Alternative Colchester #10

Steve Green recorded episode 10 of Alternative Colchester without his partner in crime, Tim Young, who was unavailable due to health reasons, but he will be back, all guns blazing, for episode 11.

Tim had been looking forward to talking about Ipswich's promotion to the Premier League, but not only does producer Luke Fitch carry the Tractor Boys flame in his absence, but the show's guests also include Ipswich's very own Red Flag 77's Rikki Flag and John "Fanny" Adams, who get to play some of their favourite records from 1976–1981.

Tim's choices are played in his absence, while Steve's picks include tracks by Bullitz 23 and The Scissor Fits, both of whom have got in touch with the show and definitely meet the criteria. Bullitz 23 are new to us, but their sound is clearly influenced by the sound of 1977, while The Scissor Fits, hailing from Hounslow, were actually there.

Other records played are classics by Johnny Moped, The Drones, Department S, Sleepers, Blondie, The Saints, The Boys, The Carpettes, Tom Robinson Band, and of course Stiff Little Fingers. Red Flag 77's alter ego, Blue Flag 78, also features.

www.alternativecolchester.co.uk

Transcript

SPEAKER_11 0:30

I'm Tim Young, co-host of a brilliant punk rock and football podcast. Supporter of Premier League Ipswich Town. And you're listening to Alternative Colchester.

SPEAKER_08 0:44

And I'm Steve Green, and I represent the Cole U side of Alternative Colchester. I've been dreading this episode ever since Ipswich got that promotion. But unfortunately, um my co-host Tim um has had a few health issues. Um not sure whether it was brought on by the excitement of Ipswich or his Labour counselling and all the voting that took place and all the counting on Thursday. Um but uh he's not in great shape now, Tim. Uh but he will be back for uh episode eleven. But in his absence, I do have two Ipswich stalwarts with me. Well, one in the footballing terms and two in the musical terms, because I've got my guests today are Ricky and Fanny from uh Red Flag 77. Hi, chaps.

SPEAKER_14 1:37

Good day to you, Steve. All right, mate. Hello, Steve. Thank you for having us on, and uh all the best to Tim, obviously, of course, with his recovery, and I like the way in his message he did uh accent the point of Premier League Ipswich Town.

SPEAKER_08 1:50

Yeah, well, somebody's bought him a Panini sticker book for the World Cup and um and then somebody pointed out that he could get a Premiership one. I think that was you, Ricky.

SPEAKER_14 1:59

Indeed, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 2:00

It cost a fortune to fill the book, but Well, I was determined that this episode is not just going to be about Ipswich's promotion to the Premier League, but Well, I'm glad about that. Well I I've got no idea what you're talking about. Good. Well I re I reckon there's some people who hate the football chat who are thinking, thank goodness, maybe we can uh get on with some music. Well, we know the thought it's a little bit subdued this week because um obviously uh Tim's not in great shape and just want to echo what uh Ricky just said there, so get well soon, Tim, and um yeah, it's not the same without ya. Um but the show must go on and I know you're looking forward to hearing it. Um I want to speak to the guys from Red Flag 77, they're gonna be picking uh four. Is it four songs I asked you to pick, guys, or was it five? Four four and a football one. Four and a football one, okay. And um did you play on the football one, Fanny?

SPEAKER_10 2:54

Uh no, I didn't play football on that.

SPEAKER_08 2:56

No, but did you play bass guitar on them?

SPEAKER_10 2:59

Yeah, I I played bass on a football one, yeah. And I did some hey-hos as well.

SPEAKER_14 3:02

Good, good. Which was a bit of a weird one because Kev, the guitarist, is Leicester. And uh he was actually on holiday in America at the time and we had to record that. So hence that's why we did a rather well-known song because uh he wrote used to write most of the song, so that was like I'm gonna do it. And he learned how to play that. Yeah, so I had to get something together really quickly and just say as soon as you get home, you're going into the studio and we're recording this, so just learn.

SPEAKER_08 3:27

Okay, well this is your first track, because we want to play a red flag 771. As you know, the criteria of the show is um records really that were released between 1976 and 1981. But um in recent weeks we've had bands like the Dead Pollies and Hi-Fi Spitfires, and we're ac actually going to play a track by a band called Bullets 23. Uh these bands have got in contact with the show, and they actually sound like they could have come straight out of that era, and you guys actually fit the bill uh in that as well. I've known you for many years, and you are a oh Red Flag 77 says it all, doesn't it? So tell us about Blitzkrieg Bop brackets for the Ipswich lot, which you released under the band name of Blue Flag 78, which was quite clever.

SPEAKER_14 4:10

Well, yeah, obviously 78 FA Cup, yeah. Was it? Roger Osborne. Indeed, the Cole U man knows better than you, Fan Noir. He fainted, didn't he, after he scored? There's a lot of rumours as to what happened after he scored. But uh yeah, he did. And how did the song come about? Um well basically I think thanks to Mark Brennan, who used to compile the football compilations for Cherry Red, who kind of said, like, if uh Ricky and his red flag lot weren't involved, they'd be gutted to miss out on being on an Ipsch album. Cherry Red phoned me up and I thought it was a wind up saying, you know, do you want to be on a Ipschown compilation album of tr of songs? I'm like, yeah, right, what have you got? And then they started reeling off what they had and said Edward Ebbene's and Jeremiah Brown, and then I knew they were serious. So he said, Yep, we're in, but didn't actually have a song, so hence recording this very quickly and getting the guitarist straight in the studio to do it.

SPEAKER_08 5:04

Brilliant. Well we're gonna play it, and then I'm gonna ask the producer, Luke, if he recalls ever hearing it at Porton Road, because you say it has been played at Port and Road, yeah?

SPEAKER_14 5:13

Yeah, I think when probably when Foz was doing the the music down there and that, but a couple of times coming up from the bar and hearing that, you know, and obviously your mates will kind of say they're playing you like that, and that was a prop of hair of the back of the neck moment when you hear that, you know, well chuffed.

SPEAKER_08 5:28

Fantastic. Okay, well let's hear Blitzkrieg Bop for the Ipswitch lot by Blue Flag 78. Fantastic. Blue Flag 78, Blitzkrieg Bop, brackets for the Ipswich lock, close brackets. Come on, Luke, producer, you said you've heard that on a Tony Hawking. Was it on a Tony Hawke's two? That would have been the Ramones original version of the Twitter. The original. Yeah. Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_14 7:32

I was gonna say, if it was, I I'm sure we'd be owed some money from someone.

SPEAKER_08 7:36

Yeah. No it's a ri I mean, musically, it is it it's it's identical to the Ramones record for actually sounded better than I remember.

SPEAKER_14 7:46

Yeah, I thought I was really chuff listening to it just then.

SPEAKER_10 7:49

Dancing away like in our chairs.

SPEAKER_14 7:51

No, and it that was obviously when we were sponsored by Green King, I should think, because I heard that in the of the time.

SPEAKER_08 7:57

Well, red flag was sponsored by Green King. Switched town. Now that'd be nice, wouldn't that?

SPEAKER_14 8:02

When they sponsored us, they finished the deal very quickly, realising that it was not going to be very profitable for 'em.

SPEAKER_08 8:08

Well, that was a fan fantastic rendition of Blitzgrid Bop, and um there's a lot of football teams and sporting events that use Blit the the Ramones Blitzgrid Bop. I mean, e i every time I've ever been to St. James's Park, Newcastle play it just before the players come out.

SPEAKER_10 8:23

I don't know why I'm nodding.

SPEAKER_08 8:24

I'm pretending I'm knowing what you're talking about. And um I know Johnny Ramon uh was pleased because the New York what is the baseball team called in New York? Is it the Jets, not the Jets or the Giants? It's the Yankees, the Yankees, that's it. And that I didn't even need Google for that one. So alright, well the New York Yankees who I actually did see play once, but I can't remember where it was Wembley, I think. But um yeah, they they that's their theme tune as well, which uh Johnny Roman was a massive baseball fan, wasn't he? And we're all massive Ramones fans, and I know we all go on about New Rose being the first ever UK punk record, but obviously Blitzkrieg Bot was out before it. Yeah. As were the Saints. Oh but more about them and the Vibrators, but yeah, they were a little bit manufactured, they were those early ones were not the best singles, were they? No, Whips and First was good, but uh you know, pogo dancing, We Vibrate, not great, were they? Okay, right, so that was uh an introduction to uh two guests here musically, Red Flag 77, and obviously celebrating 1978 Cup final win, which they probably weren't even born when uh they won that.

SPEAKER_14 9:34

Oh, you say the noiseless things. Very kind of you to say that, yeah. Take note Ipswich town. Do you remember it, Luke?

SPEAKER_08 9:40

What's that, sorry? Ipswich winning the FA Cup. Er no, I wasn't bored. Okay. Well I was sixteen and I cried my eyes out.

SPEAKER_14 9:50

That they won.

SPEAKER_08 9:51

Yeah, I was absolutely gutted. I don't mind admitting.

SPEAKER_14 9:54

Did you have a lot of Ipswich fans at school?

SPEAKER_08 9:56

Er yeah, yeah, yeah. Which has always been the annoyance for me growing up, you know, that a lot of Ipswich fans come from Colchester, and that has always been my uh bugbear with the situation.

SPEAKER_14 10:09

Well, you've got to have one decent team in East Anglia, really, ain't ya? And I think we've proven that point again.

SPEAKER_08 10:14

In 2006 we did have one decent team in East Anglia when Colster finished above Ipswich, Norwich, Luton, South End.

SPEAKER_14 10:21

And I do remember you stuffing Norwich on my birthday. Seven one away. Exactly.

SPEAKER_08 10:26

We never talk about that on this show. That features quite a lot on this show.

unknown 10:30

Right.

SPEAKER_14 10:34

Another one, another one.

SPEAKER_08 10:35

So it was like I was actually a guest of the um Norwich directors that day, so I was sitting with the uh Norwich directors and uh it was uh I remember going in the um bar after the game and the the security guy said asked a really sad day for the football club, isn't it? I went, not for me, I'm from Colchester.

SPEAKER_12 10:54

Such a good performance that Norwich stole your manager. Yeah, it was.

SPEAKER_14 10:58

In football fairness, we did also come along and join in uh when you recorded your Colchester song with Special Duties and you recorded a studio in Ipswich and I think we all came along and added our voices to it.

SPEAKER_08 11:09

Yeah, was Neil Gregory there that day? Was he that the one when Neil Gregory was there? I think we did have a lot of. Yeah, that was it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good lad, good lad. Now that good days. Um and we've actually played at Wembley as well, Special Duties, because when we got to the uh League 2 playoff final ninety-seven, I'm kind of thinking. Um they played Up The Use at Wembley Stadium.

SPEAKER_14 11:34

Brilliant. So I was uh quite tough by the state. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 11:40

A long time ago. There's a lot of those hair on the back of the neck moments, isn't there, with football?

SPEAKER_14 11:44

Well, we've got a lot of hair on the back of our neck, everywhere.

SPEAKER_10 11:46

Well, not none on none on your heads though. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_08 11:48

Not as much as we used to. Okay, right, so let's get back to a bit of punk rock. And I said earlier that um some bands have been getting in touch, and I mentioned the Dead Pollies and the Hi-Fi Spitfires, two fantastic bands and making some really, really good music that could have come straight out of the era that we concentrate on. And the next one is um uh that contacted me is Bullets 23, and somebody called Nikki, who doesn't appear on their lineup, so I'm imagining that Nikki is actually their promoter. But hi Nikki and thanks for getting in touch. And from their um uh their press kit, they say that and I'll read it out because it actually sums up better than I could, that Bullets 23 deliver 77-style melodic punk rock tunes while injecting a modern edge that feels immediate and unfiltered, with rasping Scottish vocals, think stiff little fingers, the skids, and coxbarer with a hint of Sham 69 for lyrics straight from the streets. This track is off their 2024 EP called Burn. What do you know about Bullets 23 then, lads?

SPEAKER_14 12:49

I'm looking forward to learning something about Bullet 23. That sounds like a good little uh package right there.

SPEAKER_08 12:54

Okay, well let's uh play the song and we'll talk about it afterwards. This is Still Not Dead by Bullets 23. And Tim loves those sort of endings, those sudden endings, no fade outs. Yeah, we were ready for it. Well, I've been listening to that song um a lot since um Bullets twenty-three sent it to me. Um Was it an album then or just a little bit? No, it's it was a three E. You said didn't you? Yeah, vinyl EP. Oh, excellent. But an only release Coloured? Twenty twenty four. Coloured vinyl. Coloured vinyl. Coloured vinyl, and there was also a C D version which had an extra two tracks on it. So Oh look out for that. Yeah. Look 'em up when I get home. Bullets twenty one. Bullets twenty three. Twenty-three. Twenty-three. And they um they seem to be touring extensively as well, as you'd imagine. A band that's releasing records in the current day. So look forward to seeing 'em up the steamboat. I was gonna say it could be a good one on the card for the steamboat that we always uh Well, I think you need to get Hi-Fi Spitfires up there, the dead pollies, and now Bullets twenty-three. So hopefully you guys have got a bit of um That'll sound like a good lineup, I think, all on the same night.

SPEAKER_14 15:56

Yeah, well I still do quite a bit down the steamboat putting stuff on, so And you get some good crowds up there as well, don't you?

SPEAKER_08 16:02

Which is you know, we don't get in Colchester at the Free Wise Monkeys. You get XSLF and thirty people turn up, you know. It's uh That's mad, I don't know it's it's a travesty.

SPEAKER_14 16:10

We are very lucky, there are a great crowd at the steamboat, you know, and people are happy to travel, you know, from sort of Dis, Norwich and here in Colchester.

SPEAKER_07 16:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_14 16:19

And I think it's knowing that it's a nice atmosphere down there, you know, you can have a good beer in good company, never any trouble, and uh yeah, sort of uh support it or it's not gonna be happening, is it?

SPEAKER_08 16:31

Good. Well Bullets twenty-three, uh just a little bit more um trivia, is uh one of the members was in Ex Cathedra.

SPEAKER_14 16:40

I did well, I did. I do have an Ex Cathedra album and a single as well, I believe.

SPEAKER_08 16:45

Also, I believe that Giz Butt appeared on that particular track.

SPEAKER_14 16:50

The one we've just listened to. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 16:53

So he was in Prodigy.

SPEAKER_14 16:56

Yeah, and English Dogs, Destructors, English Dogs, uh Prodigy and Now Jana Stark.

SPEAKER_08 17:03

Right, okay, well there you go. Uh but let's uh concentrate on the here and now, and that was Bullets twenty-three. Right, well let's play Tim's first song. And uh from his uh sick bed, he actually texts me what he would have said, um which is uh basically this isn't what he would have said because it's just like one sentence. Uh because he would have gone on and on and on about it's getting into the premiership. Of course, I can't wait for next season when uh they um when they go down again. When they Oh you say it. When they attempt to break the record, the least amount of points start.

SPEAKER_12 17:40

No way. We've learned from the we've we've learnt from two years ago.

SPEAKER_08 17:44

Okay, alright. Well um who's going up with them anyway? Coventry. I can't see them staying up. Um the playoffs are today.

SPEAKER_12 17:52

I know the first leg of the playoffs were boring. Yeah, both nil nil. Yeah, and I and I think it's uh Mill Wall Hole today tonight, yeah. I think it's eight o'clock kickoff, isn't it?

SPEAKER_10 18:03

Can you can you wake me up in a minute when you're finished?

SPEAKER_08 18:05

Yeah, we'll well you're gonna be speaking on your on the next Red Flag 77 um talk, and uh there'll be no football chat on that one. Okay, that's good. Alright, good, good. Right, well what Tim would say about this next track um uh is that he was originally attracted to this song uh because of the Monty Python sketch uh of the same name which appeared on the Monty Python album The Matching Tyne Handkerchief album, which actually I've got. Uh are you big Monty Python fans? Or we like Sun Python, yeah.

SPEAKER_14 18:37

Yeah, I do. I don't know the track is in there though. Really? No. I I won't like listening to their albums and stuff, I like the films.

SPEAKER_08 18:44

It's not it's not a song. It's um there's a panel, it's a sketch, it's a panel where uh they're it's a gardening panel and they're taking calls for from people that have got um want to ask the experts on the panel uh about gardening uh uh questions. And um you've got people saying, uh, I farm fifteen hundred acres of land in and he gets cut off and says, I'm sorry, we're only taking questions about farming, which was clearly that was a farming question. And then the next person gets a wrong number and says, Is Vic there? And then he says, Let's put that straight across to the panel, is Vic there? And then they go into minute detail about whether or not Vic is there or not. That sounds like Python. It's an absolutely brilliant sketch. And um uh so Department S, if you haven't guessed by now, had a great record out called Is Vic There? And uh he put that to the panel.

SPEAKER_10 19:40

Yeah, so he put that.

SPEAKER_08 19:41

Well, I always thought it was about Vic Goddard of Subway Sect, because he went missing and it it to me it was common knowledge that they wrote the song about Vic Goddard had gone missing and Is Vic there.

SPEAKER_14 19:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 19:54

But um on further research, that is unfortunately just a punk myth, and it all stems from a wrong call that one member of the band got uh when someone asked, Is Vic there? Which must have been somebody doing prank calls saying is Vic there? Because what's the chances of that? But anyway, enough of that nonsense. This is Department S, and it's is Vic there.

SPEAKER_12 23:17

And now a massage from the Swedish Prime Minister.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

Hi, this is Casino Steele from the boys. You're listening to Alternative Colchester.

SPEAKER_08 23:34

Thank you very much, Casino. How great is that getting Casino Steel to play that? You like that? Superb, very impressed. Good. Well, before we play the message or the massage from the Swedish Prime Minister after the Monty Python-esque department s is Vic there. Only certain people know what the hell me and Tim are going on about there. But uh I urge anyone to go out. Tim and I. Yes. Tim and I. Yeah, instead of me and Tim. Oh me and Tim, yeah. Do you know it's like having Tim here? He he corrects me on my bloody grammar. Grammar is important, young man.

SPEAKER_14 24:07

He'll be proud of you then, Tim, won't he? He goes, Oh, well done.

SPEAKER_08 24:11

He can come again. Oh dear. Right, well, it's great to have Casino Steel. He he could have actually been the Norwegian uh Prime Minister, couldn't he, rather than the Swedish Prime Minister. Although the current boys line up does have two Swedish um three Swedish Is one of them a chef? I don't know. I don't know. Two of them are in a bank called Sator, which are fantastic. Have you heard anything by them?

SPEAKER_14 24:35

No, I neither know.

SPEAKER_08 24:36

You've got to check them out. Sator, yeah. Yeah, they're really good. And they're huge as well. I mean they they do the boys almost as 'cause they just idolise the boys, so they just want to be playing boys records with Steele and Dangerfield and who wouldn't want to do that. Yeah. Anyway, so John, John Fanny Adams, my favourite sweet album. Um your next track is a boys track and it's um Sick on You.

SPEAKER_10 24:59

Why that track? Well, um when I was learning it for uh the flag line uh flag set, um uh I've got two daughters and Lucy Hello Lucy. Uh she probably won't be listening. She will be listening. She I'm hoping she will. But um it was uh she threw up all over her mum uh when she when she was a baby. Down her dresser shoes. So uh and then I started singing it to her and uh it just stuck with her as like her favourite for a small you know, the next generation down to like one of the boys' songs is you know, I felt like I had achieved something by passing on a great song to the next generation. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_08 25:35

And uh yeah, that is a a staple of the uh red flag 77 set list 'cause basically when I first sort of saw you I don't know, would it have been in the early or mid-90s, would it have been? Yeah, and and it seemed like a a a tribute to the punk rock classics, but then you had a few of your own songs and I think I was more or less said you guys should do your own stuff because you're fantastic.

SPEAKER_14 25:58

Yeah, well it was early I suppose yeah, ninety-three, ninety-four or something when we first played with you guys at the what was the pub? Oliver Twist. Oliver Twist, that's the one. You put on a sort of six-band thing and PMT played and yourselves and us. Was that the one where it was a bit of a riot? With the business.

SPEAKER_10 26:20

All I remember about that gig is that was the last gig I played on guitar before I moved to bass, because Glenn played that night, didn't he?

SPEAKER_14 26:26

That was an early lineup because that that was Barn End were there and filmed all the bands, didn't they? Ah yeah, that was the different things. And that sort of then I think we had kind of half half a dozen of our own songs and the rest was still doing covers, which we started out doing just because of sort of starting in the about 1990 when it was.

SPEAKER_10 26:42

That's before I started.

SPEAKER_14 26:43

Yeah, I came initially because everything was so hardcore and going crusty and things like that that we liked, you know, good old 77-punk rock and there wasn't much about anymore.

SPEAKER_08 26:52

So that was hence uh And that's what um attracted me to you guys as well, because as soon as I heard you, I became sort of uh a champion of Red Flag 76. You did indeed. Thank you very much for that.

SPEAKER_14 27:05

Our first uh first gigs abroad were with you guys. You took us I think mainly because we had better equipment than you and you got to borrow it. But that's a fairly few.

SPEAKER_10 27:14

That wasn't the only reason. I can remember being stuck at the back of the van going, There's one. There's another one. There's another one. I think I drove.

SPEAKER_14 27:22

I think you did. Bit of you, bit of Ming. Ming the Mercy, yes. Yes, yes. That was that was brilliant. That we covers some very numb asses on that tour, weren't we? We spent a lot of time. On the road.

SPEAKER_10 27:33

Yeah. Yeah, there's one.

SPEAKER_14 27:34

There's another one.

SPEAKER_10 27:36

That just stuck with me, and for forever that will always be a great matter.

SPEAKER_14 27:39

And of course we took a lot of people with us as well. There was Jack Caim and uh Remember that guy from Leicester? The fish, the one who was drinking any concoction we gave him and he was naked, and that's never heard but he just he hitched down from Leicester, didn't he?

SPEAKER_08 27:52

We or we picked him up on a motorway or something.

SPEAKER_14 27:54

Yeah, got in the van with us, did a free like there was a triangle of the longest you could do round France and to Belgium and that wasn't it? Good days. No, that was that was fantastic. We'll always appreciate that as a particular highlight.

SPEAKER_08 28:09

I even remember how low and um eclipstic, yeah.

SPEAKER_14 28:15

Well no, again, of course, that led to sp a split single together on the German label knockout and that.

SPEAKER_08 28:22

Yeah, that was good. Good. Well, Red Clag 77 um more than deserve to be part of the uh show because they are 1977 stalwarts. Uh right, what's next then? So, yeah, sick on you by the boys. Well you've told us why. You told us all about your daughter Trudy? Lucy. I'm rubbish with names. This is alternative.

SPEAKER_14 28:44

This is alternative ultra. You better mention the other daughter as well.

SPEAKER_10 28:47

Oh yeah, I've got to mention Chloe as well. Chloe, okay. I've got Lucy and Chloe, but Lucy was the one who threw her up all over her.

SPEAKER_08 28:53

And of course, Lucy was a song by the boys as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 28:56

And by Mud as well.

SPEAKER_08 28:58

Yeah, lo that's la la la Lucy, but Lucy was the B side of Marikarsi or something. No, I think it was a it was an A side, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_14 29:08

Lucy. It was in the sort of to hell with a boys' time, wasn't it? Or boys only, either.

SPEAKER_08 29:13

Boys only, yeah. Wasn't Cool the B side of Lucy? Steve Metcalfe will let us know, and Mark Brennan definitely will. But anyway, let's hear it. Tick on you by the boys.

SPEAKER_05 31:12

Set on you.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

Hi, this is Matt Dangerfield from The Boys, and you're listening to Alternative Colchester. Enjoy.

SPEAKER_08 31:23

Thank you very much, Matt. Um I I I love hearing those. You're getting a good collection of boys. That's fantastic, mate. Absolutely fantastic. And you've just been telling us while that song Sick on You by the Boys was playing there about a time when honest John Plain, who's sadly no longer with us, died quite recently, um came round yours to pick up some t-shirts. Tell me that story again.

SPEAKER_14 31:44

He did, yeah. That was uh when they I I think it was the first time they got back together was to go and do some dates in Japan and through Von Richie, who was drumming for at the time. And uh I'd I think he probably had one, probably owned one, a boys logo t-shirt, what I did a little little bunch of.

SPEAKER_10 32:04

Yeah, I got one as well. They're great.

SPEAKER_14 32:06

Uh when they weren't going, of course, and then when they got back together, that was Von put them in touch saying they wanted some shirts for the tour, so wanted my boys logo one just with the Japan Live uh Japan tour on the bottom. Sorted them out and said someone will come round to collect them, and uh Today I get a knock on my door and there's Honest John standing there. So I was a I was a chuffed man, invited him in and managed to whether he ever listened to it or not is a different matter, but did palb him off with our first album which had a cover of Sick On You on it, so he it did get into his hands.

SPEAKER_08 32:37

I'm sure he listened to it and uh was listening to it until his final days, sadly.

SPEAKER_14 32:44

That's probably what caused his own.

SPEAKER_08 32:45

I was gonna say I know that boy's logo um was actually on the back of my shirt. Um, yeah, I know what you're gonna say, yeah. The first sound. Indeed.

SPEAKER_14 32:56

Yeah I always thought that he's turned round leaning and got his hand up against the wall, bit sort of a bit sort of clashish, but so you can see the boys on the back of his shirt.

SPEAKER_08 33:04

That's the only reason I always had my back to the uh camera. But um I also had a Mark II escort estate in 1980, and I had a sun visor that said the boys. Now that meant everything to me, the boys, the punk band, but I'd say to Joe public in the street, they probably thought, look at that idiot with the boys, you know, because that would have meant a eraser. Exactly, yeah, exactly. So uh Oh, we still think that. Yeah, we still think that, yeah.

SPEAKER_14 33:35

Yeah, what an idiot. Sun visor, that is very 70s, 80s, isn't it? With Gavin and Gavin and Sharon.

SPEAKER_08 33:42

Well I was so pleased you picked Tick on You, um, but I also was kind of disappointed you didn't pick um Turning Grey, because I see Red Flag 77 do that quite a few times as well.

SPEAKER_10 33:53

We could sit here and just play boys' songs all t all the time through the whole show, couldn't we, really? We love it.

SPEAKER_14 33:58

Yeah, but like you pointed out, being that's a bit more of an obscure one, innit, being a B-side and that. And uh that was from early on when Pete Hurley, who was in Extreme Noise Terror, was our guitarist originally and uh again another great fan of all the sort of 77 bands, and I think that was probably yeah, we hatched that up very early on to do Turning Grey.

SPEAKER_08 34:20

That's before me, that was on the tape you gave me to learn on that. It's almost like a bit of an obscurity in boys' terms, isn't it? Because although it was like the B side of the first time with What You Gonna Do? Yeah, which probably was the weakest of the three tracks, but uh yeah, I got uh But yeah, like you said, you could pick any boys' song and uh the great thing about it is we could have Matt Dangerfield and Casino Steel um doing their uh You're listening to Alternative Coaster, so I never get bored of listening to that. Okay, right. So I've been talking about these bands that do contact us, and I'm gonna mention them again. Dead pollies, hi-fi spitfires, and now we've got Bullets uh 23, who I think sound a little bit like Blitz, by the way. It could have come off that Blitz all out attack four-track EP.

SPEAKER_14 35:06

Yeah, I can hear where you're coming from there, definitely. Yeah. I reckon you might end up doing a kind of bat like a new well not new bands, but a kind of, you know, out of the criteria of the mainly 76 to 81, perhaps do a sort of special of bands that have sent you stuff in that have kind of cut the mustard, if you like.

SPEAKER_08 35:24

But the great thing about it is those bands are quite prolific on social media, so the fact that their songs are being played, it helps when they um copy and paste the links to the shows as well, because it you know, they they obviously want their songs to be heard, which is fantastic, and it's good because it's good um uh good distribution for us, because it's not easy getting an an audience. I mean we've we had uh we've had nearly eleven hundred uh downloads since January, which I think is pretty good because it's really hard to to get people to you know who sit who wants to sit down and listen to two old geezers talking about football.

SPEAKER_10 36:01

Yeah, you gotta I was gonna say it's sort of like getting people our age who the the same like-minded stuff.

SPEAKER_14 36:07

So you get a few, you know, sort of newer bands or that will gradually pick up though, because as you say, the more bands involved, they share the things if they're involved in it and stuff. They all listen to this, we had a track on it and stuff, and then eventually that gets in the psyche for people to actually remember where they've got to go to log in and listen and absolutely, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 36:25

Well, this next track is not one of those new bands, it's an old band from 1978. So I was actually putting on Facebook, look, we play records by all these artists, and I put like hundreds of like names of bands on there, and this guy came on and said uh uh why hasn't I I wanna work for British Airways by Scissor Fitz been played? And his name was Nick East, so I thought he's bound to be in that band. So I googled Nick East, uh Scissor Fits, and sure as you know, night is day, Nick was in that band, and they were a 1978 band from Hounslow. Now I I'm a bit of a punk purist, a bit of a historian, and I don't mind saying that I don't remember them at all. But I love the song. You haven't heard it yet, you guys, unless you've heard of it.

SPEAKER_14 37:13

And it was a single in 78, wasn't it? It was a single in 1978. So probably probably cost a fortune now to try and get hold of a copy, like a lot of those obscure things.

SPEAKER_08 37:22

Yeah, or I've well I've actually been on discogs and um it is it goes for an absolute fortune if you can actually get a copy of the the but the asking price is quite fair.

SPEAKER_14 37:32

I'll have to have a look at my kill by deaths and see if I've got it on there or something.

SPEAKER_08 37:36

They only made one other single in 1979. Um I've noticed that all of their songs had silly lyrics. Oh right. But they were very funny, and the music was great. Uh like I said, they come from Handslow, which is only on it's on the doorstep of British Airways, isn't it? Um let's hear it. Scissor Fitz, I don't want to work for British Airways, and we'll chat about it later.

SPEAKER_10 40:25

What do you think, boys? I love it. And also having a nice little sound bite at the end of an aeroplane taken off.

SPEAKER_14 40:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 40:31

That's probably quite quite difficult to do at the time.

SPEAKER_14 40:33

Trinky tinky punk.

SPEAKER_10 40:35

Yeah, we like that.

SPEAKER_14 40:36

I'm sure I heard Poxy Disco in there as well. I don't want to get any Poxy disco no more.

SPEAKER_08 40:40

It's got the flavour of of the era as well, isn't it? Yeah, like production ain't great, but that helps.

SPEAKER_14 40:45

That that's that's learning learning as you go, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_08 40:49

Yeah. The guitarist is probably wishing he'd, you know, managed to get a more of a chainsaw sounding guitar sound, but you know, it sounded almost semi-acoustic. But to me, that was the great thing about those early records.

SPEAKER_14 41:01

Practices in village halls and the first gig in your village hall for five P or something.

SPEAKER_08 41:06

Yeah. And also the the engineer and the producer, when you'd go into the studio, they they didn't really understand what it is you you were trying to achieve either. So they they'd have all sorts of ideas about you should do this and you should do that, and you'd say, nah, nah, now we're happy with that. Let's let's move on to the next one, or let's go.

SPEAKER_14 41:21

But I think you'll find we did a country band last week and they were very happy with what we recorded. Really? Well that would be the sort of thing they'd be like, oh well, we didn't do a country band.

SPEAKER_10 41:30

Although although I do like my country music.

SPEAKER_14 41:33

So you know, we know what we're talking about, and you little or you can exactly, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 41:37

Yeah. I panicked a little bit there because I was thinking, hold on.

SPEAKER_14 41:39

Well I'm wagging my finger at it.

SPEAKER_10 41:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 41:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 41:42

Or you get the sound engineer that that'll just say, Oh yeah, well, the kinks they made a hole in the speaker, and that's so you get the punk rock sound. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 41:50

Or what do you want to put a lead break in there? Well yeah, we we can't play lead breaks.

SPEAKER_10 41:54

Yeah, where's the middle eight? And uh yeah.

SPEAKER_08 41:56

I remember being in It's Studio doing 77 in 97, and we did a cover of Class War, which we call Crass. And um we couldn't get the lead break. Um the bloke from Craigler Field walked in to pick up his guitar, he'd left it there.

SPEAKER_10 42:10

Was it a point was it a pointy one? Uh yeah, one of them guitars that you take your eye out with a metal.

SPEAKER_08 42:17

He was in all the gear, you know, like so he actually walks it like he talks it, because this was in the middle of the afternoon. So he walked we don't know which one it was, but he came in. Contact lenses and everything. Well, we said to him, like the engineer said, um, would you be able to do a lead break for these guys? Oh well. And uh he said, Can I hear it? And they played the duals version and he went, Yeah, I can do that. And he just went back behind the window in the studio and and hit it the first time, got the lead break. It's just unbelievable. So that meant we could actually put on the album a sticker saying Include Includes.

SPEAKER_14 42:52

What's his face in Cradle of Phil? Yeah, but I can't remember. I can remember Danny, but I don't think he was the guitarist, he was the singer.

SPEAKER_08 42:58

No, I'd know the name if I heard it, but uh forgotten.

SPEAKER_14 43:01

So that must have been a S Springvale Mark Harwood. Yeah, yeah. I know Cradle used to practice up there and ENT used to practice up there and stuff. We went there once. We've done recording up there a couple of times, haven't we?

SPEAKER_08 43:14

And my son, who would have been uh three then, his best friend now is Mark Harwood's son. Oh right. Mark Harwood Fairfax was Did he pass recently? I think he did.

SPEAKER_10 43:33

I don't Oh, that's news to be.

SPEAKER_08 43:35

No, I don't no, I don't want to no, don't quote don't quote me on that.

SPEAKER_10 43:40

Mark, if you're out they ring up. Yeah, yeah, really.

SPEAKER_08 43:43

No, he was a good producer.

SPEAKER_14 43:44

Oh, definitely. He was brilliant. No, I think he'd worked uh for Polydor or someone like that and done sort of uh well, an assistant sort of production with a jam or two.

SPEAKER_08 43:53

If he thought you needed to do something again, he'd make you do it again even if you didn't want to.

SPEAKER_14 43:57

I think that's probably why him and Kev clashed a little bit.

SPEAKER_10 44:01

Oh you can imagine and uh you know we But he was an interesting bloke to talk to because he'd go, This valve comes from a Russian submarine and put it in this preamp and it'll make the sound. He was really knowledgeable about it.

SPEAKER_08 44:16

Didn't like going home, did he? No, no, and you think hold on, we're paying for this by the hour.

SPEAKER_14 44:22

And he's smoking big deals. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_08 44:24

Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_14 44:26

But no, that track that going back to that track, that's perfect, like those kind of kill by death albums, you know, the blood stains albums where they compile all the really hard to find obscure things. That fits in perfectly, so I'm sure that would have been on one of them at all.

SPEAKER_08 44:40

I haven't researched it enough. But um anyway, thanks Nick for uh bringing it to my attention. Yeah, we enjoyed that, that was good. I hope to see you on Facebook soon. Right, on to Tim's next choice. Now, Tim knows that this is a stiff little fingers influenced show whereby we have an obligatory stiff little fingers track on every episode. Um but I think he's getting confused because he seems to pick a Tom Robinson band uh track on every episode as well. But it was that legendary gig at the University of Essex from where we are recording this that um we saw Stiff Little Fingers supporting the Tom Robinson band in 1978, so it's got it's got a link. Now he says that another classic track from the Power in the Darkness album is better decide uh which side you're on, and he particularly loved a chorus that says, if left is right, then right is wrong. And he says that is more evidence of Tom's excellent work as a lyricist. Well at him as a um uh a staunch um Labour politician, uh counsellor. Um so I can see why that would mean so much to him. We can try and take politics out of the show a little bit, chaps. It's a shame you don't keep football out of the show, but we won't say. Well, well, we um I bring Luke in here actually because um we had a little bit of politics at Ipswich Town Football Club the other week where Nigel Farage was the special guest and Tim got quite upset, didn't he, Luke?

SPEAKER_12 46:13

Yes. Um I think we were both quite upset about it. Obviously I'm upset about it as well. Yeah, disgraceful, really.

SPEAKER_14 46:22

I mean we quite happy, John.

SPEAKER_10 46:24

I'm I'm upset as well. It was a PR PR disaster.

SPEAKER_14 46:28

Oh yeah, Gave Farage live down there.

SPEAKER_12 46:31

So and now Suffolk County Council is now reform, isn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 46:39

Well which I mean I'm apolitical um because it just gets you in too much trouble having an opinion, so I gave up having an opinion years ago. Um but I did say to Tim you've got to be careful in as much as that might not be as upsetting to a lot of football fans as what you'd like it to be, because you know from a uh a reform marketing perspective, it obviously did what it needed to do.

SPEAKER_14 47:07

But for us, we think the club should be apolitical. Yeah. You know, if if you you don't invite one and not anybody else, so it's best not to invite anybody at all, whether he was well, it turns out he probably was invited, but yeah, I don't think many people were chaffed about it to say the least.

SPEAKER_12 47:24

Yeah, I think for me, Ricky, the the thing that I was most upset about is the club tried to hide the fact that they'd invited him.

SPEAKER_14 47:32

Oh, it got worse as it sort of went on, didn't it?

SPEAKER_12 47:36

They kind of said that oh, we we didn't realise this was gonna be happening, we didn't realise that there was gonna be uh um like a shirt revealed.

SPEAKER_14 47:44

Yeah, someone had happened to print a shirt with his name on the show.

SPEAKER_08 47:47

It wasn't the Ipswich chairman that's just given him five million pounds uh cash gift, is it?

SPEAKER_14 47:53

I was I was gonna say we were quite happy that this sort of thing had been dropped and not talked about until you bought it up again.

SPEAKER_12 47:59

Just you just stirred it up, didn't you, Steve?

SPEAKER_14 48:02

But anyway, it didn't interfere enough for us to get promoted, didn't it?

SPEAKER_08 48:07

It's a bit like the Epstein Files. I'm trying to deflect away from the uh promotion. I'm trying to mention other things, you know, like Fanny's come out of a good suggestion. Let's talk about music. Well, we are gonna talk about music and uh we're gonna play Tim's uh latest Tom Robinson band offering, and this one is better decide which side you're on.

SPEAKER_04 48:31

Nigel All you downtrump people, oh it's better the brunt. Just sit back on your backpacks to have to face the front. Wait till the brother get two don't make no crap. Wait till we don't root it in the face of time, left it right with time for the cover. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_08 51:22

Tom Robinson band better decide which side you're on, and that was uh uh my co-host who's not here on this show, missing in badly, so it's why we feel a little bit subdued here. I'd love to have been here with the uh Ipswich contingent as well, banging on about uh premiership football and um all the other great things that are going on down the road. But uh Tom Robinson Band, chaps, what's your opinion? Do you like the hits, John? Yeah? Yeah, I like the hits, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_14 51:50

I like Tom Robinson Band. I should I well I could see how that would be very influential Tom Robinson's r songwriting that would, you know, have uh steered Tim in a very uh labour way, if you like. You know, they were very thoughtful, very intelligent, and uh obviously quite political as well.

SPEAKER_10 52:07

And he's very passionate about it, Tom Robinson, isn't he?

SPEAKER_14 52:12

Backs against the wall and stuff like that. There was some uh some great stuff, I think, bully for you and we're like glad to be gay.

SPEAKER_08 52:18

I mean it was like groundbreaking stuff, wasn't it? When it came out, it was it was kind of you know very controversial.

SPEAKER_14 52:25

Well yeah, and knowing that you're gonna lose fans and gains fans from it. So and that sort of uh yeah, it was a very bold, bold stance to take and to get out of there with that.

SPEAKER_07 52:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_14 52:35

And hopefully Tim will be well enough to, I think in June throughout June, the John Peel Centre in Stomarket have a week of punk events.

SPEAKER_08 52:44

Yeah, I saw that. The Undertones are playing, aren't they?

SPEAKER_14 52:46

The Undertones are playing, Charlie Harper uh doing a QA and a solo set, and you've got Tom Robinson and TV Smith together as well. So that's two.

SPEAKER_08 52:55

What sort of venue is that in?

SPEAKER_10 52:56

Is that likely to sell out?

SPEAKER_14 52:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 52:59

Uh it never it doesn't very often sell out. People should use it more. Um I think the Undertones one is sold out.

SPEAKER_08 53:04

Yeah, the Undertones are.

SPEAKER_10 53:06

I'd like to go to the um Tom Robinson. New Model Army sold out as well. New Model Army sold out there. But it's like I went and saw um Otway and Barrett there quite recently, it was half full. Um the um Ukrainians was only half full. It's just you probably get there's a couple of hundred people.

SPEAKER_14 53:26

Yeah, a couple of hundred people there.

SPEAKER_10 53:30

I think Tom Robinson Band and TB Smith probably got um Actually, can I plug my geek? I'm playing there on Friday. Oh yeah? With my folk band Shenanigans Goat. Shenanigans Goat? Yes.

SPEAKER_08 53:42

This is serious now. This isn't about countrying western.

SPEAKER_14 53:44

No, no, this is uh like Unfortunately it is serious.

SPEAKER_10 53:48

This is uh I know, yeah, where are you playing? Uh the Peel Centre. At the Peel Centre, yeah. Headlining support. No, no, we're supporting a bag called the Rosing Crows. It's got to be sort of punk folky rock nice tonight, you know.

SPEAKER_08 54:01

Oh, is this what you've got to get away to practice for tonight? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 54:04

We we need to practice.

SPEAKER_08 54:05

You need to practice.

SPEAKER_14 54:06

So uh I'll I'll get my little bit in as well and say both of us obviously we do red flag 77, but not as regularly as we used to, but we uh we do still do it. And John does Shenanigan's Goat and a Pogue's band as well, occasionally from time to time. Excellent. And uh I do a band called East Town Pirates.

SPEAKER_08 54:23

So I know them very well.

SPEAKER_14 54:24

He's at the John Peel Centre on Friday, and we are at the Agin Court in Camberley, along with Chelsea, XSLF, and Lena, so a brilliant lineup. When is that? Friday. Friday. This Friday.

SPEAKER_08 54:39

Well, this Friday I'm picking up David Philp from the Automatics from Southampton. He's on the Queen Mary seven-day cruise coming over to the UK. And then he's gonna be doing an automatic set at the Hampton Sailing Club on Thursday the twenty-first, and then he's gonna be playing with a couple of seventy-seven bands at the Hope and Anchor on Saturday the 23rd, which uh one is the Zeros.

SPEAKER_14 55:05

And the ho are they the ones put on by Damage UK the guys from Damage.

SPEAKER_08 55:09

A guy called Brad Shepherd, it seems to put him on. He's had London down there, and he always manages to um unearth some uh seventy seven bands at your thinking. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I so I stayed with him in February over in LA and uh now I'm gonna be ferrying him around uh from Friday, which is why I can't leave geek. Yeah, yeah. We're all competing against each other. I know we should disappoint each other. Right, well I know that East Ham Pirates are great because I've seen them. Um I need to get along to your pogues and your uh Well the Pogues thing doesn't happen very often.

SPEAKER_10 55:46

Um now it was called uh Waxy's Dargle and it was yeah we weren't a pogue's tribute band because I wanted to keep all my teeth. But um we got back together for Sh Shane's passing and we did a reunion gig um in Ipswich, which was good. But um unfortunately we've had people move away. The whistle player sadly passed away last year. That's our whistle player, mine bless him. Um there's too much of that going on. The older we get. People our generation are uh falling by the way, so that's sad. But um but shenanigans go we do um fairly regularly, you know, we're gigging quite regularly. And it's sort of like mostly covers but some obscure Irish stuff. Um what sort of covers? Uh well covers the covers we do are things like Fifteen Years by the Levellers, big levellers fan lover. Um uh Saw Doctors, yeah, um uh Water Boys, some stuff like that, uh Flogger Molly. Yeah. All stuff that that Ricky's introduced me to over the years. Yeah, it started off with dropkick Murphy's and it's just love all that stuff, you know, noisy folk music.

SPEAKER_08 56:48

Good, good. Excellent, right. Well, I would say get along there, but that'd mean I'd say don't get along to Camberley, and that'd be don't get along to Dover. Depends where you are, depends where you're gonna be able to do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's good to have a choice.

SPEAKER_10 57:00

Absolutely. But but Peel Centre's the best place to be.

SPEAKER_08 57:03

Right. Okay, so the next track is a Red Flag 77 Choice, and we've actually played this track on the show previously, but I didn't want to um uh say you can't have it. So it's such a good song. I do remember uh Red Flag 77 playing it back in the day. You did. Oh, great. You did. Or is it we? It might have been the Royal We. I think Ricky gave you two and he took two, is that the way he did it?

SPEAKER_14 57:28

Yeah, well you kind of had a lot going on and took ages getting back to me with your choice of a couple of songs, didn't you? So I said, Well, shall we do it where it's like songs that are relating to sort of red flag kind of history-wise? Which this one obviously has a good tale because uh I think he might have played there as well in Bath.

SPEAKER_07 57:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_14 57:47

And that when the drums played. And I think we were on the Friday night, and they were down there already. They were playing on the Saturday, but down there on the Friday. And I said to MJ Mike the singer that we do a drones cover. Said, would you be up for coming up and singing it with us? And I think he was a bit iffy thinking that was gonna be crap and going, I don't know, you know, like that.

SPEAKER_10 58:08

I said, Well uh can't say that on the radio. Can't say crap on the radio.

SPEAKER_14 58:11

Can't say crap on the radio You can play shite, though. Perfect for alternative Ipsit show.

SPEAKER_08 58:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_14 58:18

Ooh like that. And uh I've lost me there. Yeah, so my day. And uh so I said, we'll sound check a little minute, we'll play it in the sound check, see what you think. And uh he he obviously really liked it.

SPEAKER_10 58:32

He was surprised, I think, wasn't he?

SPEAKER_14 58:33

Because it was faster than they could play it by then, I think. And uh you know he was quite pleased and come up and go, No, I'm up for that, I'm up for that.

SPEAKER_08 58:40

So the thing the thing I remember about that festival was that the drones actually thought, shit, we're huge. Look at all these people, we're absolutely huge. And then you'd get it at Holidays in the Sun as well, where you'd have like bands like Slaughter Dogs and the Drones and that. We'd get these massive crowds, but then if you go out and play on your own, yeah, you know, yeah, I think if people are already there, they'll go, I'd love to go and see that band.

SPEAKER_10 59:06

I completely witness that, but you go.

SPEAKER_08 59:08

Well, it's not so much I just said about Slaughtering the Dogs, because obviously they pull a crowd where wherever they go. But the drones in particular, unfortunately, it's a bit like when I saw Sbourbon Studs and Eater at uh uh the the the original Holidays and the Sun. Uh you know, it was fantastic, but there wasn't enough people watching them to make it you know, the legend lost some of its own.

SPEAKER_14 59:28

Yeah, no, like you say the drones at festivals was really good, and then we honour there was the next night they asked me up with them and said we played with a band last night we'd never met before Red Flag 77 and they asked me up and now I'd like to return the favour and ask Ricky up to sing with ours.

SPEAKER_08 59:44

That's pretty daunting, isn't it? Because then you've got to sing it knowing that they might play it slightly differently. You probably played it exactly as per the record.

SPEAKER_14 59:51

Yeah, that ended up happening a few times though, because another time he came on, I think up he weren't he weren't even asked on when we were playing at Rebellion one time and he was just so keen to come on and do it again. And then couldn't keep up and he had to sort of slow it all down and that's doable.

SPEAKER_09 1:00:06

Malcolm carried on drumming like like a Milton Powder drumbee.

SPEAKER_14 1:00:10

And then again, the same with him me singing for them, but like you say, that was once they thought they were huge and kind of took all these gigs and went out on tour and were playing a sort of the couple of men and a dog in Norwich kind of thing, you know.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:22

Yeah, it brings uh the reality, doesn't it, into sharp focus. Right, let's hear lookalikes by the drones. Look a likes by the drones and uh Ricky from Red Flag 77 just telling me a few stories there about how um well he was telling us all, wasn't he, about uh how he got to guest on that song when the drones played live, and also that Mike Drone also um guested with Red Flag 77, but then Ricky was just telling me that he did get offered a a US tour with the drones. Uh is that after Mike passed?

SPEAKER_14 1:03:27

No, no, I think he couldn't do it for whatever reason. Because he lived in the in Greece, didn't he? And had a bar in Greece back then. And uh Yeah, so they said what I fancy doing about the time my wife was pregnant with our daughter, um who was due to arrive at the same time, which coincided with this, so I had to uh I shouldn't say unfortunately turn it down, but it is unfortunate to turn it down.

SPEAKER_08 1:03:48

Well it was unfortunate in but not it was a good choice you made, so it had to be done, didn't it? Yeah, it did, it did. Right, well I can speed things up a little bit when it's my choice of track, and uh we've come to that part of the show where we're playing a uh well we have to play a stiff little fingers song, and it's such a difficult choice each um each episode, nine which to play, because you almost feel guilty about the ones you're not playing. Um but I'm sure we're building up a greatest hits. This is episode ten, so this will be the tenth uh Stiff Little Fingers song. And I've picked what I believe is Jake Byrne's very first composition. It's the opening track on inflammable material, and it's possibly my favourite live song. Um so much so that on occasions when they don't play it live, I actually go home thinking I've been a bit cheated. Yeah, I miss it that much. Um Bits of Kids get to me like that as well, but they they've been playing Bits of Kids on the Lives because we I saw you at the round show at the roundhouse.

SPEAKER_14 1:04:46

Yeah, all the three of us were there, weren't we?

SPEAKER_08 1:04:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I thought they were excellent, by the way, that that yeah, fantastic, really good gig. Um all right, well, this is um state of emergency by stiff little fingers.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:23

Hello, this is Henry Clooney, um X Stiff Little Fingers, and I axe SLF. You're listening to Alternative Colchester Keep Earlit.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:34

Thanks very much, Henry. Now we owe it to uh producer Luke for telling us what Henry actually says at the end there. Uh it still didn't sound like keep it lit though, Luke. Yeah, I think he says keep Irish as well. Keep her lit.

SPEAKER_12 1:07:53

Keep brilliant, keep her. Okay. Release it means um I kinda googled it, and it's um it just means like keep off the high energy. It's in the urban dictionary.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:07

Alright, well we better take note of um air in Rick there, and we will keep it lit. Um and that that brings us round to Tim's next choice. Now, he said he first heard this on John Peel, and it just blew him away. Great song, great chords, great lyrics, and that this band should get better recognition for their contribution to punk rock. Is everyone dying to find out what band he's talking about? Oh, I'm on the edge of my seat.

SPEAKER_14 1:08:36

Well, I don't want to spoil things and say I can say it up there.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:39

Who is it?

SPEAKER_14 1:08:41

Yeah, the carpet.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:42

Is it and yes, John Johnny won't hurt you. I was actually gonna have a Johnny.

SPEAKER_14 1:08:47

Oh, that's a little bit later, isn't it? Because I was gonna say the cut on a uh year-wise, is it sort of 79? It's reggae, isn't it?

SPEAKER_08 1:08:56

Yeah, I think it's 78. You could be right.

SPEAKER_14 1:08:59

No, probably 78, 79, but I know they had a cover much better. They were on Small Wonder, weren't they? Yeah, yeah, like Radio Wonder Bar and stuff, weren't it?

SPEAKER_08 1:09:05

Yeah. Yeah. This is a great track, though, so Tim is right. Um let's hear it. Johnny Won't Hurt You by the Carpets.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:40

Johnny won't hurt you. Don't tie rather die. Johnny won't hurt you.

unknown 1:09:47

Johnny had trying to step back. Johnny won't hurt you. So I just stepped back. You could not even think I've been to say.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:56

She said she did not know that he had been away. You know that some of this quite right. Just want to end the dog, it's still a night. Come strong, and I'm just too care. Yeah, just wanna hurt you. Just want to make you cry. China wanna hurt you. Don't die, you rather die. China won't hurt you.

unknown 1:10:24

But Johnna, just get back. China wanna hurt you. Sorry, just let me back. Now we're straightforward. Some people reach that high, some people fall. Come for the plane. Just want to ride down on that, it's to retrain.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:46

Catch one, give us too care. He's up in the air. Just hurt you. Just want to make you cry. Shut up and hurt you.

unknown 1:11:02

Boy, Johnny had just at that. Shut up and hurt you. I just sit at the back. You could not even think of another thing you could say. She said she did not know that he had been away.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:38

You know that some days quite right. Just want to end it all. Mr. Love and I feel like I can't remember how this fight fall. Some people reach that height, some people fall. You think too, Mr. Ball, back for the flame. Just want to write down on that. Mr. Retrain. Cause China won't hurt you. Doesn't want to make you cry. Shada won't hurt you.

unknown 1:12:08

China won't hurt you. Father, Johnny, just get a bad.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:12

Shada won't hurt you.

unknown 1:12:14

So I just sit at the back.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:21

And that was one of um Tim's choices.

SPEAKER_10 1:13:24

Yeah, we enjoyed that. That was good.

SPEAKER_14 1:13:26

Yeah, good choice, Tim.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:27

I always dread when the producer says, Um, can you speed it up a little bit? And then I look at Tim's next choice and I look at four minutes seven seconds. Uh probably says something different up there, but four minutes six, and he says Luke's only shaved one second, he usually managed to somehow get different uh timings to me. But um yeah, great track, and it does make me want to go out and listen to uh the carpet track catalogue.

SPEAKER_14 1:13:53

Yeah, which uh I think Captain Roy did put a very good extensive uh carpet collection together. They did, or maybe the two albums on one or something.

SPEAKER_08 1:14:03

Yeah, and um a lot of the stuff that Mark Brennan put out was a labour of love because he wanted people to like certain music, so it was almost like a lost leader sometimes. But um but I'm not sure what's happened to all the albums or the CDs that didn't sell out, whether they're in the um uh the cellar down at Cherry Red Records or what.

SPEAKER_14 1:14:24

I'm sure there'll be a few boxes of our album that Mark kindly put out.

SPEAKER_08 1:14:28

Well I think he would have offered you them if um rather than um them just s sit around gathering dust.

SPEAKER_10 1:14:36

He didn't offer us any, so they must have all sold.

SPEAKER_14 1:14:39

Yeah, well we don't actually have any of that, do we? We've got some of the first albums that kept getting put out by different labels sort of uh on sort of regular things in the last one, I think being an American one or whatever, wasn't it? And then uh the last album we did ourselves and then kind of stopped playing quite as much, so we've still probably got enough to hold my bed up for the next couple of years.

SPEAKER_08 1:14:59

Well, we were going to have a Johnny uh theme, uh because coincidentally Tim chose Johnny Won't Hurt You by the Carpetch. Your next one is No One by Johnny Moped. Did you pick this one, John? Uh I think really.

SPEAKER_14 1:15:15

So you picked it, you probably picked it.

SPEAKER_08 1:15:18

I don't remember Red Flag 77 covering this, to be honest. It was.

SPEAKER_10 1:15:22

It was before I joined. It was on the uh Punk's Not Dread.

SPEAKER_14 1:15:26

Yeah, it was it was actually came out on a compilation album called Punks Not Dread, which was like hardcore bands came back 1991, I reckon, but it was after our first gig pretty much, where we only had which we got together in time to play for my then girlfriend's birthday party sort of thing. And KS UK played at it. Extreme Noise Terror. And we did.

SPEAKER_10 1:15:49

Oh, I thought you were terrible.

SPEAKER_14 1:15:50

We were terrible. We only had four songs, and I'll tell you what they were, if you're a bit of a you know know you punk rock the cigarettes, they're back again, here they come. Disco zombies, drums over London. Uh Drone Sad So Sad and Johnny Moe had no one. And uh Dean from Extreme Lost Terror was put in this compilation of Gavical Punk Not Dread, um, which was uh hardcore bands of the time doing old 77 covers. So you got like A and T doing postal breakout and someone doing a kill joy and that. And uh we were lucky enough to get after as we already had a few covers we were doing, so we got straight from doing the first gig into a recording studio, record two tracks and Harwood screenwild up and up again. One of which was No One by Johnny Moped. The album came out, we started getting gigs outside of it because we played at the castle in Brentwood, where this uh skinner'd been sitting there all day drinking waiting because he was an old day and he didn't know what time we were on. And uh come up and I didn't think anyone else remembered Johnny Moped. Absolutely love your track. What else have you got available? We said nothing. He said, Why not? We said we're skinny. He said, Well, how much do you need? And uh yeah, right, you know, he's done in here and sort of uh next day I think we'd exchange phone numbers and I rang him or he rang me and he said, Yeah, I'm treating my word, he said I'd like to help the band out and pay for your first demo and stuff, so we went off to herbal rainy yarn. Recorded five tracks. We called five tracks, then A and T had really taken off, and we're in Japan and America and all that, so Kate had to leave the band for commitment to them. Which was that's why the first single didn't come out because we re-recorded it when you and Kev joined. So the first actual single we did was the lineup pretty much is still what we've got. Nearly today. Nearly today. Same drummer, same me, same you. Kev not doing it anymore, but the other guitarist who's been in us for probably twenty years still does so.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:55

And he's still a fan to this day.

SPEAKER_14 1:17:57

Indeed. Yes.

SPEAKER_10 1:17:58

Yes, yeah, he still turns out.

SPEAKER_14 1:17:59

So for me for me and Stuart Fraser, this song kind of yeah, got us introduced, and we're still great friends to this day as well, and we always call him our sugar daddy for for pie and pie and his way.

SPEAKER_08 1:18:11

That's a lovely man. That is a great story, and um that I would put 91 in amongst the wilderness years for me because I kind of dropped out 1983 after Special Juities released Punk Rocker on Expulsion Records, which was like um with uh TV Smith was on there as well. Um and it just it bombed really with um Punk Rocker and um I just kinda lost interest and I I for twelve years. And I was back in '95 when Mark Brennan started putting re-releases and stuff out, and then I'd got sucked back into it ever since. So uh yeah, why did you do that, Mark? It cost me a fortune. Right, okay, um so we're gonna play it. This one is No One by Johnny Moped.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:08

It's gonna make me feel bad. It's gonna make me feel so much. You won't give me the You won't tell me all that. I'm not gonna see it coming closer. I want to come out the time for everyone. You want to talk You want to come in on the water I don't want to walk up, I'm gonna stop, I'm gonna lie, it's not a lot of people. I don't want my neighbor's dead! I know one!

SPEAKER_08 1:21:46

No one by Johnny Moped. Good old Johnny. 1977, was it?

SPEAKER_14 1:21:51

Yeah, and like you say, still going to this day putting stuff out on damaged goods.

SPEAKER_08 1:21:56

Yeah. What made him get made because he must have had a lot of um wilderness years. When did he come back into the fray? It became fashionable to come back, didn't it?

SPEAKER_14 1:22:06

I suppose rebellion and I suppose you're enticed by sort of, you know, come and play and I think that initially they did have two or three original band members, called Johnny, and that's quite funny when I said 'cause he couldn't read his set list on the floor, he can't get his glasses out for each song. Look at the what the song was on the set list, then put them away again.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:25

Yeah, well I can uh I can relate to that.

SPEAKER_14 1:22:27

But uh as I said, I just say the documentary is hilariously good, brilliant. Uh call I think it's just called Johnny Moped, basically, but worth finding it on whatever platform is. I think so. Something similar, but it's quite easy to find now, and it really is a good watch as to some of the things they got up to.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:46

Okay, I shall do what John's done and put it on my watch list and then watch and then forget where my watch list is.

SPEAKER_10 1:22:52

Yeah, it's so long that it's sort of like at the back now. Yeah. There's too many motorhead documentaries and stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:59

Right, it's my final track and uh which means we can speed things up a bit. Um and I do like to have a little bit of uh blurb, a bit of history. Uh this next one is by a band called Sleepers. Uh it was released on Bat Records in 1980. They were from Nottingham, and I cannot understand why this song was not a huge hit. Are you familiar with it? It's called uh Angel in Orango. No, I'm looking for it. You are in for a treat. Knowing you guys like I know you. Uh but like I say, it came out in 1980. Uh it's another one that goes for a hell of a lot of money on discogs. I saw it on there last night for £300. Um and it was re-released in 2018 by Queen Mum Records on various coloured vinyl, you'll be pleased to know, John. Each one was a limited edition and it quickly sold out. I'll be interested to hear what you guys think of Angel in a Raincoat by Sleepers.

unknown 1:26:52

Oh, Engine of the Raincoat.

SPEAKER_08 1:26:55

Sleepers, Angel in a Raincoat. Now, whenever I do myself a compilation to listen to, uh for listening to in the car, uh that song always gets put in there. What do you think?

SPEAKER_10 1:27:06

I think it was great. I'd put it on on my next playlist compilation to listen to the cat.

SPEAKER_08 1:27:11

Why wasn't that song huge?

SPEAKER_14 1:27:12

Oh no, no, it's a brilliant slicer power pop, and that's great. I said to you in while we were listening, it sort of brings like the stiffs and that to mind, and I just really Phil Hendricks will like that.

SPEAKER_08 1:27:23

Good catchy pop punk. Yeah, I think Phil would like that song a lot.

SPEAKER_14 1:27:27

Yeah, but like you say still to this day, it's like a minefield now that you can find this stuff, you know, with things coming up where that's more accessible, you know, and like going, Christ, how did I miss that at the time or something?

SPEAKER_08 1:27:37

But I know. And that's why when people say, Oh, why don't you listen to new music? 'Cause I'm still discovering old music.

SPEAKER_10 1:27:42

There's still plenty around, that's great.

SPEAKER_14 1:27:45

I know, there's probably like three hundred copies pressed of that, which are all sold round Nottingham or somewhere. Your best chance of getting ones that are carboat sale in Nottingham or something.

SPEAKER_08 1:27:53

But I am coming round because um Yeah, I see what you mean, they're from Nottingham, so somebody there who doesn't want it anymore.

SPEAKER_14 1:28:00

Or be a good place to start looking for that as a I was like uh that blanks single Northern Ripper. Yeah, which is quite collectible now, but I remember getting that at a G BH giga Ipswich Gaumont for fifty P because there just uh it might have been the GBH one destructors played as well. And they were kind of in the foyer, you know, with a couple of boxes of them selling them for fifty P because they obviously blanks been sort of just so loads of people in Ipswich had a copy, and I think they go for sort of you know quite good money now. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:28:30

The only problem is you have all those records in your collection now, and then you're starting to think, hold on, what's gonna happen to all this when I'm not here?

SPEAKER_14 1:28:36

Yeah, I've given strict instructions to my daughter not to just throw them away and figure out who wants all this old rubbish.

SPEAKER_10 1:28:42

Same here, really. I said, you know, but are you you know you're gonna keep my blondie collection or something and like my daughter's birth go, nah, straight on eBay.

SPEAKER_14 1:28:50

Yeah, that's fair enough. They won't get that cash inheritance, that'll be like records and whatever old tat I've got, you know.

SPEAKER_08 1:28:57

Yeah, let's let's let's not dwell on that. Um Right, we get into that was my last track, Angel in the Raincoat Sleepers. And uh I think uh a lot of people who haven't heard that before will be quite uh into that.

SPEAKER_10 1:29:09

Well we'll be humming it on the way home in the car whenever. Yeah, it's one of those.

SPEAKER_08 1:29:13

You don't need to hear it. It's not a grower because it's already grown. Yeah. So right, Tim's um uh final track, uh and I'm gonna he he he he was so gutted he couldn't be here today. He wanted to bang on about that bloody premiership uh promotion.

SPEAKER_10 1:29:28

Oh, we've gone so long without mentioning football.

SPEAKER_08 1:29:30

Oh no, but Luke was sort of thinking, we haven't mentioned football for a while. Yeah, we can just jump in and just talk about it, which is a little bit more. I'm happy to do that whenever. I I I can't wait to see their retained list. How many of those guys that, you know, achieved the impossible well not impossible really, Ipswich uh uh how long have they been out of the premiership? Two years. One year, yeah. Really?

SPEAKER_12 1:29:53

23-24 we were in it.

SPEAKER_08 1:29:55

Oh yeah, because you went up from League One to the first one. We did double promotion, yeah. Yeah, yeah, double promotion. Okay, so some of those players all aren't gonna make the cut, are they?

SPEAKER_12 1:30:05

For um that's a whole episode there, Steve.

SPEAKER_14 1:30:09

And weirdly enough, a lot of the fans haven't fought the football. You know, we got where we did, but the football hasn't been brilliant for the whole season, has it?

SPEAKER_12 1:30:15

We have been very No, it's been very different. We've been controlled in the way that we've played our football. Yeah. But there's been a lot of teams that have played a low block against us. So which is what we're gonna face in the Premier League, like both sides. I don't know if you watched many when we were in the Premier League last, but both teams played labour. Sorry, should we get on with like we'll we get on?

SPEAKER_08 1:30:36

What what I loved about that was um it comes in the little area where we're all sitting and says, It's been an hour, it's been an hour and twenty minutes, and then you get on to Ipswich's promotion to the premiership and like the time just goes out the window, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_14 1:30:50

Well it was speed out, we just had to talk half time.

SPEAKER_08 1:30:54

I think we owe it to Tim to give it um to give it plenty of uh recognition. So um I'm I'm sure he's gonna absolutely love that first track we played, the uh Blitzgreak Bop. Um for the Ipswich lot of the phone. Yeah, yeah. And um and Tim does like a brackets with songs as well, and which brings us on to his final uh track, which is he loves his grammar as well. Um so this one is brackets, I'm always touched by your closed brackets, presence, comma, idea.

SPEAKER_10 1:31:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_08 1:31:30

I think that's fantastic, isn't it? Whoever's like decided, yep, we need that comma in there.

SPEAKER_10 1:31:35

Well that's a lesson in the English language just in the title, isn't it?

SPEAKER_08 1:31:38

Yeah, but and they're American as well. So what do they know about the English language? Although Blondie were probably more popular in the UK than they were in America. Yeah, I reckon so. And I'd like to hear them do a version of that Angel in the Raincoat as well. I think Debbie Harry could have done a good version of that.

SPEAKER_14 1:31:52

I think she could do a good version of anything to read. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_08 1:31:55

Well Well, Tim's been saying, uh, this is I've I've I'm gonna read this out word for word, he's but I have been wanting to start the Blondie debate on the show. They definitely set out as a punk band, and their early singles, like this one, were pretty special. Parallel Lines is an excellent album, but they morphed into a band that wrote brilliant pop songs. Debbie Harry is also a great front woman and a punk icon to discuss.

SPEAKER_14 1:32:20

Well, we're both massive blondie fans.

SPEAKER_10 1:32:22

You can't say any more than that, you know. They were great, uh they changed, they were still great. She was you know when she uh when I first saw them and she was doing uh Denis on the top of the pops, she was pointing and saying, I'm still in love with you. Every single teenage boy thought she was pointing to it.

SPEAKER_14 1:32:37

I know, I know. And as important as what Mick Jones and all the future guitarists said about New York dolls on the whistle test, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:32:44

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, Blondie for me, I think Denise was the first sired as well. I went and got ripped shreds after Denise. I did as well, yeah. And you know, the 12-inch version, and yeah, just fantastic, absolutely brilliant. And I didn't you know, she didn't actually want all I know they were called Blondie, um but she kind of was she was a sex symbol, and you know, I I saw her plane at Crystal Palace a few years ago with um Generation Sex. You were there, Crystal Palace, yeah, it was great. It was great, wasn't it? I thought they were good. I left during Iggy Pot because I've got to say I've never really been a massive. Oh, I love Iggy Pops.

SPEAKER_10 1:33:18

I went I went because uh stiff little fingers were on as well, weren't they? They were.

SPEAKER_08 1:33:23

Were they? Buzzcocks were. Oh Buzzcocks, yeah, Buzzcocks, yeah. And did you see the whole of the Buzzcocks though? Because I I virtually missed the whole of them I I had VIP tickets, but queuing up to get in the VIP band was all it means is you get a you can get to a toilet.

SPEAKER_14 1:33:39

No, there was no seats.

SPEAKER_10 1:33:40

You can just go to the toilet. I was on the I was on the program. I was on the grassroad in front of the the very first band was a a girl band. Um they were brilliant, I thought, because they were just mental and they were like falling over in the world. Were they like Lambrett as Lambrett? Lambrini girls. Lambrini girls. They were great. I I They weren't um the the most tuneful, but they were the most powerful and they had attitude, and I loved them, yeah. But the whole the whole thing was great. And I I love Iggy pop, so you know.

SPEAKER_14 1:34:06

I think you were gonna say about the badges like Blondie as a group and that rather than the attention was on her and so as well. So I got a bit carried away with the.

SPEAKER_08 1:34:14

But you know, we all knew who um Chris Stein was, we knew who Clem Burke was, you know. I mean it was a great band, wasn't it? Fantastic.

SPEAKER_14 1:34:20

No, a lot of people were very sad with Clem Parson when he's worked with so many sort of punk punk musicians and stuff.

SPEAKER_10 1:34:26

I think what it was was in the early days you came for Debbie but you stayed for the band and the music.

SPEAKER_14 1:34:31

That's a good way of putting it. Yeah, annoyed dirty little man. And uh of course Clem was briefly a Ramon.

SPEAKER_08 1:34:38

He was an elvis Ramon, yeah.

SPEAKER_14 1:34:40

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:34:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_14 1:34:41

But as much as he can do, he couldn't call it. Hold that Ramones thing, hold the Ramones beat down.

SPEAKER_08 1:34:46

I mean, we were talking earlier on about you you know, Mike Drone not being able to keep up but poor old Joey Ramone on their live stuff. You know, you know, there's just no let up for him. So I mean he misses out every other line, doesn't he? It's just they they had no sympathy for him at all, did they? They just blasted through the songs ten times faster than the studio versions. Yeah, like just as he's got his breath D he goes, one two three four. Oh, I like Joe 1234 at the front of um the Ipswich one as well. The ITFC. Yeah, yeah, ITFC fancy. ITFC, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_14 1:35:21

Very briefly, one more Debbie Harry thing, uh photo book I've got by Ray Stevenson, you know, Neil Stevenson's brother.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:28

Right.

SPEAKER_14 1:35:29

And it sums it up perfectly, really, as to him being a good photographer and Debbie Harry being beautiful. Yeah. Where he's caught a picture of her kind of gurning and looking like unusual. No, and it just said any idiot with a camera could make Debbie Harry look good. Yeah. So it kind of was a bit of a sort of I've got her looking kind of like not like Debbie Harry, so to speak.

SPEAKER_08 1:35:48

She was fantastic. Lessie still is. Still is fantastic. How old is she? 78, 79?

SPEAKER_14 1:35:55

Slightly younger than Charlie Harbour.

SPEAKER_08 1:35:57

Yeah, yeah. Okay, I'm always touched by your presence, dear, with the brackets and the apoc uh the comma, and it's Blondie.

SPEAKER_18 1:36:12

Was it destiny? I don't know yet.

SPEAKER_19 1:36:19

Was it just by chance with this because I'm not sure if you don't have to be able to do it?

SPEAKER_08 1:38:46

I'm always touched by your presence, dear. It contains the word kismet, which I really like.

SPEAKER_10 1:38:51

It does it in the lyrics. Yeah. In in what context? This could be kismet. Yeah. I can't even remember what the line before is, but I always get excited when I hear that word. I don't know why, I don't even know what it means. Especially the way Debbie said it. She can say it's a good idea.

SPEAKER_08 1:39:03

Yeah. Right, so that was uh Tim's last um Good choice. Good choice. Good choice, Tim. And we're looking forward to getting Tim um back for the next episode in two weeks' time. Um I hope you're enjoying listening to it in your absence, Tim. I know you'll be saying it's not the same without you, and uh I'd agree. Um, although we have overrun yet again this episode. I'm pretty sure that had you been here, we'd have been overrunning even more with all that promotion talk. Um Are we spoken about culture? Oh no, we're not allowed, are we? Because uh we're running out of time. Uh well come on, John Terry, get your finger out. When's it gonna happen? Right, last but one track. Um, and this is the last choice of the guys from Red Flag 77. John Fanny Adams and Ricky Flag. Thanks for coming in, guys. Thanks for having me. Um, it's been uh I've been trying trying to get you on for a while. You've been hard to get obviously you want well there was a time when you said, Do we send a car out again? Yeah. Oh, that would have been great. Yeah, yeah. Limo. Uh didn't even pay your parking fee. I didn't. Um Right, Know Your Product by the Saints. Now, great song. Um, great band. Red Flag 77 Did you do this song? I know you had a you've got a little bit of a merch um.

SPEAKER_14 1:40:23

Yeah, no, that's just because that's what my business is called, know your product.

SPEAKER_08 1:40:26

Is it still going?

SPEAKER_14 1:40:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:40:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_14 1:40:30

Well, I don't really do lots of online stuff and things anymore, but I obviously then we were all at a lot of the same gigs when I was selling things at them when I say no. Now we just do a bit of all sorts of the odd record fare and things like that.

SPEAKER_08 1:40:41

Okay, so when you do um like at the steam bar in that Jay, do you have like t-shirts of the bands that are playing there and all that stuff?

SPEAKER_14 1:40:47

Yeah, when we do we usually always have an annual sort of summer all day and you know, let anyone who wants to do a stall come down so get a bit of interest and merch and have it all outside uh, you know, weather dependent, of course, but even though they're not gonna be a little bit more.

SPEAKER_08 1:41:00

Have you got a date for this year's one?

SPEAKER_14 1:41:02

Uh the pirates one is July the 18th. And the next flag thing we're doing, I believe, is in dare I say in Narwhich. Right. And your mate Steve Ignorant.

SPEAKER_08 1:41:13

Oh yeah, the cray did you go to the Colchester show last week with MK subs.

SPEAKER_10 1:41:19

To see uh Meth Fest, yeah. Yeah, it was good. It was brilliant. Was it packed? Uh it was well, I don't know whether they sold all of the tickets. It wasn't completely, completely packed because it was quite nice to have an old person's place to stand and a few chairs at the back because we're now of an age now, we're gonna have to have a little dance, and then you have to have a sit down. So I think it was um um perfect, you know, the amount of people that were there. There was enough to have a pit and staff, and then all the kids were enjoying themselves and all the old people sitting at the back going, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:41:51

And the myths like I mean, they just they get the support slot on like major you know, Alice Cooper and Stiffittle Finger, Stiffittle Finger, whoever their sort of management or agency is is doing a very, very good job. And is it Judas Priest, then uh their new their tour that's coming to the city?

SPEAKER_14 1:42:10

They're doing Joan Jett and Joan Jet. But you've got the J or the J. Which is kind of quite nice as I think Lily's sort of a bit of a fan of Joan Jett, so that would be brilliant for her. And they've been good with our bands. We went and did a couple with Flag with them, didn't they? They're sort of obviously doing well, playing nice venues, and they said, What would it take to get Flag to come and do a couple of supports? They said, yeah, we're only a practice away of being able to come and do it. So we went and played uh So did they go down a storm?

SPEAKER_10 1:42:37

Uh the Meths, yeah. Always. Yes. And what about UK subs? How did they go down in the street? They went down well. They went down brilliantly. Um I just had a great time.

SPEAKER_14 1:42:46

I was meant to go and have a great time, but I got sidetracked by a came against QBR and promotion and running round and uh I kind of in the end didn't make it to the gig.

SPEAKER_08 1:42:55

Football always came before punk with me. And that you know, that was much to the rest of the band special duties. They they didn't understand. I'd cancel gigs if it meant uh missing the use. So uh back on the footy again. We've been right old wafflers on this show, and we're so right, your business is called know your product. Let's hear the song know your product. The uh theme tune from Ricky Flag's um merchandise shop. Oh no, the Saints, that was, wasn't it? The Australian Saints. Yeah, great.

SPEAKER_14 1:46:36

Yeah, brilliant.

SPEAKER_08 1:46:37

Right, guys, that would normally be the last song, um and I would at this point say thank you very much for coming on. Have you enjoyed it?

SPEAKER_10 1:46:45

That's been great. Yeah, it's been wonderful. It's been really nice, nice company.

SPEAKER_14 1:46:48

Good apart from good. Plenty of waffles.

SPEAKER_10 1:46:51

Plenty of that plenty of football chat, John. What? I didn't notice any of the football.

SPEAKER_08 1:46:57

You can fast forward that. A lot of people fast forward the music because they only want to listen to football, and a lot of people fast forward the football because they only want to listen to the music.

SPEAKER_10 1:47:05

Oh, I'll I'll be listening to the um um See I've forgotten what they're called now, the sleepers raincoat in an angel.

SPEAKER_08 1:47:11

Angel in a raincoat, yeah. Sleeping goes in an angel. Sleepers in a raincoat by Angel. Yeah, yeah. Um great song.

SPEAKER_14 1:47:19

No, so it's because with Tim uh being a Pauly, then uh you've got away with an extra Itswitch fan to be on your back as well. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 1:47:27

We'll we'll cover it when Tim comes back. We'll we'll do a whole new promo I'm happy to do a second promotion episode.

SPEAKER_14 1:47:34

And I'm happy to come back.

SPEAKER_08 1:47:37

Uh I'm due a week off, so uh I'll sit in the car. How about um Okay, right, so let's um wrap the show up then. Thanks very much, guys. Ricky and John from Red Flag 77, Blue Flag 78, whichever one floats your boat. Um and I wanna play this one for Tim Young. Uh it's a fantastic Red Flag 77 track. Um you know, I suppose it's humorous, it's a funny song, but it's just the sound, it's just fantastic, and it's just it's a cover of the who who did the original Football Crazy?

SPEAKER_10 1:48:17

Scottish. It wasn't Terry Scott, wasn't it? No, it wasn't Terry Scott, it was um uh I don't know, Ralph McDougall and No, the old school and Oates.

SPEAKER_14 1:48:28

We had to find out for who we credited it to when we did it, didn't we? But I think that was something he used to play in his kind of whiskey things.

SPEAKER_08 1:48:35

We'll Google it while we're listening to it, but this one's for Tim Young. Get Well Soon. Um, this is for you, Tim, from the boys at Red Flag 77. It's called Football Crazy.

SPEAKER_14 1:48:45

Get Well Soon, sir.

SPEAKER_10 1:48:46

Yeah, look after yourself, mate.

SPEAKER_08 1:50:55

Red flag seventy-seven football crazy. And that just about wraps the show up. We have been googling a little bit to see who sung the original of that. We're now down to Ewan McCall, which we believe is Kirsty McCall's dad.

SPEAKER_10 1:51:07

He might have written it, I don't think he sang on it. But we still need verification, don't we? Property.

SPEAKER_12 1:51:12

I mean, this is this. That's our Wikipedia, and it says uh James Curan originally wrote it in the nine Oh, he died in the 1900s. But then later on it says nine in 1960, the Scots folk duo Robin Hall and Chi Jimmy McGregor.

SPEAKER_14 1:51:31

That's the one McGregor, yeah.

SPEAKER_12 1:51:33

Yeah. They r they released it.

SPEAKER_10 1:51:36

In 60s. 1960s.

SPEAKER_12 1:51:37

1960s.

SPEAKER_08 1:51:38

So where does Ewan McCool come into it?

SPEAKER_12 1:51:40

Er so he was in in between the original song, so it said it was later adapted in a comedic uh with many lyrics changed by Ewan McCool, including a version of Fitabar Crazy.

SPEAKER_08 1:51:53

Doesn't go on to say Red Flag 77 did a version of it, does it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_14 1:51:57

And someone else dodgy that we don't want to mention.

SPEAKER_12 1:51:59

No, it doesn't, but um I mean it's Wikipedia, I can just edit it.

SPEAKER_08 1:52:02

Yeah. Well we don't know how to do that, but if you know how to do it, that'd be good. What year did you do it? What year did you do it?

SPEAKER_14 1:52:07

Er ninety-six. I think that was on the first album, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_08 1:52:14

I'm trying to close this show. Right, so we always end the show with um uh Tim always says uh keep it punk, keep it town. And then I say, and then I say keep it punk, keep it call you, and then we both shout out keep it punk, keep it alternative cultister. Because I just joined on the last one and not the other two. You can do the last bit. Okay, keep it. You do the first bit, keep it punk, keep it town. Yeah, can you remember that? Yeah. And you've got to say, keep it punk, alternative. Keep it alternative cultister, okay?

SPEAKER_10 1:52:46

Keep it punk, keep it down. Keep it punk, keep it cold you. Keep it punk, keep it alternative colchester. Hurrah!