Tim Barron Ouse Valley Singles Club

Episode 4 with Tim Barron aka Timmy Turnup actor singer and banjo player in comedy punk skiffle band Ouse Valley Singles Club. Touring the Fens and Anglia, Tim is no stranger to pubs and breweries. This episode includes Mexican fleas, hot scotch eggs, Mo Farah and so much more…
Recorded at The Fox and Hounds, Clapham, Bedfordshire 

Contains swears

Check OVSC on Facebook 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Hello, I'm Lloyd, and welcome to episode four of Cubs in the Shock with Tim Barron, aka Tim Turner. You may have seen Tim on TV advertis, or have seen his commanding turnout from a distance. But above all, a singer in Hunger Skickle comedy band who's value singles club who have conquered the fence and Son of Eatangia with their witty but rough anthems. This episode was recorded at the Fox and House, Plain Edwardshire, with one or two pubs left in the village along with the horse and room. Most pubs include The Star, The Swamp, and the unusually named Victor of Wakefield pub, which was a pub with no bar, basically a front room. There was also the RE Club and Platham Working Men's Club with hang alight venues with cheap tones bitter, bingo, and a plug of smoke. This episode includes pictures of working versions of the original theme gym conjured up by Tim. Okay, it's time to roll out the Baron. And it's Timmy, and we're in the Fox and Hounds in the garden with the evening bird song.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

And bird song, and the cars going past. The car, the gentle hum and thrum of the A6 and the other B road, whatever it is. It's the uh access to uh the A6, isn't it? The road to Oakley. Yeah, the road to Oakley. So yeah, tell us a bit about yourself. My name is Tim. I am a father of two. Um I'm I trained as an electrician, but also as an actor. And a I've never really had any formal training as a musician. Maybe that's maybe that tells. But yeah, I I I sing and write songs for a band called the Youth Valley Singles Club. Um, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

That's your main gig, pardon the pun, isn't it? The the playing in bands.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Kind of. It seems that way. Uh being an electrician is still main bread bread and butter. Yeah. Um yeah, doing I don't know how much I should divulge because of the tax map I'll be listening, but um yeah, I I I still yeah, still still keep my hand in, yeah, as it were. Yes. Um, but yeah, there's uh um then I'd say the next source of income is probably from acting because I've had quite a few decent, yeah decent commercials uh lately.

SPEAKER_03 2:15

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

So there's that, and yeah, and the acting as well, but I mean the acting is my real creative outlet and my joy.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Remember in New York, we put the advert, we put the TV on and the adverts were on, and you popped up in a McDonald's advert, and it seemed quite weird because In New York?

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Yeah, a McDonald's like the truth one, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I'm not gonna need to get more money. I'm gonna need to check the contracts because I think that was just really maybe they were streaming something. Me? Maybe no, not you, but like the place where you were out, it was streaming it's just TV, just that's a that's a UK advert. Interesting. Oh because I saw that and thought, oh that's funny, we're in America, teams in America. Was it when was that filmed in England? Yeah, uh Scotland. So it's pretend America. No, no, well I didn't just it was just the road. Just the road, yeah, the road. Okay, because it had an American feel to me. Yeah, I couldn't. Yeah, yeah, it's well it was a weird. It was a kind of like a if an advert could be a road movie.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

It had that about it, um but yeah, it was filmed around Scotland, so Fourth Bridge. I will do. I could be at my agent onto that.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

Um you've just caused me a sleepless night. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

That could be more mugbunts.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Yeah. More burgers.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Um so you play the fens quite a lot.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

We do, yeah, we do. That's one of our yeah, that's where we're really popular. The the Fens and surrounding areas. I mean, we're getting we're getting more and more popular, sort of west uh East Norfolk now and and and Suffolk as well. So oh you bust out of Norfolk, yeah. Yeah, we'll be kind of yeah, we we we played at Banham last week uh with the zoo. But more famously the Banham the Bannham car boot sale is uh it's epic. Yeah, it's epic. So um yeah, so we went played at Banham and and then this weekend we played at a little festival called Weird and Wonderful Wood, which is just um just before you get to Stone Market, Hawley Park, I think it's called. Oh yeah, it's beautiful. It's a nice nice, yeah, really it's like a stately home, you know. Yeah. Um and it uh do you know what being a nice day always helps?

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, it makes a lot of different things.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

You can go to like a terrible council state and it's a sunshine, it's like oh it's lovely.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Well it's a band.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Uh well uh the last Mark Chadwick from the Levellers was played played just before us. Oh wow so in a way we kind of were supported by Mark Chadwick from the Levellers. Well you were um he didn't smell as bad as I thought he might. Those darn crusties. But there were loads, there were loads and loads of um lurches there. Okay. And I just wondered whether it was on his rider that you have to be a certain amount of lurches in the audience for him to perform. There's lots of dreadlocks still, though. There was some yeah, there were some dreads. We did sing White with a Plast Rasta as well, so that went down well. No, it was really good. We had I mean I it it helped, it helped, and this probably might bring me on to the next question. It helped that they had um three beers on by a brewery called Green Jacks out of Lowestoft.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

I've got a beer map with them with of that, and that's uh it's a lovely little logo.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

Yeah, so you reckon it's a good beer, is it? Great beer. Well I know the I know the I know the the brewer, I know the guy who makes it, um Tim his name, is he's got a pub in Lowestoft called The Triangle. Is that where they're based? Yeah, that's his yeah, I think I mean I think he brews around the corner at an old it's an old something or other. You'd have to look it up. Yeah, yes. It's it's an old smoker, like a heron smoker place or whatever, and it's it's now a brewer, it's now his brewery and he makes um some cracking beers, but there's one I really and I'm not really a a bit of a bitter drink. I like my I like gold nails, but this one's called trawler boys, and it's a cracker, it's absolutely oh well I'd have to be that's an excuse to get up there if not if if if not next time you're up.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

You can take it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Well, I mean above my I quite know I know quite a lot of establishment run that way and a lot of breweries. Also, when you get to um Lincolnshire, I know a lot of guys that just brew in their farms and things. Oh cool. I make Charlie's always got a mosaic one on, and he's got a lovely little um micro pub in the middle of Spaulding called the Prior's Oven. It's an old jailhouse with an old uh priory dating back to 1200 or something like that. It sounds amazing. It is incredible. That's no, that's a good thing about playing, it takes me great pubs.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

You get to explore and yeah, you get to check out the local beers and pubs here.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

Yeah, yeah. Well, we at one point we we used to sort of like if if a pub would ask us to play, we'd we'd look at the their Google images and see whether they'd what ales they had on. Yeah, if they had posters, we'd like if one of the real off-putters was when they have like a a neo star, you know, like a neon star with the price written in it. Yeah, I don't know that yeah, that always kind of played there. Yeah, exactly. We're not gonna play there. Yeah, that's a sign, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Yeah, it's outside Wells. I think there's a brewery in a grain store or something just outside, but is it I have also Icini Brewery?

SPEAKER_02 7:05

Iceni Brewery, yeah, I've heard of that one. Yeah, in there and I've picked up some malt or something for well. Even Lacons in Grey Yarmouth. No. They've got some really nice beers. Are they? Yeah, and I I think they're getting bigger. I think someone might have bought them, I'm not sure. We'll have to look into that. But yeah. Also a great brewery for me is um uh Oakham. Yeah, the citrus and I mean I just don't think they do a bad beer. That's in that region, and that is a really decent beer, isn't it? Yeah, Oakham actually isn't in Oakham, it's in Peterborough. Oakham. I think it might have started in Oakham, but I think there's a brewery there called the Grain Store or something.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Yes, yeah. Is there's the there's Rutland?

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Yeah, Rutland. Well they do they've got a brewery on there. Well Ruddles is from Rutland, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Is it?

SPEAKER_02 7:43

Yeah, well originally asking your favourite beer.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Would it so would it be if you got a favourite?

SPEAKER_02 7:51

My favourite beer, I just know there's there's one point I've only had it once, and it was like a I don't know, it's like it's almost almost like a spiritual moment. Yeah. It's a beer, and it was on the Welly, yeah. So you like asked Liz um about it. It was called Shangri-La appropriately. Yeah, and it was like a purple or a violet and black coloured um beer pump label. Yeah, and I think the brewery was from Bristol, but I've not really I've never had it since, but I just remember it was I knew that I said, How much was left in that barrel? Can I come back tomorrow night and have another couple of pints of it? And I think it had all gone when I got there. You know, that's when it's good when you need to go back for it. Yeah, exactly that, yeah. Brilliant, yeah. So I mean, off the top of your head, have you got a favourite brewery then, or would it be possibly one of the I I mean I'd say because I know him, because it's just got such a brilliant selection, yeah. The brewery is uh Green Jacks Tim from Lower Stoff. I can't remember what his second name is. He looks like a looks a bit like Jim Davidson. Okay, nice. If Jim Davidson was a mod. Mmm, intriguing, yeah.

unknown 8:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

You're picturing it, aren't you? Yeah, kind of well a haircut, but with Jim Davidson's. Actually, I was thinking that Simon, he looked like Simon Fowler out of uh Ocean Colour Scene. Oh okay, yeah, that's the one I was thinking of. Jim Davidson from Ocean Colour Scene, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

And so have you got a this is either a favourite bar snack or pub meal or both?

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Right, I mean my go-to scratchings every time.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Popular choice.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Well, more often than not with my dog, and it's a so it's a snack we can share, we can enjoy together. Nice. Um, but for me, ultimate pub food has to be the scotch egg. Yeah. I mean, I just think it's got everything. A million yeah yeah. Egg case thing, yeah, egg, case egg, yeah. This this is you I I don't I'm kind of this might be a spin-off podcast for you, right? Okay. Why don't they do scotch eggs in fish and chip shops? So you've got your scotch egg, you're saying a bag of chips and a scotch egg. So you got the scotch egg and they fry it. Yep. You know, they actually do the fry it in in the in the i in the no no don't batter it. No, no, no. I mean that'd be double trouble, wouldn't it? That'd be Scotland, wouldn't it? That would that'd be true. It would be Scotland. But it could be a Scotch egg is deep fried anyway. Yeah. So wouldn't I have some ones that are unfried, put them in their fryer for whatever how long it ever takes to cook sausage meat. No, no, it's it it's how you it's how they're made anyway. Yeah. So I just you know, maybe that's a thing. Maybe if there's any um proprietors of fish and chip shops listening to the podcast, they might be able to be a winner. It would be a winner.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Or even if a pub just stuck um a Scotchak and a little deep thing. Yeah, well, the little ones, yeah. Yeah, like little ones mummy used to have. I mean, not an air fry, I don't think it would come. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It'd have to be a proper dirty oily lardy one, wouldn't it? Yeah, deep fat fry, but a mini one.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

You could you could do two eggs at a time, maybe or something like that. I think so. I think it's a no-brainer. Well, you know, I'm an ideas, man.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

You are.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

And it's a good idea, right? Why is there no savoury flapjack? Um I've got to think about that. Give me give me what, cheese and onion?

SPEAKER_01 10:59

No.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Well you're cheese and I mean you can um sundried sun-dry tomatoes, flapjack, cheese, cheese-based flapjack. I mean, I think the only thing is like with uh sweet flapjacks, the binding agent is syrup or wrong, is that right? Butter and syrup. So it'd have to be butter, yeah, and maybe I don't know, some other binding agent. Again, if there's any people that work in the binding agent industry. Yeah, yeah, the the binders. I think sun-dried tomato and olive. That'd be nice.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Yeah, yeah. Maybe we should. It is, isn't it? I reckon also I was thinking something Marmighty, but yeah, I think you're not.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

Well, no, again, I mean this is the thing, it's the opposite. Shall we go to Dragon's Den with it? Yeah, right. You can have a hundred for £100,000, you can have 100% of my company.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

I'll be making notes later about this. Now, have you got a go-to song on a jukebox?

SPEAKER_02 11:59

I looked at this question and I'm kind of like I don't I don't have a go-to song on a jukebox. But I remember there was a song that I put on again and again and again and again and again.

SPEAKER_03 12:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

And it was Lemon Heads. If I could talk, I'd tell you. Is it is it's I could talk? It's good one. I mean in the mill, I put it but I just kept on putting on again and again and again. Yeah. I like I like Lemon Heads. I do, yeah. Good melodies and merrow and it and he's he's a really he's an interesting bloke, and he quite sort of damaged and it's a bit messy, but uh true, troubled, troubled soul.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Yeah, all the yeah. And I remember in the you know the ship at St. Cuthbert's, and I think it used to be a lot of rugby players in there, and uh I don't know what they'd be playing on G bods, but I deliberately put on a live version of Sabah four pigs because it's really sludgy and long just to annoy them. And it gone for ages like to annoy them, and it worked, did it?

SPEAKER_02 12:57

Oh dear, like scrappy do pitching on the big rugby player inside. That's how you do it. But I couldn't resist. That's that that would be like Aesop's fables, wouldn't it? How to get all the rugby players out of the pub? You can't beat them with brawn, you have to beat them with black sabbatics.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Oh, good choice. Um, what is the best band you can recall seeing in a pub? Do you but do we mean are we including pub back rooms? It could be a pub band or it could be a band that ended up getting famous like the band at the angel or something.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

Yeah, no, I was I've I've I've I've got to say I'm always on the search for authenticity, yeah. Right, so um I don't say sometimes bands in pubs really don't work me, especially if you've got a drum kit. Yeah. Drum kit has no place in a pub. It can sound like it takes up half the fucking room with a half the room with a pub, yeah, yeah. And uh it's just overwhelming and overbearing. So if if any band that doesn't have a drum kit, then I've then then they're great. So yeah, I mean uh but the the the things that I like are sort of like we you know yourself with the Morris are sort of the sessions, yeah. When when when one man will get up and sing unaccompanied, or you know, or the accordion player, um melodeon players, etc. And um just going to the Straw Bear Festival in Wittlesy, yeah. I first really experienced it when when a balladier would just stand up and start singing, and then they had they had had the violin players playing together and people just joining in, and yeah, to me that's the best for a musical experience of the pub, it's something like that. Yeah, but ha if if I was pushed to say my favourite local band that conjures up that kind of thing, then you can't look much further than Skim It and Ride. I think they're a wonderful band, yeah. Great singer, brilliant storyteller, you've got some absolute loons, yeah, Paul Brown, and Mr. Marco Clogger, Bod. Uh and uh Toothless Andy's great, and sensible Paul's, you know, they're brilliant, they're brilliant. Dynamics, yeah, it's great, and and they're just so engaging and entertaining, and they're and they're probably playing in a pub near you soon.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Yes, yeah, yeah, you'd like to talk about it. That's no, definitely watch those again.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

Yeah, they're great.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

I think you're right about that. Them, they're they've got that right mix of sort of folk and punk and they're nice and bawdy, yeah. Crowd pleasing.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

Yeah, I mean I If you remember over the years, there's always been Irish bands knocking about in bed for but I I kind of it sort of not being of Irish descent myself, it's I kind of feel a little bit excluded, you don't know the traditions and all the rest of it. Whereas they're kind of more accessible for for for English blokes, the working class, you know. I I think so. So um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Like you say about the Morris thing, it's like a folk thing where you you'll get a chap come out, go up in a sort of warble in a good way. Yeah, and then people it'll be like a jam, you know. Someone might do the spoon, so you've got the accordion, all the you know, the whatever the melodion or whatever, and it's a great.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Whenever there's like a lull, yeah, all of a sudden someone will stand up and they'll sing their song, and it'll be their song that they sing every weekend. But I feel it quite intimidating actually, singing in that environment because they're all they're all so good and they know this song so well. And kind of I I was nominated a song that I could sing so I didn't interfere with other people's ones, but I never quite plucked up the courage to do it.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Um I remember Les at the Mars used to sing.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Yeah, Les used to sing, he used to sing uh um Jolly Ploughboy.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Oh right.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

Uh Work Among the Fields or France now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

What's the best pub you've been to either in England or abroad on holiday or a bar or anywhere?

SPEAKER_02 16:21

The best one you've been like, wow, that was uh magic. Well, I always like going in pubs on holiday when like when I when I when I holiday in the UK. Yeah. Um but obviously being a performer as well, I get to see some of your decent pubs, and there's one of my favourite pubs, and I got to know the landlord quite well, is a little pub out in uh just south of Lowestoff, a place called Kessingland. Oh, right. And this pub's called the Sailor's Home. And we we have played there a few times now, and it's just great. And they've got green jacks on, uh, and there's great food. Yeah, there's crinkle cut chips, um, all the bar snacks you can win. And and and it and it's I I don't know if you know much about Suffolk, but kind of the coast has been really gentrified.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Right.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

But this pub still has the sort of feel of the Suffolk old boy turning up and um all speaking with foul language at the bar, and um and if you get the chance, go to their what's it what's that um travel you know, the travel review thing, TripAdvisor. Oh, the trip review, yeah. You go onto there, look at the the sailors home, trip and casting down TripAvisor. The comments are brilliant. They they they sort of sway from brilliant to that rude man behind the bar sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

It was quite entertaining, aren't they?

SPEAKER_02 17:33

Yeah, and there's a pool table and he has loads of live music, and sometimes he DJs drum and bass. Oh wow. Yeah, so you got something for everyone.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Yeah, something for everyone. That's what you want. That's like the um it's the half man, half biscuit song, isn't there? Westwo. Yeah, it's based on a trip advisor.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When about they met a Swedish couple, they befriend a Swedish couple, don't they? I can't remember. But yeah. I actually went to Westwood Ho because of that song. Yeah. I went on holiday there.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Well I well I went as a kid and I remember not much much being there apart from an ice cream bag. It's 2012. I remember because it's the Olympics. Yeah. And it'd just been it wasn't genderfied, but it'd been um developed. Yeah, yeah. So it's like, oh, there's somewhere to go now.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

There's a restaurant and stuff like that. It became quite surfy there. Yeah, um I mean it was surfy anyway, but it's yeah, because that's become become a lot more popular. It's been there, yeah. They've got a tidal pool there, haven't they?

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Yes, yeah, because I think that that went and then came back, but yeah, uh it's a nice place.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

What the tide or the pool? Uh the the Westwood Hope.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

But yeah, it's nice, and there's um if it's from there you can go to different places, quite nice.

SPEAKER_02 18:38

Yeah, yeah, you've got Woollock and you've got uh Clovelli Clovelli in the um Bood was about half an hour drive away. That's really nice. Yeah, that's nice. So yeah, you're in Cornwall there.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

There's a nice pub in Clavelli. Well I think there's two. There's the new inn halfway down. Yes. And at the bottom there's the red line lovely. It's a hotel, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

Yeah, medieval sort of key uh jetty thing and uh high. It's uh Iniesto World Heritage, yeah, yeah, it's right, is that a museum? Does it play for Barcelona? Iniesco? I know UNESCO.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Yeah, because that's like a private village you have to pay to get into it. I do, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Which is I haven't got a beef with, but some people have, but I can see why, but yeah, but it's kind of a living museum, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 19:20

It needs looking after, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_02 19:22

I remember people saying, oh, we don't have to pay to get in Paul Perrow. Have you ever seen a ghost in a pub or elsewhere? No, I haven't, and I don't believe in ghosts. Okay, that's alright. Do you want to know about Father Christmas? It's right, it's I I mean, I think if you want to see a ghost, you'll see a ghost. Yeah. I've never particularly wanted to see a ghost. I think I might have been scared of ghosts when I was younger, but I've never seen a ghost and I don't know, it's just grow up people. Come on. Maybe people who want to see ghosts happen to see it. Yeah, well, yeah. I think really what what what we're finding out now, we're allowed to talk about it more. It's just it's just mental illness, isn't it? Well, it could be. Now we can talk about it. Just hallucinating. But um I suppose Well, I mean it used to be ghosts, then it you're no, it was angels, then it was ghosts, then it was aliens. I suppose, yeah. So there's always a need for humans to to to to to sort of um I don't know, engage their imaginations, I suppose, in in other worldliness. There's like a need for it.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

It's kind of part to see something, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

Yeah, I mean, God, it's horrible to think that we just die. True. Yeah, nothing, and it's like before we were born.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Old pubs, I suppose, conjure up the idea. I suppose they're a nice fitted thing.

SPEAKER_02 20:36

I mean, I t I tell you what, it really really is also it's it's pubs create an atmosphere.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

Because they're very central places, aren't they? There's noises, there's definite odour when you walk in there. Yeah, um, you know, vision vision, those luminescent stars with the prices written in them. Yeah, catch your eye. Yeah, yeah, there's dodgy perfumes. Yeah, so there's there's a kind of you know, there's a spirit of a pub, but let's call that a ghost.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Yeah. Because in all the generations that have been in there and all the arguments, the laughter, all the different emotions, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's maybe that must go somewhere, mustn't it?

SPEAKER_03 21:11

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

I do, yeah. I mean I like when you go in there and you see all the old faggy. I was in the um, what's the one in Cranford? We've got a swan, but there's another one. Is it a crown? Might be the crown. I mean it was it was they've done nothing to that pub. And it's glorious. That's good though. It's yeah, it's glorious, it's still a lot of full mica and really kind of lazy bar stuff. It was wonderful. It's really nicotine on the zone. Nicotine, yeah, nicotine. I don't like that anymore. No, it should be a paint colour. Well if they they do know, I'm sure I'm sure the pubs in London they paint it that colour now.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

They probably do, yeah. They do.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

I know they do. Yeah. Give it that. Yeah, authenticity, yeah. We're all looking for. That's like my um my nan's next door neighbour, Maude, her name was. And you go into her front room, ladies live in Queen's Park, Chester Road, Queen's Park. Flat mace net flats there.

SPEAKER_03 22:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

And those neck curtains were just like a sort of I mean they weren't even yellow, they were kind of like a dark yellow, these neck curtains.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

Ooh.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

You're probably about to like ring them out and use it to stick things with them.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

Yeah. I suppose if you gave it a boil wash, I don't know, they might fall to bits, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

Well, I know you it's good in the garden for spraying like aphids and things like that. As a bloke used to collect fag butts and soak them. Uh yeah, but spray it. What's the thing? Sprays wiping the eyes or something, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

So have you got a favourite well say live pub that's still going in all-time favour or I mean what I mean I know it's hard.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Well no, it's easy. The trouble is it's too easy because it's all there's an outstanding pub in Bedford and we all know what it is. Yeah. The cross keys. I'm looking at no no shade on the cross keys. No, no. It's a pla it's all uh if it's placebooks book astro turfing, who am I to who am I to argue? Where is that? In the cross keys. It's an Astroturf. What was that? No, yeah, I mean I I I go to the Welly. The Welly, we go to the Welly. That's um it's always just such a great selection. Yeah. You can never not have a good beer in there. No. Um, you know, all too often you go into a pub and it's just doing in one beer. Yeah, yeah, and it's and and more often than not it's Doombar. Yeah, yeah. That always always fills me with Doombar. It's not a terrible beer, it's just so samey. Yeah, it's a bit generic, isn't it? Yeah, it's on sort of bitus or whatever. I mean, plain in the welly, um Pete Burridge always keeps some good Cordish beer.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

He's a bit of a salad man now, isn't he? He knows his stuff.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

Oh god, yeah, um he does trelawney and side pocket. Side pocket's a great beer. Yeah, trinkenham shit. Buckingham shit, yes, yeah, yeah. Do you have you never been to Trink Trink Museum? I have. Brilliant. Isn't it fantastic? I haven't done it after. No, they haven't, they haven't. And you know the hot what the highlight for me was always the um the when you open up the insect things and they've got the uh the two fleas dressed as Mexican peasants. Little fleas, yeah, they're dressed as Mexican peasants.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

I remember that.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

Uh one's got a guitar and the other's got like traditional female Mexican dress. That's brilliant. Yeah, but it's uh it's um it's kind of part of natural history museum. I think it's part of that. But it's basically one of the Rothschilds, it was his collection. Oh yeah. He's beginning to go going and finding these animals and he brought them all back with him. And I mean it's obviously there's an ugly side to it, but also I I like I like taxidermy, I think it's amazing. I mean, yeah, it's not my bag, but it's still fascinating. One of the really really, really interesting things is if you go look at uh all the different dog breeds they've got. So you've got your Jack Russell's and they've got your um English bulldogs, and and seeing how much they've actually changed from I think it's 1870, 1880, actually how much the original breed has changed using today's ones. That's what's quite fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

And that's it's bad in a way, because it's sort of been engineered, haven't they, really?

SPEAKER_02 25:01

So I suppose or yeah, I just I just guess it's just breeding, isn't it? Yeah, breeding, breeding within itself. Look how the whole family turned out. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

But the um yeah, what I think about that Trink Museum is it's like a it's like a museum of a museum, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 25:20

Yeah, yeah, if you know what I mean. I know exactly what you mean. It's you you you can go in there and look at look at the the the wooden cabinets and stuff kept. The furniture it's amazing. And the and the roof trusses and great buildings. Yeah, brilliant. Strongly recommended for a free day out. Yes, free fan for the fan. Parkings parking's not great, but uh from memory. Yeah and also you if you do if you do the museum quickly, yeah, you can hop over the bridge. I think there's a bridge there now, and across the field is there's a wood. Yeah, and there's an old folly that they built, you know, all sort of like a Victorian folly and a few monuments in that wood. So heads up, yeah. So if I and the journey back to bed for there's some nice little booze uh when you cross your Grand Union Canal, yeah, some nice boozers on there. Sounds nice, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

Yeah, there's another similar museum, bit it's a bit grander, but quite old. The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

No, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

That's good. Um it's all very dark and it's like you say, it's original cabinets and fixtures and fittings, yeah. But it got some really odd stuff and it's like witchy stuff. Yeah, and then they've only just had them removed. They had shrunken heads in there. Oh, did they?

SPEAKER_02 26:25

But they've been returned back to the country because I think it was heads were benefit to the body. I understand, I yeah, I understand. I understand why, but that's kind of that's sort of political. Yeah, but I mean it yeah, I get I get it. Respect for the yeah, but at the same time, robbing lots of kids of that opportunity of like laughing at those little heads and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

I like seeing a little bit Mexico wants those fleas back with Yeah, but no, I've I mean it's still worth going to even though the heads are gone.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

But but it's a similar setup and it's free or it's not a lot, but that's quite good. I do love those lo-fired museums. No, it's just we went to this because we were doing a gig or something nearby, and I've got a friend that lives that way in Great Moulton, and uh they've they've got a little museum in the centre of town and tells you all about this, yeah, you know, and it's just this and that. This and that sorry, that was good. I mean, I kept on going around going this towel, coming like I've got stuff. Is that it makes me think of Pleasurewood Hills, is that what this? Yeah, where's that? Like this is historically south from Norfolk. I mean the same equidistance between Ipswich and but to the west a little bit. Yeah um yeah, I could I can't tell um I couldn't tell you what road it's on. But I know when I'm going to Suffolk, we always drive by it when we come off the A14 at Bury St. Edmunds, we drive by this on the way to yeah the I can't know. Sorry. It's it's like the uh it's like the J when someone goes, Oh, went for a hearing test, pardon. It's not like legally bound to do it, are you?

SPEAKER_01 28:04

So that that brings me on to a pub that's gone locally or elsewhere that you miss.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

I mean, can we go could my upbringing wasn't just pubs so much, it was more clubs. Yeah, that's fine. We were my grandparents were like committee members and just all round um patroners of the the West End Club in Queen's Park. Oh, okay. Yeah. So we'd we'd go there every Saturday, so that was kind of you know, that has had a lot of emotional memories for me. Yeah, um, and obviously it's now it's uh gochwara. Uh-and's kind of thing what if it's not going to get used for no for they're big spaces out clubs, aren't they? Yeah, they're spaces, yeah, they are. And then for whatever reasons, they they don't used and then they're a big space, aren't they? Yeah, well it's kind of that sort of all those you think about all the places you used to have in Bedford, like industries and all the rest of it. Yes, I mean they all had their own clubs, yeah. Social clubs, yeah. True. Your ICU clubs as well, on top of that. I mean, Alan's had a club, RE had a club up the road.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

I was just thinking about that, up the road, yeah. There was the RE club. And there was Clappin' Working Men's Club, which was massive, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

Snooker table up there. Yeah, well the other snooker table and the and the um and they used to do great egg ham and chips. And on a Friday, I mean I don't know if you've ever worked for the Government before, but back it back then it always seemed acceptable to go to the pub on a Friday, have three or four, yeah, and sort of kind of like nap for the rest of the day. Yeah, just write it off. Like more recently, I I really miss uh the Bedford Arms. I think that was a great boozer. I mean I don't I don't think it always was, but when I I was living in London, I come back to Bedford in 2008, right, and um it was it was just a great boozer, and Bev used to just run a bar really, really well.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

I remember a s a certain time, don't know what the years were, might have been mid late 90s, mid-90s, but going in there and then they'd be they'd have the magical lock-ins, you know, which don't really happen anymore because they don't need to, but that was like ooh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

Well I mean with lock-ins, the the Kent Arms was always good for a lock-in. When um John used to run it, don't remember John. We we lived in Salisbury Street. It was like our second home, and yeah, he'd do lock-ins all the time. And the thing was all the old Bill used to drink had their lock ins in there as well. So it was like you know, wink and a nudge. Locked and loaded, yeah. Yeah, so yeah, because that's um it's still going the Kent Arms. It's still going, yeah. I mean, I don't live around that way anymore. So I've been in there occasionally.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

Yeah, I went in last summer by chance and it was seemed quite sort of unchanged. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

Anything the band's got coming for um well we we had a very we had a new album out like um October last year, but it was like we're all a little bit complacent, so it's a very soft, it's a very soft launch. Soft launch. Yeah, yeah. Um but um but I I'm really proud of it, really pleased. So as many people could listen to it as possible. Yeah, we recorded it with Simon from Pearl Handle Revolver, he's got a lovely little studio out in his village, and he just did such a great job of it.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

Um you're happy with the sound of it as well, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Really happy with the sound of it. So uh yeah, I think it just needs a bit more listening. Hmm. Well, for one, yeah, guilty of not listening, I will listen. Good, good oh. Um yeah, and also I've I've just filmed a commercial with Mo Farrah. Just drop that. Yeah, Mo Farrah. Well, the the thing is though, right? It's it's not really happened it's happened to me once before, but there's always a the the potential that you could get cut from it completely because of because of whatever. It's a thing, yeah. Yeah, so in the commercial, um Mo Farrah is feeding me a sausage roll. Oh wow, I know it was a bit surreal. Yeah, I bet. Because I thought, like, you know, because he's Muslim, yeah, that he wouldn't want to hold the sausage roll.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

Well he is as well, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:43

But he he was okay with it. Okay. He was he was more than enthusiastic to sort of um feed me the sausage roll. But it was just a bit weird. I was like looking at the rats going, is this really happening? Sir Mo Farrer is feeding me a sausage roll. Brilliant. Only the days were exactly yeah. So you weren't racing him or anything? No, no, no, but you've got embarrassing. No, it's for it's for it's for I mentioned screw fix other than DIY stores are available. Yeah, yeah. In fact, I mentioned Gibbs and Dandy in the audition, they said, Oh, don't do that. But no, I um yeah, he was he was uh in the advert, there's lots of different scenarios, and mine was one of many, and I think it's gonna be it. We filmed it last. Yeah, and I just remember they rapped Mo before they rapped me because he had to go off for a flight or something like that. And I just remember him like shaking everyone's hand, really lovely fellow, really, really nice, and he and then he ran off. He like ran away. He ran away, that was it, he was gone. Whether his car was just part of further down the road, I don't know, but I like to think he was gonna run to the air. Yeah, but he's he was very, very charismatic. Um and very, very small. That's what I was just thinking. Very small, small on the television, small in real life, small in real life, yeah. But just I don't know, like it's just one of these guys are just really beautiful looking eyes. Just an aura about him. Yeah. And he fed you a sausage roll. He fed me a sausage roll. You love it. We'll always have that. We'll always have that memory. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

Last orders at the bar, please. Okay, thanks for listening. And don't forget to check out Ooze Valley Singles Club on Facebook or catch one of their gigs. They gig quite often. Uh they're very entertaining. And I'll leave you with a folky musical outro from Timmy. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Chica bum like a ishka. I chicken up I'm a bumper for Jai.