi, Phil, this is Russell. I'm in Goa, as I promised, and with our old friend uh Uday Benigal from the uh magic band Indus Creed, India's premier band. And uh, as I promised, I would send you a message from Goa. We're in Goa now. This is the only quietest place we've been able to find in the whole of the noise. So you're living in uh seriously.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but it's on the way to the US.

SPEAKER_11:

So I think Phil can relate to that whales, which is beautiful by the river. I'm in the jungle in the Philippines, and you're down in uh north Goa. Yeah, uh, where it's a lot quieter than here in Cambridge. Anyway, that's a little quick one for you, Phil. Uh from Goa. How nice to see you, Uday. Take care, buddy. Good to see you, man.

SPEAKER_09:

Uday, good to see you as well. And uh thanks for that clip with Russell. And again, many, many thanks for joining us on episode four, which is available on Spotify, Deezer, Apple, Amazon, and YouTube. So uh good stuff from there, and uh great to see you are so passionate about what you're doing and taking in a slightly different direction with younger musicians and uh different producers as well. So from India, we're now move on to a couple of guys who have been following bands, like a lot of us, for decades and decades. So uh we have two guys in episode number five, which is called Fans and Memorable Gigs. What do they get up to? What how many bands do they see? It was dozens and dozens, wasn't it, Russ?

SPEAKER_11:

Yeah, yeah. They I mean 1973. I mean, I was at I was at Stening Grammar School with these with these guys, and uh I I never really knew what was going on because I came into music a bit later, but these guys were straight into it at 13 years old, and um obviously started a passion, uh Rudy and and Chris, the two guys who came on the podcast, who you are who I named super fans, because I just really respect them a lot for the amount of bands they've seen and their passion for it, still at 65 years old. Even a couple of days before our podcast, they they they went and saw level 42 for the umpteenth time. Um, but uh yeah, 1973. Uh, I I really like that story of it of Chris going to uh the Brighton Dome. He'd never been to a gig before. The person who was going with him bailed, he was on his own at 14, walked into a gig, um, and it was Peter Gabriel, you know, with all the and Peter Gabriel in Genesis. I mean, that is iconic, you know. Um, so I I I love that story. There were so many that they told that that was a good one.

SPEAKER_06:

Um, and my first ever gig was the original Genesis in 1973, which I saw at the Brighton Dome. And one of the things that stands out about that is I ended up going on my own as well. So my first concert at 14 years old, and I was on my own because the other person could go. Um and that's my first experience of a really pro any kind of live band. And of course, then we had Peter Gabriel's elite singer with his headsets and his headdresses and that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah. It was just a great show. And I went out and bought the live album that reflected that concert, and I've still got the original ticket attached to that album sleep as well.

SPEAKER_09:

Peter Gabriel and Genesis at the Brighton Dome at the age of 14. I wouldn't have ventured near a rock show at that age. I think I was probably about 21 or something. No, maybe 19. I was 19, I was at tech college. Um, right, as for um the first gig, I put this one to to Rudy, and uh I love his response when I asked him about his very first gig.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I'd never heard anything as loud as that before. Yeah, I mean from the very first chord I was hooked, that was it. Yeah, I mean, the first I think he opened up with messing with the kid as well as songs. And from from that moment I was hooked, and it was like a you mean there was no fancy, you mean it's just lights and that. There was no real showman apart from his showmanship of his playing, you know. I mean, there was no gimmicks, it was just straight ahead sort of um blues rock, you know, and I loved it. I lapped it, lapped it in. What about you, Phil?

SPEAKER_11:

What was your first yeah?

SPEAKER_09:

Let me set the scene. I grew up in Western Super May, you know, a bit of a quiet seaside town, apart from when the mods and rockers appeared later on in life and 40s over on the seafront, bank holidays. We had the Winterguns, that was our main venue, so you can expect Winterguns is going to be sort of sedate tea afternoon tea parties and things like that, tea dances. But occasionally a venue would be used for a show, an independent uh producer would come in or promoter, the rest of it was council, and it was um a blues band, a bloodwind pig. Remember that? Uh some of the guys went on to perform Jeffrey Tunnel or work with Jeff Rotal. So and they were there supporting Curved Air. So I saw my first band I saw was Bloodwind Pig, and then Curved Air. Curved Air, well, yeah, the violinist, what's her name? Christina um the lead singer. Sonia Christina, Sonia Christina, that's it, yeah. So yeah, there we were. Harry Biker's there for the blues band, Bloodwind Pig, and uh I didn't know who they were, it was just mate saying, Let's go along, you know. There's this rock show rock band on it at Winter Gardens, which was in that in shape. It was it was a dome, perhaps acoustically, not as good as the Albert Hall or or Brighton uh dome, but uh yeah, and it was like a a terrace getting around and people on a dance floor on the stage sat up with massive amount of amplification of speakers, so that was an ear-blasting experience. The excitement of it was uh too much, and then curved air came on with Sonny Christina uh leaping around with a violin. That was a treat for the eyes, she was.

SPEAKER_11:

Well, uh Sam Fox, another feast for for sore eyes, I would say. Um, but she was really popular in the golf. Uh and we can catch up with that in episode nine, I think. Um, but now we're off to France.

SPEAKER_09:

France is our destination now when it comes to our rock and roll podcast. So, uh how does this come into the series? Lost in France is the title of the episode, episode six.

SPEAKER_11:

Yeah, um, well, a friend of mine, is this is probably uh one of the least connected things I'm with because I I I wasn't involved in this at all, didn't work with them. But uh David Sosson, the French chef who actually instigated and uh promoted this uh event uh which led to the film being made about it, um, is a world-renowned chef. And uh by chance, uh from living in Qatar for so many years, I have two or three friends actually who are uh top chefs and uh French chefs. And um David just started to tell me, you know, we we decide we we uh um found out that we have similar music tastes and uh we swap uh music and he started to tell me about this incredible thing that happened when he was learning and training to be a chef in in Glasgow and how he got involved in the chemical underground, which was a movement, a music movement uh in the uh 90 mid-90s. And he he actually put all these musicians onto a bus and sent them off to uh to his hometown uh in Brittany, which had very little music. They had to travel. He said talks about it in a podcast where they used to have him and his mates used to have to travel to Wren, which was a while a way away, to even see any bands at all. And so he thought, well, I'll just promote my my own festival, which he did. But the thing is, the first time out of the UK, uh, a load of rock and roll bands on a on a coach and then a ferry, uh like I said before, what the hell could go wrong? And lots of funny stories and things did go wrong. But um Naal McCann, filmmaker, picked it up uh and uh they reenacted it. And one of the people who uh one of the bands, famous bands, Franz Ferdinand, who were part of that original thing, um they all actually participated in this reenactment of uh uh going to France and doing these gigs again. And that was filmed by Nar McCann and it's an award-winning movie, it's a it's a very interesting sort of documov. Um, very interesting things came from that.

SPEAKER_15:

But um the fact that we got into France is down to the read because we were almost sent on the first ship back to the UK because we had destroyed the place. You know, there was chairs thrown overboard, people missing. The the bar was like we were the last people in the bar we'd we weren't necessarily we weren't aggressive in any way, but we were just out of control.

SPEAKER_09:

That movie was very much, I suppose, a documentary, as you said, a music documentary, but road trip as well. I mean, think of who was on board. I mean, musicians from Franz Ferdinand, as you said, Arab Strap, uh Chemical uh Underground, uh, an insight in that podcast into what the music scene was like in Glasgow at that time. And I sort of thought it a bit like the music scene in Manchester, which I was perhaps more familiar with with the Hassiend of it.

SPEAKER_11:

Yeah, Hassi End of it, yeah.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, so yeah, a great insight into uh uh movie making, bands on the road, going down, creating a little uh festival in a small town, small village in France. So uh that is episode six, and it's available on uh all the usual channels. And uh, one thing I mentioned before that when you get onto Spotify Apple and you want to pick out a certain part, go into the section on the podcast where it says chapters, and you sort of scroll down and oh I fancy this or that, and click on that, and you get that chapter, which is a great little aspect for scrolling through um the podcasts, which are you know insightful, lengthy, great entertainment, and uh insightful, as I said. So, what we got lined up now? We've got uh Elvis Presley popping along, we've got the rats in the desert, those are the guys who were hard at work in the late 80s, early 90s. But now, this is a fascinating one. What happens when a band is on tour? When a star is on tour, how do they have protection? What is the security like behind the stars? We have an insightful one now, don't we, uh Russell, from uh Ronnie Franklin?

SPEAKER_11:

Yeah, Ronnie, Ronnie's uh uh interesting character because um I first came across Ronnie obviously on the Wham tours, and uh Ronnie's a very unassuming, he'd come across as quite shy, and uh I was really uh so pleased to get him on the podcast because you imagine all the documentaries and all the interviews that have been done about the late great George Michael, uh Ronnie never did one, never did one, but he agreed to come on our podcast, and I was so uh privileged to have him on because uh you can tell that he's still as he was his personal minder for 33 years, you you still get the feeling that he's still very protective of George, and there was obviously a very fond uh connection. Um, George went to his wedding, they used to he he says in the podcast that you know they used to go out together, but when they worked, it was professional. Uh and um he he describes him as one of the nicest, generous, and uh professional people he's ever ever worked with. And he's worked with a lot as well, um, before and since. But uh you could tell during the episode that he was quite shy to talk about it. Um and uh I had, you know, I did assure him that we're not journalists and we're not gonna ask any difficult questions. And in the end, you know, he he shared some very uh uh interesting, funny, and I I thought it was quite uh uh he shared a quite emotional moment when you asked him about uh you know what was his favorite uh what was his lasting memory of of of George. And uh I thought that was that was quite uh quite a poignant moment, but um yeah, right.

SPEAKER_09:

It was very poignant, yeah.

SPEAKER_11:

But I thought my favorite one, to be fair, was uh was the uh the boyfriend, the jealous boyfriend with the gun.

SPEAKER_04:

No, we were out in um I think it was Austin in Texas. And again, we'd gone out for a night out. We had a day off, so we went out for dinner and we were in this restaurant at the bar place, and um we're sitting there, and again people recognize they know who he is, and you know, you can you can see the you know the the words going around with the people and the pointing the fingers and whatever. And um this girl comes over and she says, Can I get an autograph? And I said to her, Look, you can, but can you wait until we finish dinner? And when we're leaving, you'll have any finding dinner. And she said, Yeah, okay, it's fine. Anyway, she went back to the bar and she we have a guy. And the guy obviously took it the wrong way. And the next thing I know, he's leaning against the gun at the um the bar and he moves his jacket and on the side of his trousers, he's got a gun on a holster. So Rob, the manager, looks at me and says, Ronnie, the guy down here he's got a gun. And I said to him, I can see that, Rob. He said, What are we gonna do about it? I said, It's selling his holster, nothing to worry about. What oh dude. He's like, Mr. Cool Ronnie, but he just laughed. He always laughed and says, I'm gonna go. And he got up and went over and signed our autograph for it.

SPEAKER_09:

Great uh clip of uh that aspect, and it showed how uh Ronnie, how astute he was because he was and also very calm.

SPEAKER_11:

I was gonna say how cool he was as well. Yeah, very calm, very cool. And that's all I remember. And I said it in the podcast. I just remember always being in the dressing room, uh and you know, getting everything ready, waiting for George to come. And uh George would walk in, uh Ronnie would walk in beside him, and he just looked around and say, Everything all right, chats? You know, he was just already, but he'd already clocked everything, you know. Very, very, very professional, calm guy. And I think that's that I think that just suited George's what it was.

SPEAKER_09:

It probably didn't it? A very unaccerton presence by his head of security person and a very personal relationship, um, as as you said. Um there was also another funny moment which you uh managed to extract from from YouTube, I believe, and uh with a security guard. Let's have a look at this.

SPEAKER_07:

I was in the outside of club and let's me, I don't care for a fucking Frank's mother.

SPEAKER_09:

That was so good, that was so good, hard to believe it could happen.

SPEAKER_11:

Uh I I also I think the thing uh in that clip, uh George found it so funny. I mean, he's a megastar. He could have been he could have can you imagine if that happened to someone like Madonna? You know, let's throw the toys back to the cram. But you say you saying Ronnie, Ronnie, it's okay.

SPEAKER_09:

He was laughing about it in the back of the car, wasn't he? As he drove on to the show itself. So some point of moments there, great uh display of professionalism and uh some moments which Ronnie spoke about, and he didn't cross the line, did he? He was like there, and um, yeah, he obviously there's a lot more you could say, but well, we didn't push him on it, it was too personal, it would have been too raw and uh yeah, yeah, yeah, private for for him, really private. So from Ronnie to a character now, a real character who's based in Denmark, and he set up a memorial to Elvis Presley. Who are we talking about in episode eight, Russ?

SPEAKER_11:

Well, Hendrik, I can't pronounce his last name. No, don't try. Hendrik, of course, had to be one of Stan Urban's friends. And sitting around the pool at my place here in the Philippines when Stan was visiting, said, Oh, you gotta meet my my my mate, you know, Hendrik. He's crazy. He built an El he built Elvis's house. And uh that's exactly what he did, you know. Um uh so passionate about all things Elvis, considering he's you know, he's not he's he's younger, he's younger than us, and um, you know, most Elvis fans are you know quite a lot of now, aren't they?

SPEAKER_09:

But um he's as you quite rightly said, you had to sort of explain about the colonel because the younger viewers might not know Elvis is Presley's manager, the colonel. Uh yes.

SPEAKER_11:

Colonel Parker, yeah, is his manager.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, fascinating tour around the um what he's got there at the uh mansion uh memorial. It's more than a museum, it's a fascinating collection. And um, I did ask him because uh in the podcast, Hendrik and Stan was sat at the keyboard side of a piano, an elegant piano. So we wanted to know more about that piano, and this is what Hendrik had to tell us.

SPEAKER_13:

I bought it at an auction for nearly 20 years ago. I was uh at the the Beverly Hills Hotel in uh in uh Los Angeles, and I was uh I was out at for an auction. They had a few Elvis items. I was well prepared, I got this stuff, I was happy, but I stayed there because uh it was very interesting. It was not only Elvis, it was uh Mellon Monroe, it was uh James Dean, Frank Sinatra, John uh John Wayne, and and such. And it was very interesting. And I also had this auction catalog in my hand and on. The second last page I fell over this piano. It's a Shay Fun Sons. And uh and I knew Elvis had had one like it, but I knew this could not be Elvis's. Actually, Elvis's is at Aden Studios in Memphis, but that's another story. But this piano, I felt I felt connected with it because I thought it was super cool. It's a gift to uh Milton uh Milton Bro uh for a birthday, and it was uh he put it at uh Friars Club. The last uh uh guy who played it uh at Fryars Club uh is Jackson Brown. But the reason I bought it, I love Jackson Brown, but the reason I bought it was that uh three of my other heroes and a piano player that I also love very much, like my friend Stan here, uh, have played on it. And uh the piano player, let's start start with him, Count Basie. And the three singers who have been singing around this piano is uh Sammy Davis Jr., uh James Dean, now James Dean, Dean Martin, and Frank Hatter, also called the Red Pack. And I thought if they could play and sing around this piano, I had to bring it to Denmark, so that's the reason I have it.

SPEAKER_09:

Excellent, very good reason indeed. So, um, right, let's have some music. Time to have some music here on our podcast. And uh, Stan, what are you gonna play for us? I know it's gonna be rock and roll. Are you gonna be waking up some of uh the ghosts of those past legends? I love the script writer I've got here. Stan, what are you gonna play for us?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, everybody knows all the classic rock and roll ones. I want to play one of my own, and it's called uh The Devil Made the Boogie.

SPEAKER_11:

I love this one.

SPEAKER_03:

Lord made the heaven and Edison made the light, or rather Tesla made the light, but the devil made the boogie and he's rocking tonight.

SPEAKER_11:

And every single person who comes into that museum, or kid or big kid, will tinkle on those ivories, and it's horribly out of tune. But you stop Stan Urban playing a piano. It doesn't matter if it's out of tune, he will play it anywhere, anywhere, anytime. It's it's the martini moment of Stan Urban.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, Stan being so passionate about the piano, and we'll have uh another clip from him in this uh special podcast, our end of year festive Christmas podcast, and we'll uh in fact close with Stan at the piano. So um there's a lot to see at that museum, and uh a lot to see, in fact, in the podcast, because we did have a a visual, a video tour around certain aspects of that. So you want to see more? Get to episode eight on YouTube and also audio-wise on uh Spotify and uh um Apple. So there we are. That's uh Stan and the Elvis Presley Memorial Museum. So from Chile cool uh Europe across to the Middle East, and Russ, you spent a lot of time in the Middle East. I spent a lot of time in the Middle East. I was on radio and broadcasting, you were doing all sorts of uh shows and entertainment. And the desert rats is about what?

SPEAKER_11:

Well, the desert rats I came up with a name because obviously the famous Desert Rats were the the wartime uh soldiers who fought in the desert against Rommel. And uh, but it's uh it I just thought it was it was fitting because it really was a battle in those days in the 80s. It's really close to my heart because that's actually where I came across Brian Miller and uh Simon Wharton, who are real uh risk takers and pioneers of promoting shows in uh I mean Dubai and Abu Dhabi, all these Gulf countries were just not what they are today. They were nowhere near it. It was it was really a hardship posting, but there were uh oil uh mainly oil worker rich uh expats who wanted to be entertained and um uh they saw a niche and they you know they filled it pretty pretty well. Uh but these guys try there was no equipment, no backup. They just had uh basic equipment and they had all these top uh international stars who came and uh you know trying to patch it up. Things would would break, you know, electricity, as Graham, one of the guys, the lighting guy said, you know, sand, uh heat and electricity just don't go together. It's it's it's like you mentioned it, water and electricity, it's just forever breaking down, catching fire, you know, and you just had to think on your feet and get the show. You know, the show must go on, as the old adjust adjust says. But um, yeah, it it it was it was great to get these guys on, and we could have gone on and on and on because uh in those few years that we we did that a few years, it was quite a few years, um, we really did have some stories and shared some moments together, and it was really nice to have them on.

SPEAKER_09:

A lot to talk about, and uh one thing at the end of that podcast there's a montage of images from those pioneering days, which is fascinating. So you can check that one out on episode nine on YouTube. And uh as you're saying, Graham, he was I mean, he was gonna go there for a short period of time, it ended up 10 years. And let's have a few words from Graham now of what his experience was like.

SPEAKER_01:

Um I I knew a guy called Colin Hannah who was actually tour managing at the very start of uh of my start and he uh uh contacted me one day and said would I be interested in uh doing some lighting? Start off with it was supposed to have been South Africa in a uh that church but um that soon changed and he beg he put me on to uh coming out into the Middle East which at the time I was DJing and uh discoing and what have you, and uh I said, well, yeah, why not? So that's how it all began, really and truly. I just sort of fell fell into something that I never knew anything about, uh but decided why not? We'll give it a go.

SPEAKER_09:

He was very involved, wasn't he? And uh we'll have him talking in a short while about some of the uh great bands he worked with over in the Middle East. Well, in fact, here he is now.

SPEAKER_16:

Well, it's some of the artists. I mean, um we worked with some of the best artists in the world at the time. Um and some of the oldest, you know, the old sixties and seventies crowd that uh and that was fun. But um I I what uh Graham was saying earlier about his his uh Dimerracks getting frying, getting fried in that. My um sound modules used to get fried as well. And I remember that the two of us used to take stuff back to the UK to get it fixed in our hand luggage, back out to to the uh to the Middle East on the next tour, you know. So we'd we'd be laden with all this stuff, and uh because Simon didn't want to pay anything, you know, excess baggage and all that sort of stuff. So we had to fit it into our luggage.

SPEAKER_11:

One of the funniest ones that Kev told us was about um because I sent him to Lebanon, the war had just finished, but there were still missiles flying about, and he went to Lebanon with Dr. Album, and the stage was so bad there and so unsafe that uh the guitarist for Dr. Album was jumping up and down and ended up going right through the stage. And but because he was on a on a on a radio guitar um uh pack, he just kept playing and then walked under the stage, round up the steps and back onto the stage, and kept playing, but avoiding the hole that he'd created. I just thought that was you know, again, the show must go on.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah, cool guy, and he had the big hit, didn't he? It's my life. His life was uh very entertaining. He nearly lost his life, almost lost it, yes. So many uh fascinating tales and experiences through our series of uh podcasts and staying with the desert rats. There's one person that you were trying to pin down, but this chap is so busy doing all sorts of shows uh and events around the world. Uh I'm mentioning Ian Lishfield.

SPEAKER_11:

Yeah, my friend Ian. I mean, but Ian showed up on my doorstep when he was 16 years old, and uh we shared a house for years, and it it that was, I guess, in about 1980, and it was a it's a friendship that's lasted a long time. I was the best man at my wedding, I was the best man at his wedding, and um but you know, uh we've we've we've gone our separate ways many times, but we always come back together. And during those days in the desert rat days, um Ian was was there, he was there as well. But I haven't been able to, you're quite right, I haven't been able to pin him down because he's still working, he's still slogging around doing events. He's just finished literally two days or three days ago um in Japan, two months stint at um working in uh 50 venues around Japan. I mean, I didn't realize they had so many venues, but um he's done uh he he he moved obviously work with me and rock and roll, but he moved into um uh doing branding. He's he's done maybe two or three Olympics, he's worked on the Pan Area in Peru, Kazakhstan, everywhere. The guy's done everything, and we started. I needed some help. I was doing a charity uh event at the Duke of York's theatre with Glenda Jackson, Hazel O'Connor. Do you remember her breaking glass? Of course. Um, Alexis, Alexis Corner, Alexis Sale, uh, the the late great uh Robbie Coltrane and the late great um uh Rick Mayle. It was a it was a sort of fun evening charity thing, and I I needed some help because Hazel O'Connor was doing a set and I needed to get the equipment off. So I brought Ian along. And ever since that day in 1981, he he took the ball and he's run with it and he made a career out of it. And I'm I'm actually really proud of him. And in the podcast, you know, it comes across as like, you know, we we slag him off or whatever, we tease him. But he's a really funny guy. I mean, you you know he.

SPEAKER_09:

Yes, there were some funny tales with him being teased and sort of uh led up the gun puff.

SPEAKER_11:

Yeah, but but through through all that, we we we take take the mick out of each other. He's actually a really serious professional.

SPEAKER_09:

So you've got to track him down, pin him down, then we can hear his side of the stories and what it was like working with you guys and the rest of the guys.

SPEAKER_11:

Get his tail on it. He needs his he needs his chance. Get give him a beer and he'll start uh getting his own back. But um uh I must just give him a shout out today because it's actually his wedding anniversary, which I was his best man at, and I'm the worst best man in the world because there's many times when I uh get forget it or whatever, because it's quite near Christmas. But today, the 20th December, is his wedding anniversary, and I hope he has a great day.

SPEAKER_09:

Congratulations to him, yeah, Ian. So hopefully in the future you'll be joining us on one of our podcasts. So uh Russell, what what a journey. Ten episodes in in three months, way beyond expectations, in terms of what we've achieved, and and the interest from from all our viewers and listeners to the podcast on both uh audio and uh YouTube.

SPEAKER_11:

Yeah, I mean it's it's actually a bit of self-indulgence, uh Phil. I I I thought I'd only do five. Actually, it's a lazy way out of writing my memoirs for my kids. Um so now it's all documented.

SPEAKER_09:

It's all documented, and we can get AI to do the written uh memoirs for you.

SPEAKER_11:

Exactly, yeah, exactly. So um uh because uh I'm really feel grateful. I've had a very full life, and uh uh that was my intention. As I mentioned in one of the podcasts when I left school, I looked back and thought, right, now I'm gonna do everything I always wanted to do. I've met lots of very interesting people, and that's uh one of the things I've always been interested in. I am very interested in people, and I keep saying the same thing, and I truly believe it that whoever the the people are, they don't need to be famous or important or whatever, but everybody has a story and it's worth listening to. And uh you just need to scratch the surface and get people to open up. And it's been a real you know, like I say, I thought we'd do about five, four or five. Uh I think I told you that. We ended up doing ten now. Uh we're looking at a second series because we couldn't fit them all in. We've got Rockfield still to come and uh we'll get Kevin back on.

SPEAKER_09:

You know, some some of these guys you say are still working and they're sort of touring and things like that out on the road, or or they're not touring with a ban, they're touring along railway lines in their spare time. I think uh one of the early guys was doing that, wasn't he? Yeah, holiday touring Europe on the train network. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, Jake.

SPEAKER_11:

It's in the blood, it's in the blood, isn't it? They can't leave it behind. Exactly. But what what I what I would say is it's it's been really enjoyable. Um I really would like to thank all the guests that have come on because, like I said before, a lot of the guests actually were very reluctant to do this. We're we're not we're not professionals, you are, but we're not professionals at doing this side of the camera. Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_09:

It's a different environment, different world, isn't it?

SPEAKER_11:

Making it we're we're used to making it making it right for the people in front of the camera.

SPEAKER_09:

So and I think yeah, from your side and their side, you're in control of your special area when you're doing a production. When you come onto something like this, it's the complete opposite. You don't know what's going to come up next, even though we brief them pretty well. It's just you you you're removed from that being in control environment, isn't it?

SPEAKER_11:

Yeah, of course. And you know, you try not to offend anybody or that because that's not intention, it's a bit of fun. Um, I hope people have enjoyed it. Um, I I you know I would like to, like I say, thank all the guests who've come on. I'd like to thank you, Phil, because you've been gracious in putting up with me. Calling you all the time uh to you know put this in or do that. What do I do now?

SPEAKER_09:

It's been uh a joy and very insightful, and certain aspects I've had uh some sort of connection with because of my radio career in the Middle East and and elsewhere. So, yeah, some fond memories coming back and uh seeing things from your perspective and their perspective has been great, you know, fascinating. And look at that. Yes, uh happy Christmas, yes.

SPEAKER_11:

Happy New Year, and we'll see you for season two.

SPEAKER_09:

All the best, all the best for uh 2026. Russ, been a pleasure.

SPEAKER_11:

There you go.

SPEAKER_09:

Oh, gotta have the hat. Okay, there we go, you've got to have the hat. Where's mine? Anyway, gonna we're gonna leave him now with a final piece. There's a final piece of music from the one and only that's much overused, but he certainly is the one and only Stan Urban. Take it away.

SPEAKER_11:

Um, I'm sad to mention, but I feel we have to be compelled to mention it, the passing of uh the late dear Chris Rear brought a lot of happiness to a lot of people with great music, very humble guy. We mention him a lot in the podcast, fond memories of touring with him in the late 80s, and rest in peace, Chris.