Episode 1: For the love of INXS- with Lars Brandle

Welcome to the very first episode of Listen Like Fans — the podcast made by fans, for fans… for the love of INXS.

I’m Bee, longtime host of the INXS Access All Areas podcast, and for this debut episode, I’m joined by Australian music journalist Lars Brandle.

Together, we kick things off by diving into the music that shaped us — especially our shared love of INXS and Duran Duran.

In this episode, we explore:

• The parallels between two of the most iconic bands of the 80s
• The crossover moments in their careers
• The global impact both bands had on pop culture
• Personal fan stories and why this music still matters today

Lars brings decades of industry insight and behind-the-scenes knowledge, while I bring the heart of the INXS fan community. Together, it’s facts, fun, deep cuts, and plenty of passionate discussion.

This is just the beginning — real conversations, real fandom, and a celebration of the music that continues to connect us around the world.

So press play… and let’s listen like fans.

Join me on Patreon https://patreon.com/ListenlikeFans_fortheloveofINXSBackstageLegends?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink 

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#Michaelhutchence

#rockandrollhalloffame

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Okay, Groovers.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to Listen Like Fans for the love of inexcess. I'm B, and each week I'll be joined by a different co-host as we dive into the songs, the stories, and the moments that made us fall in love with this most iconic band on the planet. Let's go. Hi, and welcome to the very first episode of Listen Like Fans for the Love of InXS. I'm Bee and I'm very excited to launch this new podcast. Each week, I'll be joined by a different co-host, a guest, fellow InXS fan, sharing their stories, their connections to the music, and why this band still means so much to all of us. There's also plenty of fun along the way. Joining me today, my very first guest and co-host is one of Australia's most respected music journalists, the brilliant Lars Brandle. Lars has spent over two decades at the coalface of music journalism, from writing for Billboard in London to shaping conversation back home at Head of Content at the Bragg Media. His work has appeared everywhere from Rolling Stones, Australia, New Zealand, to Variety, and he's been a regular voice across radio, TV, and global music panels, including MTV back in the day. But what really connects Lars to today's conversation is a deep understanding of In Excess. Not just as a band, but as a cultural force. Lars's contribution, like many of you, to the Corning Gore Nation's fan history of In Excess that came out in 2023 and was put together by the Universal Music Group Petrol and This Day in Music Books, headed by Neil Cossa and Ollie Walsh. And in May of last year, Lars wrote a fantastic article in the Australian and New Zealand Rolling Stones magazine with our very own Kirk Pengili, reflecting on the making of Listen Like These and the wonderful 50 shoot behind one of the band's most iconic music videos. That piece came after Kirk joined me along with a bunch of mega in Excess fans at a party that I organized to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Inxcess Access All Areas podcast, which I used to co-host with Hayden Murdoch. A really full circle moment and the perfect way to kick off listen late fans. So today I'm thrilled to welcome Lars for episode one. Lars, thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

B the pleasure is all mine. You've done such great work. Come on.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

You too, you too, mate.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Well, mutual pats on the back. There we go.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Yeah, well, after five and a half years of doing in XS Access all area, I just wanted to mix it up a bit and really listen to the fan stories. And you're a huge fan of InXS.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Oh yeah, I love NXS. They were certainly one of the Australian bands that really blew my hair back as a kid. I think uh Ice House was the other. Yeah. Um, they both had uh what it's it's an overused expression, but new wave and post-punk. But I really see it as a sound that swept through really from the UK after the end of punk, but it incorporated very importantly the sound of the synthesizer as one of the mainstream instruments of that band. Prior to the 80s, bands tended to have bass, guitar, drums, and a and a vocalist. And that was it. You could have as many guitars as you wanted. But with the dawn of the 80s and what came out of the UK and with bands like Icehouse and NXS, you had a new sound. It was the sound of the synth. And we'd never really heard it used in that way before. There are so many bands now that want to sound like the early 80s. It's incredible. We've we've gone through this spin cycle of music. We're sort of back to the early 80s. Uh, if you listen to France's M83, it's like a time capsule. And in excess, we're at the absolute hippie top of that tree.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

But we are checking our mango.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

And you've also interviewed quite a few of the band members and been in a limo, I hear, with the band too.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Yes, me and Richard Wilkins. Richard Wilkins. And and the members of NXS, the surviving members of NXS. Um, I've been lucky enough to interview members of the band on multiple occasions. I interviewed Tim uh in London almost 20 years ago, before they did a show at the Wentworth Golf Club, which was fun with JD. And 2023, I spent time, had lunch with the band uh and limo and did all sorts of fun things. And yeah, that was a really special experience.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

That was for their billion streaming, was that right?

SPEAKER_01 5:16

For yeah, it was a few things. It was the publication of the fan book uh in which you and I both appear. I just checked, you are, I think, two pages, two pages ahead of me. Uh we we have some pretty important real estate.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

It was a fun buck to um to help with that. Was a great read. I still keep picking it up and finding new stories in there.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Yeah, it's a it's a really fine book, and it was amazing spending time with the band members. And I did ask the question. I can I I I have a lot of gossipy things from those hours I spent with the lads. One of the questions I put to them was, would you reunite with the right singer?

SPEAKER_04 5:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

And they said, Yes, we you this their eyes kind of lit up, and they said, Yeah, we yeah, if we found the right singer.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Exit. And this would be back in what 2023?

SPEAKER_01 6:06

2023, during the first South by Southwest Sydney. And I even suggested some female singers, and they like that idea. So hopefully we have, you know, hopefully we will see more in XS happen, but it could happen.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Yeah, well, in XS returning 50 next year, it'll be their anniversary in August of next year. So my fingers are desperately crossed that they'll come out and uh come out with a new song, or they'll yeah, or they'll just perform or do some sort of QA for us all or something. I I'm gonna do my part, Lars. I'm going to start a boat party on our famous Sydney Harbour, and I'm going to be getting at least 300 people together.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Sounds awesome. I want to come.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

You better invite you better, you met her. Well, today we're going to do something a little bit different. I know it's a first about NXS, and we should be talking about NXS, but you've also got a love for Duran Duran. And we've got a little bit of a crossover with all of that, haven't we? Really?

SPEAKER_01 7:04

There is um much in common um between both bands. Um yes, I loved and still love NXS and Ice House and many Australian groups from my childhood. But the one that really, really turned me on was Duran Duran. It hit me like a punch in the face when I really understood what they were doing. It was a lifelong love affair. And you know, I'm it's not a cult. They've certainly made albums which didn't hit the mark. And there are songs in their catalogue that don't do anything for me or I don't need to hear again. But what they represented to me as maybe a 10-year-old was what a rock band could be. Most of it was Hollywood, uh, certainly visually. But I I'm Gen X, so I was brought up in what the Americans call the MTV generation. We didn't have MTV, but we had various music video platforms. And I remember from a very young age, Planet Earth. I remember Simon jumping off the platform at the end. I remember thinking that was pretty cool. But it was the Russell Malcaye directed music videos from the second album, Rio.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

It was um oh well, they are just larger than life, aren't they? Yeah, yeah, but they they presented this image. Um wanted to go down the Roxy music side of things, and I think they put that together quite well without being Roxy music, don't you think?

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Yeah, well, they loved Roxy music. They adored Roxy music, they adored Sheik, they they adored David Bowie, and you can hear how all of that came together in that music. But hanging out off the back of a boat, a yacht in Antigua, or you know, playing your best Indiana Jones character in Sri Lanka, those videos with the sound, and obviously the Rio album is an absolute classic. Um, prior to that, for me, the idea of a rock star was a bloke drinking Jack Daniels from the bottle. But he had guys with sophistication who whose videos were filled with models in these tropical paradises with this great music. And I'm I was thinking at age 10 or 12, yeah, that's for me.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Yeah, yeah. You bring it on. Yes, I I I was quite invested coming from Birmingham myself. Uh I do remember one of those videos where someone's um some young girl is wringing out a rag and the water's going into um Simon's mouth or something. They're talking about Jack Daniels in a drink. I don't think that was probably Jack Daniels in that rag at the time.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

That that is from the music video for Hungry Like the Wolf. He's on a walk and it's a little boy squeezing a rag into his mouth, and he's spoken of that moment, and that that rag was apparently filthy.

SPEAKER_04 9:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

So so when you watch Simon um having that rag spool unspooled in his, yeah, it's pretty foul.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

All right. Well, in Excess Fans, we are going to talk about In Excess together. Um, we are going to be doing sort of a little bit of a playoff, aren't we? We're going to be going through our favourite ballad, chart success, b-side, deep cut, and live performance. And we're having a bit of fun with this. But um, we do have a bit of a crossover with in XS that you did mention there, which was Niall Rogers more so.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Yeah, well, uh, as the legend goes, Molly Meldrum hosted a party in Melbourne for Duran Duran in 1983. And Original Sin was on the radio, it was on MTV, it was doing its thing, it was doing its magic worldwide. And apparently he put that record on again and again and again for the members of Durand Duran. He said, You need to listen to this, you need to listen to it, listen again. We know what Molly was like, do yourself a favor. Um and the lads paid attention and they were very curious as to who was the producer of that record. Of course, it was Nile Rogers from Chic. And they went away, they made some phone calls, and from that came the reflex, which was produced by Niall Rogers. Um, the album version from Seven of the Ragged Tiger has a almost a completely different intro. So uh Nial came in, jazzed it up, gave it muscles, and it became a worldwide smash thanks to NXS and Niall Rogers.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Yeah, and and funny enough, that is my sort of entry into the in XS world because my girlfriend at the time when I was at college was a massively into Duran Duran, and she says, Have you read this in Melody Maker? Um, John and Simon are talking about this band called InXS. I think you'll really like them. That's your type of band. So we went to see InXS on the back of hearing it in Melody Maker from Duran Duran talking about InXS.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

They had so much in common. Also, great-looking lads, both fans, yeah, fantastic looking lads, and they had larger lineups than many bands of the era, which meant that they didn't cheat when they performed live. So you had a guy who played sax in the band, or he could interchange between guitar and sax, or a guy who could interchange from keyboards to guitar. So what you saw in the studio could be replicated on stage, and I thought that was really important. And both both bands could do that, and both also had fantastic music videos. Yes. You think of Listen Like Thieves, the Richard Lowenstein video, these epic cinematic videos, both bands were doing those. And when I strip it all away, when you get stop being clever with the music videos and the songwriting, the recordings, you ask yourself, would teenage girls have posters of these bands on their walls? And the answer is yes. It's a resounding yes. These were bands that really, really like crossed the generations in every aspect of pop music culture. And there's a band member whose surname is Beers. I mean, how could how could that, you know, there couldn't be anything more Australian than that, surely.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

No, no, no. And there's two boys in Juan Juan that have got the same surname as well.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Well, actually, three. Three of them Taylors, that's right. Three Taylors, and none of them are related, which is pretty bizarre. One of them is from your hometown, Birmingham.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Well, it's two, isn't there? It's three, really.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

One of them, Andy Taylor is from Newcastle, I believe. He's from the north of England.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Uh Roger, I'm not sure. I believe he lived some time.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

He was in the Midlands, um, because I met because I knew all about them at the time. Um, and he used to have his own um equestrian or horses not too far away from where I was living.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

There you go. Yeah I did not know.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

There you go. So yeah, a little bit. He loved these horses. All right, well, let's get straight into this.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Let's.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

All right, so the rules are it's not a competition.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Of course it is. Between an English woman and an Australian man, it's not a competition. Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

But it's more about the feels. This program is more about the feels, so it's more about like what it really means to you. Okay, I think we'll start off. I'm gonna give you the first one, hey. Um, we'll start with the most successful or the biggest chart hit.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

Yeah. Well, I could probably lean on five or six. Gonna end one. I'm only picking one because it's it was no competition. I'm going with the title song from the 1985 James Bond film A View to a Kill. Oh, really? Oh, it was it was the first James Bond theme song to go to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. So piece of history for Duran Duran. It was all it's important for so many in so many ways. First of all, I I think to write a theme song would be the ultimate challenge because there would be so many cooks working with that broth. You would have producers, directors, moneymen, the half of the film studio would be applying pressure on you to shape that song. And it would have been a real challenge. We also know that Duran Duran split after that song, or they were in the process of splitting. So A View to a Kill was really the last song of the the classic lineup for 20 years.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Wow. Right?

SPEAKER_01 15:41

So they split, they became a trio after that song.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Yeah, they went into different um, yeah, they went into different projects each, didn't they? They literally a 3-3, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Well, they split into Arcadia and The Power Station.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

And then Durandran. They're both those two albums.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Great, great records. And I might even touch on one of those a little later. Um, but A Vidal Kill was really important for a number of reasons. It was it was the end of Duran Duran as we know it, and we didn't know it at the time. It's a fantastic track, it absolutely slaps. It was the first James Bond track to go to number one in the US, and I just love it.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

I think that was the only James Bond movie I went to the cinema to see just because I knew that that Duranger Ran were going to be singed in.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Well, here's here's a little background. I visited Europe um at age 12 in 1985, it was July 1985 with my family. We went to Leicester Square, we saw Review to a Kill at one of those mega two-story movie cinemas.

SPEAKER_04 16:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Um, we were pretty jet lagged. I remember we sat front row, my mum fell asleep from jet lag.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Yeah. Wow, it was quite epic. It was with Grace Jones, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Grace Jones is Mayday, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Mmm, mmm, yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

So that's my pick. What are you off to me?

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Okay, well, it has to be what you need. The opening track from Listen Light Thieves in 1995. Just such a great song. The uh, you know, the crashing drums as it opens up and it was like a global phenomenon. It just went from country to country. UK didn't really get it at first. It only reached number 52 and then it got re-released and went a little bit higher, or a lot higher, I should say. Also, it got lots of awards for the video, too. So that was very groundbreaking at the time. That song just you just don't get bored of it either. When it comes on, it's like your ears pickup for that intro of John's and the drums.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

That song to me represents the moment when NXS had outgrown Australia and they had become a global band. And if at that point I was I was in the early years of high school when that song came out. And if you'd have said, if you'd have seen that music video on television and you did not know anything about NXS, you would have assumed they were British or American.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

And that they had the machinery of the record industry behind them. They were at that point a global band.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Yeah, and they owned it, didn't they? They looked so good, especially on the on the MTV awards and stuff. Awesome. And then Richard Wilkins, your friend, was um actually interviewing them that night too.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

He's a sweetheart. Uh he's like his book will be fantastic when he writes it.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Oh, is there a book coming out soon for Richard?

SPEAKER_01 18:41

We all have a book coming back. We're all writing one. It's just finding the time to complete it.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

I just saw that he was up in Brisbane actually, or around the Gold Coast, interviewing um Baz about the new um Elvis documentary that's coming out. That looks very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Yes. It's another podcast, that one.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

And yeah, I'd like to get Richard on. If I know he's a busy bee, but um, yeah, I'd like to get him. He's got a man. Lovely podcast with his um son, hasn't he?

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Yes, yes, absolutely. His son's consider uh Richard's also very tall. He's he's he's about my height. I think he's six three. Um and it runs in the family.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Yeah, well, the looks go with the son, definitely. He's a very handsome younger man. Okay, next one, the best ballad.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Yeah, so I really I really struggle with splitting these two, but I'm I will have to go with Ordinary World Um because for so many reasons, it's a poignant song. Um, it represented a new era of Duran Duran, and it it it dropped uh in 1993, gave the band a whole new lease on life. Um, it was the comeback no one expected or few saw coming. Bands from the early part of the 80s, very few of them survived into the 90s. I mean, you can count them on certainly on one hand, you have the pech mode, you had the cure. U2, of course, had been the biggest band in the world uh in the second half of the 80s and managed to carry through into the early part of the 90s. But Ordinary World just literally came from nowhere. The video, of course, was uh was amazing. Um, and there's a scene where the band members are wearing suits and they're barefooted. Um, and of course, I had to borrow that concept for my own wedding. Okay. Myself and my groomsman were all barefoot. Uh no word of lie. That was that was stolen from the music video of ordinary.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

Romantic. Your wife likes Durangeran as well.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

She had no choice. She had no choice. A wife is South African and she actually saw Durandran in South Africa. So the answer to that is yes. And she's never complained about me playing Durandrian music really loud on Friday night, um, drinking champagne as as is my want. Yeah, she likes Durangeran. And we've seen them many times when we lived in the UK. So we we did live the life. Um, but my choice is Ordinary World.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Yes, beautiful, beautiful song. I don't know if you've ever listened to my other show in Excess Access All Areas, but one of our contributors and guests is Nick Egan. I don't know if you know that name, but Nick. Actually, um filmed that um video for the for Duran Duran. In fact, um Nick Egan is best friends with John Taylor.

SPEAKER_01 22:07

Well, there you go. That's a good story. That's a really good story.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

And me and Nick are going to be doing a podcast very soon about his life because there's a book in there. In fact, John Taylor coined Nick's um nickname as the creative vandal. Yeah. That's great. I know, it's a good one. Let me have yours. Mine, it's I think you know what it's going to be. It has to be.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Never tear us apart.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

It has to be, doesn't it? Truly. They have got some beautiful other songs that you know, like um not enough time, and but this is just so iconic. It just gets straight to the heart. Michael's performance at Wembley was amazing on this as well. But the the actual song for the album and single, wow, from beginning to end, it's just a magical experience. Um, and it's been it's been covered so many times. I mean, even at um Christmas time and New Year over that period, I saw two new artists. Amazing that this song just keeps getting airplay more and more and more. And the video again, Richard Lonstein and video shot in Prague, just along the river there, and taking in the bridge and the graveyard there. I think that's a Jewish graveyard. You feel the cold and the snuggleness and the heartbreak, and yeah, it's just wonderful. And the fact that he wrote it for his girlfriend, Michelle, at the time.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

Oh, it's everything about that song is perfect. The music video is it's really important part of the story. And I I don't think um I don't think my my kids' generation are connected with music videos in the in the same way that we are. I don't think they have the attention span to watch them, which is uh most unusual. I didn't expect that to happen. The video, as you point out, was shot in Prague, uh, but before the Iron Curtain fell.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

So it was a glimpse of this fairy tale city before really the rest of the world had discovered it. Uh was it 1987? And I I had no idea what this place was as a kid, but I sure wanted to go there. I've twice been to Prague, and it it is it's obviously commercialised in in so many ways since that video was made. Um, but that's it's like taking a step back into medieval times, that music thing.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

It is, and when you look at it, it looks timeless, it looks like it should be sort of like back in the day. You know, Michael does look like some sort of like prince walking along there. But yeah, that's what that's got to be the ballad for in excess, top of my sock.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

It's it's absolutely the right choice. And um, of course, last year Triple J uh uh had its very first countdown of one 100 Australian songs, a hottest 100 of Australian songs, and that came in at number one.

SPEAKER_00 25:09

And we were really surprised, weren't we?

SPEAKER_01 25:12

Yeah, but happily surprised.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

Oh my goodness, very, very much so. I mean, my daughter, who's 17 at the time, she messaged me because Mum, Mum, Mum, in XS with number one. Like, what? I was I wasn't even following it. It was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

I didn't expect it at all. It was it was my birthday um party when that countdown was taking place. Um, and we were at a very boozy lunch, which continued all day, and I had my phone playing the countdown the entire day off our table. It was it was a massive moment when that song came in at number one. Did not expect it at all. And we know Triple J is a youth network, it's it's um targeted at 18 to 24 year olds. So for that song to come in at number one means that the song is resonating with younger people. And I can happily point out that um I've caught my daughter when she was maybe 15 playing that song in in her bedroom really loud. I didn't give it to her, I didn't say you must hear this. She discovered it all on her own. She loves it.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

Oh, wonderful! Yeah, it's um it's a beautiful song. Yeah, my my daughter and my son love that song too. And it's going to be featuring in, or it already has, featured in an advertisement for Toy Story, which is coming out next year as well. Yes, or at the end of the year, maybe. Yeah. Toy Story 4. So I don't know, four or five. I can't keep up to tell you the truth. Yeah. Go buzz and woody. We love that. All right, let's go on to our next one, which is the best b side.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

Oh, yeah. Okay. So um and I'll go sort of deep in with this. Um, the best B side for a Duran Duran song was the B side for Union of the Snake, and it's called Secret October. Oh, I do remember that, yes. Well, there's something important. Uh, there's a there's a story behind the story. Now, first of all, if I wanted to introduce Duran Duran to someone who knew nothing about them, I would point out that they were essentially an art project, which is how John Taylor has described them. Secret October is two things. It's Simon singing about butterflies escaping killing jars. So pure poetry from the early 80s, and Nick Rhodes, synthesizer with the drum machine. There were there's no guitars, there's no drums. So it's it's literally the duo of Nick and Simon. It sounds like no other song they've ever created. Now, Duran Duran were living in Australia at the time when they recorded this. Margaret Thatcher was applying sick, 90% tax rates to the filthy rich at the time. So they did what most wealthy Brits did, and they came to Australia for a year and spent all the money that they would have paid on tax on partying. That's what they did. And their record company told them um one night, we need a B-side for Union of the Snake, and we need it for tomorrow morning. And Nick told me this in an interview some years ago in the UK. Simon had his book of lyrics, and Nick got on his synthesizer, and they went into 301 studios in Sydney and they made this record, this most unusual B-side. And then it was would have been sent off in a plane, and and and there you have it. I transcribed that piece of the interview and I sent it to one of my besties. He's also a massive Duran Duran fan, and this is there's no word of lie here. I sent the email from my office in London, and as I sent it, there was an email that had come back from him while I was writing it, and it was an email from him to say that his friend had just bought the mixing desk from 301 Studios in Sydney on which Secret October was recorded. Oh it was weird, right? Like we still laugh about it. The plan these planets aligned. Yeah. So there was me sending just it was completely random. Me sending a piece of a quote from an interview with Nick Rhodes talking about the process of recording that track in 301 as he was sending me an email to say a friend of his had just bought the big sign. Isn't that weird? So that's the story behind the story is Secret October, but it's an absolutely magical trap.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

Yeah, I I haven't listened to it for a very, very long time. And me being born in October, I remember it being on the back of there, and I just you two.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

I'm a July kid.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Oh, right, okay. I've put your thumb up there. But yeah, October people are the best. So anyway.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

Are they? Well, I'll take a note of that.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

Okay, well, mine, I don't know if you've ever heard this song, but it's a very, very deep one. Um, and you can only find it on maybe um some singles that were in the UK, and it was called Deepest Red. Deepest Red? Yeah. Oh, I've got one here who doesn't know about okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

Well, no, I don't I don't have access to that single because I wasn't living in the UK then.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

Yeah, you might be able to find it on YouTube if you put it in, so in excess deepest red. And it was when Michael and John were living together in Hong Kong and they collaborated together. It should have been on one of the albums, but God knows why it's not, because it's absolutely beautiful. What the song's about it's about breaking up and it's pretty, yeah. The opening lyric is Judah's Kiss, um, but it's absolutely a fantastic song, and I can't wait to play it for you.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

I can't wait to hear it. Good choice. Thank you. We mentioned earlier Duran Duran and 85 split, and their performance at Live Aid was a post-split performance. Um, probably best known for Simon's voice getting out during a View to a Kill. It's quite legendary. The worst thing that could possibly happen with a billion people watching, right? But they split into two camps. One was Arcadia, an art project, the other was uh funk rock project, power station. The Arcadia record sounds like where Duran Duran might have gone next had they not split. And there's a song, I believe it's the last track on side A. If you if you remember your vinyl, it's called Missing, and it's a very, very touching song. Uh apparently inspired by a uh the story of a father who lost his child.

SPEAKER_04 32:11

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

Um, but the music video is I've got goosebumps. Uh the music video is a piece of art. Yeah. Um now I can claim Arcadia as being a Duran Duran record because it actually has four of the band members on that record. So Simon and Nick are the mainstays of Arcadia. Roger actually is the drummer, was on both PowerStation and Arcadia. And in one of the music videos from the Arcadia album, a song called The Flame, John Taylor, the bass player, appears. So all four members of the current lineup of Dran Dran are in that Arcadia project. So there you have it.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Okay, I'll let you have that one then. If I'm gonna let you have that one, then I have to go and talk about the Max Q album.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

Yeah, why not?

SPEAKER_00 33:00

What a great record! What a great record, yes. And we are fingers crossed that we're going to be hearing very soon um re-releases with new and songs and new remixes of songs as well. Very, very soon. I've been talking to my friend Bruce Butler. I don't know if you know Bruce back in Melbourne. He he runs um a club down there, but yeah, so I am going to my favourite of the album, which is Ot Vent Rot. Ollie, Ollie Olsen, who collaborated with Michael on a lot of the music and the lyrics. Um, but Michael's singing the song and it's absolutely fantastic. Wow, you have to listen to that. You've heard it?

SPEAKER_01 33:47

Yeah, I had the album. I I always thought the artwork looked like one of the members of Doug Anthony All-Stars. I'm not sure if that means anything to you. Her Way of the World, of course, was a massive song. Um that that album, that first album really made some noise in Australia on its release.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

Yeah, it's a shame that they didn't weren't able to really, you know, advertise it and have Michael's face on it. But again, Nick Egan again did the artwork for that. So yeah, massive friend of Michael's as well as John Taylor's at the time. But yeah, that album, yeah, definitely needs a re-release. All right, going on to your favorite live performance.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

Yeah, so um, hand on heart, I wasn't here, but we're not competing. I think probably the the most important Duran Duran show is when they headlined Hyde the Park in 2022. In the summertime, they had 70,000 people in a park in the most famous park in the United Kingdom, possibly the most famous park in the English-speaking world, Central Park in New York might argue with that. But they played in July. Uh, they had uh Nial Rogers and Sheik um supporting them, and they played all of the hits, and it was the sort of comeback that every rock star can only dream of. And there's one of another of my favorite bands of that era was Simple Minds from Glasgow. There's an excellent documentary on the band, and they had the experience of getting to the top of the summit and falling down the other side. Jim Kerr, the lead singer, speaks of the experience of driving past the stadium, which they had played packed back in the day, to go to a small venue which was half empty.

SPEAKER_04 35:41

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

So so they have had that experience. And he talks about the desperation of climbing back to the summit, which is which is almost impossible, right? But you'd never write it off. But with that show in 2022 in Hyde Park, they climbed the top of the summit.

SPEAKER_00 35:58

And what was the capacity? How many um what how many were in the audience?

SPEAKER_01 36:02

Have you seventy thousand? Oh to see uh early 80s heavyweights Durand Duran, a band that was written off in the 90s, written off in the 2020s, the 20 uh 2000s and 2010s.

SPEAKER_00 36:17

I went to see Duran Duran in 2002 or 2000 and they were still packing at stadiums when I was in England.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

Were were they playing arenas? I saw them at Wembley Arena.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

It was the O2 Arena. In fact, I'll tell you who was um supporting them, Scissor Sister. It was the first time I heard them, and I fell in love with them. Oh my god. That was it. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

Fantastic. Yeah, I saw Scissor Sisters a few times. They're uh they're an American band, but they were signed in the UK. Yeah. So um the Brits owned that music like no one else. They couldn't get arrested in the US.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

Yeah. I remember waking up the next day with bruises all over my legs, and I was like, what did I do? What how how have I got all these bruises around my legs? And what it was was where you you have to dance in your and it was the the the actual arms of the chairs.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

Bruce ironically, one of their big hots, uh big hits is I don't feel like dancing, but you did feel like dancing.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

I did, I couldn't stop dancing. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

Great band, great band. Uh yeah, so that's that's my I could have gone deep into um the the Sing Blue Silver uh long form concert video from I think it was 1984, uh, and the music video for the reflex captured them. They were one of the first bands to ever use the big screen to help the fans at the back see the action. And of course, they're in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the noisiest audience. Oh, really? The show. Yeah, so that's fair random. Random fact that everyone.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

Okay, well, I'm going to have to go for Wembley, which again was also in July, which is funny enough. Um, but I can top you the crowd there was over 72,000 people, and it's one of the most iconic live performances of a rock band. I mean, they and people actually, rock bands also think of it as a masterclass performance. It was just unfaulted. And the fact that Chris Murphy had the foresight to actually film it, and so we can now put that onto 4K and it's kind of filmed, and um live baby live is just wonderful. And if I'm in a bad mood, that one definitely goes on.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

Is it live baby live or is it live baby live?

SPEAKER_00 38:45

I always say live baby live, but you can say live baby live, it doesn't matter what you want to say.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

What a great moment music history that show was. Because we we saw it in Australia. We we later learned that Chris Murphy rolled all of their earnings from that show into the recording, so they didn't make a dime from it. They didn't make a penny from it.

SPEAKER_00 39:07

I think there's a famous line from Michael saying it just about covers my um champagne bill.

SPEAKER_01 39:13

That's exactly right, and it would have been some bill, let's face it.

SPEAKER_00 39:17

We were very lucky um to have on the Inexus Access All Area show Mark Opitz, who was the actual sand guy and produced the um album afterwards as well. But yeah, there's some great footage from behind the scenes of Michael be going on. I mean, John just getting up on the on the stage and giving the peace sign and putting a few drum chords out, and the boys being in the back and running forward, and then just jamming it out before they like just took it to another level. It was just amazing.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

See, at that point in time in Australia, we were well, not me, but the rest of Australia was was stuck in this the in this rut of tall poppy syndrome, as we called it. And if an artist became too big or they went overseas to find their fame, they were often cut down. It's like, oh well, you couldn't cut it here, so you had to go away and may as well stay here, stay there. With the footage that we saw from Wembley, I think everyone was just crowded and stoked at these guys. And we we also tend to forget that the UK was late to the party. Yeah, America was much earlier on board with NXS thanks to their network of college radios. That wasn't their first moment, really, in the limelight away from home, but geez, they did it so well.

SPEAKER_00 40:40

Did it so so well.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

And now it's time for the quick fire questions.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

Okay, quick fire around. Okay, I'm gonna throw some questions to you, and if you want to answer them quickly, and you've just said on air that you've got some questions for me, which I have no idea what they were. So um, here we go. You ready for this? Yes, drumwell. Okay. Favorite album?

SPEAKER_01 41:18

Rio.

SPEAKER_00 41:20

Okay, favorite rap album for in XS.

SPEAKER_01 41:23

The swing.

SPEAKER_00 41:24

Interesting. Okay, most underrated song, maybe your DP's coach. I think you've just really said that though, haven't you? Most underrated song.

SPEAKER_01 41:35

The song that um underrated or that people should be speaking about was at the darkest era of Duran Duran's journey. It was when there were two members. It was Simon and Nick. No one was listening to the band anymore, year 2000 or 2001. And they did an album and there was a Medazaland. There was a song on it, Someone Else Not Me. It's a beautiful song, it's a ballad. And in John Taylor's memoir, he talks about how he met up with the remaining members of the band and they played that for him. And that was the song that inspired him to get back into the band. Spring to it. So, and there's another part of the story. That song was a hit in Italy, and Italy was the the last country that held the flame for Duran Duran. And they were playing arenas, probably stadiums throughout Italy at the time where the rest of the world had forgotten them.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

Interesting country. Yeah, interesting country. I'm very much on watching all the fan commentaries that go on on all the different socials. And we have we in XS have a lot in Brazil and Argentina and Canada is a massive one as well, but not so much Italy. So that's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 42:51

The music video for The Reflex was filmed in Canada.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 42:56

Yes. So they've they've always had a they've always had a connection, but yeah, Italy kept the flame align.

SPEAKER_00 43:01

Good on him. Good on him. Okay. Song you'd recommend to a new fan.

SPEAKER_01 43:07

Okay. So I I will have to get a little bit intellectual on this one. So it depends. I would have to judge um what type of person this was, whether they were a musician or just a casual music fan.

SPEAKER_00 43:21

Okay, let's just let's go a young person.

SPEAKER_01 43:24

A young person, I would probably tell them to listen to Hungry Like the Wolf. Probably the the most Durand Durand song, if there, if there could be one. It's so tight. Every band member is doing their thing. It's like it shouldn't work on paper, but they're all they're all flying. They've all all taken the, you know, they're all uh in fifth gear or or sixth gear. Tight. Um the uh peggiator and the synth, the power cords, it absolutely rocks. I would probably Go with that. Or if they were if they were musicians, I would suggest Save a Prayer. Because it's it's a masterclass in creating a sound bed with synthesizers. I would suggest to anyone who wanted to hear what what kind of a wall of sound you could create with a synth and what was being done 40 years ago, 45 years ago. That's yeah, that's the track.

SPEAKER_00 44:27

It's hard to pick one, isn't it? As you're talking, I'm like, what would I choose from the NXS catalogue? And so lucky that there's so many amazing songs out there. I mean, don't change. You'd have to say, you've got to listen to that song. Um, Devil Inside, you know, it's just especially at the Wembley gig at the end there, it's just like, wow, please don't stop. You know, keep going, keep going.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

And get guitarists are always looking for the riff, the riff that everyone wants to play. And Devil Inside had that riff. You know, you might only create one great riff in your lifetime as a lead guitarist, but that that's it. Don't change has something magical about it. And it's the energy of a young band on top form. And that absolutely captured it in the studio. And you when you watch the music video with that pickup truck moving into the, you know, into the studio, and you know, the band members jumping off it, and it's it it's just a moment in time. Absolutely perfect.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

Yeah, and it and I don't know if you know that they that wasn't supposed to have happened. Um, I think it was raining outside and it they were at some sort of airfield, so that's why it was actually filmed inside the um the what you call it, the um air shelter instead of being outside.

SPEAKER_01 45:43

Yeah, what a yeah, perfect. You can't beat that.

SPEAKER_00 45:46

The hangar. That's right. Spoken to Tim about those two songs, and he says they are pretty epic, and you have to play them at the end because you're actually like fun with the guitar for both.

SPEAKER_01 45:57

You have to work up to a track like that. It's all it's all energy. And it's incredible that they captured it not just in the recording, but also in the video. I mean, they in in my mind, they both there's they're attached to the hip.

SPEAKER_00 46:12

Have you ever been to see an in excess tribute band in Australia?

SPEAKER_01 46:17

I have not. No.

SPEAKER_00 46:18

Can I recommend going to see Don't Change? Talking about Don't Change. They're called Don't Change the Ultimate In Excess Tribute Band.

SPEAKER_01 46:27

Taking noteself.

SPEAKER_00 46:29

Yeah. So a couple of weeks ago we had a party for Michael. Um, it was called Hutch26. And at the end of the evening, after a coach tour and an amazing day together with um, I think there was about 30 of us, we all packed into um the DYRSL to see Don't Change, the uh with um their front man called Blair. And my gosh, um I was talking to Hayden about it in our last show, and he was saying you can't get any closer than it not being the real band. They really just pick you up and just you know, you're on that journey straight away. It's pretty epic. Um they they come to Brisbane and that's where you are, isn't it? I think Brisbane.

SPEAKER_03 47:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 47:11

Yeah, they come to Brisbane quite regularly. So yeah, you'll have to go. And when you go, tell me because I'll come with you.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

Love to. It's um it's in my notebook. Oh, and I'll also point out I said uh someone else, not me, was from the album Pop Trash, not Madazzo Land. Um, I'm sure I will have a Durani come after me for making that error. Um, so apologies, Pop Trash. But that was that was um a very difficult point for that band, and that was a very important song which was lost in the annals of time and it should be heard.

SPEAKER_00 47:40

And a song that you wish people would talk about more.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

Durant Duran came from those influences that I mentioned earlier, the the Sheik and Niall Rogers and Bowie and uh Brian Ferry and Roxy music. And uh with their first album, they showed some of those influences. Um I played a trick on a colleague in the UK many years ago who hated Simple Minds, he hated Duran Duran. And of course, I dug out some of these old gold tracks, which you would never have heard and played them. So, what do you think of that? And he said, Oh, it's pretty good. Who is it? So it was Duran Duran, you hate them. Um, and it it was Friends of Mine. Friends of mine is is a most unusual track off the first album. It's a it's what what we call a fan favorite.

SPEAKER_04 48:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

Um, with you know, Georgie Davis is coming out, No More Heroes, we twist and shout. The lyrics are absurd, um, it's dark, it's weird. We should be talking about it more.

SPEAKER_00 48:42

I feel if you were to ask me that question about Duran Duran, it would be The Chauffeur.

SPEAKER_01 48:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 48:49

I adore that song. The video is pretty risky, uh risky even. Um, but yeah, that I just uh yeah, have to stop and listen to that.

SPEAKER_01 49:00

The chauffeur, I'm told, is the Duran Duran song that has been covered the most. Oh really? All of their songs. Powderfinger covered it on a tribute album many years ago. The music video is something else. Um, and if you're over the age of 18, that's just go have a look at it. It's a piece of art.

SPEAKER_00 49:19

Well, even girls on film is a bit risque as well, isn't it? With the girls in the uh the boxing ring.

SPEAKER_01 49:25

Well, geez, we could have an entire podcast about that.

SPEAKER_00 49:29

I think that might be one of the reasons that you started uh your ears picked up and eyes picked up on that one. Well, you know, there is if you can see Mars right now.

SPEAKER_01 49:43

Well, there are two versions of Girls on Film. There's the single version and there is the night version. And this was this was something that only an 80s kid would know. It was the 12-inch recording. We talk about singles and B sides, but the 12-inch or the extended version was often eight or nine minutes long of your favorite song, and it collected the single version and the B side on the other side. So if you had to make a choice between buying the single or the extended version, you had to buy the extended version, right?

SPEAKER_04 50:15

Of course, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:16

And it was 12-inch size, so it was the same size as an album. But uh early Durand discovered that they could remix their songs, and those songs would be played in nightclubs on big screens. It was it's sort of at or before MTV, but they broke out in America because some of their songs were being played in nightclubs on big screens.

SPEAKER_04 50:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:39

And the Durand Rand um night versions were uh remixed songs for those nightclubs. Uh Girls on Film was directed by God um Kevin Godley and Lowell Cream from Ken C C.

SPEAKER_04 50:53

I wondered that.

SPEAKER_01 50:53

And I I spent some time with Kevin Godley in the south of France some years ago, and I asked him about uh the video which was shot in France in in Paris, the naughty uncut version that one. Um, and his response was you should have seen the rushes, which is to say that there are pieces that never made the that he probably owns. Um will we ever see them? I don't know. But yeah, girls on film was um uh was very important for um young minds everywhere, I think.

SPEAKER_00 51:27

Well, if I was to go for a Rusquet video for um in excess, it'd have to be taste it.

SPEAKER_01 51:33

Ooh, good choice.

SPEAKER_00 51:43

Yes, um, and I would like to see what was not edited into that as well.

SPEAKER_01 51:48

Who do we call?

SPEAKER_00 51:49

Who do we call? I know, definitely. Yes, I think uh that would need that could be a new release. In fact, that doesn't get played too much on um the radio over here in Australia, does it?

SPEAKER_01 52:01

No, no, but it should, and later you'll resurrect it with this podcast. Okay, my question for you. Oh, all right Do you have an NXS tattoo? If not, what would it be and where would you have it?

SPEAKER_00 52:15

Well, the reason why I don't have a tattoo is because I can't decide. But I have very many in excess accessories, so uh I have a lot of those, a lot of lots of badges and things, but yeah, it'd have to be a lyric. Um, but I can't um decide. Oh, there's so many, there's just so many.

SPEAKER_01 52:35

I can tell you, I having sat next to Gary Gary Beers at lunch, he has an in excess tattoo on his.

SPEAKER_00 52:40

He does, doesn't he?

SPEAKER_01 52:42

Yes, maybe in excess eagle on the arm. I have been toying with one. I do have some real estate on my forearm. So yeah, that's that's a work in progress.

SPEAKER_00 52:53

So you have some, yeah. I am going to get one done. It's I have got a tattoo. Well, in fact, I've got two tattoos, which I had done poor back in the early 90s when I uh bleached my hair and had my nose, nose pierced and had a tattoo, and I was about to get engaged and get married, and I was like, I don't think so. That was the rebel in me. Um have you got any more questions for me?

SPEAKER_01 53:20

I think I I think you've answered all of the questions. What is what is the most in excess song? What is the the in excess song that represents in excess more than the other in excess songs?

SPEAKER_00 53:36

Well, I mean, apart from the the ones that we've mentioned, which was um Never Tear Us Apart up there, um, we've talked about Devil Inside, we've talked about What You Need, Need You Tonight, New Sensation. I mean, a lot of these are off kick, aren't they? I mean, kick album is full of hits. It's just back to back with hits.

SPEAKER_01 53:58

Four of which went to the top ten in America. Need you tonight went to number one. Um so my my answer to that, um, while you have a little think about it, um, and it's a song that we haven't mentioned, but it's from the third Durandran album, and it's called New Moon on Monday. New Moon on Monday for me has to be the most Durandran of the Durandran songs. Yeah uh in the the everything builds to its chorus, it's got these absurd lyrics, shake up the picture, the lizard mixture, whatever the lizard mixture is. I don't know. When we dance on the even tide, I don't know what he's talking about.

SPEAKER_00 54:32

Don't know where he's supposed to be back. Give me some of that. Um I suppose later on, um, elegantly wasted really excess as well, you know. The the the way that Michael was squaggering around and singing that song. I mean, it just looks amazing. Um, with his new look, with his dark hair, and that album for me meant a lot that they came back with. I've spoken about it a lot. It's it's really right from Michael's diary, isn't it? It's all about him and what he was going through at the time. And wow, there's some absolutely epic tracks on that. I think that's a bit of a lost album for for people, and unless you're in an excess um die hard like me.

SPEAKER_02 55:32

You're right.

SPEAKER_00 55:38

All right, so I'm happy to wrap this up now.

SPEAKER_01 55:41

I think we've done well, B.

SPEAKER_00 55:43

So, what surprised you the most about our little talk there? There's a lot to uh talk about.

SPEAKER_01 55:51

I think that we are pretty closely connected in in our tastes. It's funny that you came from Birmingham, um, which is the the hometown of the band that I fell in love with as a kid. I at a very young age, uh probably but between 10 or 12, decided that I would live in the UK. I would live in London, and I did for 12 years. Um met my wife there. My first born was born in South London at Royal St George's Hospital. So you've done the opposite you've gone in the opposite direction. You've gone from the UK to Australia. So um we're pretty similar in more ways than I realised.

SPEAKER_00 56:33

Did you ever go to the Rum run Rum runner?

SPEAKER_01 56:36

I did not, no. I I I actually very much wanted to. I only got to Birmingham once to for a cricket match at Edgebiston. Also, Andy Taylor owned a a wine bar in the north of England, which I was keen to get to, but I never got up there. So I'm not sure if the Run Runner is still open.

SPEAKER_00 56:56

I think it's had a few changes of name since, which is very sad. But yeah, I mean that would be like fantastic if that ever opened again. Uh I'm yeah, I'm I'm very lucky that the fact that I am in Australia. I mean, the first thing I did as soon as I got off the plane was, where are they?

SPEAKER_01 57:13

You know, I also interviewed Chris Murphy, CM Murphy, a number of times. Um before his passing. He was an interesting cat. He loved to talk. I I do remember the the first interview I did with him, and we probably spoke for an hour and I had another interview, and I I think he was miffed that I had to stop him talking. He he was a very, very good talker. Um he he loved NXS and he loved studying data and studying information that came from marketing through and he he saw opportunities for that band around the world, which really no one else did. Uh, and he he re-engineered the the the second story of NXS, the post-Markle story, which was to really shut them down as a band and leverage the recordings.

SPEAKER_00 58:06

Yeah, I see that definitely. I've in fact I've I've mentioned that. I think that's when he came back, which I think was 2014, something like that, and worked with Universal, and yeah, just went, right, you're gonna be a legacy band now. And it's worked, hasn't it? Because that's Michael, you know, Michael will never be forgotten. He's got such charisma and he just looks so amazing, and and you know, his heart was on his sleeve. He just felt when he was singing all those emotions. I mean, it was great with John Stevens. We've had quite a few others as well, haven't we?

SPEAKER_01 58:38

Terence Trendabi, who is now a mom by another name, was front man for a little while. I suggested to the band members Vanessa Amarosi, who is a brilliant singer. Oh wow, she's she's dynamite. So who knows? Who knows if there'll be another chapter to the story. Yeah, I would I would like though, and this is for another podcast for another day, the rock and roll hall of fame must induct in excess. It's an absolute disgrace that they haven't. I'm certain of this, that there has been some maybe animosity towards 80s bands. It's almost as though a collection of those important bands from the first half of the 80s were forgotten. I checked earlier. Duran Duran was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022, three years after Foo Fighters. Now, the Foo Fighters first album came nearly 15 years after the first Duran.

SPEAKER_00 59:30

How does that work? I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 59:33

I know that Radio Head was inducted before Durand Duran, and their first album, Pueblo Honey, dropped 10 years after the first durant. How does that work? How do you induct a 90s band I don't know years before an 80s band?

SPEAKER_00 59:46

And it's gonna kill me um this year, and I think they will be nominated. Oasis will be a nominated, and it will really break me up if they get nominated. Well, if they get nominated for one before in XS and they get inducted before in Excess. And we all know that the the riff that went on for a while, you know, and publicly. I understand terrible, terrible, terrible. So just to write that right, I think um, you know, in excess need to be in um as soon as possible. In fact, we should be knowing knowing all of this within the next couple of days because it's usually around about now each year that the nominations come out. So it might even be while this podcast comes out, we actually might be nominated. But again, you know, we've got the 50th anniversary next year. Maybe that will actually put that into people's mindsets and forefront that um in excess were this global phenomenon back in how many years? Like nearly 20 years.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:47

Well, that's uh there's this that's a story for another day. Um, and there's probably a conversation to be had about what fans can do to uh shake the trees and and and get in excess into that rock hall, but it's long overdue, there's no doubt about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:02

Well, as soon as they're nominated, we just need everyone to vote every day. Uh the Duran Jurans, they were just berserk. They went mad for it. And if you are a Durangeran fan out there and you love in XS as well, please, you know, tell us how you did it because we need to get in Excess inducted. They so deserve it. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show, Lars. It's been an absolute blast. Um, and I hope to um invite you back. And would you come back?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:28

Of course I will.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:37

Well, thanks for listening, everybody. It's been absolutely fantastic. If you want to know more, then check out the links that are in our description and send a message.