Planet Maynard

Sunday Afternoon Fever, Triple J live to air on 14 November 1993 and what a line up! Dannii Minogue is back in Australia, engaged to Julian McMahon, and she has a new album to play us. Denis Leary is chuffed with the success of his No Cure For Cancer album and his song Asshole, which SAF was the first to play in Australia. I’m especially proud of that one. “When people say to me ‘I don’t like Kylie’s music’, I think, I’m her sister you know.”Dannii Minogue Mrs Sinatra in Las Vegas has a new cordless speaker phone. Micheal Idato at the Mirror newspaper wanted to know who gave Ann-Maree Cooksley her job at Channel 9, so I rang them and asked. Lance and The Hollywood Kids share some very 1993 gossip about Heather Locklear and Johnny Depp. More about Dannii Minogue’s Get Into You album. We announce the 9 runners up and the winner of Sit Next To Maynard at Madonna Contest and play the Madonna soundalike entries we received. Thanks to Jaynie Edwards (Perth), Carolyn Hull (Bassendean, Perth), Lewis Payton and Rachael Wood (Subiaco, Perth), Kay Richards (Gorokan, NSW), Vivian and Rosie (Pascoe Vale, Melbourne), Caitlin Yeo (Earlwood, Sydney), runner up Nick Yankovic (Marino, Adelaide) for his polka rendition of Like a Virgin and the winner Eirinn Johnson (Northbridge, Perth) for his high Baroque interpretation of Erotic. Richard Kingsmill drops by to spin some Revolting Cocks. Listeners Ainsley (Melbourne), Kirren (Kardinya, Perth) and Jason (Brisbane) play Maynard’s Mastermind testing their Minogue family knowledge. Questions were prepared by the researcher for the show, Justine. Crappy New Releases feature Desi Arnaz and The Muppets. We even hear the start of the film show that followed Sunday Afternoon Fever at 6pm, Creatures Of The Spotlight with Peter Castaldi and Lawrie Zion. But what tracks will we hear from the show Maynard? Here’s a list smarty bum. Salt-N-Pepa – ShoopThe Wonder Stuff – Caught In My ShadowThe Models – Preacher From The Black LagoonThe Cure – Hello, I Love YouUrge Overkill – Positive BleedingDie Screaming Lederhosens – Dog Pound Hop (Ren & Stimpy Theme)Weird Al Yankovic – Bedrock AnthemCaptain Coco – The Three Little BopsThe Beloved – Outer Space GirlM People – Movin’ On UpDenis Leary – AssholeDenis Leary – Voices In My HeadNew Order – RegretBarefoot (Rowan Smith) – Baby (You Got in the Way)Madonna – Hanky PankyKate Bush – Eat The MusicDannii Minogue – Be CarefulDannii Minogue – Get Into YouKylie Minogue – Shocked (DNA Mix)Rage Against The Machine – Killing In The NamePet Shop Boys – Go WestThe Revolting Cocks – Do Ya Think I’m Sexy? (Rod Stewart cover)Jenny Morris – Price I Pay (Billy Bragg cover)The Other Two (Gillian and Stephen from New Order) – SelfishDennis Walter – The Ship Song (Nick Cave cover)Caligula – Tears Of A ClownABBA – Lay All Your Love On Me (Ben Liebrand remix)Massive Attack – Unfinished Sympathy Every song a winner! Special thanks to the work of Anne Marie as Producer, Justine Lynch and all Triple J in 1993. More Sunday Afternoon Fever – Sunday Afternoon Fever – Caligula 21.3.1993 The post Sunday Afternoon Fever 14.11.1993 – Dannii Minogue, Denis Leary, Mrs Sinatra, Maynard & Madonna Live Competition appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Triple J live to air 18th April 1993 and despite the ARIA awards being on the Wednesday, it seemed the Australian music industry was still missing in action on Sunday Afternoon Fever as I brought to Australia everyone that would talk to me on the night, from the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Multiple interviews from artists and audience members during the 1993 ARIA after party. (no recorders allowed during the actual show, remember when that was a thing?) Hear from Ash from Caligula, Andy Glitre, Boom Crash Opera, Glen A Baker, Elle McFeast, D-Gen, Mick Molloy, Jane Kennedy, The Rockmelons, Ray Medhurst, Johnny Diesel, Kate Cebrano, Crowded House and more… Details for 1993 ARIA Awards Lance and The Hollywood Kids dish the very 1993 Tinsel Town gossip (Johnny Depp has bought a nightclub). While listeners Matt (Perth), Amy (Adelaide) & Jason Strong (Wannaroo, WA) play Maynard’s Mastermind. This week it was random music clip questions prepared by the newly promoted senior researcher for the show Justine. Crappy New Releases from Kim Carnes and Eddie Murphy. Jim Rose Circus history But what tunes did you play on the show Maynard? Here is a list I still stand by. Utah Saints – New Gold DreamShaggy – Oh CarolinaTom Jones – Help Yourself (Live in Las Vegas)Hummingbirds – If A VowDef Fx – Feels GoodSnow – InformerTlot Tlot – Mothers FluidYothu Yindi – Sunset Dreaming (Reckless Kelly soundtrack remix)Barry Manilow – Copacabana (1993 remix)Belly – Feed The TreeThe Church – Under The Milky WayRob Clarkson – The Sphinx, The Parthenon & MeHeadless Chickens – JuiceNits – Soap Bubble BoxMixed Relations – Aboriginal WomanSteven Wright – Bizarre AirwaysHeaven 17 – Penthouse & PavementBoom crash Opera – In The MorningPee Wee Herman – The Girl On The Flying TrapezeSingle Gun Theory – From a Million MilesRight Said Fred – Stick It Out (Red Nose Day single)Digable Planets – Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)Caligula – I.C.URockmelons – Form One Planet (1993 remix)James Taylor Quartet – Love The Life (1993 remix)The Real Thing – You To Me Are EverythingCleopatra Wong – Baby For YouWeen – Push The Little DaisesSt Etienne – Your In A Bad WaySwamp Zombies – CreepsElektric Music – Baby Come BackClip Clop Club – Rabbit Shootin’Just A Gigolo – David Lee Roth Top tunes! Special thanks to the work of Anne Marie the Producer, Justine Lynch and all Triple J in 1993. More Sunday Afternoon Fever – Sunday Afternoon Fever, Melbourne Comedy Festival 1993. The post Sunday Afternoon Fever 18.4.1993 – ARIA Awards, Jim Rose Circus, Toni Pearon, Andrew Denton, Steven Wright appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Gene Pitney toured Australia in October 2003. It was his last time in Australia as he died while on tour in the UK in 2006. I caught up with him at the beginning of that 2003 tour in Sydney. He told me the stories behind some of his iconic songs, from 1961’s Town Without Pity to his collaboration with Marc Almond in 1989, Something’s Got A Hold Of My Heart. 1963 Gene Pitney album World Wide Winners Maynard: Gene Pitney, welcome once again to Australia.Gene: Thank you very much, Maynard.Maynard: How many times all up now?Gene: A hundred.Maynard: A hundred times. It feels like that, hey?Gene: I don’t really know, but I think at least a dozen times since the early sixties.Maynard: Do you remember the first tour? Was it very strange to be so far away?Gene: The very first tour was with a bunch of Brits, I think it was when the, uh, so-called British Invasion happened, and it was Dusty Springfield, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Brian Poole and the Tremolos and me.Maynard: Who was your major competition when you were first starting out? Who was the person you really had to worry about?Gene: I never, ever thought of it in that direction at all. I just loved what I was doing, loved having the opportunity of being out there, and there wasn’t an awful lot of that around at that time. I think there was a great camaraderie in the sixties. People would join in and if somebody was doing a session, they would say, if you’re a town or something and you run into ’em, they’d say, come on, stop by and see what’s going on. There was no really great competition. The competition was the audience going out and seeing how good a show you could do.Maynard: One of the strangest connections I’ve found with you is you’ve got a Rolling Stones connection.Gene: Well, it was political to begin with. My publicist in the UK, Andrew Loog Oldham, was the Rolling Stonesí first manager. As a result, we got to know each other. I had never ever seen a guy with long hair like that before. Nothing like they are now. When they first started out, they had really, really long past the shoulders type hair, you know? And I remember I had a guy traveling with me from home in Connecticut, and he took a picture. That was when Brian Jones was still alive and in the group. When he got home, he showed it to his wife and she said, who are those four ugly broads? They were not pretty with the long hair, I’ll tell you, at the time.Maynard: You ended up doing a bit of work with them and, and swapping songs?Gene: Yeah. Well, we, we didn’t do any tours together, but we, did a lot of television together and a lot of promotion when they were out with their first recordings. They had a song that they had actually recorded with a guy named George Bean. They didn’t like the way it came out and they played it for me and I loved the track. I loved the orchestration on it. So I said to them, look, if you let me rewrite the melody to it so it fits what I’m doing, and having the success with, I’d love to take a crack at doing a vocal on it. So we went back in the same recording studio, Olympia Studios in London. I did the vocal with the harmonies on it, and it came out excellent. So I sent it back to New York first and they put it out to go on the US charts. At the time I was new to the business, the Rolling Stones were brand new to the business and hadn’t had that much success. It was just another thing that we were doing.Maynard: How do you find the business part of the music business?Gene: Unfortunately, it’s gotten way over that side of it now. When I first started, it was the music side. There were a lot of companies that were run by eccentrics that made it really interesting. People like George Goldner, I remember in New York, and Hy Weiss, people that ran a lot of the small independent labels. They were really characters. George Goldner was always with his big giant cigar. I’ll give you an instance: the guy that brought me to New York the first time brought me into George Goldner’s office to see if he would record me. I was in an outer office that had a piano and he came crashing through the door and said ìSing!î And I was just a green kid from this little town in Connecticut, you know? And I said ìJesus, you know, who is this?î So I sat down and I played a couple of the songs I had been writing and he said ìStop!î He said ìWhen is your birthday?î And I said ìFebruary 17th.î And he said ìSign him, he said he’s an Aquarius.î But I didn’t know anything about the star signs at the time, and I thought the guy said I was an aquarium. So when he went back in his office and stormed off again, I told the guy I was traveling with, I said ìThis guy’s nutsî and I said ìI’m outta here!î So we left and vanished, and years later he heard the story back and he came to me somewhere we were, and he was roaring laughing. He says ìI can’t believe I lost you as an artist ’cause you thought I called you an aquarium!î, but those were the guys that ran the industry and they were bigger than life. Unfortunately, now it’s more like all accountants, it’s all money and it’s all bottom line and it doesn’t have the same ring to it that it had then, the same excitement value.Maynard: You’re touring Australia again, you’ve said that there’s no way you could do two thirds of a show. You’ve always given and gotten a full show out. A lot of your songs are gut-retching, emotional songs. How do you go through this every night?Gene: Uh, it’s not difficult. They’re great songs and I love that part of it. I love performing. When I say that I can’t do a shortened version or anything like that. Let’s say I had food poisoning, which I’ve gotten two or three times, you know, and really felt awful, and somebody would say to me, ìJust do an easy show, just go out and do a light showî, I can’t, I cannot do that kind of a show. I have to still put 150% into it. It’s funny. It’s so healing to do that. I’ve actually gone out feeling miserable. I had a wicked cold, I remember, one night, everything was possibly wrong, that could go wrong, except – and I got it ñ the nosebleed. Came on while the orchestra was playing the overture, and I got that cleared up just in time to walk out on stage. When I walked off and did the whole show, I felt terrific.Maynard: Did it cheer you up? Did it put you up spiritually?Gene: I don’t know whether the adrenaline or whatever it is, is self-healing or what, but if you can get through it, you put everything you got into it and walk off, have a good night’s sleep, a lot of times everything goes away. You’re okay.Maynard: A lot of people ask you, is our Australian audience very different?Gene: People always ask me that ’cause they expect different countries to be different. But I’m not sure whether it’s because of the songs that I have or the type of performer that I am, but I find it pretty much the same, the world over wherever I go. I don’t really find that much of a difference in an audience.Maynard: You play Las Vegas, you do a lot of the casinos there. What is the audience like there? They’re a bit older, are they? Sometimes their attention wanders from time to time?Gene: They’re all the same. I just played the Stardust for a week in Las Vegas, just a couple weeks back. I was trying to explain to somebody that people go there and get nervous. It’s almost like going to a big venue like the London Palladium or Carnegie Hall. The thing you have to remember is that those are virtually the same people that come to any other show in any other place. Just because they’re in here doesn’t change anything, you know? When they’re in a casino, they’re people that have come from all walks of life, all over the, all the country, all over the world. I had people there that are really aficionados that fly into all my shows. I had people in the front row from Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Chicago to those that flew all the way from Yorkshire in England. A hell of a long trip. If I was to go there. You know, I’m not knocking it. I think it’s wonderful that they do that.Maynard: I hope you signed a CD for them, after all that.Gene: It’s not a different type of an audience. It’s the same audience.Maynard: ìThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valanceî.Gene: It was never in the film at all. It’s the weirdest thing. I still don’t know to this day why. It would’ve been terrific in the film, whether I sang it or not. But because of the success of the motion picture theme that I had prior to that, Town Without Pity, a whole pile of different film scores came in and offers saying, ìWould you like to record this?î One came in and it was directed by John Ford. It had Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Lee Marvin, music by Bacharach and David. I mean, how do you turn that down? Paramount Pictures paid me to record the session. With all the kinds of perks that went along with it to do it. Then the film came out without the song in it. I’m sure it had something to do with business. It was something to do with politics, business. I have a feeling the publisher told the writers, Bacharach and David, that I’ve got the deal with Paramount for this picture. The writers did talking to Paramount, and something about it was back and forth and something went wrong with it. I’ll tell you the weirdest part about it – I found this out about five years ago – the music that was in the film was the score from a 1938 Henry Fonda film called Young Mr. Lincoln. The only connection being that John Ford directed both films. I don’t know whether they recycled it at the last minute for some reason because of this problem with the song, I don’t really know, but it’s one of those mysteries.Maynard: Town Without Pity is one of your gut-wrenching emotional ballads.Gene: Again, it was a political situation. I recorded for a small label called Musicor, and Musicor was distributed by United Artists Records, which were owned by United Artists Films who produced the movie. So by way of all those conduits, it came back to me being the artist on Musicor and they said, ìWe want you to record this song for the motion picture.îMaynard: What’d you think of it at first?Gene: Oh, I was scared to death of it. I listened to it and I thought I wouldn’t write a song like that, I wouldn’t pick a song like that to record.Maynard: Is it because of the range involved in it?Gene: No, it’s a very odd song. It’s still an odd song today. Even after the success, and hearing it many, many, many times, it’s a very unusual score. It’s to do with Dimitri Tiomkin writing the music, I think brilliant and beautifully done, but odd. And I thought, how do I approach this? How do I sing it? What do I do to get into it? I tried like a lot of different things, but because of the way that the melody flows and everything. Finally I realised that all I could do was sing it straight, as straight a version as I possibly could. I flew to Los Angeles my first time ever there. Went in the studio at about eight o’clock at night, and Aaron Schroeder, the producer, was with Dimitri Tiomkin in the booth. Now, this was a time when you’re recording, everything is done live. So all the musicians that were there, all the singers were there, the background singers and everything. Every time that they said, ìYeah, that was all right, but let’s do it again this way.î Everybody had to do it again. This went on from eight o’clock at night to four o’clock in the morning. I’m running out of throat and it’s going away rapidly.Maynard: How many takes did you think you did?Gene: Oh, I don’t know. I have no idea. All night long we sang this thing over and over and over and they were trying to find something to make it unique. What happened was that what started out being ìwhen you are young and so in loveî became (raspy) ìwhen you’re young and soî, and they said, ìThat’s it! That’s what we’re looking for, that’s the sound!î All you gotta do is record eight hours straight and you’ll get it like a raspy throat.Maynard: How did that duplicate on stage now? Because you’re much more relaxed now.Gene: I don’t even attempt to do that. I listen to it. It doesn’t sound as raspy as I thought it was on the night, but whatever it was, it made it very, very successful.Maynard: You like to sing songs that have stories in them. 24 Hours from Tulsa is a classic. It’s got a beginning, it’s got an end. It’s a story song. Does that make it easier for you on stage, like you’re telling a story.Gene: No, not easier, but I love strong lyric content and strong melodic content in any song no matter what kind of it is. I just think that today that’s really lacking in music.Maynard: Have you heard anything lately that you really like?Gene: My favourite CD from last year is David Gray with White Ladder. I love what the guy does. I love the way he approaches things. He has very unusual lyric approach. Very, very interesting melodic approach, and I think that the kind of songs that he does are the kind of songs that I would need to fit the niche that would be applicable to me today. In other words, if you’ve had songs that are from, primarily the sixties and you’re getting played by an oldies station, oldies stations don’t play any new music. So if I’m gonna record new stuff today, it’s gotta fit what’s happening out there today. I don’t wanna be competitive in the rock genre that’s out there right now. I would like to be competitive in somewhere that I can fit. I think the David Gray stuff is right up my alley. That’s the kind of stuff I like.Maynard: Do you do a lot of recording at home?Gene: Yes, I have a recording studio at home with Pro Tools. The high end of it, and it’s amazing what you can do.Maynard: In the sixties, you had to get the whole band there playing live, and now you can look at the wave form in front of you on the computer.Gene: But it’s a double-edged sword. I really think that the pressure of recording when we did all the sessions in the sixties, that you had to get, if you could, you tried for three songs in a three hour session. But you tried to sneak in the fourth one in the last like 10 or 15 minutes while the musicians were there. But I had to do the vocals and it was the finished vocal that was gonna come off of that. You didn’t overdub, you didn’t redo the vocals. I don’t really know why. But you didn’t do it at the time. But I think because of the pressure of saying, ìThis is it, this is the moment, it has to be done now, and it has to be the best.î That’s where you got those great performances from in the song. I think that now, because of the opportunities you have with a million tracks and all the stuff that you can layer on top of it and everything, I don’t think you get that intensity anymore when you’re recording. I still like to start from the beginning and go to the end in order one time through. I don’t like the majority of things that you hear today, that are contemporary music are done piecemeal, line by line.Maynard: Sample.Gene: Yeah. Sample by sample, especially.Maynard: Something’s Got a Hold of my Heart. Your original version was fantastic. You did it again with Marc Almond.Gene: Right.Maynard: He’s a wild guy. A leather guy. The film clip looks pretty wild. How did you two ever get together? I couldn’t imagine you were bumping into each other in the same bar.Gene: No, it was one of the strangest things of all time. That’s one of the reasons I did it. I was on a UK tour. I was in Bristol, I remember, and I had a call from my agent and he said, ìHow would you like to rerecord one of your songs that was a hit with Marc Almond?î I didn’t know who Marc was. When he said Soft Cell, I knew Tainted Love, ’cause Tainted Love is like a standard now all over the world, you know? I thought about it and it meant relearning the song his way, then going overnight into London and recording at 10:00 am. Marc Almond wasn’t even there – Marc was in the States doing promotion. So I had to go in and do my version of it, and then go on after that up north where my next concert date was. I was tired. I was halfway through a tour, but then I thought, no, you gotta do it. Because it’s so off the wall. This whole concept of doing it this way, these are the things that always work.Maynard: How did it change? How did your vocal change for it to make it fit in with Marc?Gene: It wasn’t my vocal change. He rearranged the song. His approach to the song was totally different, and where he went with the redoing the verses and the end, he changed. He does these staccato things that changed the complete last verse, prior to going into the chorus again. His orchestration was totally different. It was like a nineties orchestration as opposed to the lush strings that were on it the original time around. But anyway, I went and did it, did my full three versions, and then left them, went on the tour, not thinking much more about it. Next time I heard it, Marc Almond had come back, done his three versions of it, cut ’em up and put ’em together. It sounded like we were standing next to each other and I never met Marc!The song came out. It was an instant smash. I never met him until about three months later, doing the video in Las Vegas.Maynard: Yes. You did it in the Neon Junk Yard.Gene: Oh, what a place. Most exciting thing I think I’ve probably ever done in my entire career. The Neon Junkyard, I mean, where else in the world could you have a neon junkyard of all neon signs. But in Las Vegas? What they did was brilliant. They took a lot of the old signs and they hot-wired them. They didn’t try to fix any. Parts of them lit up. Parts of them didn’t light up. Only the ones that had the gas left in them, the neon gas in it. It was absolutely freezing. I didn’t realise how cold it gets at night in winter time. During the day you were, okay.Maynard: Well, you probably haven’t been left in the desert too often, I wouldn’t think.Gene: No, but I don’t know why, I go to Las Vegas at the time. I just thought was always warm. You know, it was so bad that the camera crew that were on the moving up and down things that were doing all the shots from the top were swaddled in blankets with belts around them. With big fur hats on over their ears and everything. It was that cold. It was so cold, I ended up with a ginormous headache the next day. We started at the Tropicana and then finished shooting in the desert probably about two or three in the morning. We were in the desert. On the stage, all those bright lights, and the sound was brilliant. They had this huge sound system, which was booming across the desert, and we had to go into the trailers to get warm. Then when they were ready for it, they would start the music and we would run out and start our parts again. You know, by the time the evening was over, it was just a thrilling experience.Maynard: It Hurts to be in Love. Where did that song come from and how did you feel about it?Gene: Well, I loved it. It was one of the weirdest things, because I went in, I called up a publisher and said, ìI have a session coming up. What do you got to show me?îMaynard: It’s a real pop song.Gene: Oh, yeah. When I heard it, when the publisher played it for me, it was Neil Sedaka. Singing the song and singing it very well. I said to the guy, ìThat’s a hit song. Why are you playing that for me by Sedaka?î And he said, Neil had just changed record labels. He went to RCA Victor and the new producer at RCA Victor didn’t want anything that was from the baggage that came along with Neil from the old place, and that was one of the songs he had cut before. So Neil said to him, ìPut it out and get somebody to record it.î It was so good that I said to the guy, ìCan I get that track?î The track is so good, we can’t do it any better. So we went into Dick Charles studios on Seventh Avenue. Same place he had recorded it, used his track, and I got Toni Wine who sang the answers in the background. She came in and sang the answers again and I learned his harmony. So what you’re listening to is Gene Pitney singing Neil Sedaka on It Hurts to be in Love and prove the point that it was a hit. It was a giant hit record.Maynard: Whatís coming up next? You’ve got your tour of Australia coming up. You’re gonna have little rest after?Gene: Not yet. I get home on November 2nd, and I go to upstate New York, playing Turning Stone Casino on the eighth. Then I have a family vacation that we go on every year down to Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands, in the Caribbean. That’s in November. Then December, there’s two days at the Grand Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. Then I run like an idiot trying to get through Christmas as I usually do every year.Maynard: What happens at a Pitney Family Christmas? What goes on?Gene: Ah, it’s a big gathering of all the family, at the house. My middle son is even bringing his dog this year. So we’re gonna have everything and anything, you know, and hopefully if it’s a snowy Christmas, it’ll be wonderful. All the fireplaces are lit and everybody has a big Christmas dinner and, it’s a good time. Then I start all over again next year.Maynard: We look forward to seeing you here, maybe then. Gene Pitney, thank you.Gene: Thanks Maynard. Essential Gene Pitney CD cover signed The post Gene Pitney 2003 appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark shot her spooky movie in Eastern Europe in 2001 with her then partner Mark Pierson (they divorced in 2003) and was more than happy to tell me ALL about it. (the movie, not the divorce) Elvira and Richard O’Brien acting up in the woods. Maynard: Cassandra Peterson. Why has it taken so long for a second movie? Is there an easy answer for that? Elvira: I’ve been out there selling movies ever since my first one came out. First, the studio went bankrupt, then I wrote another one, sold it again. Then the studio executive changed and he put the kibosh on that project.Elvira: Finally, my only answer was to make it myself or I just never get another movie out. Maynard: You and Mark are partners. E: That is correct M: Must put a lot of strain on any relationship and to have to shoot the movie in Romania. How do you two get on so well? E: Who said we got on so well? Who are you talking to? It is tough. It is tough to work together and to be married. It’s really difficult and we’ve been doing it for 23 years. I think that’s a world’s record here in Hollywood. Look, I think we should get an Academy Award just for that. M: You shot the movie in Romania. You used a lot of your own money, I believe. I’ve heard the figure mentioned of 1 million American dollars. Is that about roundabout the budget or is it more than that? E: Actually under that, to shoot it, by the time we finished it with all the post-production, the music and everything else, it was about a million and a half dollars for the whole thing, which seems like a lot of money to a regular person just slogging away at a job, but for a movie, that’s a spit in the bucket, it is. Absolutely nothing. Compare that to any movie made by a big studio right now, and it’s, that’s what the costs are for the catering. M: Elva Haunted Hills was made in Romania, and you got Richard O’Brien for it.Richard O’Brien is best known for the Rocky Horror Show and for his work on stage and his musical work. How did you get him? E: It was just a fluke. I tell you. It was so strange. We actually had signed Richard Chamberlain, which is so strange. Of Thornbirds fame. I’m sure you’ve heard of Dr. Kildare? Richard is a very good friend and I thought he would be fantastic playing the part because I always saw a big similarity, believe it or not, this is a compliment for me to say this. Between him and Vincent Price. They’re both stage actors. They both have this look about them, that they’re Americans, but they seem like they come from England. So we were going ahead with Richard until he actually got a job that paid money. I don’t know why, but he took that one. M: He ditched you? E: He did, but in a nice way. We didn’t feel too bad. He actually had a job, like I said, that was going to pay rather better than we were. My brother-in-law, who’s from Romania mentioned that he knew Richard O’Brien. I was like, oh my God, that is so perfect. And we called Richard and he said, I’d love to do it. And that was that. M: I couldn’t believe that you actually had all these fantastic sets built. You had all these amazing things built that just did not seem within your budget at all. E: That’s Romania for you, and that’s why we had to go there to do this. We could have never built these sets. We really wanted the very same look that all the old Roger Corman and Hammer films had. We even took pictures to these set designers in Romania of what those particular sets look like, and My God, they did such an incredible job. We were just blown away. We had no idea that they were going to do that amazing of a job for the money we were paying them. M: Films like The Pit and the Pendulum. Elvira: Another one was Haunted Palace and the House of Usher. The movie was set in the 1800s. M: But you didn’t have to dress any of the locals any differently, did you? E: No, we didn’t even have to dress any of the locals. They came as they were. People are always saying, oh my God, where’d you get these?Fabulous costumes and the peasants carrying the sickle and the scythe would be herding the geese. As I said, we just walked out the door and there they were. One of the, my favourite moments in the movie is the musical number from the show. M: Because you’re a showgirl, you’re touring your show. Elvira: Big musical number, which comes outta nowhere there. M: I thought you, you could have put a few more musical numbers in there. E: Exactly. That’s what I thought too. I originally wanted the film to be a musical, kind of in the style of Rocky Horror, but that would’ve probably tripled our budget because just to shoot that one number took an entire day.That may not seem like a lot, but when you just have a two and a half week schedule, a one day is a lot of time. M: Within the budget, there was the money for some State orchestra to play the score for you. Elvira: We went all the way to Russia to have this done, and it was done by the Russian Symphony Orchestra who were incredible and again, costs, a dime on the dollar of what we would’ve paid over here. Maynard: In Romania was you couldn’t get a good stunt double, could you? E: I couldn’t get a good stunt double. No. We got maybe the only female stunt girl that we could find. She unfortunately was missing a couple of things that she needed to play Elvira. M: You have a rather voluptuous figure, which not all stunt doubles would probably have. It’d probably be a bad thing for their profession to, to have the, yeah. Elvira: That, yeah. True. It just gets in the way. It could be a good thing, it does help cushion your falls, but that’s true. I don’t know. She was. Flat as a board. A wonderful girl and very talented as a stunt person, but flat as a board. So when it came to the scene for the pit and the pendulum, I actually had to do my own stunt work, which doesn’t seem like much to lay around all day on a slab.But when you think about a 500 pound pendulum, even though it was made from fiberglass, it still weighed 500 pounds and it was so sharp, hanging right over your nose and swinging back and forth for several hours. Let me tell you that, that was no picnic. M: I thought, on your right boob, there was a mark. Elvira: Actually, there was a scratch mark there. What I did I there was I took a deep breath and the blade swung past me and made quite a large scratch across my breast. So just imagine if I would’ve sat up, I really think I would’ve been split in two. Anything that’s 500 pounds swinging back and forth at you, if it hits you going at quite a speed it’s not gonna be good. It was pretty damn frightening. I gotta tell you. M: I heard you were gonna retire the Elvira character. Is that true? You gonna do some more Elvira work? What’s gonna happen Cassandra?E: I’m working on a few projects right now. Another film that’ll probably be for video, it’s for a younger audience and it’s a film of one of the books I wrote a few years ago Camp Vamp, but I am moving the character toward eventually someone else playing the character.I’m also working on an animation project right now, which is great because, I don’t have to look good. Also, I’ve been doing various voiceovers for a new channel here in United States called the Monster Channel, and I’ve been doing a lot of voiceovers for them. But eventually I’d love to see someone like, anybody, Angelina Jolie or whatever, play Elvira in another film.To stretch herself as an actress in her most challenging role. M: How do you cast that? If you had to say in a paragraph, this is what the character is and this is what you’ve gotta do, what would you say? E: Oh my God, actress wanted to wear slinky dress, must have generous physical attributes and be pretty confident. M: And sassy. E: Sassy! That’s it sassy. M: If nothing else, you are sassy or Elvira. I think we’ve sum up the whole character in one word there. Elvira’s Haunted Hills, it’s at video shops around the nation at this moment. What’s your favourite scene? What’s the one we should look out for? Elvira: I think my favourite scene is the kind of the love scenes that I do with the handsome hunk, who I am chasing throughout the film. The guy we hired only spoke Romanians, so we dubbed his voice, dubbed it in the old style from the old fifties and sixties. Old Hercules films, very bad dubbing job.That scene just cracks everybody up. It’s hilarious. I’m talking to him. He’s the only person who’s dubbed in the entire film. When you’re first watching it, you’re just like, what? What? Huh? It really throws you for a minute. Tthat was just a lucky mistake because we couldn’t find a guy with big muscles and long hair who could speak English.So we took what we could get and it turned out to be a big asset. Maynard: Cassandra, could you give us a big Elvira goodbye and we’ll see you next project. Elvira: Alrighty. Unpleasant dreams, darling! from Elvira. The post Elvira’s Haunted Hills appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Pete Porker drops by in 2008 to fill us in on all things Porker. The Porkers are the mightiest ska band to hail from Newcastle and then end up playing US and Japan. They were never meant to be taken lightly. Despite the title of their videography “Persistence Is Futile”. What is their history? What are their dreams and ambitions? Learn none of that. But maybe enjoy your time with Pete Porker himself as he spills the pork beans on the state of The Porkers in 2008. Also hear 3 tracks from their 2007 release This Is The Porkers. This Is The Porkers 2007 All you ever need to know about The Porkers official website Maynard: Not very often in the history of broadcasting do you meet? An epic legend the size of the guy I’m about to speak to now. Pete Porker, 1500 years, when first Settlers landed here, he was on the shore playing ska, weren’t you, Pete? Hello? Yes. It’s the a, the, the voice of wisdom here. How long have the porkers been together as a Newcastle institution ska? Pete Porker: Yeah, as of this November, it is 20 years since we played our first gig. And what was that first gig? That first gig was a house party in Bar Beach. Uh, a few friends of mine had a, uh, a share house that was, uh, marked for demolition and we played the, uh, the house wrecking party. Maynard: And did it go well? Did you go, Hey, this is what I wanna do for 20 years? Pete Porker: I dunno whether it was, whether I said that at the time, but it went so well. It was like everyone was saying, you’ve gotta play again, you’ve gotta play again, and the house got suitably wrecked. Maynard: So ska has always been your thing. And look to the uninitiated. Ska could easily be explained as very fast reggae, but that’s not correct. Pete Porker: Not exactly. Actually the father of reggae. So it came before reggae, but that is a good way to explain it. And that’s probably how I’ve explained it to a lot of people over the years. It’s if you take a, for example, if you take a bit of reggae. A bit of early r and b, a bit of rock and roll, add some brass to it, like early rock and roll had, and you’ve got ska, but the way the porkers have played it, it’s always been a quite bastardized version it’s always well as it should be because you aren’t Jamaican guys in Jamaica. You’re doing your own Newcastle version. Yeah, man, look, when I first encountered you guys, I loved you guys. I’ve played lots of gig with you guys. There’s much history. Look, a lot of, people ask me about the band. Maynard: What was it? What was the story with Pork Man? Pork Man was part of the band for a while. A mystery Mexican wrestler looking kind of guy who was Pork Man in relation to the Porkers. What was Pork Man or, or, or what was he in relation to the Porkers? That’s a great question. We’re still asking ourselves. Pete Porker: He was he was on board for a while as our mascot, as our mc, and many other dancing guy Mc guys in other ska bands like say chess smash from madness. He wouldn’t get off after the introduction and stayed on stage. Danced around and, Pete Porker: caused mayhem and became an entity in himself. Pete Porker: And he was a hard drinker. He was a hard drinker, and he was a hard drinker and a soft man and that just run into troubles. And I I still remember I’ve got a bit of video of us playing in New York City. He was our last show and on our America tour and Pork Man was there, pork Man was there. Pete Porker: And I said, a big round of applause for Pork Man who was standing on stage with his pants off. I said. He’s wanted in 20 states and we’ve only been to six. He faded out a little bit. His last official shows were with us in the year 2000, but he started just not turning up to shows. Pete Porker: And so I can’t actually recall what his last one was. And he didn’t quite go out with a bang, but we did bring him back I think it was about 2003, 2004 for one weekend only in Sydney. And he caused a bit of mayhem then. And, then disappeared into folklore once again. But it’s a, and I like the fact that no one knows actually who he is. Maynard: ’cause he wore the Mexican wrestler mask all the time. See, it’s a bit like sm I don’t care who ishm are. I don’t want people to tell me who the Melbourne band SM are, who always wear masks. It’s like pork man. I don’t care. It could be Lord Mayor John Tate. In fact, I suspect it might be him. Our lips are sealed. Maynard: What happened with Ron Hit Lei, the lead singer of SM once someone pulled the mask off him in a gig. And lo and behold, it was some guy you’d never seen before. What’d they think of the pull mask off? Aha. John Farnam? Yeah. What? What? It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t at all. Pete Porker: And I always said if he was ever unmasked. That was the end. He was dead. He had to just go away like Bruce Wayne and Batman. That’s it. That’s it. I think a couple times he did get unmasked, but he quickly covered himself with either his shirt or pants or somebody else’s. I find it with the pork man would go on stage with no pants, but yet would wear a mask. Pete Porker: Yes, definitely. He was a man with mixed priorities and the strange thing is about pork man. As I said, it’s been seven years since he’s officially been with the band. But people still come to the shows and go, where’s the pork man? Like they were expecting him to be there and it’s he hasn’t been with us for seven years. Pete Porker: We dunno where he is. We dunno where he is. Last time we saw him was in Mundo. Yes. He’s gone back to Parts Unknown. Maynard: This is the pork. Is the new album on the sound system label. And what direction have you taken this time? And has it been, how many albums has it been for the Porkers anyway? How many full albums has it been? Pete Porker: I think this is our fifth or sixth. We’ve done a couple of mini albums, which weren’t quite full albums and we’ve done a lot of VPs in between there. Lemme think. 1, 2, 3, 4. Yeah. Live. This is our fifth full length album. Maynard: Let’s have a listen to the first track off the album. It kicks it off. Sangria Alcohol. It’s about traveling. What’s it about? Pete Porker: Yes, this is a, oh, it’s about everything. It’s actually, this is our our, uh, what is it? Our world music crime, as I call it. It’s a bunch of white guys in Newcastle doing a African themed Jamaican ska song about a South American drink. Maynard: Ska recorded by the porkers. For the album, This Is The Porkers, your fifth album. And tell me, has it been a difficult album? Do they get harder or easier as you go on? Pete Porker: Oh, I think everything with the Porkers has got a bit difficult. Difficult, is that a word? Yes. A bit harder. A bit harder as we’ve gone along. Pete Porker: Oh, keeping the momentum happening and the mo motivation happening for the 20th year of the porkers hasn’t been easy. But in the end the eight new songs that we recorded for this were, came together pretty good. I, myself, I must have complete transparency here. Maynard: I have been in the band briefly but, but not an official member. I just used to visit, I believe you. My trombone playing was referred to as the Monga Bone. Pete Porker: The Mongo Bone? Yes. You were actually on our first album and you actually on our website, you’re in the Hall of fame. Pete Porker: It mentions the the past members, the and the special guest members, and. Maynard: I love wearing my Porkers shirt. I get a lot of pride because like the Castanet Club that I was in, we had a bit of a uniform to wear and you guys have a bit of, you still have a uniform, you’ve got the official Porkers shirt. Pete Porker: We try to keep a bit of a theme together. I like the old 50 styles band that used to dress up the same. We have our bowling shirts and we, we change them occasionally. Maynard: What is a Porkers gig like this to what big ones you got coming up in the near future? Coming up in the near future? Pete Porker: We’ve got our big official birthday show at the Annandale Hotel on the 23rd of November down in Sydney. That’s our how big official party. And what are you pulling out the hat for that? Rabbits, pigs. All sorts of things. We’re not sure what’s in there, but we’re gonna hopefully gonna have some guests, some ex members. And we’re just hoping the punters will bring the rest of the party. Maynard: And a good solid stage for you there. Too bit, a little bit most room for most of the band. Pete Porker: Room for most of the band. It’s a reasonably deep stage so we can get some members at the back. And the other thing is for Newcastle listeners, new Year’s Eve at the Cambridge Hotel is gonna be the big one. Maynard: I’ve been at a New Year’s Eve gig there with you guys. That gets into a lot of fun there. It, it does. And who got supporting you? You gonna do the whole night? What are you doing? Pete Porker: No, we’re not doing the whole night tour. We’ve got our young friends from Canberra, the Los Capitals young punk ska band that are also on my label that I’ve taken under my wing. Maynard: We’ll get to your label in a moment. We’ll play another track off the album Now. Dread man walking. It’s a Newcastle story. I’ll let you explain it, Pete. Pete Porker: Yes. A lot of people that would know the inner city area of Newcastle would’ve seen an old man that walks around town. Pete Porker: He’s homeless. So has a carkey raincoat. Is he a carkey raincoat? He changes every decade and gets a new set of clothes, but I think he’s currently in khaki and he’s got a long gray beard. And his hair is one big dreadlock and we wrote a song about him and there’s lots of myths about this man. Maynard: Yeah. Do you know any actual information that could be true or not? Pete Porker: No, I don’t actually. My my girlfriend actually looked into it and talked to some people at the Herald who were actually trying to do a story on him at one stage, and not a hell of a lot is actually known about him. What are some of the myths that he can fly or something? Pete Porker: Something like that. One of the myths is that he’s actually really rich, but just chooses to live this way. And oh, the Howard hug. Syndrome. Yes, the Howard Hughes syndrome. And the other one is that we mentioned in the song that he accidentally killed his wife and kids in a tragic accident. Pete Porker: And now he walks the streets as his own punishment. But wow, we don’t know. But neither of those stories is confirmed. None, nothing, none whatsoever. Maynard: And have you ever spoken to him? You ever tried to talk to him? Pete Porker: I haven’t personally, but once again, my girlfriend has tried to speak to him and other people have tried to give him money and he says very little. Pete Porker: And acknowledges nobody. The only time that anyone’s ever seen any interaction is when he bought a coffee and a hot dog from the pie cart. But he doesn’t accept money. Apparently not. I think he finds money, but he won’t actually take money from people if you’re giving it to him. Pete Porker: The Porkers Dread Man Walking from This Is The Porkers. Maynard: And how would you describe the feel of that song, Pete? Sleazy reggae in, , that, old school Bob Marley feel. One of the songs I always enjoyed about the Porkers over the many years was the one you used to open the act with. That was almost like you were saying hello to everyone in the room. Pete Porker: So I think that was going off. I think it was. And it was a good track to start with. Maynard: You are well known for your covers as well as like interesting little originals like that Burning Love your Elvis covers. I’ve always been a bit of a fan of that. Has that been your most successful cover, you think, for The Porkers? Pete Porker: Our most successful cover, because the ska version of Burning Love, it’s not immediately obvious. No, not at all. Elvis doesn’t scream. ska usually. Not usually, but, he screams, r and b and, that early rock and roll thing. We took, we took Memphis to, Kingston. It, seemed to work for us. Maynard: Has it, has that ever turned up on an album anywhere or can it. Pete Porker: It’s on our not bad. Pretty good, not bad EP or mini album, which was , a six tracker that we released way back when. What was it called? Not bad. Pretty good. Not bad. Maynard: And is that still available? Pete Porker: That is still available. Maynard: Can you get yourself on iTunes? Pete Porker: And, yes, we’re on it. So you can, get most of our releases at iTunes. Maynard: Tell me, does much of the money funnel back to the artist in something like iTunes in your particular arrangement? I’m not asking for exact figures, but like percentage wise, do you guys actually see much of the money? Pete Porker: Not a hell of a lot ’cause we , haven’t actually moved a lot out there at the moment. Pete Porker: And, , it’s still a thing that’s developing. , It’s a reasonable return. I want get to the Pasha Polka Maynard: But is there one track on this album you really wanna chat about, Pete? Pete Porker: Something’s wrong with my radio. See, something’s wrong with my radio. This is the cus of the album. Something’s wrong with my radio. Maynard: I’m wondering is that about the state of radio in Australia or general media? ’cause you guys have been around for 20 years, you’ve been treated well, you’ve been treated shockingly, you’ve been treated all sorts of ways. How would you describe the treatment of the Porkers by the Australian musical media? Pete Porker: Not very well. I think we, beside yourself we’re one of the Australia’s most ignored bands as that actually managed to keep going. It starts with the local media here in Newcastle. I , we have lots of radio stations in town that are networked from other places, and generally, if you wanna get played across the board on one of those stations, you’ve gotta be on a major label. Simple as that. Maynard: And what about Triple J? How have they treated you over the years? I know I was always playing you when I was on breakfast. Pete Porker: Yes. You were. And then just as our career got going, you left there. Maynard: Hang on. Not by choice. No. I might just add, I never leave any media organization by choice. Pete Porker: That’s always the way to go. Maynard: Yes. And then I played you on Channel V. Pete Porker: Yes. Yes. Beside yourself. , We’ve had a little bit of a airplay on, , Triple J. But uh, I could say. Not enough. Perhaps it’s ’cause you don’t fit into lots of genres. No, we’re, we are. That, we are that, for a long time we, we haven’t been roots, we haven’t been quite punk, but we’re too punk for the Roots Show and we’re too roots for the punk show. Pete Porker: We’ve always just been that, that ska band with that silly name from Newcastle. That does the songs about beer. It’s been hard for us to, be taken seriously, so the same thing was said about Jimmy Barnes for years and still is. Yes, but except he doesn’t do the beer songs anymore. Pete Porker: Maybe we need to get that, really, bad drinking or drug habit and then, , announced to the world that it’s all over now. Tara Doyle from, Euphonic. And what is Euphonic? She’s co-written this song, something’s Wrong With My Radio. Yes. She, helped us out with this. This one’s quite poppy and, , it’s not ska at all. Pete Porker: That’s it. Now I’ve done it. There’s nothing like criticizing the media to have them put you on. I know. I know, , Maynard: Have you thought of doing any stunts? The porkers are big on stunts. Pete Porker: Stunts. Still, , licking our wounds from stunts that we, tried early in the days. Maynard: We are talking to Pete Porker, by the way, from the Porkers, about their new album. This is the Porkers, their fifth album. Yes. Anyway, and he is trying to get some stunts going here at this point. Some stunt, some stunts. You really didn’t start with a media friendly name in the first place. Maynard: You, your name was originally the pork hunts. I said it on Triple J, no problem at all. But, did anyone else? Pete Porker: Very rarely. Very rarely. And the ironic thing was about back in the day we were playing at the Air Force Club here in Newcastle and could play under that name, which sort of. Pete Porker: Got a reasonable following and wanted to branch out a little bit. And, we got told that we could play at the Tats Club, but we had to change our name. And it was like, okay, alright, it’s time. We’ll just change it to the porkers. That’ll be easier. And I was like, okay. So we got the gig at the Tats Club, came time to, get some posters to the Tats Club and I said to the, the booking guy there. Pete Porker: Listen, we’ve only got these old ones that say. Pork hunts and, he said, oh yeah, give them give ’em to me. They’ll do. And they put them up anyway, so we didn’t really need to change our name, but it’s probably best that we did. Yes. But possibly I wish we’d, changed it to something a little bit more respectable. ‘Cause isn’t too bad. It gives you, a bunch of fat guys having a good time. Exactly. A bunch of jolly men. Now can we go to my favorite track on the album to finish up with the Pasher Polka. It’s got that Novacastrian thing going on. It’s a Polka, so it’s got that Weird Al thing going on. Pete Porker: I love that. , It’s got everything that Maynard could want. Maynard: And what were you doing here? What are you doing here? Pete Porker: What are we doing here? Well, to be serious, our first single had a song on it called Earthquake, and which was a Newcastle disaster song. Loved it. And we. Thought on our 20th anniversary, we needed another Newcastle disaster song. Pete Porker: Now that, now if I can remember the lyrics from, earthquake and I, I was lying on my back. That line. Yes. , What is it? It was 10 27. I was with my girl in heaven. I was lying on my back and I got sucked right down that crack. 10, seven hours. Get my girl in heaven. On my back, I got some crack. Earthquake. Maynard: Earthquake lyrics like that you cannot buy if you went to a lyric salesman. If you went to Lennon and McCartney in their heyday, they couldn’t do that. They wouldn’t offer it to you. The red hot chili peppers, they could under a bridge. Nothing as good as that. Nothing as good as that. Not a thing. No, that is good. Maynard: Look, we’ll go with the Polka here. This is the Porkers Is it in the shops? This album? It’s in the shops. Pete Porker: It’s available. You can, get it at ww dot sound system music.com. You can get it at the shows. And don’t forget the big gig on the 23rd of November at the Annandale Hotel in Sydney. Pete Porker: They’ll be doing this stuff. That we’re doing our stuff and also New Year’s Eve at the Cambridge and plenty other shows in between. Introduce us for us, Pete, I’m sure you were there Skippering the ship as it came in. No, I was stuck in traffic on Hunter Street. I know of all about it. This was the day the big ship came to the beach. Maynard: Long live the Porkers! The post What were The Porkers drinking in 2008? appeared first on Planet Maynard.

In 2007 James Valentine revealed to me why he is free of domestic guilt. His book Spotfull was out, as a reaction to people who spend their entire weekend cleaning their white goods. This is from the Maynard International Studios 2007 archive in the hope that James may persuade you to have a bath instead of cleaning it. James Valentine official website Maynard backstage while doing guest trombone with The Models 1985. Maynard: James, what is Spot Full all about? I think from my perspective, I find it dull on the radio, but you are a recovering cleaning addict. What’s the story?James Valentine: It’s true. Look it, it’s Spotfull is the book I’ve written as a response to the Spotless phenomenon and I’ve had to do,Maynard: and that’s just insane. There’s too many fuss budgets out there with time on the hands.James Valentine: Exactly. And I had to do this because, I am responsible for Spotless. I introduced Shannon Lush and the whole bicarbonate and soda and vinegar cleaning phenomenon to Australia, and I apologize for it. I’m sorry. I dunno what, I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know the genie. I was letting outta the bottle when that happened. Turn the nation into a group of people obsessed with cleaning, with getting rid of all spots and stains. And I just thought, I don’t think people really live like that. I think people live like pigs. Spotfull encourages you to live free of domestic guilt, to embrace your inner a slob and just lie back and relax.Maynard: Yes. So I’m a single guy living on my own.James Valentine: Oh, you are one. You. Prime Spotfull candidate.Maynard: See, I don’t clean till I say it’s time to clean or my parents or a date is coming over.James Valentine: Yeah, I would suggest the true Spotfull approach would be that the date never comes over. What are motels for?Maynard: Exactly.James Valentine: And it’s cheaper. It’s cheaper. You would be better off hiring a nice room in a hotel than you would be trying to clean up your pad, I would imagine, mate.Maynard: And you can get away with free drinks there if you do it properly.James Valentine: I advocate it’s cheaper to stay in five star hotels than renovate.No one should ever bother to renovate a home. You should simply move out and live in five star luxury.Maynard: I read that chapter because apparently the renovation cost can change. Where the cost of checking into a five star hotel doesn’t,James Valentine: it doesn’t. You know what you’re in for. If you decide to renovate your falling down home the quote will be 100,000. You’ll end up paying 200,000. When you go to check into a hotel, they say, thank you very much. It’s 200 a night and it stays 200 a night. So you know what you’re in for and it’s much better. And if you renovate a home, you turn it into a home that has to be cleaned.Maynard: James, one thing that you get to in your book is that there’s a few letters from people there, and one of the letters I quite enjoyed that there’s, there are some people who make a large part of their weekend, they plan to do things on their weekend that I would consider unusual, for example, planning to clean your freezer.James Valentine: Yeah. I just find that astonishing, that somebody would think is I’m wanting to clean my freezer and I’d like some hints about how to do that. And my suggestion is join a tennis club. Perhaps go bush walking. Have you ever been to an art gallery? Do anything but clean your freezer.Freezers can just sit there, can’t they? I wouldn’t clean the freezer if I was trying to sell the fridge. You just take it outside, it melts, it disappears. And that’s about it. Isn’t it. It would never occur to me to clean a freezer.Maynard: Naturally I have the whole thing of cleaning the freezer because I move about every 2 years.So the freezer cleans itself during the moving process?James Valentine: Exactly. In the days leading up to that move, you probably don’t need to shop either, because there’d be all sorts of frozen sausages that are suddenly emerging from the freezer. There’d be at least six fish fingers. There’d be a pizza base. That you’d long ago didn’t even know you had. You thought that was just the floor of the freezer.Maynard: You live like a king.James Valentine: You live like a king for three days until you move. But also a king that has days full of surprises. Oh my God, look what the freezer has thrown up. It’s like being in Siberia and finding a mammoth.Maynard: You do make a point of people that, that try and feel good about saving their leftover food by keeping their leftovers. And this is a two step process. One, it makes you feel good about the environment and the world and your ipo, and also you think you may be saving money.And I’ve found this to be a false societal conscience and a false economy. Your thoughts Mr. Valentine.James Valentine: Maynard, , this is a direct, direct experience from living with my wife Joanne, who does this, you order Green chicken curry. Green chicken curry comes, you eat about half of it and she puts it the takeaway container in the fridge, and you look at her and go, are you really gonna have that tomorrow?Are you really gonna have that green chicken curry for lunch tomorrow? She says, I might. And I know from 20 years experience, she won’t any later than about four o’clock the next day. She would take that outta the fridge and go, do you think this is all right to eat? And you’d go, yeah, it’s fine.She’d go I’m not sure. And then she might put it back. But it’s the last thing she wants to do is put it in the bin because A, she thinks that , all she hears is her mother saying there are starving children in Ethiopia, which is where they were starving when we were children, and now they are again.And then. She also thinks that somehow the mortgage will be paid if she puts that green chicken curry into the fridge for a while, that will help with the payments. I say straight into the bin and get rid of it.Maynard: And another way I find it interesting from your book here is the problem of mildew spots on old baby clothes. Now, I wouldn’t be aware this problem even existed.James Valentine: See if you’ve if you have children, this is a common question that you get, again, on the Shannon Lush sort of segment is where people ring up and say, I’ve got some old baby clothes and they’ve been in a bag for some years, and I’d like to clean them up.What should I do? I. What I find interesting in that question is that there’s this lovely, there’s a sentimental moment where your child grows out of the toddler clothes and you clean out a drawer and you think, oh, that’s a lovely piece. I’m going to keep that. And you put it away somewhere carefully. The question is, keep it. For what are you thinking at 18? You might pull it when the child’s 18. You might pull it out and look at it and go, this is what you wore as a toddler when that child has children of their own. You’ll pass on some then 25-year-old baby clothes. Are you just gonna get them out every now and again just to have a little look at one or two pieces?Certainly, a fine christening robe a lovely little outfit perhaps, but people keep a whole lot of this stuff with the idea that somehow they’re gonna do something with it. My general approach to mildew on the baby clothes is you should have got rid of that stuff a long time ago.Maynard: And what has been the reaction of the Shannon Lush and the whole crowd to to you taking the poodle out of the whole thing?James Valentine: They love it. They love it. How much does Shannon Lush love the fact that she’s gone from obscurity to nothing? Via my radio show and ABC books, she sold 600,000 copies of Spotless and Speed Cleaning and Comfy. Now she’s reached a point where she’s so popular and so well known, it’s worth my time satirising her. There is no greater compliment. None more than parody.Maynard: And one last question. What is the optimum length of time before changing the sheets on a bed?James Valentine: I think when when you can’t sleep, when it’s reached a point where you’re going, I really can’t sleep. But otherwise, up until then, if you’re getting in and you’re cozy, eh, why are you, what are you worried about?Maynard: So when the bed texture starts to resemble the Plains of Nazca, something like that.James valentine: You know it because you can’t quite get to sleep.Maynard: James Valentine, dirt up!James Valentine: That’s me. The post The Spotfull James Valentine. Free of domestic guilt. appeared first on Planet Maynard.

The audio from A Very Maynard Xmas 2025 for those that find all of my suits are a bit hard on your eyes.. A Very Maynard Xmas 2025 brings you the unexpected festive farce that you’ve come to expect from someone who has inflatable legs for a window.Low budget has been swapped out for no budget this year as a Xanadu-themed Xmas special brings you the talents of Leslie Fountain (Glenn Keenan), Fat Elvis (Chris Kelly, Ship-o’-Fools) and Olivia Cardboard-John on the Maynard International Studios Mainstage, as well as greetings from around the world and around Tony Push (whose new teeth are a feature this year), plus more impractical outfits and the wonders of Magpie TV. Maynard with Xanadu album. Mari Wilson driving her christmas ute. Watch A Very Maynard Xmas 2024 Video – A Very Maynard Xmas 2025 The post A Very Maynard Xmas 2025 – audio version appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Brigitte Handley has a new release out, as well an EP of vinyl featuring unreleased Dark Shadows live tracks. In between all her German shenanigans she’s been recording again and pondering the evil sound that is autotune. Time to talk about that ominous looking splatter vinyl pressing, the implications of releasing music on cassette tape and who the hell presses 7″ picture singles. We meet at the scenic Madame Frou Frou Cafe to discuss Brigitte’s new releases and the implications of recording acoustic guitar in the same room as Shirley Bassey’s vocals. So have a coffee and pull up a Cher. Main photo by Mark Gowecke. Brigitte Handley on BandcampBrigitte Handley on Youtube Showing off the coloured splatter vinyl release from The Dark Shadows. Cover of CyberNation release from Brigitte Handley. Just look at her peplum. The last time we had coffee Revelations so surprising, I’ve turned black and white with shock. The post Brigitte Handley CyberNation appeared first on Planet Maynard.

We catch up with the legend Tim Ferguson. Unsurprisingly he has a lot to say in just 12 minutes. Hear his predictive powers for the last 9 Federal elections, why improvisational comedy has to go and the importance of an Australian pope. “I think a bit of starvation and anger will create more interesting comedy.” Tim Ferguson (married man that owns a dog AND a cat) Tim is running his monthly stand up comedy night at The Harold Park Hotel in Glebe, as well as creating his artworks and generally telling people how to be funnier. Drop in on our brief Conclave of Comedy. Drop in on Tim’s site Harold Park Hotel Random Bunga Bunga episode Maynard and Tim Ferguson The post Tim Ferguson told you so! appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Australia’s Coldest 100 returns for 2025 this Saturday 25th January with @ozkitsch presenting 100 tunes you won’t find easily anywhere on any continent. Just look at this list of artists that Andrew Sholl has curated that you’ll never again see in the same room. This is Andrew’s eighth Coldest 100 and he doesn’t see Farnham clips running out anytime soon. The 2025 Coldest 100 brings you Sophie Monk, Des O’Connor, Shirley Bassey, Charo, Johnathon Coleman and a singing chicken. That’s just for starters. Don’t like it? Then there is a rough end of a banana for you. After all, anyone can put together a list of the latest hottest tracks. It takes a certain kind of expert like Andrew Sholl to put together 100 songs of Australian musical shock for 8 years in a row now. “Things don’t always turn out the way they were intended…” Andrew Sholl It will all be going down on Saturday 25th January on X and Instagram @Ozkitsch Andrew Sholl shows no sign of ever stopping his annual festival of Aussie awkwardness. . Look and listen to The Coldest 100 2020 Look and listen to The Coldest 100 2021 Maynard plays you some video clips from The Coldest 100 2022 Maynard plays you some video clips from The Coldest 100 2023 Maynard plays you yet more video clips from The Coldest 100 2024 Johnathan Coleman sings the Aussie classics on Sounds. Des O’Connor with Reeves & Mortimer (and their frypan) Australia’s Coldest 100, 2025. What a bunch of spunks! The post Australia’s Coldest 100 – 2025 appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Triple J staff celebrated 50 years of Triple J on Sunday 19th January. Even the ABC itself did the same thing later that day. Hear from Rusty Nails, Dr Karl, Sarah Macdonald, Craig Donarski, Andy Marinos, Dame Lush, Hannah Thompson and other ex ABC staff and current Triple J listeners. The expectant crowd at ABC Ultimo await a tight set of 15 minutes of stand up comedy from the Prime Minister. Here’s what happened at the Triple J 40th staff party… Maynard Triple J Breakfast show 1989 Here’s a transcript of what transpired this time, at the 50th….Rusty Nails: An audio dildo!Maynard: At Triple J’s 50th birthday, and who’s the first guy I run into … drinking a cup of coffee! Is there anything in that Rusty Nails?Rusty: Just coffee this morning, Maynard, I’ve got some serious professional work to do.M: What year of Triple J are you covering?Rusty: I’m covering the 79 to 85-ish era, which is sort of like the Uncle Doug Mulray, Jono and Dano, Off The Record, and the J Team of course, and the Oils on the Water.M: How come commercial radio never snapped you up from your breakfast show at Triple J?Rusty: I was probably too rebellious. I did actually, funnily enough, talk to Trevor Smith at one point. He said, “Nothing wrong with your talent, but we don’t like your voice, it’s not Aussie enough.”M: Everyone knows that when an English guy speaks there’s authority. Or he’s a geezer, it’s either one or the other.Rusty: Oh, I’m a geezer.M: What do you reckon has been the greatest moment of Triple J over the last 50 years?Rusty: At this fiftieth, I’m proud to announce that I’ve almost finished writing, no, not finished, but I’ve almost finished writing my book for my daughter, and it’s called “Dear Emily, Extraordinary Moments in an Ordinary Life”, and it’ll be on the bookshelves by Christmas.M: I’ll look forward to that. Why do you think there’s never been a book about Triple J? Is it too complicated?Rusty: Well, there was one …M: Toby Cresswell was supposed to write one.Rusty: But there was that Twenty years of Double J and Triple J. They never reprinted it.M: All David Wales’ artwork through it, too.Rusty: It had the wonderful stories like Russell Gay answering the phone to the General at Victoria Barracks.M: I tell you what, Rusty, because I’ve got a lot of reel to reel tape, which I recorded stuff on, at the end of it, there was stuff that I hadn’t recorded over. And I’ve heard a lot of your unedited interviews, one with the Homecoming Queen’s got a Gun, Julie. I’ve got your interview with Julie Brown!Rusty: Wow! Unfortunately, I lost a mass of tapes moving continent to continent and stuff, but I think I might even have a Yahoo Serious interview somewhere.M: What’s the song for you that epitomises your time at Triple J?Rusty: Oh, shit. I suppose it’s gotta be when we were doing the Breakfast Program and Midnight Oil came in and world premiered their Place Without a Postcard album.M: Well, you have your coffee and I look forward to seeing you on stage, Rusty.Rusty: Yeah, yeah.M: Now, remember when you say you’re finished, wait for the applause to die down before you tell them what you finished.Rusty: Can I dance with you later Maynard?M: I hope so. See you, Rusty.Rusty: See you, Maynard. Maynard: So over the years, you’ve got all the people you hear on the radio, but then you’ve got the people who make you hear the people that you hear on the radio, like Scott. Scott, you were the technical guy. You did everything, really. You, at one stage, held up the antenna during a rainstorm.Scott Wyatt: Yeah, well.M: The transmitting mast.Scott: Of course!M: What was the most challenging thing about being a tech guy trying to run around with a bunch of ninnies at Triple J and Double J?Scott: I don’t think anything was too challenging, it was a wonderful experience.M: Technology wasn’t like it is now. Like, everyone just goes through the phone line now, but if you wanted to go through the phone line to do an OB, then it was like a thousand bucks or something, wasn’t it, from Telecom?Scott: Yeah, you had to pay the money, yeah.M: Or the PMG.Scott: And turn up and find the little cable with the tag on it, and ring up the Telecom people.M: Were you the guy that recorded Village People at the Hordern?Scott: No, not me.M: Oh, wow, OK, because I know, I’m going to find that person, shake his hand. I hope you don’t find a tag that costs you a thousand dollars today.Scott: Yeah, well, hopefully. Maynard: We’ve got Murdo here, Murdo McLeod. What do you reckon would be the song that says 50 years of Triple J for you?Murdo: Oh, going back to The Psychotic Turnbuckles. That was of an era. There weren’t too many bands like that at the time.M: Hey, do you think it’s really odd that there are no actual ABC cameras or recorders here today? Because this was put on by the staff.Murdo: I know, I think it’s very much representative of what the ABC is these days. It’s a pity, because it is an era that changed Australia to some extent. Helped highlight the fact that we could be independent thinking. Maynard: So we’ve got members of the public and ex-employees like Ms Lush.Dame Lush: That’s Dame Lush to you.M: I imagine it would be. What do you reckon is the song from 50 years of Triple J that goes “Yeah, that’s the Triple J song that I liked”.Dame Lush: “You Just Like Me ‘Cos I’m Good in Bed”.M: That’s the one they started with. Not even “Balwyn Calling”?Dame Lush: That comes later.M: What do you think Triple J means these days, after 50 years?Dame Lush: Well, I’m hoping it means the same thing: an introduction to life, society, good music, and just generally dancing your tits off.M: Do you remember the first time that you listened?Dame Lush: I don’t remember those days.M: I remember hearing it in Newcastle, because it was on after midnight on Radio National. And I think we’re going to hear some interesting history today. Have a good day! Maynard: Well, we’re here at the official function now, which is at the ABC building in Ultimo, one that brings back many memories to me. And with me is someone else who brings back many memories, and that would be Craig Donarski. Hi, Craig!Craig Donarski: Thanks, Maynard.M: What do you reckon is going to go on? This is the official one, this is the proper one, this is the boring one, although it’s much better catered.Craig: Oh, yeah. The quality of their food is much higher than the staff organised one that we’ve just been at for the last five hours.Andy Nehl: I like the staff food!Maynard: We’ve got Andy Nehl here. Look, and since you two know a lot that spread over there is better than anything I ever saw at any Triple J function when I was there.Andy Nehl: Oh, it’s true.M: Yeah, so why has the ABC got into catering now?Andy: Because the federal government doesn’t give them enough money.M: Very good point. So what’s your best memory being with Triple J, Andy Nehl, being the manager during a very tumultuous time? Was it being egged in St Kilda?Andy: You remember that? Wow!M: Yeah, because I felt so sorry for you. Because back in those days there was no one to put up Radio that Bites posters.Andy: That’s right. I was sticking up posters on telegraph poles down bloody Ackland Street in St Kilda. And some idiots drove past in a car and threw eggs at me.M: And it was like 11.30 at night, and you’d been going since the morning, and you’d been putting posters up, and it was like you thought, well, fucking great.Andy: Fucking good memory, Maynard!M: I really felt for you because you’ve been working hard.Andy: Great fun launch that Melbourne line.M: Oh, yeah, and also when everyone was chanting “Bullshit!” at you in the lower Town Hall too. I hadn’t seen that footage before and I thought oh …Andy: I was just trying to get out what I wanted to say. Eventually I got it out over the top of a bit of bullshit.M: What’s your one song you remember from the time of Triple J that sums up a lot.Andy: When we were gonna start going as a national network, I thought, what song are we gonna start with as far as something that was trying to make a statement with what we were starting with? We commissioned Bart Willoughby, who was an Aboriginal musician, had been from No Fixed Address, has currently had a band then called Mixed Relations. We commissioned Bart to write a song for the station. It was recorded in Studio 221, called “Take It or Leave It”. That was the first song on air on Triple J in Melbourne, Perth, Darwin, Adelaide, Newcastle, Hobart and Brisbane.M: And let’s just correct a bit of George Orwell-ness that went on with the Adelaide launch. The first words spoken on air were, “This is not a fucking test transmission” by Tony Biggs. Not “This is not a test transmission.” as reported by the Adelaide Advertiser.Andy: Yeah. And, as I kind of mentioned earlier on, about four or five songs in, Tony Biggs did the launch, there was a big build up, they do the launch, and about four or five songs in Tony Biggs plays “Too Drunk to Fuck” by the Dead Kennedys. And I’m kind of standing around there talking with David Hill and Malcolm Long and, and the South Australian Premier.M: All the cool kids.Andy: Oh something like that. And I hear in the background, oh, Biggs is playing “Too Drunk To Fuck”. But they never even notice. No one even fucking noticed Biggs played “Too Drunk To Fuck” at about song four. But then, two or three months later, they notice “Fuck tha Police”. Even though it had been on air there over the whole time.M: Triple J was overplaying that at that time, we’d kind of gone past playing it.Andy: That’s right. That’s right.M: Andy, have a good day here and nothing stops you. You’ve had a whole crowd shouting bullshit at you.Andy: Yeah.M: Thank you, Andy!Andy: Thanks, Maynard!M: And the legend, Andy Nehl. Now back to the legend, Craig Donarski here. What do you reckon will be the one song from your time at Triple J? Because you had Nippy Rock Shop, you did lots of experimental stuff.Craig: Really hard to pin it down to one, but I’d have to go with the song that I had as my last song on the day that I left, Public Image’s “Public Image”. Three minutes of just pure punk pop perfection. It kind of summed up my goodbye.M: And for the record, how many hours were you in the lift here in the ABC building?Craig: Three hours. So my farewell party was in the end of ’98. And after 12 and a half years here, we set up the goods lift, or the piano moving lift …M: Which had the false back in it …Craig: Yeah, it was a venue in a lift. And we put in beanbags, sound system, lighting, cases of champagne, crates of nangs, cream whippers, and other things.M: And you went up and down in the lift for three hours. Did the managing director ever get in?Craig: No, not the managing director, but we did blow the minds of many of the switchboard people, and Master Control, and the much straighter parts of the ABC, had a different experience.M: Of course you’re a director of your own arts establishment at the moment. What do you take from your time at Triple J into your career as an arts director?Craig: Lots actually. It’s like, find the edge. Because all the interesting things happen at the edges of things, not in the middle. Not at the centre. Try to find the people who are doing the interesting stuff at the edges. Because that’s where all of the most interesting stuff occurs. I get how it’s really hard for a national network that goes to every regional centre and every capital city to be able to be, like, really cutting edge. It’s hard. You know, we were lucky.M: So, of course the original building had that wonderful pink neon on the roof. How great was it to have sex under the pink neon on the roof of the Triple J building in William Street, Craig?Craig: It was actually pretty awesome.M: Everything was just bathed in pink and everything was so still in the middle of the night.Craig: After the sackings of all of the announcers when we were up on the roof and Tony Biggs was burning his mouseketeer hat …M: Oh, and a shout out to Tony Biggs.Craig: Yeah, yay Tony Biggs, who I used to produce on The Breakfast Show before you were even on The Breakfast Show. It was awesome to have our own little building and be separate from the rest of the ABC. Part of the problem for Triple J being edgy happened when we had to move into this building we’re in now.M: Yeah, it’s so sterile by comparison.Craig: Yeah, I mean, look around. It looks like a corporate head office. When we were our own little building on the corner of Forbes and William Streets in Kings Cross, with the sex workers out the front, and, you know, the hoons driving past.M: And the trans workers in the back alley.Craig: Trans workers in the back alley. It was awesome! It was like, we were on the edge. We were on the fringes of things. It helped inform or infect or influence the vibe of what we were doing at the time. Maynard: And what’s your best memory from listening to Triple J all these years? This is a regular person.Listener: The one I remember the most is listening to Tim Ritchie at night time on my Walkman with my headphones learning about new music and Triple J really opened up the world of music for me. I remember my first concert was Public Enemy, brought to you by Triple J. Big Day Out was a huge part of my life as well, going for many years. Triple J was a station you tuned to, to find all the music you couldn’t find anywhere else.M: Just the other day on my website, someone said, “Oh, what’s that song La la la la, I’m addicted to music?” And it sounded like DJ Jazzy Jeff, but no, it’s Subsonic 2 “Addicted to Music”. It’s quite a cool track.Listener: Maybe I’ll have a USB stick that has it if I go looking.M: Yeah, you might have that there, enjoy … I just gave this man a USB stick of the Hot 100 from 1990 and he couldn’t be happier. Well, enjoy your day. Are you looking forward to the speeches today?Dame Lush: I’m always looking forward to speeches. It gives me a chance to get to the bar.M: Because everyone’s distracted by the Prime Minister.Dame Lush: Precisely. And isn’t he looking fine today?M: You know it’s a Sunday because he’s not wearing a tie.Dame Lush: He’s very hot. Maynard: We’re just listening to the Prime Minister talk then and what a speech he gave. He could have done a few gags, couldn’t he Dr Karl?Dr Karl: I do like speeches to be short, and I like them to make me laugh, and I didn’t get either.M: Well at least he said that the funding won’t go away just yet.Dr Karl: Good start.M: And Dr Karl, we know your story, you go way back. What year did you start at Triple J, or Double J in fact?Dr Karl: I did my first thing on Double J, 74. Talked about my anti gravity machine. I actually spent two years of my life and $5,000 of my money with a colleague trying to build an anti gravity machine and it failed. But then regularly, it was 1981 with the launch of the Space Shuttle, and then doing stuff on Great Moments in Science, and here I am 45 years later.M: Could you imagine that you’d still be doing it all these years later?Dr Karl: I had no idea that it would happen like that. Basically, I feel as though my life has been like a paddle pop stick. In the gutter of life, on a rainy day, and this is where the currents have washed me.M: You strike me as more a Bubble O Bill kind of guy, more than the paddle pop stick. You know, with the bubblegum nose, and it’s a bit more interesting.Dr Karl: It’s amazing how little control you have over your life. Having been a medical doctor, it’s amazing how just one simple illness can derail you forever.M: Congratulations on everything you’ve done. And is there one song in your entire involvement with Triple J that really sticks out?Dr Karl: Well, yeah … ” You Just Like Me ‘Cos I’m Good in Bed” because that was the first one. And I had no idea that that song existed because it was banned by all the commercial radio stations.M: And that’s what Triple J was all about.Dr Karl: Breaking the barriers, JJJ, as you’d probably call it.M: Long may you reign, Dr Karl.Dr Karl: Thank you so much, Dr Maynard. Marius Webb: Hey, hello, good to see you!Maynard: Hey, I’m here with Marius now, the guy who started the whole bloody thing. How’s the day been, 50 years later?Marius: Oh, it’s been a bit boring, a bit dull. Nothing much to report, I’m afraid, Maynard. Except that wonderful thing you said.M: What was that?Marius: Fuck the police. That was so original.M: Well, I actually said “Fuck the parking police.”Marius: Oh, did you?M: I was misquoted. What is the one song from all the many years of your involvement with Triple J, what’s the one that goes, that’s the one?Marius: “Sex and Drugs and Rock ‘n Roll”, Ian Dury.M: Because that’s what it was all about?Marius: More or less. “Fuck tha Police” as well.M: And being a manager of Triple J was a unique thing because you couldn’t really tell people off the way a regular manager could, could you?Marius: Oh yes, you could!M: You could?Marius: Yeah! It’s just I never did, because I loved them all. The wonderful thing about the people we hired, or I hired, I sort of think about them all as friends and old mates, you know? So, very hard to discipline. But herding cats is quite an achievement, and people say I’m not bad at it after all these years.M: You saw the latest controller of Triple J there, and his job would be so much different. Would you ever want to swap places with him?Marius: No, I don’t think so. I don’t think I could cope and I also think that if I was a manager today, I’d like to leave the ABC, get a whole lot of young people. and start up my own app. Because the ABC should do that. Spotify has changed everything in a way that’s ridiculous. I hate so much of the music I hear these days, because it sounds like it should be on the fucking Voice, rather than interesting, creative stuff. Think of all the different people we picked up from all over the world as well as from here. Marvellous stuff in the first 30 years. Really fantastic stuff.M: Congratulations to you and thanks to the Whitlam government, by the way.Marius: Indeed, if we hadn’t had them, it never would have happened.M: And great to see you as well, Marius, I look forward to seeing you again soon.Marius: Let’s have lunch tomorrow. Maynard: I’m talking to a whole bunch of people about songs I remember from Triple J, and what’s the one for you?Hannah: I think for me, it’s Flume, “Never Be Like You”. I was a producer for The Hottest 100 for a very long time, and I ended up running The Hottest 100 radio station.That was the first Hottest I ever worked on. It was so exciting being able to organise the surprise and kind of make the dreams of Australian artists come true. There’s nothing like it.M: Wouldn’t you get a lot of cranks going, “Why isn’t this on the Hottest 100? Why isn’t this one in there?” Would you get people like that?Hannah: You do get people like that, but it’s democracy. You have to vote to get involved, and if you want to have a say, it is what it is. If you want to complain about it, I’m sorry about it, but it’s life. Sometimes things don’t go your way.M: What really gets me is that when you go back to some of the earlier ones, people go, why were people voting for that? It’s called history. In 1990, they liked five Cure songs.Hannah: When I was in the process of making the Hottest 100 radio station, I created this massive database of all of the songs that had ever been in all of the Hottest 100s.Maynard: And there was “Dancing Queen”.Hannah: Oh yeah, and the thing is, the Hottest 100 is about what’s happening now. It doesn’t matter what’s happening in the future or how you look at it in the future, it’s an encapsulation.Maynard: Dennis Leary “Asshole”, that was number one that year, now you never hear it.Hannah: It’s special though. Because it means something to the people that were there at that point. It doesn’t fucking matter what happens in 20 years time. Asshole was the moment. It was everything that mattered to those people then. And who are you to say that it wasn’t special? Yeah, this meant something to these 18 to 24 year olds in whatever time period.M: Too right, Hannah! Too right. Maynard: And who have we got here at this Triple J Gooby Dooby?Sarah: Sarah Macdonald.M: And Sarah, what do you think is the one track from all your time of listening and being on Triple J? What’s the one you go, yeah, that’s the one that says it all?Sarah: That says it all to a part of my life, and that was “Charlie No. 2” by The Whitlams.M: Why is that?Sarah: Because it was a song about Stevie from The Plunderers. When I did an Unearthed once, we were doing a fundraiser for Reach Out, which is about young people and mental health. And Tim sang it on the piano, and it’s a beautiful song about love and loss and a friend you can’t help. And whenever I hear that song, it just takes me back to the power of good people coming together to help those who need help, and even those who can’t be helped. Makes me cry every time.M: It’s almost a perfect Whitlams song.Sarah: It’s a perfect Whitlams song. Andy Marinos: My name’s Andy, Andy Marinos.Maynard: I remember your dad from being really popular from his late night football calls.Andy: Lex Marinos was his name. He did a lot for early Triple J, early Double J. You know, he wanted to be remembered as a multicultural pioneer, you know, pioneer for Greeks, the pioneer for the world.M: Did you get your dad’s work when you were younger? Or you’re going, what’s this crap dad’s doing?Andy: Oh, well, he took me along to Kingswood Country and stuff. But my mum used to also work on Double J Rock. So I would be in a studio quite a bit as a kid.M: What’s the song you think that would be the one song, you know, from your history of listening to Triple J?Andy: Oh “Video Killed The Radio Star”.M: Why is that?Andy: It’s the first single that I wanted to buy. And I’ve still got it at home somewhere.M: Triple J probably would have played the album version as well.Andy: They did.M: One of Trevor Horn’s greatest moments as a producer.Andy: It was.M: What do you think of the future for Triple J?Andy: Triple J is always going to be around. It’s going to be always evolve, let’s face it. Always.M: And no matter what it is, someone will always complain.Andy: Absolutely. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be Triple J. The post Happy 50th Birthday Triple J ! appeared first on Planet Maynard.

The audio from A Very Maynard Xmas 2024 for those that find all those colours hurt their eyes. Broadcasting from the main arena at Maynard International Studios, just opposite the Gilmore Girls Memorial Auditorium, it will bring the magic of Santa’s grotto back into our lives. Hopefully in the good way. Feature guests in A Very Maynard Xmas 2024 include Lesley Fountain/Glenn Keenan, Roy Darby, Chris Kelly of Ship o Fools. With Christmas greetings from Mari Wilson, Rob Darby, Christopher Laird of Radio Nowhere, George Hrab with The Christmas Sweaters, Brigitte Handley, Tony Push and his poinsettia, even Paul Field and Bronwyn Mulcahy of Countdown Live wave hello in this most awkward of Xmas variety shows. David Hodo top of Xmas tree 2024 The Xmas show is going well. Watch A Very Maynard Xmas 2024 The post A Very Maynard Xmas 2024 Audio version appeared first on Planet Maynard.

In the Thermopylae of modern life, occasionally you encounter someone who is beyond a journeyman, way past a Renaissance man. In fact, George Hrab has gone straight through the Renaissance, leapt over the Napoleonic Wars, and now has his head currently right up the Jazz Age. I first met and listened to George Hrab in 2010 when he was still a teenager. His podcast, The Geologic Podcast, once you get over the fact he never once mentioned, uh, igneous rocks, it’s actually a pretty good bath time listing. His latest funk fest of an album, Terpsichore, despite being named after the Olivia Newton John character in Xanadu, has not one single reference to roller skating. Terpsichore album cover. Possibly not George Hrab’s tootsies. Maynard: In fact, there is a mystery about your album that you’ve deliberately put in there. There’s a secret involved. George: There is, there’s a little bit of a puzzle throughout my history of listening to records and you always get these myths and these urban legends arise. Did Pink Floyd consciously synchronize Dark Side of the Moon with The Wizard of Oz? Because when you put those two on at the same time, a lot of interesting coincidences happen. Was this foreplanned? Was it on purpose? Usually the answer is no. So I wanted to have something not quite as trippy as that, but I wanted to have something incorporated into the album that was a purposeful kind of puzzle. So far, only one person has figured it out. M: Well, you can jump that number up to two because I have figured it out, George. G: Have you? M : First I thought, okay, it’s something about the time signature in the linking rhythms between the tracks. Then I thought, no, it’s obvious. You’ve basically redone Duran Duran’s Rio album. G: I can’t answer if you’re right or not, you know, I don’t want to give it away to the audience, but that’s a damn good answer. That’s a damn good answer… “Very smart people being very silly is incredibly appealing to me.” – Geo George Hrab in the nudie. From the cover of his Interrobang album, 2005. Still a hottie today. George’s album at Bandcamp George Hrab’s podcast George’s YouTube channel Last time George was on the show Bond, Bee Gees und more The post George Hrab is a dancin’ fool. appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Australia’s Coldest 100 returns for 2024 this Saturday 27th January with @ozkitsch presenting 100 tunes you won’t find easily anywhere on any continent. Just look at this list of artists that Andrew Sholl has curated that you’ll never again see on the same list. This is Andrew’s eighth Coldest 100 and he doesn’t see Farnham clips running out anytime soon. The 2024 Coldest 100 brings you Barnsey, Alexander Downer, Tiny Tim, Cilla Black and a rubber chicken. If that isn’t enough to incite your antipodean awkwardness, well, bugger ya. After all, anyone can put together a list of the latest good songs. It takes a certain kind of expert like Andrew Sholl to put together 100 songs of Australian musical hoo-haa for 8 years in a row now. This is a version of You Are The Voice you may enjoy, or not… Andrew Sholl It will all be going down from 10am Saturday 27th January on X and Instagram @Ozkitsch Andrew Sholl shows no sign of ever stopping his annual festival of Aussie awkwardness. So lean into it. . Look and listen to The Coldest 100 2020 Look and listen to The Coldest 100 2021 Maynard plays you some video clips from The Coldest 100 2022 Maynard plays you some video clips from The Coldest 100 2023 Muppets with their Kangaroo. This family is chuffed with their new Jimmy Barnes alarm clock The post Australia’s Coldest 100 – 2024 appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Here’s the audio version of the Xmas show this year. To enjoy the full immersive cheapo experience, watch the show on the previous page. But enjoy both, it’s Shatmas. A Very Maynard Xmas is the highlight of the year for people who don’t get out a lot. It’s just like an old style Xmas variety show, but without the style, or the show. Our guests dropping by this year include Tim Ferguson getting a surprise gift, Lesley Fountain dancing with a choir, Brigitte Handley hanging out with some creepy German dolls, Christopher Laird eating some sort of donut, Tony Push reading his Bowie inspired Xmas poem, George Hrab becoming a super hero, Rob and Roy Darby supplying some quality original music and other people who should have something better to do at this time of year. A Very Maynard Xmas 2023 promises you almost an hour of Xmas entertainment that you will only have yourself to blame for. Musically the show has everything from David Essex to The Gibson Brothers and Lulu. Plus a monkey washing a cat. Tim Ferguson doesn’t seem too keen on the present Maynard got him for Xmas A Very Maynard Xmas 2023 gift. A Golden Girls metal lunchbox Lulu is the performer who will save the day on this year’s A Very Maynard Xmas Tim Ferguson and I let you know what you can expect. You will have trouble describing it yourself. Watch the video of A Very Maynard Xmas 2023 Watch A Very Maynard Xmas 2022 Watch A Very Maynard Xmas 2021 Watch A Very 2020 Maynard Xmas. The post A Very Maynard Xmas 2023 audio podcast version appeared first on Planet Maynard.

30 years ago this week, on a Sunday far, far away Sunday Afternoon Fever blasted across the 1993 landscape of Australia on Triple J… Kirk Pengilly, world famous saxophonist from INXS was my special guest taking questions from live callers Molly, Lance, Rick, Damien, Jenny, Claire (Darwin), Fran (Syd), Melissa (Melb), David, Liz (Melb), Craig, Claire (Manly Vale), Erika, Elaine (Melb), David (Syd), Elvis Presley (Newcastle), Big Dave (Kempsey), Sam, Melissa, Luke, Vanessa and Paul (Brisbane). INXS latest album at the time was Full Moon, Dirty Hearts. Their questions for Kirk Pengilly range from “What new bands do you like?” (Juice & You Am I) to “Do you remember what happened at the Kempsey RSL that night you supported Richard Clapton in 1980?”. (Let’s just say no bands were allowed there for a few years after the “incident”). Kirk turns up on the show 1 hour 55 minutes in. INXS with their first single Simple Simon on Simon Townsend’s Wonderworld in 1980. Listen to INXS at the 1992 Concert for Life, make up your own mind. Other world altering events that afternoon include Steve in Adelaide forgetting to tape The Late Show last night. Lance & The Hollywood Kids gossiping about George Micheal, Rosanne, Corey Ham, Sharon Stone plus the shocking revelation that Brooke Shields was seen buying a book. Crappy New Releases from Dr Ektomy and Mario Lanza. While Maynard’s mastermind finds Andrew wiping the floor with all the other contestants to win not only the new Duran Duran album, BUT also a picture of Nick Kershaw. Always in step with international politics, I put in a call to order some new furniture for Boris Yeltsin. You know, just to be helpful. I report on the Soloway sisters latest production from the opening night in LA Not Without My Nipples. Starring Janeane Garofalo, who was nice enough to give me a lift back to my hotel. Thanks for that. Review of Not Without My Nipples in Variety. But what snappy tunes are on the show Maynard? I hear you ask. Pet Shop Boys – Normally I Wouldn’t Do This Kind of ThingWeddings, Parties, Anything – Mondays ExpertsElectric Hippies – It’s CoolGeneral Public – TendernessRen & Stimpy – Happy Happy Joy JoySpecial AKA – Free Nelson MandelaMr Floppy – Wuthering HeightsNew Order – WorldHoodoo Gurus – The Right TimeWeird Al Yankovic – Jurassic ParkCocteau Twins – Iceblink LuckKate Bush – Eat The MusicSalt N Pepa – ShoopTom Jones – It’s Not UnusualPet Shop Boys – Go WestFreaky Realistic – Leonard NimoyIce Cream Hands – You Can Smile NowPrince – PeachDenis Leary – AssholeStrange Tenants – Soldier BoyWeird Al Yankovic – Bedrock AnthemRadiohead – CreepBarbara Feldon – 99Violent Femmes – Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?Terence Trent D’Arby – DelicateJuice Masters – Brady BunchMiki Howard – Ain’t Nobody Like YouINXS featuring Jenny Morris – JacksonDonny Hathaway What’s Going OnINXS – Need You Tonight (Ben Liebrand remix)Guy Delandro – Old Country LanesINXS – Simple SimonTrey Lorenz – Wipe All My Tears AwayFits Of Gloom – To LoveYothu Yindi – World TurningStan – SuntanWeird Al Yankovic- Achy Breaky SongApache Indian – Boom Shak A LakWeird Al Yankovic – Bohemian Polka So there!! Watch the claymation video for Weird Al Yankovic’s Jurassic Park Special thanks to the work of Phil the work experience producer filling in for the day, Justine Lynch and all Triple J in 1993. The post Sunday Afternoon Fever 17.10.1993 – Kirk Pengilly appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Bunga Bunga 74 answers the eternal question “what is art?” with Tim Ferguson and Maynard. “It’s on the wall you goose”, is the only answer you need. “Art is problematic Maynard. Let’s face it. It doesn’t fucking go with anything.” Wendy Harmer Tim Ferguson has been making art, while Maynard has become a librarian. We find out what fridge magnets have to do with painting as Paul Livingston & Tim go big on the cask wine at their big arty opening at The Sheffer Gallery in Darlington. Hear from Wendy Harmer, Andrew Denton, Gretel Killeen, Russell Cheek and plenty of people who actually know what “outsider art” and “gestural” actually mean. Come for the insults to an iconic Canadian mammal, stay for Herb Alpert’s maracas in your left ear. Bunga Bunga 74 is the intersection that proves both Oscar Wilde and Wendy Harmer may be right. You don’t get that every day. But what you do get every day can’t be put on a wall with accent lights. It mightn’t be the Bunga you want, but in these contemporaneous times, it’s the Bunga Bunga you need. Only 10 minutes after opening and it’s almost packed. Photo: David Art Wales Have a look at the artworks of Tim Ferguson & Paul Livingston, there are only a few unsold. Maynard likes this painting. It’s the only one done by both Paul and Tim at the exhibition. Paul talks about his desecration of Tim’s work during the podcast. Paul Livingston artwork. Photo: David Art Wales Tim Ferguson colour drawing of Paul Livingston. Photo: David Art Wales Kylie Minogue relaxes during Bunga Bunga 74 recording. Tim Ferguson and Wendy Harmer take a brief nap during the proceedings. Details here for the online art contest Tim mentioned at the end of the show from Achieve Australia. Bunga Bunga 73 was wild! The post Bunga Bunga 74- Tim Ferguson & Maynard appeared first on Planet Maynard.

30 years to the month after the original broadcast, here’s Sunday Afternoon Fever, Maynard’s Triple J show from a public toilet in Ultimo for no apparent reason with The Andy 500, Rob Clarkson, and Melissa Tkautz. Even Simon Day sticks his head in. There’s live music in front of a live studio audience. We even get into some True Crime (at 35 minutes) with a heartfelt plea from Simon of Redfern for his stolen trombone. A very emotional moment for all. “Really big toilet you’ve got here Maynard.”Simon Day, 11th July 1993 The Andy 500 at The Metro in Sydney. The Andy 500 dressed up smart and wowed the live audience with their smooth sounds (at around 1 hour 7 minutes). They played four songs including Too Close For Comfort, I Love Your Brain and Touch Me. Lance of The Hollywood Kids (40 minutes in) goes to the opening of new LA club Babylon and spots Cher, Shannon Doherty, Tori Spelling and James Woods. And you’ll never guess who his dinner date was….. “Things are getting, really, really WEIRD here Maynard.”Lance of The Hollywood Kids 11.7.1993 (about 2.49pm) Melissa Tkautz was about to have a guest stint on Paradise Beach as the resident bitch character. She joins us for a chat (about 1 hour 57 minutes in) and you can imagine how the live audience was wary of a soap star coming on a Triple J show. But a really interesting phenomenon happened as I noted many times in my career. As soon as Melissa entered the studio and talked off air to the audience and was as highly professional as she always is, the crowd fell silent. No smarty bum comments, no looking down their noses at a pop star. It’s as if they realised she was actually talented as well as an actual person. She and Simon Day had a great old chin wag in the green room. She introduces her new single, Is It? There’s Crappy New Releases (1 hour 50 minutes in), Maynard’s Mastermind Quiz (in which you can win a bow and arrow set to injure the child of your choice) and group Love Boat karaoke. It was a mint afternoon all round. Join us in this show, the day when Pray by Take That was number one in the UK. In Australia, it was UB40 with Can’t Help Falling in Love. Neither of which are played on this show. But the Triple J feature album is from Paul Westerburg. You WILL hear music from Matthew Sweet, Def FX, XTC, Straitjacket Fits, Phunk Junkeez and even Jimeoin. Rob Clarkson with one of his songs he performed live on the show, The Human Equivalent of Penicillin. Also the regular (very) odd couple segment of Richard Kingsmill dropping in live ( at around 1 hour 35 minutes) to give a hot take on a very early Burt Bacharach tune from his personal collection. This tape doesn’t even cover all the show. Digital audio tapes were expensive in 1993, but I recorded this myself because Triple J wasn’t (and probably still isn’t) in the business of archiving most of their content. So, get down in your underpants and pray to the Church of the Funky Chicken. It’s time for Sunday Afternoon Fever, July 11th, 1993. Thanks to all our studio guests and especially the live studio audience for singing along with the Loveboat Theme. Special thanks to the very professional Triple J Producer Anne-Maree Sargeant, Justine Lynch, Scott Whyte, all the studio 227 engineering crew and all at Triple J in 1993. Sunday Afternoon Fever featuring Sultans of Ping FC Sunday Afternoon Fever featuring Kate Ceberano Melissa Tkautz with her 1993 single she talked about during the show, Is It? The post Sunday Afternoon Fever 11.7.1993 – Live from a toilet in Ultimo appeared first on Planet Maynard.

30 years to the day after the original broadcast, here’s Sunday Afternoon Fever, Maynard’s Triple J show for no apparent reason with Kate Ceberano, Anthony Morgan, Lance & The Hollywood Kids, Crappy New Releases, Warren Coleman, Richard Kingsmill’s Hot Tip and Getting Your Goat. Kate Ceberano calls us from her Melbourne sauna to let us know about her upcoming mini tour. She also has a problem with the audience applause audio on her Kate Ceberano & Her Septet album. “Now I’m giving up smoking, it feels like I’m singing through mucus.”Kate Ceberano, 4th July 1993 (2.43pm) Lance and John, The Hollywood Kids – Regular gossip reporters on Sunday Afternoon Fever Lance and the Hollywood Kids segment reports on the hot new sex club in LA and who Whitney is suing this week. Lots of people calling in from around Australia. Bronwyn in Tasmania is using a new fangled mobile phone on a chairlift while Kevin Markwell in Paddington, Sydney has a farting Ren doll he thinks we need to hear. Jose calls in with news that Kate Ceberano’s 1989 Brave album has just been released in Argentina and is selling well. Melbourne comedy legend Anthony Morgan is back on the stand up circuit after a bit of time away. He’s talking personal poverty and marching bands. “I’ve had a lot of practice at being poor when I was younger and we thought it was a political statement.”Anthony Morgan 4th July 1993 (3.41pm) Join us in this show, the day before Absolutely Fabulous went to air for the first time in Australia. A show that asks the eternal question, “why can’t Dire Straits make music as good as the Magilla Gorilla theme? Anthony Morgan, Melbourne Comedy Festival 1995 Also the regular (very) odd couple segment of Richard Kingsmill dropping by to give a hot take on the upcoming release from Urge Overkill. This tape only covers about half the show. Digital audio tapes were expensive in 1993, but I recorded this myself because Triple J wasn’t (and probably still isn’t) in the business of archiving most of their content. So, get down in your underpants and pray to the Church of the Funky Chicken. It’s time for Sunday Afternoon Fever, July 4th, 1993. Thanks to all our guests and callers. Special thanks to the very professional Triple J Producer Anne-Maree Sargeant, Justine Lynch and all at Triple J in 1993. Maynard at 1992 Melbourne Comedy Festival Maynard on Foxtel Rewind Aussie Women special Kate Ceberano on 60 Minutes 1992 The post Sunday Afternoon Fever 4.7.1993 – Kate Ceberano appeared first on Planet Maynard.

30 years to the day after the original broadcast, here’s Sunday Afternoon Fever, Maynard’s Triple J show in all its unlikely glory with Tlot Tlot, Mrs Sinatra, Sultans of Ping FC and Anthony Ackroyd. Set your dial for plenty of 1993 goodness. “When radio shows were properly and lovingly put together and interviews were entertaining.” Jane Gazzo 2023 This is very much a regular sounding Sunday Afternoon Fever (SAF) show from my final year at Triple J with mostly contemporary music, plenty of comedy and relatable retro thrown in. Regular Mrs Fred Sinatra showcases a new pair of purple shorts. Lance and the Hollywood Kids segment reports on the MTV movie awards with Duran Duran, Whitney Houston and Rod Stewart gossip. Fred and Millie Sinatra A few King Missile inspired comedy moments turn up with Molly Meldrum Was Way Cool and Detachable Trombone. My Australian guests on this show are Tlot Tlot, one of my favourite 90s bands, who came into the studio to promote their pistolbuttsatwinkle’atwinkle album which included a guest vocal from Angie Hart. I had witnessed their “reverse stage diving” at their Hobart gig and still stand by my conclusion during this show that they are “the future of Australian music”. Maynard and Tlot Tlot after the 1993 interview We enter the confusing world of Sultans of Ping FC. I had been playing them for about a year on import and in 1993 they still hadn’t been released locally. Their drummer Morty McCarthy had phoned into SAF the previous week and after I quizzed him on air as to his identity with Ping trivia questions, I invited him onto the show. Jane Gazzo called the studio during the show, I gave her his number and they are still great friends to this day. So if this SAF show achieved anything, there is that – and maybe we also convinced Sony to eventually release their music in Australia. Sultans of Ping FC live in 1993 with Morty on drums Anthony Ackroyd was fresh off the release of the Yahoo Serious movie Reckless Kelly, and announced his Reckless Ackroyd tour across Australia with Haskel Daniel supporting. We discover where he got those loud shirts from and learn he was “just to big for that movie”. Anthony Ackroyd embarks upon his Reckless Ackroyd tour Also the regular (very) odd couple segment of Richard Kingsmill dropping by to give a hot take on the upcoming release from Fishbone. And this tape only covers about half the show. Digital audio tapes were expensive in 1993, but I recorded this myself because Triple J wasn’t (and probably still isn’t) in the business of archiving most of their content. So, get down in your underpants and pray to the Church of the Funky Chicken. It’s time for Sunday Afternoon Fever 1993. Thanks to all our guests. Special thanks to the very professional Triple J Producer Anne-Maree Sargeant, Justine Lynch and all at Triple J in 1993. Maynard at 1992 Melbourne Comedy Festival Maynard on Foxtel Channel V at 2000 Melbourne Comedy Festival Tlot Tlot with The Girlfriend Song The post Sunday Afternoon Fever 16.6.1993 – Sultans of Ping appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Brigitte Handley of The Dark Shadows has returned to Australia to let Maynard know what he is missing on German television. Also to remind all of us of the educational value of the work of Falco (even though he was Austrian). She’s been exploring a new range of sounds there and has been working with Matahari Ranch to produce a full sound and stark video for Köln. So enjoy a Sour Candy, meet us in the Kylie Minogue park in Glebe and prepare yee for the way of “Schlager”. Careful with your pronunciation of “Klaus Wunderlich”. It’s great catching up with Brigitte, apparently Dr Who doesn’t translate well into German, but Skippy does? Tilly Electronics have a new single as well “Tilly Pop”, but that’s a story for another day. The Dark Shadows – Brigitte Handley, Ned Wu, Carly Chalker Brigitte Handley’s Bandcamp As mentioned, check out the lineup at The Sonic Ballroom in Köln The post Brigitte Handley in Köln appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Bunga Bunga 73 has you wading fearlessly into the intellectual end of the inflatable kiddie pool with Tim Ferguson and Maynard. You will soon learn your lesson in ethics as topics impetuously covered in this show include comedy, Gumby, cheese, poo and Peter Dutton. Tim is writing a book, quelling a riot and giving advice to the Prime Minister. Maynard enjoys colourful plasticine. It’s a great show! Just listen to these two tell you how good a listen it is. Look, cute puppy. A ringing endorsement from your hosts. Look, cute puppy. Tim Ferguson at home with Daphne the dachshund. Get along to see Tim Ferguson at Adelaide Fringe this week for the world premiere of his new show Disability Rules! Bunga Bunga 72 was pretty cool. The post Bunga Bunga 73- Tim Ferguson & Maynard appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Jon English was a towering professional in the Australian theatre and music world from his first national appearance as Judas in the 1972 production of Jesus Christ Superstar. I first met Jon when he was working on his musical Paris and he dropped in to the Triple J breakfast show a number of times. Always up for a laugh. I last spoke to him in 2002 when he was touring a revival of Pirates of Penzance, shortly before his press conference at the Civic Theatre, Newcastle. Jon talks about his early TV work and missing out on that zombie role he always wanted to play. Jon English in HMS Pinafore. Jon English in Wikipedia. Jon English as Judas in the 1975 production of Jesus Christ Superstar The post Jon English interview 2002 appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Australia’s Coldest 100 returns for 2023 this Saturday 28th January with world class musical curiosities that only this wide and very beige land of Australia can produce. Just look at this list of artists that Andrew Sholl has curated that you’ll never again see on the same list. This is Andrew’s seventh Coldest 100 and he doesn’t foresee running out of clips anytime soon. The 2023 Coldest 100 brings Bud Tingwell, Wickety Wak, Germaine Greer, Tina Arena, The singing Citizens of Macarthur, Johnny Raper, Ian Turpie singing some Nirvana, and the legend himself, Steven Farnham. Thrill to wonderful jingles that remind you of the natural beauty that is Perth, Brisbane and a chicken restaurant chain in Melbourne. A recession may be averted by the use of interpretive dance on the Sunrise show… After all, anyone can put together a list of the latest good songs. It takes a certain kind of goose like Andrew Sholl to put together 100 songs of Australian musical flotsam for 8 years in a row now. The Coldest 100 this year has everything from Marlene Dietrich to Steven Farnham… Andrew Sholl It will all be going down from 9am Saturday 28th January on Twitter @Ozkitsch Andrew Sholl shows no sign of ever stopping his annual festival of Aussie frippery. So lean into it. . Look and listen to The Coldest 100 2020 Look and listen to The Coldest 100 2021 Maynard plays you some video clips from The Coldest 100 2022 Johnny Raper mightn’t sing that well, but Frank Sinatra couldn’t play rugby league. The Kransky Sisters will make you go funny in your water. The post Australia’s Coldest 100 – 2023 appeared first on Planet Maynard.

A new book from longtime music industry insider Jane Gazzo fills in Australian music history from a time before oversharing became endemic. Sound As Ever: A celebration of the greatest decade in Australian music (1990-1999), a book with Andrew P Street covers most things that you should know about the optimistic musical decade that was dashed against the uncaring digital rocks of the 21st century. Early 90s CDs from Australian artists (and The Sultans of Ping FC) Maynard: With the Australian musical landscape, sadly, experiencing a slight, lack of interesting musical punters, one woman has stepped forward to toot the collective horn of the dark yet simultaneously blindingly colourful decade known as the nineties. Jane Gazzo has done that and been there. From inner city beginnings at Melbourne’s legendary 3RRR to Triple J, Triple M and BBC Radio, through to you seeing her on ABC’s Recovery on a Saturday morning and Channel V and Music Max on Foxtel, you probably know of Jane. But have you ever shared a flat with her? Well, I haven’t either, but Sharky from The Prodigy and Courtney Love have, and all of them are better people from the experience. She’s written for Q magazine, but more importantly, Dolly magazine. Jane has published a book on John Farnham, but a new epic nineties book Sound As Ever – a celebration of the greatest decade in Australian music, 1990 to 1999, please make welcome my favourite Latrobe University graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in cinema that strangely has not yet won an Academy Award. Talk about robbed! Welcome Jane Gazzo! Not at all flattering still of Maynard & Jane Gazzo from Triple J 40th staff party 2015. Jane Gazzo: Thanks Maynard, you are my favourite purple-suited presenter slash broadcaster. M: I think you’ll find it’s aubergine. It’s great to be chatting to you once again. We bumped into each other at the Triple J 40th catchup party. That was the last time I think I saw you. J: Oh, that was sooo long ago Maynard. M: There was no one documenting that. There was no person from ABC Radio. There was no person from ABC TV. You had staff from 40 years of Triple J all in the one room. J: It was a crime. M: Some of those people are no longer with us. I’m glad that you are making your moment with the nineties here. Look, I was talking to a couple of people about this, Glenn A Baker, he reckons the seventies were the greatest decade in Australian music. I mean, you’re ignoring the work of Mother Goose. Even though they are from New Zealand. Richard Wilkins told me that the greatest decade in Australian music was the eighties and you can’t really deny the work of Joe Dolce. He did replace the Pope when he got shot that time, which is even better than an ARIA award in my book, you are ignoring a lot there for the nineties. So you gotta make your case. What’s so great about the nineties, Miss Pineapple-and-Vodka-Drinker? J: It is a bold statement, I grant you that and yes, look, the eighties were fabulous but for me the nineties was the last decade of innocence. And by that, I mean, we didn’t have camera phones, we didn’t have mobile phones. Record companies had so much money to spend on bands and they pretty much did spend money on bands and the Australian music scene was in a really healthy state. But as the year 2000 progressed, that innocence seemed to dissipate. M: Do you think the record companies spent their money wisely? J: There was some flippant signings. I mean, The Sharp, let’s be honest. M: Look, I will not hear a word against the black skivvy wearing legends from Melbourne. J: Scratch My Back, baby. M: Don’t deny Train of Thought. J: No one remembers Train of Thought Maynard. I think it was an interesting time because you would go to a gig in the nineties and you would notice the A&R men – and they all were men – by the bar, basically seeing who had the fattest cheque book in their pocket. M: There was something in their pocket, that’s for sure. J: I’m just saying it was healthy. There was a lot of community, there was a lot of camaraderie. Yet more Australian CDs from the 90s. (Maynard International Studios) M: You, you did a lot of stuff on recovery of course. So a lot of people were watching you bleary eyed on a Saturday morning and you would’ve been exposed to so many new bands of all varying talent. You would get a band on (Recovery) and you would never see them or hear from them ever again. Jane Gazzo J: Varying talent. Sometimes you would get a band on and you would never see them or hear from them ever again. A band that I remember appearing on recovery was a band called Cool for August. Now they weren’t Australian, they were American, but obviously the record company here were putting in thousands and thousands of dollars to launch them here. They never did anything. M: What were they called? J: Cool for August and I only remember that because they had eyeballs on the Recovery set. We used to recreate a lot of the CD single covers. We never heard from them again. Then there was things like Sin Dog Jellyroll out of Adelaide, the most stupidest band name ever. Sin Dog Jellyroll. Where are they now? I should have probably investigated it. M: One of the things you have got in the book is the Where Are They Now? section, even bands I’d never heard of. J: You get a mention in the book Maynard, because it was you that introduced me to the artistic delights of Tlot Tlot. M: Tlot Tlot and Rob Clarkson, I loved championing music on Triple J that wasn’t even on their playlist at the time and Tlot Tlot were a lot of fun. Always good, always up for a joke. My partial nineties list of bands goes a bit like this: Itch-E and Scratch-E, Mr Floppy, The Mavis’s, TISM, Oxo Cubans, Tlot Tlot, Rob Clarkson, Area 7, The Porkers, Caligula, Ratcat, Frente, The Killjoys, The Sharp, Collette, Bjorn Again, Falling Joys, Floyd Vincent, Frank Bennett. There you go. J: Where’s Things of Stone and Wood in that list? M: Happy Birthday, Helen… You’ve been probably torturing yourself with nineties music in your head while you’ve been writing this book. Is there one that got stuck in your ear? And you thought “not this again”. J: It was more of how did I forget this song? I actually fell in love with the Canberra band Sidewinder all over again and their track Titanic Days. I forgot how brilliant it was. M: One thing you mentioned fairly early on in the book is that the nineties had a real feeling of optimism, that just isn’t happening anymore. J: I’m so glad you mentioned the optimism Maynard because everywhere there was optimism, certainly after we came out of the recession that we “had to have”. Paul Keating was our new Prime Minister. There was a sense, as I mentioned that the record companies had money and if you formed a band, you could pretty much live off the takings of being a musician. The music scene was so vibrant and so healthy that anything was possible. And a lot of those bands that I interviewed for the book really talk about that optimism and that sense of we can do anything we can get as big as we can. Which is why bands like TISM became so big, bands like Spiderbait and You Am I. There was this optimism. M: Well, that’s certainly gone now. J: Yeah, I think it’s wavered somewhat. M: You’ve got the double whammy of venues disappearing and people not wanting to go out. J: It was the bloody pokies, wasn’t it? That was introduced in the late nineties that saw really great venues just forfeit the stage for pokies because they realised that they could make more money from them. … I’d say every 20 years there’s a revolution. I’m hoping that with the recent global pandemic, there’ll be a new revolution and we’ll find those protest songs and those bands will start coming out of little tiny warehouses again, and the scene will reinvent itself. M: I really hope that’s the case, that’s the kind of thing I’d like to see. I just wonder whether a lot of the experts and people with experience have left the industry. J: They all got out of it during the pandemic because they weren’t making any money and they realised they couldn’t make any money. So they had to change careers had to go into different fields and now there is a real, genuine skill shortage. What are we gonna do about it Maynard? M: I think if one band can do anything about it, it’s TISM – This Is Serious Mum – and they kick off your book in a pretty major way with a complaint letter from Bruce Ruxton from the RSL Association of Australia to Shock Records complaining about their record. J: It was so brilliantly done. TISM released a single called Australia, the Lucky C*nt, and wrote that word on their CD single. M: But also to boot, they had a knock off of a Ken Done koala shooting up heroin on the front cover. So you had copyright infringement as well as offence, which is always a good double banger. J: But you know, what is so hilarious? I talk about this in the book, that Ken Done didn’t take offence to the fact that TISM copied his koala and his koala had a syringe hanging out of his mouth, he took offence to the fact that they copied his sun, suddenly he was copyrighting the sun. … So Ken Done owned the sun apparently in the nineties. M: Oh, I guess that’s on most of his tea towels. J: Yes, Bruce Ruxton. They actually sent a copy of the single to Bruce Ruxton in the hope that he would get his knickers in a knot and low and behold, he walked right into it. He received the CD single with the four letter word on it and wrote a letter which said it should be banned and they used that to get more publicity for themselves. TISM cover of Australia The Lucky Cunt CD 1993 J: Can we just pray silence please for the sad news of the first lady of music television in Australia, Basia Bonkowski or Rendall as she was known, of course, the host of the wonderful SBS show, a Rock Around the World. M: Was she the first? J: Yeah, I think she was the first and Suzanne Dowling was the second. In the media I think they’ve conveniently forgotten Suzanne Dowling who did Rock Arena. That was absolutely equally as brilliant. M: As far as I know, you’re the only person in nineties media history, who has put me in the book, why? J: Because you were so omnipresent in the nineties. I used to listen to your show. You were appointment listening, and that’s when radio was really important. I mean, Triple J had literally just gone national when you started and you were such a breath of fresh air on the radio. Still are, I don’t know how your mind works. You just presented really great radio, and it wasn’t just the fact that you brought really cool bands on the radio. I mean, you were the first one to play and break in this country, Irish band from Cork, Sultans of Ping FC. But you used to do this amazing segment with a wonderful woman, American woman “You’ve got the wrong Sinatra”. M: Millie Sinatra, a lovely lady, and she would solve people’s problems every week on the show. J: Well, this is the thing, who’s doing that now on Triple J? I don’t hear any of that. M: Sultans of Ping FC, yeah. Where’s Me Jumper? The film clip just had a jumper flying in the air. I mean, that’s the kinda thing you want. I remember one day the drummer turned up while I was doing Sunday Afternoon Fever, and I couldn’t believe it. J: Well, it was because of him being on a, just a holiday. And I think he was staying at Bondi or Bronte or somewhere like that. He’d heard you playing Sultans of Ping so he rang up and he said “Hey, I’m Morty McCarthy, the drummer of Sultans of Ping.” Now I heard that and I was on Triple R at the time. So I remember ringing you and saying, “Can you give me Morty McCarthy’s details? I wanna interview him for Triple R.” And I have to actually thank you Maynard, because you may not know this, but Morty is now a very, very dear friend of mine. He lives in Sweden now and works for Radiohead doing merchandise. M: Classic example of the unknown consequences of doing something nice. J: See Maynard, you’ve had an effect on my life without you even knowing! M: Look, we’ve gotta get back to the fact that Mr Floppy gets far too brief a mention. The album of the nineties was The Incredible Lightness of Being a Dickhead and Bruce Ruxton was on that album. J: Oh my God. As was Peter Russell Clark, as was James Reyne, they just don’t make them like that anymore. I could have done a whole book on Mr Floppy and TISM alone. Track listing of the legendary album from Mr Floppy, The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Dickhead. M: I also learned a lot about Ratcat as well, having supported the guys more recently, I didn’t know that they had to spend so much of their own money at the behest of the record company to go overseas and do stuff that was a really bad move for them. J: Yeah, in the middle of mass teen Ratcat hysteria they were told to go to London, to the UK, which makes absolutely no sense. And of course they never truly recovered once they got back because the kids had moved on, they couldn’t reclaim that fan base. Andrew P Street spoke at length to Amr Zaid, who was one of the original members of Ratcat, for the book and Amr had never told his story before. Amr had never talked about his time in Ratcat ever. He was really chuffed to be able to tell his story. I think he’s very proud of what they achieved in that short time. M: In December, in a packed Enmore Theatre there, people still love them. J: It’s fair to say it’s probably just Simon Day, these days. I think Amr and Simon haven’t spoken for years and years and years. M: Being the music industry, and you said that those two haven’t spoken for a while, did you have to be careful who you spoke to and when you did, what you said? If you were talking to someone in a band and you knew that you shouldn’t mention What’s-his-name or The Interview? J: Oh, put it this way, when I was doing the Where are they now? I had to be very careful with certain members who didn’t like other members, or who were really still nursing a lot of heartbreak from the breakup of their bands. And I had to be really careful with how I wrote about that. I just had to be really careful that someone wasn’t gonna email me and go “why did you mention that?” But I also wanted to get across the story of the person that was broken hearted. M: Let’s talk about someone that was done wrong by the industry and that’s Tania Lacy. J: Mmmmm. Again, another woman who has never told her story. M: I remember being on the phone to her and Mark, because I was asked to host the show for a while. The first thing I did was ring them and they said, no, no, do it. And I didn’t do it because I supported what they were doing. And as she said, her booting off from Countdown Revolution was something her career never has recovered from. J: It’s true. She had to take writing jobs to support herself, but she was told never to darken the door of the ABC ever again. She was fired by fax. She wasn’t even allowed to go and pick her things up. And the ABC said that the duo were fired for protesting about bands miming on the show, which was so far from the truth. As she puts it, she was protesting the fact – both her and Mark were protesting the fact – that the ABC were taking contra deals from record companies. Reporters were being flown overseas to interview bands, free trips, free prizes, everything that the ABC Charter states not to do, they were doing. M: Shortly afterwards, the ABC really cracked down on that kind of thing. J: As they should have. Tania Lacy was in her early twenties at the time and was being yelled at by these suits in middle management. What do you do? Where do you go? She was so talented. Cruelly wasn’t allowed to ever appear on air ever again. So she fled to, I think it was Sweden, where her husband was from. She’s back now. M: She’s in Queensland now. J: There’s a great article in Rolling Stone which I wrote, again based on the fact that herself and Caroline from Dead Star talked about just what they dealt with in the nineties. And so I put it into an article in this month’s Rolling Stone with The Wiggles on the front cover. To really tell their stories. M: Another show that fell through the cracks was the one that was just on before Recovery, and that was The Factory, Tania was a powerhouse on that show. J: I love the characters she used to take off. There was a Nana Mouskouri character. That’s where Tiziana Bouboulini was born of course. And she used to interview artists with the most hilarious of personas. M: And they just chucked the whole thing away. J: Yeah, very strange times. And it’s interesting because Countdown Revolution was a precursor to what Recovery would become where anarchy was encouraged. But as soon as they asked Mark and Tania to be as anarchic as possible, they got shut down. M: Anyone who’s been to a Mark Little standup comedy gig would’ve told you what you’d be getting if you asked for him. At the Adelaide Festival, I think one of the rooms was sponsored by the submarine company and he smashed up the sign one night. You nailed your nineties there with a list of stuff – in the nineties: Taragos, that was mainly the Toyota way of getting around with bands because the people carriers hadn’t expanded as much as they are. J: When I went to London and people started talking about people carriers, I did not have any idea what they were talking about because I’d always called it a Tarago. I’d only ever known it as a Tarago. M: The lists people have made of things that were really big, it’s interesting. Phones just don’t appear on the list. Cameras don’t appear on the list. The vodka and pineapple juice, because there were some wacky connections there. And I think even the vodka and energy drink thing was going on then, at the tail end of the nineties as well. J: See it was Illusion Shakers for me, which I think were mentioned. M: Were they blue? J: They were Midori with lemonade and something else. And they were really big in the clubs in the nineties. M: But I remember it was part of Sunday Afternoon Fever who had the most expensive Subzero, that lemonade. J: I loved Subzeros, loved them. M: And at clubs, they were really expensive. And I remember we found, oh, there was one going for as much as $7 at one time. And also, at this time, I like mentioning that the import record thing was big. Because you couldn’t just click and download stuff from anywhere around the world. You had to go to a shop like Red Eye or many of the great record shops in Melbourne. If you wanted a CD, it could be as much as $45 in 1993 dollars J: Weren’t record shops such hubs of community? You could go to a record shop and if the guy behind the counter knew you, he would recommend something that he’d know that you’d like, you’d check out all the musos looking at the musos wanted boards. You could find out about gig that were happening. You could get your import stuff. You’d get your street press while you were there. That’s really lacking in today’s world. M: Yes, Saturday morning at a place like Central Station, you would have all the DJs turning up and all the important ones like Peewee Ferris and people like that would have their records put aside. J: There is a fantastic map of old Sydney record stores in the book and some are still hanging on for dear life like Red Eye. We all remember our record shops really fondly. M: Brunswick Street was the go in Melbourne. J: Polyester was there, there was Sister Ray for a while. Of course, in the city you had Au GoGo and Missing Link records. M: Missing Link. I remember getting my copy of 99 by Barbara Feldon there. They also released, I think, Kinky Boots, by the Avengers, which I used to play on the radio as well. And whenever a Kylie record was released in the UK about a month or two ahead of us, I’d go and get the import copy and I’d play it first. I liked doing that. I ended up setting fire to my own bum. That’s what happens when you’re a trailblazer…Maynard J: You were a trailblazer! M: I ended up setting fire to my own bum. That’s what happens when you set fire to your trail and you blaze it! J: You opened the doors for the likes of me, Maynard, you opened up the doors for us. M: You did the request show on Triple J of an evening. J: After Michael Tunn! Remember Michael Tunn? Tunny had left by the time I took over his shift, I think he got burnt out because remember he was doing the Afternoon Show on ABC TV. M: He was hosting Big Square Eye as well. He was 16 when he first arrived at Triple J. J: And he was great! I took over from the Request Best and I changed it to Super Request. M: I started doing the request show on a Saturday night before Tunny got it and it was a really weird thing because there had been no request show on Triple J before they got me to do it for a couple of months before Tunny took over. And the weird thing was you either got two sorts of songs. People would want something that was ultra commercial, or they’d want something that was really obscure. It’s like the audience didn’t know what to do with a request show on Triple J at first. Michael Tunn had a really interesting way of broadcasting. He would have an FM radio, just a little transistor radio in the studio, and whenever he went to a song, he would listen to all the other major music stations in Sydney, find out what they were playing and try and better the song that they had on. J: That’s amazing. M: It means you’re being reactionary. You’re not leading your reacting, but it’s a way to do it. … And what was the weirdest experience you had doing a request show? The Triple J request show when I was doing it, when Tunny was doing it, when anyone does it is not a normal request show. J: I’m gonna let you in on a secret Maynard: some nights on Super Request when I was hosting, there were no calls. Which is hard to believe because we were nationwide, but some nights we just didn’t have any talent or, you know, they’d ring up and they’d want a song that we couldn’t play or didn’t want to play. Or it was too daggy, too bad, whatever. I can’t believe I’m telling you this … I had this friend that was really good at putting on voices and accents. When we needed some talent on the air, especially Friday nights, I think Friday nights we struggled because everyone was getting ready to go out and I had this friend, Glen, who would put voices and accents on. Well, I, I loved that Radio Birdman song Aloha Steve and Danno. And I had read in the paper that day, that the guy who actually played Steve, the actor on the actual Hawaii Five O show had passed away. M: Jack Lord! Our Lord and Saviour, Jack Lord. J: So it was 1998 and he’d died and so I went, oh well, that’s a great segue into Aloha Steve and Danno. Hey, homage to Jack Lord and Hawaii Five O by Radio Birdman. Why not? Great. I rang Glen and I said, “Mate, can you come on and just mention you, you’re a huge Hawaii Five O fan”. I’d always word him up. Uh, Jack Lord’s passed away. Can I play Radio Birdman? He said “Yep not a problem Jane”. He was used to it, coming on and requesting songs. So he got on air, we’re live on air and Glen put on a Chinese accent. M: Oh no! J: It’s awfully racist as well, but he just thought he’d take the piss and put on a Chinese accent live on air. Maynard, I lost it, I start laughing, I can’t hold it together because I know it’s my mate putting on a Chinese accent. My God, I had tears coming down my face. I got him on and I got him off, but Jesus, I was pissing myself, no word of a lie. The next day, someone from the Herald Sun was obviously listening and put in the entertainment section: “Jane Gazzo was so disrespectful to a listener who was talking about the death of Jack Lord, not cool, Jane”. My friend was putting on a friggin’ Chinese accent and someone took me to task and wrote about it, that I was the most disrespectful person in the world, ever! M: By the way every commercial station does that for sure. Because the problem commercial stations have is not so much people ringing up, but ringing up with the right songs that are on the playlist. J: Oh my God. I know. Well, you know, you and I have both worked in commercial radio when I worked at, um, a commercial radio that will remain nameless, but is still around today, they did this whole campaign: We’re gonna play the songs you wanna hear! So make sure you get in and, and fill in this thing online and tell us all the songs you wanna hear! And, of course I got excited as a DJ, I went, oh great, we’re expanding our playlist from the 12 Cold Chisel songs and Guns and Roses songs that we constantly play to maybe 20 songs. And I remember my boss coming into the studio while I was on air, which was a crime in itself, but he goes “Have you got something lined up?” and I said, “Yeah, yeah, I’m gonna play Run to the Hills cause everyone loves Run to the Hills and there’s so many requests for it. “No, no, no, no, no, don’t play that, play Garbage.” “But there’s not one request from any male between the ages of 40 to 65 who was requested Garbage.” He’s saying “No, but just ring up someone and get them to ask for it, okay.” And I’m like, “What about Run to the Hills? Cause that’s what people wanna hear?” M: I know this Chinese guy who really likes Garbage! J: Such a lie to the audience! M: The amount of lies in the book that I’ve spotted has been almost zero. The quiz at the end is a good one as well. You’re someone who’s written a few trivia quizzes in your time, Jane Gazzo. J: Did you get them all right? M: I actually didn’t do very well in them. Why don’t you throw one out to the listener right now? J: Who was the host of Creatures of the Spotlight on Triple J on a Monday night? There’s one for you. M: Peter Castaldi. J: Correct. And who was his co-host? M: I’d forgotten there was a co-host. J: Yeah! Starts with L … Lawrie Zion, you don’t remember Lawrie Zion? M: Lawrie Zion! J: Creature of the Spotlight was Pete Castaldi and then Lawrie Zion. I’m sure they worked in tandem together. M: Now that’s a good question for those nineties Triple J listeners. And I’d like to finish with you making a request on this show and don’t do your Chinese voice again! I’m on to you, Jane. Well, now the radio station would have to hand in its licence. And they’d just dig a large hole there, build a statue of you, then pull the statue down and dig another hole and put the statue in it. J: It wasn’t me, it was my mate Glen. A request, all right, I’m gonna go Ratcat, That Ain’t Bad because “I love you” – that was the catch cry of the early nineties, and it really for me kickstarted the entire Australian music scene, such a great, great song to go out with. M: Where can people get the book Sound As Ever: A Celebration of the Greatest Decade in Australian Music (1990-1999)? J: In all good boutique bookshops, as well as the major chain bookshops, and you can get it online via Melbourne books. M: I recommend people go along to your website: janegazzo.com and have a good read of what you’ve done, and all little incidents that have gone on. I do like the word that you shared a place with, and you worked for, Courtney Love ‘briefly’. J: Briefly. M: So was it the whole day? J: It was 12 days all up. M: Would the word ‘mercurial’ be good to use? J: Batshit crazy is probably better. M: This book is worth reading, worth having, it’ll settle arguments. Cause that’s one thing, you’ll be at home, you’ll be watching stuff, one person will look at the Wiki, other people will look at YouTube, they won’t have the same answer, they’ll be pushing and shoving, and everyone will be drinking the pineapple and vodka juice, and you can solve the answer by just having this book. Oh, hang on a minute, you supported Hugh Jackman as a DJ? J: I was his support act. M: What do you play when you’re supporting Hugh Jackman? J: Playing stuff from Motown and sixties Soul and eighties stuff. I was having a ball, such a highlight in my life being the support act for Hugh Jackman and on the eighth show when I got off stage for the last time I did a cartwheel down the runway, just cartwheeled all the way back. M: What song would you finish with? J: I think I finished with You Can’t Hurry Love by the Supremes. M: Have you thought of what song we should play for you? J: Ratcat, That Ain’t Bad. M: You don’t want to change your answer? You don’t want to phone a friend? Particularly a friend who puts on a fake Chinese accent. I’m not having that guy on the show again! Jane Gazzo, thank you very much. She’s requested it twice so we have to play it now on the Maynard Request Fest here. Sound As Ever: A celebration of the greatest decade in Australian music (1990-1999) it’s great and so is Jane! Where to get Sound as Ever: A celebration of the greatest decade in Australian Music (1990-1999) Sunday Afternoon Fever show 1993 featuring my visit to Mrs Fred Sinatra in Las Vegas. Triple J 40th birthday staff party 2015 Tania Lacey for The Factory at Triple J launch in Melbourne. The beginning of that first episode of Countdown Revolution 1990. Mark Little & Tania Lacey The post Jane Gazzo – Sound As Ever – Australian music 1990-1999 appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Tim Ferguson & Maynard return to face their recent recriminations. Tim is making art. Maynard finds his art in a Glebe back alley. Contains occasional casual burlesque. The Nitty Gritty dance that blew Tim’s mind is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S3Yt-NxY0E The version of Moon River is Audrey’s vocal as used in the film. It wasn’t available outside the movie till after her death in 1993. We sneak in Terri “Cup Cake” O’Mason mistaking her baking speciality by referring to her as “Cookie”. Sorry Terri. Terri O’Mason doing her naughty thing. Thanks to Ben Begley, Slice Radio & Peter Young for your Crankmail in this show. Watch Lesley Fountain’s Wonderful World of Dance and be as impressed as Tim was by the video spectacular. The post Bunga Bunga 72 – Tim Ferguson & Maynard appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Mari Wilson, 80s UK pop glamourpuss, is our guest in this possibly career defining show for Maynard. From Neasden to New York, from “Just What I Always Wanted” to “The Eyes Have It” via “Ecstasy” and much carry on over the decades, Maynard and Mari have a grand old chinwag. Joining fellow Neasden immortals such as Twiggy, Gerry Anderson and Bob Marley… Mari Wilson still often wonders what was the deal with the Neasden Sea Scouts, as Neasden is 40 miles away from the sea. “I’ve got a thing about Tupperware. You’ve got to know the right way to let air out of it.” Mari Wilson – Tupperist Mari Wilson with her 1983 Tupperware collection. Mari working on that beehive at home. Photo by ANL/Shutterstock Mari having a musical good time in 2022. Mari Wilson with her parents 1982. (Daily Mail) Mari Wilson’s iconic Showpeople album cover 1983. Mari Wilson demonstrates the peril of doing a calendar photo shoot with limited headroom for her famous beehive. By the legendary Adrian Boot. As mentioned in the show, Mari was wearing that June outfit during the recording of Showpeople. (It’s Crimplene.) Mari Wilson’s dates supporting Level 42 in UK in November 2022. Witness the quick change power of Mari during Baby It’s True. Thrill to this audience of Dutch New Romantics. Mari on Dutch Top Pop show 1984. Mari Wilson live performance of Cry Me A River on The Tube 1984 with her strings the Prawn Cocktails. Mari with Matt Backer – The Eyes Have It. Maynard’s research, a selection of Mari Wilson press 1980s. “I may have overresearched this interview…” – Maynard (overresearching ) Watch all the Mari Wilson video clips Maynard could find. A Mari Wilson video special. Watch Mari on Top of The Pops with her fans and band having a great time 1982. Mari Wilson’s site What was The Castanet Club anyway? Official looking transcript of Maynard’s interview with Mari Wilson Maynard: Valued listener, only three musical artists deserve their very own section in my extensive music collection. They are ABBA, Tom Jones and our guest today, Mari Wilson. From an early beginning in the backyard bathtub in Neasden, to the bright lights of New York City and Crouch End, Mari has wowed the world with her albums such as Showpeople, The Rhythm Romance, Pop Deluxe and Emotional Glamour. And the singles: from the perfect 80s pop of Just What I Always Wanted, to the cinematically dangerous Would I Dance with a Stranger, to any of the belting heartfelt ballads on Pop Deluxe, Mari’s worked with Boy George, Mark Almond, Heaven 17, not to mention Harry, Barry, Larry, Gary, Cary and, of course, Jim. Despite never realising her lifelong dream of owning a donkey by the seaside, Mari has succeeded in breathing life and laughter into her catchphrase: it's a glamourous song and it's glamorously sung. My favourite UK Type 1 diabetic, please welcome Miss Beehive, The Neasden Queen of Soul, eat drink and be Mari! In fact, be Mari McMillan Ramsey Wilson! Hi Mari! Mari: Hello there! That was quite something, wasn't it, that intro, that's very kind of you. You missed one album out there and that's Cover Stories. It was the one before Pop Deluxe. It's very sparse, just piano. Maynard: And I saw you giving a lovely sparse performance of Female of the Species on YouTube at a show. Mari: Oh my God, I think I’ve only sung that once, that song, Maynard: What got me was it was in a lovely restaurant and people were eating. Mari is singing! Don't eat the soup while the woman's singing! Great version. Mari: Well, thank you. That was years ago. My goodness. How long ago? That must have been 20 years ago, at least. Maynard: Minimal arrangement. I quite liked it. In fact, we've got telegrams from people that want me to say hello to you. Some of your Australian fans want me to say hello and ask some questions. Are you up for it Mari? Mari: Absolutely. Of course. Maynard: First one comes from Dave Milton, who was the owner of the Blue Note Club in Derby. Mari: [Laughs] That brings back some hilarious memories that does! Maynard: He said that “Mari and her band were always the most professional and the easiest group to work with that I ever worked with while I owned the Blue Note.” There you go. Mari: Well, that's nice to know. I don't think every club owner would say that mind you. Maynard: Is that because sometimes there were 12 of you and you left mud marks in the dressing room and that sort of thing? Mari: I'm pretty OCD. No, I always leave the dressing room probably tidier than when I get there. When I look back to those times, The Blue Note was fantastic. We had some fantastic gigs there. I think we played there a few times, actually. It was just very vibey and it was at the time when … I always find this quite hard to describe … but before you become whatever word you want to use “famous” or “successful” or “known”, you know, before you have that hit. It's the time sort of just before that that you never get back again. you know, I wasn’t as massive as somebody like Madonna, but still for a few years, I was having hit records and touring and recognised and all that kind of thing. But it's the bit before that, that is the nicest because you can feel something's happening, but it hasn't happened yet, but you feel like it's going to. Maynard: There's that moment when you've still got your friends and the people you know coming along, and the new people are coming in, and it's blending like that. Is that kind of what you mean as well? Mari: Yeah, it's the anticipation. It's a bit like when you are falling in love with someone, those first six months when you shag like rabbits. Oh, I don’t know if I can say that. Can I? Maynard: Oh, we're going to get dirty here, don't you worry about that! Mari: Oh good. It kind of feels like that. And then when you get the hit and everything, that is great, but there's something better for me about the “just before” - it's lovely. Maynard: Well, we've got a quote here from you from March 5th, 1983, from the Record Mirror on the front cover: “Mari Wilson: I'd rather muck about than be sexy”. A completely out-of-context quote that they love putting on the front of these magazines. There's another one from you I like: “The problem about being famous is what if I'm walking down the shops and I fall over and there's a hole in my tights”. Mari: Did I say that? That's ridiculous! Maynard: That's a legitimate issue. If there's a hole in your tights at any time and someone notices, it can be embarrassing. Mari: Well, yeah, well but it's quite fashionable to have holes in your tights now. I think the worst thing would be if you didn't have any knickers on - that would be a bit worse, but I didn't think of that at the time Maynard: That would get you in The Sun. You'd be in The Sun for sure. Mari: Oh yeah, it would, yeah. Maynard: There's Ryan Wallace, who worked for the BBC for a while, and when he heard you were from Neasden, he asks: is the best way to drive to Neasden via Shoot Up Hill Road? Does that mean anything to you? Mari: Well, it depends where you're coming from, you'd have to go through Willesden. This is sending people to sleep isn't it? Maynard: People are putting this into their GPS right now as we talk. Bob Downe, also known as Mark Trevorrow, who I believe has worked with you a few times in the UK. Remember him? Mari: Bob Downe! Gosh, yes, I do! Maynard: He just says “Huge hello” and he still thinks you are completely fabulous. Mari: Oh, that's lovely. Oh gosh, isn't everyone being really nice, how lovely. Maynard: Glenn Keenan, he was over at my place the other day. And there's a photo of you on the wall doing your makeup, 10 by 8, I really like that. Is that your bedroom? Mari: Oh, that, yeah, it's a great photo that. Maynard: [Glenn] said she confused the hipsters of the early 80s English music press. And I think you did. They didn't know quite what to make of you sometimes. Mari: No, they didn't because it was just after punk had faded away. But the great thing about the 80s was everyone was very glamorous. Boy George, the Human League, the Eurythmics, you know, we all dressed up, but we dressed up in our own way. A lot of us didn't have stylists, it was our own taste. Most of my stuff came from charity shops. Maynard: Every fashionable woman I know, wants to know: did you get your dresses made for you or did you mainly buy from vintage shops? There’s a great quote from you saying you love going out on tour because it gave you an excuse to buy new outfits. Mari: Later on, I did have someone making me stuff, but it was, there's a place called Portobello Road in London and they've got loads of what we would now call vintage shops. They sold second hand stuff. And I used to go down there and get things. And also there was in Neasden, every so often there was the Neasden Sea Scouts jumble sale. Now why there were Sea Scouts in Neasden I've got no idea, we’re nowhere near the sea. Maynard: Maybe it's a global warming thing. They were getting ready. Mari: Maybe they were ahead of their time, ‘cause I'm talking like 1980. The women who used to run the jumble sales would phone me and say, just letting you know, there's a jumble sale coming up and there's a few lurex dresses. Should we put them aside? So they did. I used to get my earrings there. You can't find stuff like that now. And I've still got some of it. The first dress I wore on TV cost 20 pence from the Neasden Sea Scout jumble sale. It was a blue lurex number. I think they didn't know what to make of me because I wasn't really like anyone else. And that's the point, isn't it, in my opinion, for a musician or a pop star not to be like anyone else. Maynard: I managed to get a copy of the Melody Maker with you on the front cover with a little bird. You've had enough of this guy who’s interviewing you and you say, “Look, I'm not actually Depeche Mode” you say during the interview, because it's obvious that you're not, and he's interviewing you like you are, or you should be. Mari: Were they trying to be a bit political, were they? Maynard: The whole thing started out, because it was his birthday and he had to interview you for lunch. And that's what he started about. Typical English journalist starts writing about something that has nothing to do with anything that is part of the story. He goes on about, you know, you don't write your own songs. Are you a singer? And you went “I'm an entertainer”. And it's when you said you were an entertainer, it was like, you were like throwing gasoline on the fire and then you eventually said, “Look I'm not Depeche Mode.” Mari: They could be, and they still can be, quite nasty. And like, what are you getting out of it? Maybe it's just envy because they're not doing much themselves. I don't really know. And also, it's much harder to write nice things about someone than it is to write nasty things. It's quite easy to write nasty things. You can find all these wonderful adjectives and be clever with your words. But to be nice about someone takes a bit more effort, I think. Dusty Springfield never wrote one song. Maynard: You got the cover. There's a double page interview. And this guy, ugh. Mari: That's a very valid point Maynard. The fact that, yeah, I'm on the cover, I've got a double page spread, so wait a minute, who's the fool here? Maynard: February 26th, 83. Look, you're in there with Laurie Anderson, Thin Lizzy, Madness, Eurhythmics, Depeche Mode and you on the front cover. So there! Mari: Exactly. Maynard: By the way, listener, Mari Wilson. She's not Depeche Mode. In case anyone's tuning in for Depeche Mode, you'll be sadly disappointed. One last greeting: Kim Sand writes “Did you stop doing your beehive hairdo because you were getting migraines from the 150 hair pins you had to put in all the time?” Mari: You sometimes get headaches, actually. When it started, I just used to do it myself and it wasn't that big. And then I got my hairdresser Susie, and I said, oh, we, we need a bigger one. So she did quite a big one. And then I met Peter Cannon who I'm still very, very close to. Maynard: And he's the one who did the M class hairdo, which you later evolved into I believe? Mari: Yeah. He's amazing at hairdos. That's his forte. He's brilliant at that. He’d say “oh, should we make it a bit bigger? Oh, what should we put in the back? Let's put this in the back” and all that. It was so exhausting; I would have to go to … I've got a fantastic photograph someone took of me asleep in bed in a hotel, with my head hanging off the side of the bed, because I couldn't put my head on a pillow because it would squash my beehive. It was usually because I would have an interview or something first thing in the morning, so I thought, oh, I don't want to have my hair done again, oh, I'm not going to take it down, I'll leave it. And it looks like the Elephant Man, it's quite hilarious actually, this photograph. Maynard: I enjoy watching your videos because you did hide little things in the back of your beehive, there’d be a Christmas decoration or a photo or a coloured ribbon. People should have hired it for advertising space. Mari: Yeah, they should have! Maynard: Your Name Here! Mari: I just wanted to move on. Everyone has their first look, don't they, look at Phil Oakey from the Human League with his lopsided bob and things like that. So I did have loads of other hairdos, but I don't have it now or anything because when you do that kind of 1950s and 60s, which I still love, and I still have a nod to it in the way I dress. I mean I'm 67 now, so if I was to have a beehive now, when I was young, it was kind of cute and ironic, because I had a nice plump face and everything, but now you no longer look cute, you just look older. And when you're 67, you don't want to look even older. Maynard: You've still got the great fashion sense in The Eyes Have It with Matt Backer that's up on YouTube. You’ve got a great selection of outfits. Mari: I still do it with my clothes, and I still sort shish my hair up a bit, but nothing like then. I still love it. Maynard: Have you got kids or a teenage daughter that at one stage said, “oh Mum, your antics are a bit embarrassing for me”? Mari: I have a 25-year-old daughter. Maynard: Well, I hope she stops saying that then. Mari: Yeah. Well, you know, sometimes I'll say, “Do you want to come to the gig?” And she'll say, “Oh, well, I suppose you're just going to be doing Cry Me a River … no, not really”. And I thought “Thanks a lot!” But she will. In fact, I'm singing tomorrow night at my friend's 60th birthday. There's loads of us singing tomorrow. So she's coming with me tomorrow night, but probably because she wants to see everybody else. [Laughs] Maynard: Mari Wilson, another thing I have to ask you. Watching your many live performances over the decades on YouTube that I've seen, to my ear you seem impervious to a bad PA or fold back. I've heard no bum notes or out of tune stuff going on at all. Have you always got a good PA or you've got a good ear for getting the right note under difficult circumstances? Singing in the sun in the middle of Holland, working a difficult gig with a bad PA, you’re on the note every time. Mari: The 80s was good training, really, because the sound was always terrible, because there were 12 of us, it wasn't like a duo or even just a 4-piece band. There was 12 of us. That's a lot of people making a lot of noise and the first line up, they weren't the most amazing musicians. And I don't mean that in a horrible way. We were just all young and hadn't had the experience and a lot of them ended up not being musicians. It wasn't like it was their dream to be a musician. I think it was just their dream to do something that was good fun. And it was, so there was that side of it. And we just didn't have the technology. Then you'd play places and they had old PAs and you couldn't hear yourself because the band was too loud. And maybe that was the training, where I learned to tune into my own head. And I learned how to pitch despite all that. And maybe that's paid off. Maynard: You've also got a talent, not many people would know that hadn't seen you live at the time: you're also an amazing quick-change artist. In Baby it’s True on more than one live performance, within 50 seconds, you leave the stage change your outfit and come back on within 50 seconds, or around about 48 bars, I've actually counted it. How'd you do that? What's the secret, Mari, come on! A lot of women can change quickly in the back in the back of a cab, but that's quick. Mari: Well, the most important thing is you've got to have something you can step into. You can't have something going over your head, that's not going to work, especially with a beehive. So you're going to have a dress with a zip down the back, step into it, zip it up and get back on. Maynard: Did you have any help or was this all a one woman show? Mari: Peter, my hairdresser. He was always there in the wings, waiting. I remember once I went on stage, because Baby it's True was my intro, and still is when I do it with my huge Wilsations Band now. It's still the first song. It's still the song I open with. And it starts with that baseline, you know, that bass riff. And Hank had done his spiel, the bass riff was going on and then “Here's Mari!” and I walked on, and my beehive got caught in the lighting rig and I couldn't. So, of course he said, “Here's Mari!” I don’t know how many times. I'm kind of going “Help me! Somebody help me!” Eventually I did get help, because they were thinking, well, where is she? Cause I wasn't backstage, but I wasn't on stage. So there are many stories like that. Maynard: Did the beehive cause issues in photo shoots? Because for your calendar, your 1983 calendar, it looks like they didn't budget for enough headroom for the beehive and you in the same shot. Mari: Yes. That's why I'm either seated or bending down looking very awkward. It was a photographer called Adrian Boot, who's a remarkable photographer, tiny little guy. We did it at his studio in the grounds of his house, I believe, but he couldn't get me all in the shot. Isn't that ridiculous? He couldn't get all of me in the shot. And why didn't he just do the head and shoulders then, but it was all about the outfits you see, because we were copying Julie London's Calendar Girl album. Maynard: And as I've mentioned many times, Mari Wilson's calendar from Showpeople can be reused this very year. All the dates match up again. Mari: Oh wow. Yes, I saw that you'd said that somewhere. Isn't that amazing? Maynard: I went to the trouble of making an A3 version of the Mari Wilson calendar for this year. Mari: Have you? Oh, you're amazing! Maynard: It’s hilarious as an A3. Mari: Very funny. It was a laugh doing it, you know, and, and I tend to use them on certain months. Maynard: Oh, August you're in Spain with a “Manuel” kind of person. In July you're in a beach chair, you've got a guy in some Speedos and some budgie smugglers leaning over you. Mari: I’ll have to have a study of that. Maynard: Look, have you got to keep many of these outfits, or have you just had to rationalise at some point in your life? Mari: I gave a lot of my dresses to Children in Need about 25 years ago, which is a charity here. I remember signing the inside of the dresses and stuff like that. So I don't know who has them. I have some, I sold some because I did a Crowdfunder for one of my albums. Maynard: Was that the Dolled Up project? Mari: No, Dolled Up was financed by Bill Kenwright, the theatre entrepreneur, who I know. He just came to a gig one night and I was doing my new songs and he said, “Oh, they're great”. And I said “Well, I'm trying to make an album at the moment”. He said, “Who are you signed to?” And I said, “Well, nobody, I've just got my own label”. And he said, “Well, I'll pay for it”. I thought, oh, okay, you've got millions, that's fine. So he did. It was Emotional Glamour I think. I gave away the very first dress I had, you know, I auctioned it off to raise money to make the album. And it was for someone in Australia, funnily enough. Maynard: Did you get many Australian fans? Because, looking at your chart history, Just What I Always Wanted was released as a single here, but from what I can see, the album never was. Mari: Well, that's interesting, isn't it? Because I've never been to Australia. Maynard: You were very influential on a group I was in called The Castanet Club in 1982. One or two people had the album on import, which cost a lot of money in those days. And we'd play it. And the image of the calendar and the glamour, and we even tried I think to do one or two covers off the album - failed miserably. But still, it was a big influence on the look and the way we were. And I wanted to thank you for that, for that alone. Mari: Well, thank you Maynard, goodness me! Maynard: I’m just going across the room now, because one of the albums that I really thought was great was The Rhythm Romance album of yours. It's a great jazz crossover album. Yeah Yeah is great. And your version of My Funny Valentine that was on there. Mari: I'm very proud of that version. People really liked it, because the thing is what happened in my pop thing, it got to about 1984, something like that. And I felt like we were just doing the same thing and it was time for changes really. Everybody wanted me to do different things. My manager wanted me to do one thing and Tot Taylor wanted me to do high energy stuff, a bit like Hazell Dean. I know Hazell. She's lovely. Maynard: You could have done a Hazell Dean! Mari: I didn’t want to do high energy stuff, it wasn't my taste. I recorded a song called Let's Make it Last and instead it became Let's Make it the Last, because it was the last one I recorded. And I hated it. Maynard: It was a very full on shock for someone who was used to your other material. Mari: Yeah, it was all Fairlights, which was a keyboard everyone used back then that did all kinds of special tricks. A bit like Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Relax, they have a lot of that on their records. It just wasn't me. And it was weird because the day I did the vocal was the day my Dad died suddenly. It was almost like everything was pointing to me saying, ah, this is it, I don't want to do this anymore. This isn't who I wanted to be. I wanted to be Judy Garland and Dusty Springfield and Bonnie Raitt, if you mixed up a hybrid of those three, if you like, and I just wasn't going there at all. And I just thought it's time to go. So I told the record company I didn't want to be with them anymore, I told my manager “I don't want to be with you anymore”. I just cut ties with everybody. And of course, most people are dropped by the record company, not the other way around. Maynard: I've heard you say this, you had a manager who believed in you. Now, most people in show businesses are going Really? What? Who is this manager that believed in their artist? Where is this person? And the fact that the manager believed in you and got you the support for Stan Getz at The Albert Hall. That's amazing. Mari: Yes. That was a different guy, because what happened as a result of me cutting ties, I was in litigation with the record company for 18 months. So I couldn't sign with another record label, and my sax player said, “Well, you’re a great jazz singer. Why don't we put a jazz quartet together and do jazz?” So I did a few gigs. And then Brian Theobald, who was at Ronnie Scott’s - Ronnie Scott’s is a very famous club in London for people that don't know, it's been there since the 50s. And everyone's played there: Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, everybody. It’s still going. Ronnie's agent was a guy called Brian Theobald. He became my agent as a jazz singer, and he put me on at Ronnie's, he put me on with Stan Getz, I mean, it was hilarious when he put me on with Stan Getz at the Royal Festival Hall a lot of people had said to him, well, you’re putting a pop singer on with Stan Getz, that's outrageous! And I remember when I walked on stage, I walked on and I went, “Right, my agent’s told me to drop the cartwheels from the act this evening”. And there wasn't one titter in the audience at all, because they were very much jazz buffs, you know? So they didn't have a sense of humour. Maynard: They can be very snooty, jazz buffs. Mari: Oh so snooty! Sitting there with their arms folded, what can you do? But I did kind of prove myself in the end and I worked with some fantastic musicians, still do. That's how I ended up getting into jazz. That's why The Rhythm Romance happened because I was approached by that record company saying, do you want to do an album? Maynard: And that was in 1990. I bought this CD album. It's still got the price on it in Australian dollars. It was 47 Australian dollars in 1990, because it was an import. And I paid exactly the same for Marigold and the Cry Me a River compilation. Mari: That's crazy, isn't it? Gosh! Maynard: And played them to death on triple J, my radio station I was working on at the time, nationally. In 86 there was some of your stuff in the triple J library and I was doing Midnight to Dawn, and you could play any music you liked, it was that kind of radio station. But you’re working on something at the moment, aren't you Mari? Mari: Yes. I mean, I'm very proud of Pop Deluxe. I think we did a really good job on all those songs that are, you know, quite well-known songs, but I think I've put my own take on them. And I thought, well, it's time for a change and I don't want to do any more covers. I don't mean at all ever, but I don't want to make another album of covers. So it was time to get down and start writing again. We've written and recorded about 6 tracks now. Maybe towards the end of the year I'll decide what we're going to do with it. Maynard: You have your support with Level 42 across the UK there. Mari: Yes. I'm going on tour with them in November. That'll be really good fun I think. It'll be a different audience as well for me. Maynard: I wouldn't have automatically thought of you with Level 42. Mari: There may not be a gay man in sight, Maynard, in that audience. I don't know, different demographic to me, but that's a good thing, I think. Maynard:. Mari Wilson's Christmas Pageant with The New Wilsonisations, you're having a Christmas pageant on December 8th in Islington in London. I thought you should be getting Boy George, maybe Dee Snider would like to come along again, renew your friendship. And let's face it, what could Simon Le Bon possibly be doing on December 8th? He must have that night free. So invite him along as well. Mari: Okay, I will, yeah. Well, I did appear with Soft Cell a couple of years ago when they did their show at the O2. Maynard: In fact, I think you should sing Tainted Love. Mari: Yes, it's a good song. Maynard: Both versions. Yeah, I think it should be a pageant, maybe a bit of panto. Have someone dressed up, have someone, “Where's Mari?” “Behind you!” Do that stuff. That's Christmas. Mari: Well, let's see, I've got a few ideas for some guests at the moment. It'll be all over social media. Maynard: People, have a look at Mari's Instagram because when the lockdown was on, you were wandering around the centre of London to some of your old haunts, like the Top Shop hairdresser. Nothing anywhere, nothing! Mari: It was the weirdest, weirdest thing we just said, “Let's drive into town”, drove into town ... desert. Desert town. I've got photographs that I took of Regent Street, Oxford Street, nothing, no cars, no people. It was so eerie. But also quite beautiful in a way, because you could really look at the buildings and get a sense of what it is or what it was really, because it still hasn't really, really recovered. And the fact that Top Shop, that iconic, huge, on four floors, Top Shop, which is where I did initially get my beehive done back then. So sad. It did make me feel rather sad. Maynard: I also felt that in some ways the Dutch really got the Mari Wilson experience there, because there's a couple of Dutch music press that I've actually been able to grab. It's great, looked on eBay and there was someone who'd clipped Mari Wilson bits out of the paper from 82 all the way through to 97 or something. Mari: Wow! You've got more stuff than I have. Maynard: I've taken a photo and put it up with the caption “I may have over researched this interview”. Mari: [Laughs] I've written the sleeve notes for the box set. Maynard: It’s Cherry Red. They make great box sets. Mari: I mean, it's taken a long time because of the politics. Maynard: With rights? It's all rights isn't it? Mari: Oh, yes. The rights for this and … oh gosh! In the past they couldn't find the Showpeople orchestral version of Cry Me a River. Warner Brothers! Couldn't find it! You're a record company, what do you mean you can't find it? Maynard: Where's the video of you singing that with the orchestra? I'd love to see that, there must be one. Mari: No, there isn't. Maynard: Because I've seen photos. Mari: Yeah, there are photos. You see, I only ever made one video. Can you believe that? Maynard: Beware Boyfriend. Mari: This is the problem of having a 12-piece band because the budget, it wasn't there, although it was great fun, I wouldn't have changed anything. So we made this video for Boyfriend, and then when I recorded Cry Me a River with the orchestra at Air Studios, the iconic Air Studios in Oxford Street, which isn't there now, someone, I can't remember who, filmed a lot of that. And then they chopped it all together with different bits and made a video for Just What I Always Wanted, which was shown on MTV. There might be a weird grainy version on YouTube, I'm not sure, but it wasn't made for Just What I Always Wanted, someone just did it. Maynard: In fact I was wondering as part of the box set, is it possible for a DVD of the clips to be on there or something like that? Mari: I don't think they're doing a DVD. Maynard: Any rarities? Because a lot of your B-sides and live stuff, and particularly The Young Person's Guide to Compact (the record label) had a couple of songs on that. One of them I think, recorded it at … did you play after Eraserhead, the movie? Did you come on after that and sing? Mari: That was hilarious. My Mum crowned me. Maynard: Oh, that's what that photo's from! Mari: That was my Mum crowning me, yes. Hilarious. We put on Eraserhead and Mari Wilson together because you know, two interesting hairdos. Maynard: All these intense art students going “This … this music's rather flippant”. Mari: I remember we had the baskets you get in the supermarket. Even I did it, I think, walking around the audience, carrying these baskets that had Mari Wilson badges in them and little silly things, just handing them out to people. That's what I mean about … because that was just before it happened as well. It's those times that I really treasure, because once you've had some kind of success, you just don't get that feeling back, because you can't. Maynard: Compact Records had that bit of a “we'll have a go and see what happens” attitude. Mari: Oh, definitely. Yeah, I mean, Tot Taylor is a really clever guy Maynard: The front cover of Just What I Always Wanted, where you're holding Tupperware and wandering around this fabulous thing that looks like a set, but I'm damn sure that's someone's lounge room. Mari: It was someone's lounge. We did dress it up a bit, but it was someone's lounge. It was a journalist, actually, it was his flat and I had, and still have, quite a collection of Tupperware because I had many Tupperware parties a long time ago. I've got a thing about Tupperware. Maynard: They’ve got the vacuum seal. If you've got some mince, you pop it in there, stick in the freezer. Mari: Absolutely! And my cat, she only has half a pouch in the morning and half a pouch at night. So once you've opened it, it has to be kept somewhere. And it's kept in a nice yellow square Tupperware container until teatime when she has the other half. Maynard: And the cats have a hard time, they can't burp it, they can't get it out. Mari: No. And you've got to know how to let the air out with Tupperware. I'm very knowledgeable about Tupperware. Maynard: With Just What I Always Wanted on BBC Top of the Pops, there's three or four different clips of you on that. So where were they with Wonderful? Or the other ones off the album? Mari: Well, Wonderful probably didn't get high enough in the charts for me to appear, I'm thinking. Gosh! Isn't it awful how you can't remember, but it was a long time ago, Maynard. Maynard: Cry Me a River, the one where the people are dancing and there's all these little beehives on a stick, I don’t know if that's a Top of the Pops one. Mari: I did do Top of the Pops Cry Me a River and I sang live. Maynard: You sang it live, and you can see all the smarty bums around there: “We don't see this very often”. Mari: Because I just thought, I can't mime, that would be a very hard song to mine. You have to sing it. You have to be honest and show some kind of emotion with it. It was me that insisted on it, I said, “I want to sing it live”. Maynard: On The Tube as well, you had The Prawns, the violinists with you? Mari: Oh yes, The Prawn Cocktails. Yeah, they were great. Maynard: That was just a great performance live as well. And that gave everybody a big glass of shut up juice as well when you did that. And it's a great signature song for you. Mari: I have to do Cry Me a River and I have to do Just What I Always Wanted, even if I'm doing it with a small line-up. Maynard: That album has a great Burt Bacharach cover. Mari: Oh yes, I still do that. It's a lovely song. Not easy to sing, actually, either, that's typical Burt Bacharach because he plays the weirdest chords and his songs go in the strangest directions. Clever. Maynard: Just want to mention Just What I Always Wanted, listening to it with headphones on, there's so much of the time in it, that sounds like there's a DX7 sample of a toy piano in it. There's early vocoder being used in the backing vocals. It makes an interesting 12 inch as well. Mari: It's a fantastic record. It still stands up. It still gets played on the radio quite a lot. It's a great song, but it's a fantastic record. Tony Mansfield, who produced it, did a really great job on it. And there are lots of little things going on in there. Toy piano, Tot always loved things like that. And we always on a lot of our records, we'd want a bit of a French horn. I remember recording it. Certain recording sessions are just such good fun, and you remember everything that happened. I remember I was making tuna fish sandwiches. I remember all of that. I remember what I was wearing. I was wearing a crimplene pink dress with matching jacket that came from a charity shop with white stilettos. I remember all of that. Maynard: That's almost what you've got in the June calendar shot Mari: Yes, it may have been, you know what, it might have been that outfit. Maynard: Could be crimplene. Mari: Yeah, crimplene, what a horrible material that was. Maynard: it didn't breathe, did it? Mari: Oh God, no, it didn't crease because you could have gone out to sea in it, and you would've been fine. Maynard: I always like to end with a song that the guest picks and it can be anything you've done ever. What would you like me to finish on? And maybe we could talk about that for a sec before we play it? Mari: Oh gosh! Oh my word. Maynard: While Mari's thinking here's Mari's profile from June 5th, 1982. Musical influences: Stevie Wonder The Beatles; Hero: Your Dad; Books: George Orwell, Grimms’ Fairy Tales and The UFO Phenomenon. I looked that up, that was a 1980 release about the history of UFOlogy and the fact that they may come from somewhere else. So you were getting into The Other back then, Mari! Mari: Yeah, I can't believe I said that though. Honestly, it's hilarious. I mean, I'm a bit of a comedian as well as being a singer. [Laughs] Maynard: Your fantasy was to date Oliver Reed, but the Oliver Reed from 10 years ago. Mari: Oh yeah, Oliver Reed, when he was about 22, oh my God, he was absolutely gorgeous! Black hair, blue eyes, tall. Oh, gorgeous! And then he just lost his way somewhat. Maynard: Speaking of lost your way, what happened to the Austin 1300 Estate with the sunroof, the 1971 car there? How did it meet its end? Mari: I think it just conked out after a while and I got myself a Mini. Maynard: That seems very you. Mari: Yes, it was blue. Metallic blue Mini Clubman, it was. It was very nice, but that Austin 1300 ... I think what happened was I went to see some friends of mine in South Kensington, and on the way home all the electrics went, and I had to drive home with no lights or anything. And I thought I'll either get arrested or I'll have a terrible accident, but I did make it home. So that was a sign that it was dying. Maynard: What was it like when you heard yourself on the radio, your song for the first time? How'd that happen for you? Mari: I was at home with my Mum and Dad, and we knew that Annie Nightingale going to play it. It was a Friday night. Annie Nightingale’s like an iconic DJ here. Maynard: So is this Radio 1? Mari: Yeah, Radio 1. She played Dance Card, which is crazy record. And she played it. And I remember we turned it up on the radiogram, in the front room. It was thrilling. It was absolutely thrilling. Maynard: I think you knew something in the early 80s, because you were doing songs like Rave and Ecstasy, which was about six years ahead of what was going on in the culture. Mari: You know, no one's ever mentioned that, but that's very true. Maynard: Why do you think I was playing it in 1990? Mari: [Laughs] One of the fastest records ever made. I think Ecstasy. Maynard: I do like the slow version, but the fast version's my favourite. Mari: It's ridiculous, it's so fast, it's mad. Maynard: So from your discography, which one would you like to choose? Mari: I think White Horses. Maynard: Tell us more about that one Mari: White Horses was a TV show here in the 60s. And it was actually, I think it was Belgian originally, and it was about this little girl. So when I was a kid, when I got home from school, my Dad would be at home because he was a shift worker. And so, he'd be at home, and I'd sit on his lap and we would do the crossword in the Evening News and then we'd watch kids’ TV and there were loads of things, you know, Blue Peter, Magpie, all these different shows. But this one, White Horses, I can't even remember what happened in it. I know there was a white horse and a girl of about 12. The theme tune, sung by a girl called Jackie, was called White Horses. And I'd always wanted to sing it because the melody and the lyric are just gorgeous. I mentioned it to my guitarist, in fact, I emailed him, and I sent him a YouTube link and I said, can you have a look at this because I need you to learn this song because I'm going to record it and I want to play it live and blah, blah, blah. And he wrote back, and he said, “Well, I don't need to because my Dad wrote it”. I didn't even know! When I do it live, I don't even say what it is. I start singing it and everyone goes, “Oh!”, because they remember the TV show and it gives you that lovely, secure, warm feeling, you know, when you got home from school. Maynard: It would take you straight back to sitting on the couch with your Dad doing the crossword, in a really wonderful place. Mari: Yes, it's such a lovely, lovely song. I'm probably asking you to play something that maybe a lot of people in Australia won't know. Maynard: Maybe we'll have a chat when the box set comes out, because I'm sure there'd be a lot of people who are going to be interested in that. That might be an import one here. I remember my Kevin Rowland album, have you heard him doing The Greatest Love of All? Have you heard Kevin's version of that, Mari? Mari: Yes, I have. Maynard: It's unique, isn't it? Mari: Well, he's unique. He's unique. I went out with him for 5 minutes. Maynard: Hang on a minute! Stop the … Kevin and Mari! Mari: Yes! Back in the day. It was very brief. I'm not even referring into anything in particular when I say it was very brief. [Laughs] Maynard: Raunchy Mari! Does he choose his own key and the band choose theirs, and they meet halfway in between? Mari: I think it's that. I'm glad we’ve got people like him to mix it up a bit, because sometimes I put the radio on, or I'll hear something and I think what is this? This is absolute tripe. There's a lot of tripe out there. And there's a lot of songs that were written by 14 people. And it's not even a song, it's a chant. It's one line that they sing over and over and over again. God, but there is also some fantastic stuff out there, but as far as pure pop music has gone a little bit down the drain, I think, although I do like Harry Styles, I must say. Maynard: Like you said, whether they're writing by committee, whether it's people that are inexperienced that are doing it, but at no other time in history has there been a chance to find your own music. No matter what you're into, you can find it somewhere. Mari: Absolutely yeah. But it's just that the pop side of things is, I think, not so good. And I think a lot of it is because there's not much humour going on. There was a lot of humour going on in pop music and it's all terribly serious. Can we not have a bit of romance please? Maynard: It's not written in a clever way. Mari: I think that's what I'm trying to say. It's not exactly literature, is it? They all sing like Hylda Baker. She was an actress about 50 years ago, and she used to say, “Who are you standing there?” and I just think, oh my God, they're all singing like Hylda Baker. You know, one note will do thanks. We don't need 25 notes where one will do. Thank you. Maynard: I blame the talent shows for that, The Voice, because everyone goes “Aaah”, they've got to warble up and warble down. They don't just hit the note. They give you a choice of three or four. Mari: There's two things. There's the pyrotechnics, which is totally unnecessary and meaningless, and the other one is: how high can you hit that note? That's not singing. Singing is about creating a mood and making someone feel something. I mean, even Whitney Houston would hit a note and hold it, but that was a completely different thing, it was in context. Maynard: Kevin’s version of The Greatest Love of All, he makes it his own, and when he goes for the key change, he just blows through that key change like he’ll get to that key change when he feels like it. Don't you give me your key change! It's fantastic. I love it. He doubles down. I've never heard a vocalist do that to that extent before. He said he's bringing his soul to it. And if that's what he's bringing soul to, I'm down with it. Mari: I think we need people like that. Like we need Mark Almond. Mark is so dramatic. He gives like 250% with everything. It's great. Maynard: Is he actually as sexy in person as he seems? It was Slice Radio from Orange, who are in the middle of New South Wales - they asked me to ask you that question. Why, I don't know, probably a huge Mark Almond enclave going on in the middle of New South Wales I suspect. Mari: Well, I've never thought of Mark as sexy because we're probably not attracted to each other in that way. Maynard: Yes, it's a certain thing, that chemistry, yeah. Mari: Yeah. You know, but he's lovely. He's a lovely, lovely man. And I love him. I think he's a great guy. He's sexy to other people. Let's put it that way. Maynard: There's your answer Slice Radio from Orange in New South Wales. Put that in your pipe and smoke it or light it or vape it, whatever you want to do. Mari Wilson, thank you. Let's have a listen to White Horses. I'm looking forward to hearing more about the great pageant on the 8th of December there in Islington in London, and I'm really looking forward to the box set that's coming out. Mari: Thank you. Thank you so much, Maynard, it's been lovely. Maynard: Well, I would do the old cliche thing of “this interview is just what I always wanted”, but everyone always says that don't they? Mari: Rather! [Laughs] Maynard: Thank you for your time, Mari Wilson. Mari: My pleasure. Maynard: I've just been spending the day immersed in my Mari Wilson collection here. Mari: Oh I do apologise! The post Mari Wilson – Just What She Always Wanted appeared first on Planet Maynard.

In an overcrowded world of fashion choice, just off the top of my head I can think of Black Milk, What Katie Did, Kitten d’Amour, L’ecole des Femmes, even some old Mambo stuff second hand. But look, Wheels & Dollbaby has always been a bit special. Across the road there in Sydney at the time, opposite Route 66, dressing people such as Deborah Harry, Dita von Teese, Scarlett Johansson, Kate Moss, Jerry Hall … Please make welcome the grunginista, who’s always fashion forward, Melanie Greensmith. Melanie Greensmith Wheels & Dollbaby 2022 We’re not retail, we’re vibe, we’re hanging’ out…Melanie Greensmith Mel: Oh, hello, that was a nice introduction! Maynard: You deserved a great introduction, because we thought you were gone. In 87 you set up there in Hay Street in Perth, you brought the whole thing to Sydney and then off you went in 2017. We thought we weren’t going to see you again, but you’re back! Mel: I know I’m back! Well, I needed a break. I thought I deserved a holiday after 30 years. Maynard: I would have thought that a lot of people in retail would’ve thought they needed a break, and just gone away because retail is tough. Mel: Yeah, but we are not retail. We are Vibe. We’re hanging out. Maynard: You’ve been making stuff. I like the fur coats you’ve been putting out. Mel: They’re pretty glam, aren’t they? Very popular. Maynard: I like the colours you come up with too. The “Elizabeth Taylor Eyes” one, that’s a nice name for a colour. Mel: Oh yeah, lilac, her eyes were supposedly lilac. I’ve always thought that’s amazing. Maynard: Why did you decide to get into selling fashion? People could love you this week and hate you next week. To be in it as long as you were in it, and people never went “Oh, that’s just so done”. How did you manage that from 87 onwards? Mel: Oh gosh, I don’t know. I mean, it really all just came from a scene, you know, an organic scene that was happening in Surry Hills. When I went to live there, it was myself and all my friends. I just wanted to make stuff for band members and my friends, which is what I started doing. And then people liked it and I thought, well, shit, I’m not really qualified to do anything, I can’t get a job. And so I started the tiny shop. Well, the first one was in Perth, and I used to have The Johnnys come in and The Damned, and everyone that came to Perth came there, and it was just a little office upstairs in Hay street. So I thought, wow, I think I’m gonna go to the Big Smoke, I’m gonna go to Sydney. So I went there, and we all lived in this huge artist kind of house on Cleveland Street. Tex Perkins lived there, Stu Spasm, myself, Brett Ford who’s no longer with us. It was pretty crazy. I was like the Straight Nanna in all of them. Maynard: You were the Straight Nanna??? Mel: Compared to those guys, yeah … Maynard: That’s true. And Tex did what you told him to do? That’s amazing! Mel: No, I don’t know about that! I remember they were actually a bit older than me, Tex wasn’t, but all the rest of the guys were. I guess I kind of learned a lot about music and arts from them, and it was a great scene then, you know, we all used to go to the Trade Union Club and all those old pubs and it was grungy. You know, it’s funny when I look at Surry Hills now, I think, oh my God, it’s so “tres bourgeois”, you know. Maynard: You even had an office there in Crown Street and when you left Sydney, you must have sold it, and you could have bought the whole of the Northern Territory with the amount of money you would’ve got for that, the way prices went up in Sydney, it’s insane. Mel: I had a flat there as well. So what we used to do was live above the office, you know, and just walk down every day, which was great fun. But that was later on. In the beginning, it was no money, it was living out the back of the shop. Sydney was pretty straight when I got there fashion wise, you know, everyone was wearing Dr Marten shoes, Levis and a white Hanes t-shirt and I’d just got back from London. And I was just like, whoa, you know, this is so straight and boring. Maynard: There would’ve been a lot of shoulder pads going on at that time too. Mel: Yeah! And so when I opened my little store, people had never seen stuff here like that: cowboy boots with spiderwebs on them and rubber dresses. I had no money so I bought these big Elvis towels and put them all around the top of the store just to get the “fit out” as they say now. And I collaborated a lot with a lot of the artists in those days, which was great fun. A guy called Stuart Spasm from Lubricated Goat, I don’t know if you’ve heard of him. Oh yeah. Maynard: Oh yeah, everybody has seen them performing naked on I think it was Blah Blah Blah. That was a top track. Mel: Exactly. They were the guys that I lived with. Stuart was a fantastic artist and I said to him, one day, ah, Stuart, I want a logo, could you draw me something? And so we were sitting there and he said, well, what do you want it to be like? And I said, well, as I love Rose Tattoo, I kind of want it to be tattoo-y. So he drew the logo originally, and that was in about 1985, I think. Maynard: When did the first overseas visiting rock artists suddenly want to wear your stuff? Did you approach them? How did that happen? Mel: Well, they used to come to the store. I was very lucky in the fact that before all of the nasty stuff with Michael Jackson, he was the biggest star in the world. And he was driving up Crown Street to get from the airport, which they all did in those days, and he came in. Maynard: And he was probably driving himself too. He’d probably just hired a Ford Focus and was driving that up Crown Street, you know, bipping the horn, waving at people. He was all over the place. Mel: He had a few security with him, I remember that. And so he bought a jacket and they all followed from that, it was a big thing. Maynard: So I put it out to the public on my Facebook page and my Twitter page that I was going to be having a chat to you and lots of great questions came in. They want to know who has been your most favourite celebrity to dress and been the most fun. I would guess it might be Dita, but there might be other ones. And of course, people want to know who is the most difficult one as well. Mel: The most fun one and a big thing for me was Bob Dylan. Maynard: His bum would have a lot of trouble in some of your dresses. Mel: No, no, no! I was doing lots of really cool leather and suede pants, and I was doing jackets for guys and shirts. He came in, I actually thought he was a bum when he came in, because he was kind of disguised and it was late at night and I thought, oh God no. Anyway, and then as I looked closer, it was Bob Dylan. Maynard: It’s Bob Dylan, wow! Great to see him … hope he doesn’t sing those songs from that Christian album, but still great to see him. Mel: So he was amazing, and so much fun and stayed for hours. Signed my guitar that I later sold, which I wish I bloody didn’t cos apparently he never signs anything for anyone. So he was fantastic. But the most difficult, you know, I might have caught her on a bad day … Maynard: Shall we use the word “versnickety”? That’s a good word. Mel: Oh! That’s a good word. Maynard: Yes, versnickety. Anyway, this person was versnickety because perhaps they were on a versnickety day. Mel: Yes. Well, that was Pink. Maynard: Wow, really? Perhaps under the weather or on a busy schedule or didn’t have the right size. Mel: Well, I don’t know. Mark and I were invited to go and meet her. I took her big bags of clothes and I was super excited. She’d even covered “I Touch Myself”. So, you know, I thought, well, that’s cool. And not a word. She just stood there and it was so awkward … Maynard: Here’s a lovely bag of free stuff from my label and then nothing. Wow. That is a bit odd. You would at least politely accept it. Mel: Yeah. She was hard work. That stands out in my mind. The other one that is a bit difficult, but great, is Courtney Love. Maynard: Depending on the day, I guess, with that one. Mel: I think so. Yeah. Maynard: Well, how come you’ve kept coming back with Dita von Teese collaborations, particularly with a jumper too. Because when I think of her, I think of her leather gear, her glamour gear. I don’t always think of a nice cardigan. Mel: Yeah, I know, but it really works. I met her with Marilyn Manson in London, I can’t remember the year, God it was a long time ago, maybe 15 years ago. And I met her, we were staying at the same hotel and I said, oh, why don’t we collaborate? And she was a big star, she was just heading off. She said, oh, sure, okay. So we did. And I thought what a great idea to do, like a fifties style sweater girl cardigan for her. And we did, and the rest is history. We’ve done 27 colours now together and we became friends. It’s fun. And when we did a box and it comes in the box and the girls collect them and some of them, I see them on eBay and the money they go for, I’m like, oh my God! Maynard: Yes, the second hand market for Wheels & Dollbaby … Mel: They’re like Barbie dolls Maynard! Kids used to collect all the Barbie dolls. Maynard: Yes! Did you like her brunette friend that would come to visit? I saw some 1960s Barbie dolls when I was in Melbourne and all the things you could get for them, just amazing. Is there a typical Wheels & Dollbaby? You have used some of the models you used to use back in the the 2010s. In fact behind me now I’m actually looking at the Australian Fashion Week Wheels & Dollbaby Parade 2009 in Sydney with the rock and roll band playing above. Probably Mark in the band, I suspect. Dita von Teese in red signature cardigan Mel: I think it was Mark and Roddy Radar. Maynard: It’s on Fashion TV, and you’re back to back with Morrissey Edmiston or something like that. Very different type of parade, very different look. Mel: Well, you know, I find all those shows dreadfully boring, unless you are looking at one of the couture houses from France and they do that incredibly well. I just think they’re boring. I like to have the music with it because it’s more of a show. It’s more exciting. Maynard: It’s kind of obvious, isn’t it? Do you think some labels are worried about linking themselves too closely with music? Because it can go out of fashion really quickly too. Mel: Maybe. I don’t know. Have the Rolling Stones gone out of fashion? Not really. Maynard: Well, they can get as old as they like, and they’ll still pull a crowd. Mel: Because they’re fantastic. Maynard: Where did you sit within the industry? Because you’ve got a very distinct look. I think, Oh, that’s a Wheels & Dollbaby thing. It’s never been met with “meh”. The best present, Wheels & Dollbaby dresses. Great present. Mel: Well, we didn’t really sit within the Australian fashion industry, you know. I mean we did on and off, we were chic one time, then we weren’t and then we might be again. It didn’t really bother me because that wasn’t really what I was striving for. Maynard: That’s why I thought you might have got a bit of resentment because you were apart from them and you were able to continue on year after year and do your stuff. Mel: I don’t know, maybe. We went to London in 2008, and we just killed it. Absolutely killed it. And it felt great that we hadn’t had to take the normal path. The road less travelled. Maynard: What do you think is your favourite piece you’ve ever sold or made? I loved all the emerald stuff there, the years you had the emerald lace. That was great. Which is your favourite piece? Mel: I remember I had a buyer in from David Jones and she was just shopping and she said, You know what? We spend thousands on marketing and trying to work out how to keep a man in a department store. Especially in the women’s department. They hate it. They leave and therefore we can’t sell lots to the girls. And she said to me, your store, every time I come in is packed with men. Maynard: You had fantastic staff, really talented staff, really good sales people. And it was like, if you’re going along with a date, they can try on the outfits and walk around in front of you and see, and everyone can see what they liked. And you’ve got more chance of selling it. And it’s more like a show. It’s an event, you’re going somewhere. Mel: I know, although one of my friends did say to me once, he said, Mel, your shop looks more like a bordello every time I come in. Maynard: Well, that’s a compliment. Excuse me, a high class bordello! Mel: Exactly. Ah, it was so much fun. Maynard: There’s not a lot of room – get more than the dozen people in there and it would be really crowded. And even the little accessories that you were selling near the counter. That was a really good idea too. Because someone could pick something up on the way out, even if they couldn’t afford an outfit. David Jones could do that, it wasn’t just an open floor plan, maybe they could actually do something like that. Mel: I guess it had a feel to it. People used to say that it had a great feel. And I think that is partly because it was organic and everyone did go there. It was a hangout. We used to hang out, out the back. I mean, I got to London and they had heard stories that we all smoked in the store and they were like, oh my God! And all these other sort of things that were supposedly going on there. They weren’t, you know, but it was notorious. Maynard: That’s the kind of reputation you want. So it precedes you and people go, oh, wow. I won’t ask her about that. Did you see it? Oh, obviously she was doing that. Mel: I was the one never doing any of it. It was everyone around me. I used to say to people, do you think I could get up every day, do this and be partying like you’re saying? There’s just no way. Maynard: So I saw a few of the Wheels & Dollbaby crew at the Stray Cats at the Enmore one year. They certainly made themselves stand out. They were having a great time. That was the leopard print that year. Mel: Oh well, that’s perfect with the Stray Cats. They used to come in a lot, and Brian, the singer, Brian Setzer … Maynard: Such a babe, Brian, he’s a babe! Mel: What a guitar player! Anyway, he had our logo tattooed on his arm and then he came back in and showed me. I was like, whoa, that’s pretty cool. Maynard: Yeah, David Jones can’t buy that. Now the name: Wheels & Dollbaby. Just tell us where it came from, because even I didn’t know this. Mel: Oh Maynard, you should know this. Maynard: I knew – I just didn’t link the rock and roll thing and the iconic 60s sitcom spy comedy together. Mel: I know. I know. So everyone, when I tell them they go, oh! They would never have thought of it, but it was Get Smart. And it was Max and 99, they were Wheels and Dollbaby, and they were beatnik and super cool. And I think Stuart (Spasm) and I were watching it, and I think we kind of came up with that. So that was where we got it. “Legs” (99) & “Wheels” (Max). “Dollbaby” was the bikie gang leader’s girlfriend. In the 1967 third season episode of Get Smart, The Mild Ones. Maynard: You could have been watching the Groovy Guru episode, with Larry Storch as the Groovy Guru and the Sacred Cows. You could have been the Sacred Cow label there. And a question that came in from Miss de Bleu, she wrote via Facebook about the Buffy the Vampire Slayer collection. Sarah Michelle Gellar was wearing Wheels & Dollbaby as Buffy in the show. How did that happen? Was someone here and they thought, that’s the look we want for Buffy? Mel: I never met any of those people, so I think they just bought it. What’s really funny is that Mark did the theme track for Buffy. Maynard: That’s power guitar! Mel: Power guitar! The Macca! Maynard: He didn’t have anything to do with their musical episodes did he? There were a couple of musical episodes that were pretty funny. Mel: Oh no, he doesn’t do musicals, far too rock. Maynard: Any self-respecting man who’s in a rock band, no sorry, Sound of Music, what? Sorry, no, I don’t do musicals. Of course. Mel: What about Simon Day? I collaborated with him. Maynard: That’s right! Simon Day! So you gave him yet more black jumpers to wear, or you taught him how to draw a cat? What was your input? Mel: No, I met him really early. I mean, we were young, 19 or something like that. And he was like the hottest boy, you know, the hottest. All the girls wanted him and whatnot, as everyone probably knows. Maynard: And he’s really good at looking like he doesn’t know that everybody wants him too. He’s very good at that. He could get a job at not looking like he knows he’s as popular as he is. He’s good at that. Mel: Well that’s all the more charming, isn’t it? Yes. And so he used to come in because he was in a band with my friend who was in a band called the Kryptonics. And then I said, Hey, Simon, would you draw me – cos he’s a great artist – I said, can you draw me ribbons and lipsticks and logos? And he did. And it became our paper, our tissue paper that we still use to this day. That was Simon. Very clever. Maynard: I don’t know if I got the answer out of you, but your favourite piece that you’ve ever designed or sold? What is it? Of all the collections, all the things, I’ve always been a fan of the simple elegance of the trench coats that you sell. They’ve got the great lining and they come in lots of great colours. Mel: Oh, Maynard … men and trench coats! Maynard: It’s got the spy motif going on. Mel: Oh, you just think the girl’s got nothing on under it! Maynard: At least you’ve got the satin lining, so there are no scratchy bits. Mel: True. What I really love the most, I mean, my whole thing is I love to make girls feel super sexy, confident, movie star-ish and I think the fur coats do that all in one. So I kind of love a fur coat. Maynard: And you can dress ’em up dress ’em down. Mel: Yeah. My cat sleeps on mine. There’s all kinds of uses, but any chick puts on some really cool sunglasses and a fur coat and it’s a movie star, isn’t it? Maynard: Yeah, you think she’s either come from somewhere exotic or she’s on her way to somewhere that you aren’t allowed to go. Mel: Exactly. So I love those. I really love the bejewelled little play suits. Like something Dita would wear, they’re real showgirl. Maynard: Have you got any upcoming celebrity collaborations you can spill the beans on at the moment? Mel: Oh, well, I can’t say because then, you know! Maynard: Do you think you would actually open a physical shop again or not? Do you think things are just a bit too “turmolic”, in too much turmoil to do that? Mel: I will, but I’ll only do a popup, cos I really miss that whole talking with everybody, the customers. I mean, it was such a great social thing, my shop, I used to love going to work. Maynard: But the feedback from the customers often goes, Hey, yeah, I should do this, I hadn’t thought of that, but I’ll do this bit or I’ll make that bit shorter or that, that collar winged or whatever. Did that happen? Mel: Oh yeah, obviously, cos you’re getting direct feedback. So I would do a shop, and I love doing shop windows. I used to be just treacherous … these poor girls under me, that would help me do windows. I’d drive them mad: No! Move! That’s not right. Change an inch to the left … because that was our window to the world. But in the end, they all used to say to me, Mel, you taught me properly how to do beautiful windows. Maynard: The Wheels & Dollbaby Crown Street store, you’d just walk past it at night and the simple neon and the lights reflecting inside of it, it was a photo opportunity. It was a selfie shot before there were selfie shots. A chick just has to put on a fur coat and a pair of cool sunnies and she looks like a movie star.Melanie Greensmith Mel: Oh thanks! That’s good. My first little shop got robbed so many times and cars used to just drive in. Maynard: Hence all the iron bars … Mel: I know! And I’d be like, oh my God. Oh, it was terrible in those days. And it would really hit me, you know, because I didn’t have much money, and they’d just ram it, take all the leather jackets and it would be like, oh God. Okay. I mean, it must have happened four or five times. In the end I got rottweilers. Maynard: Well, that’ll stop ’em, cos then if they get out of the car, they’re gonna have their face bitten. Mel: I know. But can you imagine? There I was, I was like 20 or 21, just with … it wasn’t all glamour, let me tell you! Maynard: You’ve got some sewing to do … overlocking that sort of thing. Mel: I don’t know that I sew … Maynard: Shhh! She’s got a lot of sewing to do, she’s very busy. So what would be the Wheels & Dollbaby song? If there’s a song that encapsulates the label, the way you feel, the way it inspires you? Mel: Oh well, it’s the song that Mark wrote. It’s Ting Ting – It’s Wheels & Dollbaby. And it’s just a really great rock and roll, fun song that he wrote about the brand and he wrote it with a guy from the Sleepy Jackson, a guy called Jay and they recorded it for me. So I was so chuffed. Maynard: Thank you, Melanie. And I’m looking forward to that popup shop, if you’ll let me in. Mel: Oh, definitely! 2010 Wheels & Dollbaby trench coat as mentioned in the show. (no scratchy bits) She looks like she’s come from somewhere exotic and is going somewhere you aren’t invitedMaynard Wheels & Dollbaby at Perth Fashion Week 2009. (Note, not actual music from band. But you can tell) Wheels & Dollbaby 25th anniversary show 2011 Wheels & Dollbaby online The post Wheels & Dollbaby’s Wild Ride appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Bunga Bunga 71 reaches across the aisle to goose your jaded pooka. Tim Ferguson calls the upcoming Federal election. It was when Labor was ahead by 10 points. But he’s probably right, yet again. Maynard risks COVID by going out and working Electric Dreams on the 30th. In a show described by media pundits as “you get what you get and you don’t get upset” Tim and Maynard talk a big game and leave you with a free kick that you never knew you needed. As discussed in Crankmail, Australian Jesus helps Noah with his Ark by Reg Mombassa Your Crankmail asks about Telly Savalas, Ricardo Montalban, and just what was that nice lady on Romper Room doing with that mirror? Do you really think Bunga Bunga 71 has the answers… “Time for big ideas Australia. Let’s build a Sydney Harbour Bridge to Adelaide. Sure, we’ll regret it later, but now is the time!”Tim Ferguson – Uncivil Engineer Tim’s new modern not-at-all-like-Davros electric wheelchair gets a test drive while we visit 1994 and ruin another Historical Hypothetical with the help of the Premier of NSW. “Buckle in for a policy free, vision absent six weeks election campaign where occasionally The Greens will stand up and say ‘Clive Palmer shouted at us’.”Tim Ferguson – psephologist Elvis The Safety Owl welcomes you aboard his school bus. Support Bunga Bunga and Planet Maynard by becoming a Patreon Tim’s art available by commission Listen to Bunga Bunga 70 Maynard plays Electric Dreams, Botany View Hotel, Newtown, 30th April Tim Ferguson’s merchandise on Redbubble The post Bunga Bunga 71 – Tim Ferguson & Maynard appeared first on Planet Maynard.

This time on the enlightening falsehood that is Bunga Bunga 70, Tim Ferguson and Maynard lead you on a wild goose chase down the rabbit hole of froth and bubble. You’ll encounter manic expansionism, lack of credibility, confused animals, three word headlines and The Brothers Gibb. Tim insults the young, Paul Livingstone decries Tim’s art, then they announce an art exhibition in June together. Bernard King’s Winter Cookbook cover “If you are sporting a mullet today, don’t tell me you can’t dress like Boy George tomorrow.”Tim Ferguson – fashion plate The Face with Haircut 100, June 1982. We hear you peeing, ask which side Tim’s cat is on, bemoan the lack of banana diplomatic representation, find a new job for the Prime Minister, ask who is your favourite Bernard and pose the perennial question “when does ugh boot season officially start?’. In time travel news: 1982 is back, so learn how to talk all art school. Might come in handy next time you enter the Archibald prize. Should the next Doctor Who be a cat? Should it have a limp? Are baked desserts part of the ABC News charter? Bunga Bunga 70 is beguiling yet ribald as Maynard appreciates the subtle use of a Greek fisherman’s cap while Tim still wants to know why you are so ignorant. Don’t even get him started on kale… “Most young people couldn’t even decide what colour helmet to wear if they went into space.”Tim Ferguson – magnanimous Tim’s cat Kitler looking miffed. Possibly thinking of the Donbas region. Support Bunga Bunga and Planet Maynard by becoming a Patreon Tim’s art available by commission Listen to Bunga Bunga 69 The post Bunga Bunga 70 – Tim Ferguson & Maynard appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Get to Bungary as Bunga Bunga 69 welcomes 2022 with a wink, a smile and its pants down. Tim Ferguson & Maynard journey across the world and their lounge-room to bring you the truth of a 2022 that Tim feels will be better and Maynard that knows it will be worse, a lot worse. Read our Crankmail, solve history’s problems and yours as well. It’s like Rick & Morty with just two Ricks. Join us in our reality. Support Bunga Bunga and Planet Maynard by becoming a Patreon Tim’s art available by commission The post Bunga Bunga 69 – Tim Ferguson & Maynard appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Australia’s Coldest 100 returns this Saturday with world class musical shonk that only Australia can produce. Just look at this list of artists that you’ll never see on the same list or even in the same sentence. Don Lane, Kyle Sandilands, Liza Minnelli, Ben Fordham, James Reyne, Samuel L Jackson, Barry Crocker, The Muzak Corporation, Wickety Wak, Lorrae Desmond, Frankie J Holden, Wilbur Wilde, Barry Crocker, Dean Martin, Victorian Police Cadets Skipping Team and the Big Brother cast of 2001 for just a start. As well as wonderful regional jingles that remind you that major hubs of industry such as Toowoomba and Tasmania are still there. The Coldest 100 knows the intersection of corporate thinking and opportunistic musicians… After all, any dingbat can put together a list of good songs. It take a certain kind of goose like Andrew Sholl to put together 100 songs of Australian musical flotsam for 7 years in a row now. The Coldest 100 is songs about Australia, sometimes they just don’t work out that well…Andrew Sholl It will all be going down from 9am Saturday 22nd January on Twitter @Ozkitsch Andrew Sholl shows no sign of modifying his musical taste. If this music irks you, you’re probably on the wrong website. But if you have that clip of Don Lane singing the theme from Hawaii 5-0, let us know so Andrew can put it in next year. Look and listen to The Coldest 100 2020 Look and listen to The Coldest 100 2021 Don Lane with his dancers presenting the work of Billy Joel as I’m sure it was originally intended. Liza goes window shopping while dreaming of a famous dog. We all do Liza, we all do. Roy Mustaca calls in the supernatural to deal with Covid 19. Samuel L Jackson brings it to Joe Dolce. The 1974 shopping experience with the perfect soundtrack. Serious home making going on here. Great prices too. James Reyne celebrates his passion for public infrastructure. The post Australia’s Coldest 100 – 2022 appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Bunga Bunga 68 drags you out of lockdown and into the bright light of something shiny but cheap. Tim Ferguson & Maynard will lift you spirits and lift your shirt. They will tell you what happened, what is happening and what will happen. Sweden is insulted. Support Bunga Bunga and Planet Maynard by becoming a Patreon Tim’s art available by commission Watch The Castanet Club documentary The post Bunga Bunga 68 – Tim Ferguson & Maynard appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Chit Chat von Loopin Stab and Tony Whittaker have made the best (and only) documentary on The Castanet Club. The Castanet Club Story. Chit Chat drops in to tell Maynard the story behind the Story. Warren Coleman, Steve Abbott with Chit Chat 2021. With photo from 1983. Just look at what he wrote about us… What The Castanet Club achieved in their 9 years would impact the landscape of Australian entertainment for the next 20yrs. The rise of Triple J, Sandman and Flacco, Young Einstein, Good News Week, Channel [V], Play School, Sale of the Century, Full Frontal, Happy Feet, Fast Forward, Kath, and Kim and even Mambo T-shirts are in some way connected to this remarkable group of unfashionable humans. Mikey Robins as Elvis with Glenn Dormand in 80s photo by Maynard Watch the documentary here Stories of Our Town site The post The Castanet Club Story story appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Nastassja Bassi (Jacqueline Amidy) who I haven’t seen for more than 30 years drops into Maynard International Studios to deconstruct and celebrate her time with the Castanet Club 1985 -1990. Jacqueline Amidy in NY 2004 The Castanet Club was more than theatrical, it was cinematic.Natassja Bassi (Jacqueline Amidy) For those fancy pants people who like to read, here is a heavily edited transcript of our conversation. Maynard: One day you’re in your lounge room and you turn around and there’s someone you haven’t seen for 34 years standing at the door. Jacquie. Good to see you. Jacqueline: How long has it been? Maynard: 36 years ago. Since I’ve seen you. Jacqueline: I was born about then. So I don’t know how that works. Maynard: You are in Maynard International Studios. I’ve the same nervousness with you that I had with when Warren Coleman came over to the studios as well. Jacqueline: Well, I’m real. Maynard: Is there something you could point out to people? Jacqueline: The hell? I’m not sure what to make of this I’m looking at, is that a signed Kylie single? There’s a photo of you and Kylie underneath at the Double Bay hotel. Is that the one that Michael died at? I blame you. Jacqueline: I like your speakers. Very seventies speakers. So I’m sitting on the seventies lounge. I actually think I’ve sat on this lounge somewhere else. In my past. I’m really loving it. I’m going to use the word juxtaposition of seventies, sixties and fifties. Maynard: Cross-generational carpets here as well. I’ve only, just recently got the CDs into order. They’re all actually in decades etc. Jacqueline: I don’t think I have seen CDs for a long time. Maynard: When I say CDs, people say, what? Jacqueline: I’ve got a CD player in my 2004 Mercedes Compressor, black, black interior, two door, sexy. I do like cars in the last year I’ve had five cars. Maynard: You strike me as being a station wagon woman. Jacqueline: I love a station wagon. That’s what upsets me so much about the coupe. I can’t drive along and pick things up from the side of the road. I like freebies. Maynard: I’ve got you here because we’ve have the Castanet Club exhibition come up. We’re talking about the Castanet Club time. I was just doing crazy dancing up the back. Jacqueline: Everybody in the Castanet Club was extremely complex. Maynard: Is there a great stage memory? Of course, Wuthering Heights was almost a signature piece for you. Jacqueline: Thinking about it, my role was show stopper. I did all the show-stopping songs, Devil Gate Drive etc. I was in the second coming of the Castanet Club. We really put it together as a theatre show. We got a real director. Maynard: That’d be Neil Armfield. Jacqueline: We were in a theatre and a very cool theatre. Belvoir Street was at that stage, I think THE theatre. Maynard: Yeah. Jacqueline: An RSL club band in a theatre. Maynard: That was one of the great things about the Castanet Club. We could do shows at an RSL, and we could go and do a theatre season at the Playhouse or at Belvoir Street and we could make it work. Jacqueline: Do you remember when we did the tour of the Western suburbs RSL clubs? Maynard: We did three or four. Way out west? We were driving for two hours. Jacqueline: I do remember going to Rooty Hill RSL because I did work out that way. I drove past it daily, and every day, every day I had the same memory. Everybody going, who the hell is this band? I remember walking in and they just looked at us like who, the frick are these people? Maynard: You aren’t thinking about Tweed Heads RSL? Jacqueline: I think we were very successful there. That was very different. But we did have the people from the old people’s home, who spent the whole time with their fingers in their ears, looking very pained, especially when I sang Wuthering Heights. I do remember that that was a very strange season. Maynard: We did win over a lot of fans there. Jacqueline: It’s was kind of coals to Newcastle. Sorry to use that word. Maynard: What was your favourite gig? Did you have one? Was it at one of the festivals? Jacqueline: That would’ve been Perth. That festival was my favourite because it was the first time I drank alcohol. That was the outside one? We were playing at the University. Maynard: A big deal was made of the fact that you were having a drink for the first time. Jacqueline: I was on the piss mate. I was only on the piss because we were playing in a quadrangle and they kept telling us that it was a Shakespearian theatre, but in fact it was just a quadrangle of the University. Well, it was so packed. It was so packed. They were hanging off the rafters. Backstage wasn’t really a green room, it had nothing. They only had beer and champagne and no water and nothing else that I could drink. I’m the singer in the band and I’m just going, “can we just get like a mineral water or something?” They couldn’t can’t get from the stage to the bar. There were so many people at that gig. There’s pink champagne though. Maynard: So you thought pink champagne, what harm can that do? Jacqueline: I started drinking it, and instantly I fell in love with it, and I got drunk. Then we were going to a party which was the Festival party. I think Glen was driving. We got to the party.The funniest thing of the party was, at that time, Kate Ceberano and I, people always got us mixed up. People would think when we went out in those festivals, people would always think I was Kate Ceberano. I don’t know why, cause I don’t have tits and I’m all skinny. She had huge tits, huge everything. I wasn’t huge at all, but we were both kind of dark and swarthy I suppose. People thought she was me. I do remember meeting her because she was a good Christian woman. Maynard: Scientologist. Jacqueline: Same thing. Maynard: Don’t say that to a Catholic, that’ll start a fight. Jacqueline: I am a Catholic. Anyway, I remember meeting her and we were kind of, “it’s you”, we started a conversation now I was trashed and this was my first time I had alcohol. I told Kate “I’m going to the toilet, stay here”. Well, I went to the toilet. I realised that when you get drunk things shift, so I’m sitting on the toilet and it was all swirling around my head. Then I came back and she’d gone. I’m thinking what happened? That was my first experience with alcohol. Maynard:I’m sure Kate Ceberano remembers that night. Jacqueline: I’m sure she does. There were some incredible times. There were many, like when we’re at Belvoir Street, one of the first shows I ever played. They started the show without me. I’m out talking to somebody and they start Devil Gate Drive and I’m still at the bar. I got to the stage, I ran to the front of the stage. Onto my knees and slid to the front of the stage and grabbed the microphone. Who would start the show without the singer? That was great, but the most incredible time I ever had oh, which was at Balmain RSL Club. Maynard: A great venue, a big cavernous venue with a huge stage, plenty of room for all the Castanets. Jacqueline:It was around the corner from the Bijou . Where Betty Blockbuster had been. That’s where Reg Livermore did that big show. That theatre was one of the first theatres closed down because of the people who’d moved when it was gentrified. They moved in and they made them close the theatre down. And it was just around the corner from the RSL, which was a fabulous venue. I loved playing Balmain, but I remember one night and nobody will remember this, but I had a transcendental experience on stage, truly. Maynard: You always were quite spiritual about your singing in the first place. So it doesn’t surprise me that you had this transcendental experience. What song were you singing and was it a particular part of the song? What happened? Jacqueline: (long pause and intake of breath…) I’m a very serious singer. I take what I do very seriously. When I sing, I always put everything into a song. That was a beautiful thing about the Castanet Club, though there was this crazy shit happening. I mean, you know, I was this diva up the front, and behind me, people were pulling their pants down and running around like fucking idiots. I remember this night and I think maybe it was Work Song. Maynard: Work Song, which is on the album. Jacqueline: I was in the middle of the stage and they were packed to the rafters. When we played, it’s really hard to explain what a Castanet Club audience was like, because the Castanet club audience was the show. We were the ancillary to the audience. I remember this night we were playing Work Song and I really deeply got into it. It used every part of my range, I was like the biggest show off diva. It was incredibly taxing to sing this song and a really hard song to sing. I always wanted to sing it at the absolute max. Every time I wanted to do it better and to show off a little bit more. So I remember I would do a lot. On the stage it was always very quiet at the start. Then it built as a song and as the sax solo built, everybody went fricken crazy on the stage. I can remember I closed my eyes and I know it sounds weird, and I wasn’t on drugs or drinking, but I left my body. This really happened. I think it a rarely, rarely happens in anyone’s life, but I actually left my body. I’m floating outside my body looking down at us on stage because I think I was singing so beautifully that night. I’d gotten myself to another level of singing and I moved out of my body. I’m sitting there, I’m watching, I mean, oh my God! Oh my God! I’m having this experience. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. I was probably hyperventilating. Maynard: I’m suggesting medically perhaps it was a minor oxygen deprivation going on. Jacqueline: Of course, I know that NOW. In retrospect it was, but at that time it was transcendental. Then I came back into my body…. I remember opening my eyes and I’m thinking “what the F did anybody see that?” And you all had your pants down and were running around like crazy people around me. Nobody even fucking noticed that I was out of my body and floating around. I was in another time zone and you’re all doing your own shit and going about knocking things over and bumming each other or whatever you were doing, it was crazy. That was a moment of knowing I’m truly alone on this stage. Really like, look at me with these bunch of idiots. I’m truly alone on this stage. Maynard: Another thing you did in the band, you, were one of the main bass players. Jacqueline: Well, I was the funky ass bass player Maynard. Let’s get that correct. Maynard: What songs were you laying down the funk to? Jacqueline: Every song I played mate. I love the bass. I’ve said to my students over the many years, if you want to be sexy, you play the bass. Maynard: Because you’d have the evening gown and you’d be playing the bass. The fez too. Jacqueline: Castanets is why I started playing bass. Did I ever tell you how I joined the Castanet Club. Maynard: No. Jacqueline: Well, I was a special guest, so I used to come along as special guest with my piano player, Vince. We would come and do my version of many songs, jazz songs and that’s where I started Wuthering Heights with him. Whenever we played, it went off. So you guys, when you were going to the Edinburgh Festival in 1984, who is your bass player? Pete Maynard:Pete Mahony, otherwise known as Mr Urstwhile. Jacqueline: Urstwhile had decided he wasn’t going to go. He decided he wasn’t going to be in the Castanet Club anymore. He left the band momentarily. You guys contacted me. And you said, because I played guitar because I’d been a singer around town and I played guitar quite well, They asked if I played bass? I said, ah, okay, Yes, I can play bass. I mean, it’s just a four string guitar after all…. Maynard: Which for anybody in the entertainment game, that is exactly the answer you always give. Can you juggle and ride a unicycle? Sure! Because you get more work that way. Jacqueline: So they said, we’ll find you a bass so you can learn all the songs. They found me a bass from Bart Fox. Maynard: Bass player with Musical Flags and first Castanet Club bass player. Jacqueline: He had a bass and they gave me his bass. Now I knew nothing about the bass electric guitar at that stage. And I did not realise that the action of a bass electric guitar shouldn’t be five inches from the neck. It was an impossible guitar to play, but I didn’t know. So I’ll learnt the whole Castanet Club repertoire on this unplayable bass. I must’ve had muscle fingers because I don’t know how I did it. So I learnt the whole repertoire and I went in and they said, “oh, Pete’s changed his mind. He’s going to go”. So I was ousted, but when you came back, he left and then, because I think I’d been such a hit at the club and you wanted to get a female singer in permanently. I think Glenn approached me and Angela approached me and I asked if I’d want to join. And I did join. So I actually became the bass player. Maynard: Wearing a full evening dress and playing the bass. It’s not look you see very often outside of a Bryan Ferry clip. Jacqueline: Thank you. Well, my costumes were made by a friend of mine, John Parks. I had a costumier. Maynard: The rest of us just went into second hand places. Jacqueline: I lived in pyjamas, I only wore pyjamas. I think at that stage in my life, like all of us, we all wore secondhand clothes, but we decided that Nastassja Bassi should be sexy and slinky and gorgeous. We had long conversations about how I would look. It was like Madonna, but not. I don’t know if anybody noticed it, but you obviously did. I wore the pillbox hat, the fez hats, the square pillbox hat. Maynard: Everyone had their own different style. Yours was certainly there. Jacqueline: I got every bit of la’me from every second hand shop in Newcastle I could find. John went on to lecture at Edith Cowan, Western Australia. He’s still an artist, still does work. Maynard: That’s the thing with the Castanet Club that has been pointed out. A lot of people are still working as artists even now. You’ve got a great singing career. You’re working on a PhD. You’ve had some really interesting success in Germany. Jacqueline: I went to art school. The thing about the Castanet Club, I think it was that perfect apex of the underbelly of Newcastle. We had the theatre and the music and we knew so many people from art school was Jodi and me and Therese and Michael. It was a perfect fusion of the incredible and exciting things that happened in Newcastle. Maynard: That group of people would use words like “signifier”, I only found out what that meant last week. Jacqueline: I’m using that in my PhD, actually. I did film at university. I don’t know if you remember. I used to make all the super eight films for the Castanet Club. Maynard: Did you do The Last Milkshake In Town? Jacqueline: The very first film we made. I’ve got a couple of people to help me because I was in it. We used to start every show with a super eight film. Maynard: That’s right. It would have us all jumbling up the letters of Castanet Club or running around. Remember the one where we’re all diving off the blocks at Merewether Baths? Jacqueline: Recently, when the documentary for the Castanet exhibition Glen Dormand was saying to me, he thinks that the band was very theatrical. I said, actually, I believe that the Castanet Club was cinematic because I think we were all influenced by the Saturday afternoon movies we watched. Maynard: We all had our own movie going on in our heads. Jacqueline: It definitely did. It was the Busby Berkeley kind of “let’s put on a show”, Judy Garland and that was the thing. I mean, it was. Let’s put on a show, you know, it did come across perhaps as musical, but I think more than anything, we were cinematic. We viewed ourselves in a cinematic way. We’d started every half with the super eight film. I did an animation where we all went to the moon. So I had all the little characters and we got into the rocket and I did it in stop motion. I did it in the fireplace at Dulwich Hill, Bowling Man went to the moon. I did that stuff. I’ve gone on and done my own thing. Cabaret shows by myself with piano players. And I ended up in Berlin in the late eighties. Maynard ; Just like the Hoff Jacqueline: Just like the Hoff. They kept saying to me, you got to come to Berlin. They’ll really get you in Berlin. They’ll love you. Maynard: There is something incredibly Weimar Republic about you. Here’s your cabaret, but I will kill you. Jacqueline: Thank you for that. Ah, yeah. Very Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Wile, I was a bit obsessed with German cabaret when I was a kid. I didn’t have any idea what they were saying, but I just loved the emotion of it. Weimar cabaret. Maynard: By the way, if you are watching the movie Cabaret, stop the movie after Money Makes The World Go Around. The movie’s over after that, because you don’t want to get to “tomorrow belongs to us”. It gets sad after Money Makes The World Go Around, you might be tempted to watch more of the film. Don’t. Jacqueline: In the little brief clip I saw from the documentary on the Castanet Club, Stephen makes the comment that we were Punk. But we were Weimar Cabaret. Which is what we were in that kind of strange post Whitlam Liberal government era, which was shit when they were bringing fees back in for education, all that stuff. Maynard: We were concerned with the fact that we’d be killed in a nuclear war, which makes Global Warming a bit lame in some ways. Jacqueline: Yeah. This was an industrial city. So every day you’d go out and you’d cough up a bucket load of coal. You’d hang out, you’re washing in Newcastle and you knew where the breeze was blowing from depending on what colour the washing was when you brought it in. Maynard: In some ways the environment in Newcastle has got better. Jacqueline: Yeah, it definitely has. And there’s that constant hum from Kooragang Island that I hear. Maynard: I love it when the guy leans on the boat horn at three in the morning. What the hell are you doing? Do you need to wake up everyone in Newcastle? Jacqueline: We moved to Sydney. I think that changed all our lives. Maynard: It did. It certainly changed my life for the better forever. I remember how we used to rehearse on a regular basis. A number of times a week in Redfern. Jacqueline: Because we were on a retainer. We would go there every day and it was like a job. Every day we’d work out bits and we’d sit around drinking coffee. Maynard: Out of that came a lot of great things. And also we were attempting to earn for each other $250 a week, which you were able to live on then in Sydney. Jacqueline: It was a retainer and we were a cooperative and I’ve been in lots of cooperative things since. That idea that we are all equal. She says, did you see me rolling my eyes? All equal in the eyes of God. Did you see me rolling my eyes? That way we could actually pay ourselves a living wage as performers as we rehearsed in Redfern. Maynard: Our gigs at the Harold Park Hotel were was a great time. There was just so many of us crammed on stage there. Audiences often looked very surprised as when we were going off, doing a number like Work Song or when an Angela and Glen Keenan would do their dancing. They would take up the whole stage with their great forties dancing. There’s just moments where they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Believe you me listener. It was amazing to be part of a group that can do that to an audience. Jacqueline: This was what I found. Like somebody like Stephen, who I worked with post Castanets, I’m still on a stage with a guy doing the same shit he’s been doing for 30 years. But it doesn’t really matter because I find him mesmerising. Next to brilliance, as far as I’m concerned, Warren and Stephen are genius. I think the essence of the second coming of the Castanet Club, the one that I was a part of, Stephen and Warren, were this kind of genius force in the middle, because they were freaky, freaky as. Maynard: Please people have a look at the Castanet Club documentary teaser, and the full length version that is going to be online in coming months. The thing that made me smile the most, cause I’d never seen it, was the photo of Warren Coleman with his Academy Award. I knew he’d won one and I saw him with it and I couldn’t stop smiling. So happy for him. That was my favourite part of the whole documentary. Jacqueline: How proud of are we Warren? I think it was the youngest person ever taken into NIDA. His comedy was inside out. It was critical thinking, it was sideways, it was roundabout. Blew my fucking head off. Do you remember that Warren grew up thinking he was an alien? Maynard: Yes, and he ended up playing one on stage. Jacqueline: He was obsessed with the NASA stuff. He was a NASA expert. I think I remember him saying that he believed that the aliens would come and pick him up one day and that they just popped him with those people who were pretending to be his parents. If you start the Warren Coleman story there, then you get it. Maynard: If we could finish off with a song, would you like me to play Wuthering Heights? or Work Song? The 24 bit remastered version? Jacqueline: God play them both. They’re both pretty interesting works. Wuthering Heights, didn’t go on the album and it’s something that still, I don’t understand. Maynard: The reason is that you could only fit 47 minutes on the vinyl album. Jacqueline: There were political reasons why it didn’t go on the album. I mean, why would you have somebody doing a cover of Wuthering Heights, and an awesome cover and not put it on the album? When you put other stuff on the album. Maynard: Me doing the Broadway medley? Jacqueline: Why do you make an album? You make an album as memorabilia. You make an album as merchandise, or you make an album to do something with. I truly believe that if we put Wuthering Heights on that album, it would have taken the Castanet Club somewhere else. I think it would have been a single, it was great. I listened to it when you put it up the other day, of course, I haven’t heard me sing that. I haven’t heard that. So to hear my voice as a 22 year old kid singing that song in that voice, I blew myself away and I thought, that is fucking awesome. It’s a quintessential version of a song that was already a quintessential. How could you make it better? It was way too fast. It’s super fast. It’s like, we’re just rushing to get to the end. Work Song was the same, but I listened to it. It’s the poignancy of things that we did. It’s the poignancy of somebody like Johnny singing those, saddest guys on earth songs that were so heart tugging and gorgeous. How could you not fall in love with it? It was a beautiful reflection of where we grew up, at the time we grew up, with the culture we grew up with. And to put Wuthering Heights in there, it was incredible to sing. I’m a huge Kate Bush fan. I mean, she changed the world. The acrobatics of that song are so incredible because nobody had ever heard anybody sing like Kate Bush. There were a few pretenders that came along after that, but it was one of the few times that a record label actually said to a female singer, fuck, you could do whatever you want. That’s what happens when you say to a female singer of that calibre that you can do whatever you want. So she was signed in as a 17 year old, and that was her first single, you know, I grew up listening to jazz and stuff, but as a singer, there’s nobody like Kate Bush and that changed my life. To then go on and sing it and to be inside that vocal, to be inside the story, to be inside of that female vocal, I never heard anybody sing like that. Maynard: Let’s have a listen to you using that. It’s been a pleasure to talk to you and to find out what was going on and what has gone on. Jacqueline: I did a lot of stuff in Germany, I still go to Germany. I’m there a lot, except for COVID. I hate COVID shit. Maynard: What’s your favourite German phrase? Jacqueline: Quickly, quickly in your head. It’s East German. I said “cheers big ears”. All my friends laughed, and this guy said, “quickly, quickly in your head’ (in German). Maynard: Please follow Jacqueline, wherever you can have a look at her Bandcamp, have a look at her Soundcloud. Jacqueline: Thanks Maynard. It’s really lovely seeing you. Thank you for inviting me over. Why haven’t we been seeing each other more? The Castanet Club 1985 Maynard: Well, we are on the opening day of the Castanet Club exhibit at the Newcastle Museum, and I’ve been having a really good look around here. We’ve got over 900 photos on three screens. We’ve got every different iteration of the Castanet Club represented, and there are even vinyl, 12 inch albums for sale. We have Jacqueline. What do you reckon? What’s it like seeing yourself as large as life on the screen there on the stage again? Jacqueline: I never realised my resolution was so low. I thought I was high resolution, but obviously I’m wrong. The pixel count on that is low. Maynard: You had the luminous halter neck top on. That was quite a good idea for a sweaty show. Jacqueline: Really? I had shit hot body didn’t I. But I was 12 at the time. Skin tight as well. I was zipped into them and zipped out of them. Maynard: As part of the exhibition there’s a recreation of a share house in Cooks Hill, which includes gaffer tape on the sofa and an eighties television with standard resolution, which is currently playing 104 Bull Street, Cooks Hill, the controversial track off Johnny Goodman’s album. Anything you’ve seen here that you’d forgotten about? I mean, there’s a lot of photos I actually took on the photo walls there, that I’d forgotten I’d taken. Jacqueline: It’s nice to see the back of the Castanet Club album blown up. I forgot that description of my character. That’s interesting. Maynard: And nothing’s changed. “Likes to stay up late. Sings like a dream”. Jacqueline: There you go. Jane Adam & Jacqueline Amidy film Lance Norton & Maynard for The Last Milkshake in Town, 1983. Newcommon Street, Newcastle. Jacqueline Amidy at iTunes Jacqueline on Soundcloud Jacqueline on Bandcamp Get the Castanet Club book Watch The Castanet Club Comes to YOU! The post The show-stopping Nastassja Bassi of The Castanet Club. appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Warren Coleman, who played Bowling Man in The Castanet Club, drops in to Maynard International Studios to return his VHS player. Can Maynard look like he has a life with only a Barbara Eden photo and a 1982 calendar? Not a chance, but enjoy this 2021 episode of The Odd Couple. Warren has had an illustrious career acting, writing, acting some more, writing some more and then editing and writing. Which won him an Academy Award for Happy Feet in 2006. Warren and Maynard talk about none of this, but if you want the hot ticket to the best Lost In Space and Star Trek episodes we have them for you. Warren Coleman as Rick in Casablanca. They Came From The Fun Dimension 1981 Warren Coleman & Maynard. Castanets are go! Sure, not a great photo, but look, marionettes. Warren Coleman on IMBD The Newcastle Museum exhibition The Castanet Club: an exhibition you can dance to! opens on July 11th and continues till October 31st. Come see and hear what it was all about from 1982 – 1991. Sandman remembers The Castanet Club The big bumper book in full colour on The Castanet Club The trailer for the Newcastle Museum exhibition and documentary on The Castanet Club The post Look busy! Bowling Man is coming. appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Viva Bob Vegas is the first live tour in six years for legendary Australian (very) funnyman Bob Downe. Relax as Bob takes Maynard on a tour of his career and his favourite moments from his latest show. Touring now to Brisbane, Brunswick Heads, Sydney & Melbourne. Bob Downe’s very showy website Bob Downe commando rolling under stage curtain. Not having a “senior moment”. I spend most of my days answering DMs on Facebook. I feel like a teacher doing marking.Bob Downe Bob Downe & Maynard Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade 2006 The best way to get your hair done is to take it to your Hairdresser and leave it there overnight.Bob Downe (hair enthusiast) Bob has retired this song. But clearly the people of Canberra have not witnessed a performer of his calibre before. I’m a perfect bitch. But I don’t have perfect pitch.Bob Downe (singer) Bob Downe on Maynard’s Foxtel show in 1996. Sydney Mardi Gras parade 2006 with Bob Downe as Parade Marshall I’ve got someone very exciting, very showbiz on the line. You probably first bumped into them when he was a member of the Globos in 1982. Perhaps you saw him at Edinburgh festival in 1988. When he first played the Edinburgh festival fringe, which he played 12 of through to 2002, he released his greatest hits album in 1996. His jazzy album in 1997, hosted the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade on TV. The Bob Downe show on Foxtel in 2000 many, many appearances on Good News Week singing along with Paul. He’s now brought Las Vegas to New South Wales. Whether Las Vegas wants to be here or not, with Viva Bob Vegas. People it’s coming to Brunswick heads, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, please welcome the Prince of Polyester, the Viscount of valour, that Nabob of nylon, Mr Bob Downe. Oh my God. How do you follow an intro like that, man? And that’s not all you’ve done. That’s just a snapshot. That’s right. It doesn’t even take in my crochet classes or my crazy whisk drive that I always do with mum. How do I do it? How do I keep it up? Particularly with this show, you’ve got a punishing schedule all the way up and down the east coast of Australia, how do you travel? You just still go via Ansett.When I can. And sometimes I send myself by FedEx, but I’ve just ordered online a human sized drone. I think that’s going to be the easiest way to get around. Big enough to ride on. It’ll be like the chairlift at the Easter show. This is no cheapo show. This isn’t just you with a cassette tape. How big is the cast? I’ve got a four piece band. We’ve got two beautiful burlesque dancer girls, and I’ve got a special guest entertainer in Brunswick heads and Sydney.It’s the lovely Shauna Jensen, who I’m sure you know, and in Melbourne, it’s the beautiful Pastel Vesper. Will you both be singing the Ballad of John and Yoko together? I think we should. I really do think we should. So this shows Viva Bob Vegas. I figured if we can’t go to Vegas, I’m going to bring Vegas to you. It’s like a recreation and a tribute to the late-night lounge shows that used to happen in Vegas after the main room shows. There would be these wild lounge shows with people like Louis Prima and Francis Faye, and they had showtimes like one, three and five AM. You can imagine how loosey goosey and crazy those shows were. That’s what I’m recreating. It’s very naughty with great jazz, great pop. Are you going to have an Elvis impersonator or will you be an Elvis impersonator? I am the Elvis impersonator. I’ll be telling my Las Vegas stories. I’ve played Vegas quite a few times and I’ve been there a lot. There’s a lot of funny stories to tell. And you are known for your outfits too. Your outfits have always been completely Las Vegas. My favourite outfit of yours, which we might not see this time was the one you used to open a show with in the early nineties. That was your Xanadu Cape. And it wasn’t gathered. It was just basically a triangle that was stapled on your back. That was my Xanadu space suit it was beautiful, but it was in a very thin cheap fabric that left nothing to the imagination. And what costume is your favourite from this show? My gold lamè, track suit. Made by the brilliant Maude Boat who created the foamy wigs for Priscilla. It’s a black trim gold lamè track suit. Sydney listeners to Planet Maynard are disappointed because all those shows are sold out already. Is that correct? All sold out, but we’re coming back. Keep checking in. At Bobdowne.com or on the Bob Downe Facebook page. We’re going to do return seasons in November and December. You’re often at your best when you work against what people would expect you to do. I saw you doing a bit of Sexy MF by Prince once, and that was just fantastic. What’s an unexpected number from Bob Downe this time? A little selection from Hamilton the musical. I think you’ll be quite pleased. Oh, I can rap baby. I can rap. I can rap with the best of them. There’s one photo from the show where you look like you’re having a senior moment. You’re lying on the ground. It looks like you can’t get up. It’s after I’ve done my commando roll under the slowly dropping curtain. Well, you’re giving all to the people. I’ve got your singles of I Will Survive & Yeh, Yeh. The act has never gone out of style. I was retro to begin with. You were doing wonderful trips around the Harbour, doing a bit of a burlesque show in the Harbour there. How did they go? It’s was going fabulously until the bloody pandemic. All of my P&O comedy cruises, suspended. That’s why I’m on tour with this show. Cause you know, a girl’s got to work. How did you handle the pandemic? Did you go out and hide in Murwillumbah with your Mum? Or did you put on your white lab coat from the Ponds Institute and find a cure? Neither of those, I lived in a cave just on the Harbour cliffs. It’s amazing how much natural harbour frontage is left actually. Especially when you actually get in a tinny and have a look for somewhere to live. On Facebook there’s a great great photo when you were the marshal at the Mardi Gras parade. I was interviewing you for one of my videos. Someone has pointed out, interestingly enough, I’ve never noticed this in the photo, but there there’s a railway station behind us and it’s Museum station. But your head’s just at an angle blocking it off. So you’ve got, it looks like it actually says Cum Station in the background. To which I replied. Yes, very disappointed. It’s actually a building. That does remind one of the early days of Mardi Gras. I’ve got lots of stories about early Mardi Gras days. It’s quite naughty. This show’s quite naughty. Don’t bring the kids. a few people here asking some questions. I’ll just go through these up. These are people from the internet and we know how rude they are. Yeah. Oh, well look, lay it on me, baby. I’m used to it. You wouldn’t believe what fun those comedy cruises are. We really miss them because there’s always you plus another five or six comedians and you’re out for three days and it’s yeah. So much fun. Right? There’s that interesting mix.When you get comedians together, they’ve worked hard in front of an audience for a number of years and there’s sort of a dark humour that comes out, isn’t it? Yeah, very much. Jenny Carruthers from Facebook writes, can you please do another duet with Gina Riley and wants to know when you’re going to be hosting the new version of Blankety Blanks? I want to do everything that she’s mentioned and more, I’d love to do a Blankety Blanks. God, that would be fun. And you could be on, you’d be great. I don’t know if I’m more of a Marty Rhone or an Ugly Dave Gray kind of guy. Oh, I think you’re more Marty Rhone than Ugly Dave Gray. I think that’s a compliment. Evan Steer writes from Hong Kong. He says that he once had a chat with you at Mardi Gras and found you totally charming. That’s the word that keeps on coming up Bob, charming. The one that keeps coming up at the moment is that I’m a national treasure. I’m a bit nervous about that because doesn’t that mean somebody needs to dig me up. Or in a glass case at the Australian museum next to the thylacine. Peter Young from Orange writes. What is your take on the significance of Australia by Good News to the people of Australia? Is it the gay games? Dreadful Village People style song, Australia, Australia, that song is hideous. Hideous. I’ll never sing it again. It’s like Copacabana. I’ll never sing it again. Some songs. People love them, but Oh my goodness. But look, I like to do good songs rather than the songs that, yeah. Nah, I won’t be doing that one again. As much as I enjoyed doing the gay games, opening ceremony, that’s been retired. What is one of the newer ones that you might be putting in the list? Oh, I’m, I’m throwing in all the Vegas classics, Dankeshein, Volare, Sway, Hello Dolly, songs from the Wizard of Oz, Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head, Candyman there’s 20 songs in the show with a four-piece band. So that’s you and six people touring up and down the East coast of Australia. Absolutely. So I really want people to come and see us this week at Brunswick heads picture house, and it’s I’m on this Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. And you’d better book because tickets are going fast. We’re already sold out in Sydney. What’s it like doing Matinee shows? It’s amazing. You wouldn’t believe we did a Matinee in Brisbane and it was just like an evening show. Everybody was just so up for it. See, people are so pleased to be back in a theatre. It doesn’t matter what time you’re on. They’re so excited to be back in a theatre to have a laugh. Has their behaviour changed any because they’re so used to sitting in front of the TV? They’re so excited that they forget how much they love live performance. Everybody’s full of this incredible communal energy, that they had forgotten was part of going to a show. You are well known for your haircare products, a question from Justine, she wants to know what is the secret of your hair care products? How does your hair always look so good? Well, what you do is you go to the hairdresser and you leave it overnight and you come back the next day and there’s something about it. It just becomes perfect. Do you ever have a hairdo malfunction? If your hair catches part of the set as you make your entrance, it’s never good losing your hair as you make your entrance. I remember doing a very deep bow once and I got up and my hair was on the floor. So no more deep bowels. Do you remember what your very first song was that you did Mr. Bob Downe?The first song I ever did was strangers in the night. I made the backing on a Casio directly into the back of the stereo and recorded onto a Chrome cassette. Oh, I must congratulate you on being one of the few people I know that are following Mari Wilson on Facebook. Mari Wilson. Yeah. See she was doing that sixties, fifties thing. The same time that we started doing the Globos and the same time that Paul Rubens was doing Peewee, that kind of fifties, sixties, mid century, retro entertainment all happened spontaneously around the world. People need to realise this was before the internet. This was all just happening locally. That’s what was so interesting about working back then. The range of songs you do, just looking at Starman, David Bowie. Your version is very special. You have many interviews to do. How has your media circus been this time? It’s been, well, “Bob’s back” and I’m like, I’d never went away, but they all think I’m back. This is the first time I’ve toured a new show on terra firma for six years since Bob Sweat and Tears. Can you believe that? Do you answer DMs on Facebook? I certainly do. It’s exhausting. I spend most of my days there, I feel like a teacher doing marking. It’s a bit of a similar feeling. Have you been filming this or are you going to do a live stream of this? I’d love to, I’d love to, but because we’re doing return seasons and everything, we might hold off for a while, but I’d love to. It’s time for a live Bob Downe video. It really is. Those Hazy Crazy Days of Summer was that from a movie? No, it’s a pop single written and released by Nat King Cole. One of his pop hits from the early sixties. I love that early sixties, pre Beatles period. I think it’s so interesting. People sing along at home. There’s a lot of people who like to sing along with you at home. That’s what I love. That’s what I want people to do at my show. The post What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Bob Downe appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Bunga Bunga 67 surprises the world with a vision of hope, whimsy and frippery. Just what you need in these trying times. They could have used Kim Beazley as a battering ram.Tim Ferguson (insurrectionist) Learn where Kyneton is, experience the bass guitars of war and get yourself a decent super hero psychologist. Tim takes a journey to 1990s Canberra in his Tim Tunnel, Maynard defenestrates himself via the 1960s and they both answer the percussion based question that has split the Nation in two. When the world is forming a band, Australia usually plays the triangle.Tim Ferguson (geopolitical strategist) Madd Club crew Maynard, Miss Kate & Action Ant Having strangers stick money into my underpants makes me feel cheap and expensive at the same time.Tim Ferguson (failed stripteuse) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8UP9bupjFU&t=8s Felipe Rose original Village People member talks DISCO Support Bunga Bunga and Planet Maynard by becoming a Patreon Tim’s art available by commission Bunga Bunga 66 Madd Club at Botany View Hotel 29th May The post Bunga Bunga 67 – Tim Ferguson & Maynard appeared first on Planet Maynard.

It’s Bunga Bunga 66! You know what that means? Tim Ferguson and Maynard are two thirds of the way to the Devil’s number while still being only one third in reality. This show Tim & Maynard take you on a 30 minute adventure that has bears, baths and bugger all to do with reality. Tim’s been to Adelaide and Maynard has never been to me. Your Crankmail is answered but very little else. Tim Ferguson & Maynard attempt serious Travel in time to explore the lesbian protest “rule of four”, find out what is boring Tim this week and have a look in Maynard’s Bug Out Bag. What do Daryl Somers and Shintaro have in common? Nothing, but they are both good at hiding and are both hot topics for discussion in Bunga Bunga 66. Mari Wilson, Miss Beehive influences Maynard fashion The OMGWTF showBang Bang Bandit Variety show Tim’s Fake News You Can Trust at New DailyContact Tim through his website or Twitter for an art work commissioned.Help out this show by becoming a Patreon supporter, Tim & Maynard thank you. Madd Club show on 24th April in Sydney The post Bunga Bunga 66 – Maynard & Tim Ferguson appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Join us for all the scary large rabbit fun…. WARNING! This video contains inappropriately sized Leporidae and may cause very poor homemade costumes to be made… See you at Electric Dreams 30th April The post Amateur bunnies gone wild! appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Bunga Bunga 65 finds Tim Ferguson and Maynard hard at work making Australia a better place by making sure they don’t get caught. A pithy Bunga Bunga 65 finds Tim in a mood to tell off ABC legal while Maynard is puzzled at the amount of Barry Crocker records he seems to own. They also answer the big questions about Tim’s burlesque career, Adelaide, Goth subculture, and what to wear to an insurrection. Tim Ferguson & Maynard looking serious If I was going to invade Parliament House, I’d dress like Bananas In PyjamasTim Ferguson (insurrectionist) Victorian listeners will no doubt be especially excited about Tim’s public address to the people of Melbourne. In which he fingers some COVID malfeasance on the part of alleged hipsters. The “large flightless budgie of New Zealand” that Tim mentioned he drew in this show was a Kakapo. See a less interesting drawing of the Kakapo here. Kitler spies on Bunga Bunga from his Wolf’s Lair Goths used to be likeable, but now they’re just people who have a lot of Ann Rice novels.Tim Ferguson (Goth wannabe) Bananarama- Really Saying Something book (not one mention of Tim) Tim’s cat on his shower curtain, get one people. The show that influences Tim with what to wear to an insurrection Support Bunga Bunga and Planet Maynard by becoming a Patreon Tim’s art available by commission Bunga Bunga 64 Madd Club show at Moshpit 13th March All you need to know about The Newcastle Fringe Festival in March The post Bunga Bunga 65 – Tim Ferguson & Maynard appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Australia’s Coldest 100 returns in January with some world class musical awkwardness that only Australia can produce. From The Bum Dance to Song of Wollongong, this list of 100 songs about Australia or by Australians (who may have received bad career advice) is a must for fans of the musical road less travelled. The Coldest 100 is the creation of Andrew Sholl. He’s been featuring it on Twitter since 2016 and so far this year the combined worldwide interest in his list has seen 75 million views. So put that in your slouch hat and smoke it. Every year I’m asked two questions: Where’s Johnny Farnham? and Where’s Alan Jones?Andrew Sholl I didn’t know Alan Jones was a singer, and I’m still not sure. But he gives I Am Australian a red hot try. Any chance Alan gets to perform he’s up it like a rat up a rope.Andrew Sholl @Ozkitsch Andrew Sholl has been at this for 5 years now and he shows no sign of running out of Aussie musical oddities. Look and listen to The Coldest 100 2020 The New Goldiggers give Helen Reddy’s anthem a new look. John Farnham belts out the joy of shopping in Adelaide The host of Sounds Donny Sutherland 1977 Miss Piggy as Marie Antonette singing disco The post Australia’s Coldest 100 – 2021 appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Bunga Bunga 64 comes live to you from Tim’s lounge room with the help of Richard Saunders. We fully promise that as usual, don’t expect too much. Tim has been making art, Maynard has been making a nuisance of himself. You’ll believe a cat can fly after this mystical journey into your murk. Watch the video of our November Bunga Bunga livestream. Tim’s art available by commission Here’s Bunga Bunga 63 The post Bunga Bunga 64 – Tim Ferguson & Maynard appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Bunga Bunga 63 brings the joy of film, music and maritime safety right up your astral plane. Tim Ferguson and Maynard hold aloft their disappointing splendour of sound. This time it’s serious film critic vs comedy and Tim takes it personally. Maynard ponders that Whitney might have saved the Titanic. So as usual Bunga Bunga leaves a mess. There is no cure for a grumpy cat, except to put them in a leadership position.Tim Ferguson (shares a space with Kitler) Batman warns of the “deadly daily danger” that is all around us Maynard & Tim singing along with Bunga Bunga 63 Aaron Thoughty2 hates bathos and Tim takes it personally. Kevin Rowlands Rag Doll 2020 The big Madd Club video livestream August 21st The confusing Madd Club July livestream Tim’s art available by commission Tim Ferguson online workshop on Sitcom writing August 16th & 23rd Paris When It Sizzles soundtrack Kevin Rowlands 1999 video for Concrete & Clay You think you’ve had a rough day. What about Hitler’s alligator? The raw excitement of 1985s Spacebridge Where to get a Vengaboys t-shirt The post Bunga Bunga 63 – Tim Ferguson & Maynard appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Bunga Bunga 62 ponders the imposing amount of Crankmail that was slipped under the front door this week. Tim Ferguson & Maynard soothe a troubled nation using the well known therapeutic tools of cocaine, cats & Canberra. We argue over dancing, and laugh at a well known Australian capital city. We give important tips on professional presentations, including the appropriate use of the word “lick”. Kitler in his Wolf’s Lair This is the show that finally may have discovered what Tim’s alt right feline Kitler is doing late at night. Keep those t-shirts classy. That 1979 French disco film Maynard NEW FM local TV promo 1995 Tim’s art available by commission DJ Ravioli having a cat bath The huge Madd Club livestream happening on Friday night The post Bunga Bunga 62 – Tim Ferguson & Maynard appeared first on Planet Maynard.

George Hrab has been a favourite of mine to interview since first meeting him in 2010 at TAM (The Amazing Meeting) Australia. George is the fun filled science communicator-adjacent, overly-talented musician from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I have known George for 10 years, but only met him 3 times. So of course we are best friends. This 30 minutes has the usual wide ranging and seemingly random topics. Expect bathroom etiquette, attractive women wanting to kill you, and trombones. From humble beginnings overcoming the shame of Moonraker being his first James Bond film, to performing around the world solo, with a string quartet or his usual 9 piece funk band The Philadelphia Funk Authority. Whenever there’s a “big blow” on, I try to be in the bath.George Hrab, Hydro Enthusiast George scubas up well folks. I am comfortable with my role as the brain sorbet of the science communication community.George Hrab, the popular palate cleanser. Pick Up The Pieces George performing Small Comfort live with string quartet at QED in Manchester, England. Geo’s regular fireside acoustic one man Jam. George & Maynard get together backstage in Las Vegas after working 48 hours straight in 2012. George Hrab’s wonderful world online Maynard & George Hrab 2010 The scene George & Maynard reference at end of show. The post George Hrab – Bond, Bee Gees & Baths appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Maynard interviews the mighty Tom Jones for radio Triple J in 1988, just before Tom released “Kiss” in Australia, and then for 2SER, backstage at Sydney Entertainment Centre after his 1995 concert. Hear the legend, his voice, and his secret of long lasting pants. I get my trousers specially made. So busted pants for me are now a thing of the past.Tom Jones 1988 Maynard with Tom Jones, Southern Cross Hotel, 1988 I’ve never taken myself too seriously. If I’m going to do an up tempo song, I’ll have fun with it.Tom Jones 1988 Just Help Yourself to some Tom 1968. Tom Jones turned 80 this month…… Maynard with Tom Jones backstage Sydney Entertainment Centre, 1995. “Think I better dance now!” Kiss 1988 John Otway front cover of his version of Green, Green Grass of Home. The post Tom Jones – the legend and his pants. appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Bunga Bunga 61 has Tim Ferguson & Maynard discovering a powerful medical phenomenon, Herd Humility. Kitler reaps his revenge upon Tim for showing him far too much affection. Maynard asks to you two questions you have to answer, before you are allowed out of lockdown. Maynard’s Madd club show, last one Friday at 8:30pm The post Bunga Bunga 61 – Tim Ferguson & Maynard appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Bunga Bunga 60 has Tim & Maynard keeping Australia up to date on the things that count. Distracting zombies with online streaming and the fate of that possum in Maynard’s shed. They take Crankmail on Bond, boobs, and a rather feisty Dachshund from Perth calls into the Alan Jones show to counter the issues brought up last time by Tim’s cat. It’s not a bit of wood or an owl. Maynard’s Madd club show, every Friday at 8:30pm To The Batpoles podcast The post Bunga Bunga 60 – Tim Ferguson & Maynard appeared first on Planet Maynard.

Maynard gets Tim Ferguson on the Bungaphone for an action packed and speculation filled Bunga Bunga 59. Don’t know where it will all end? Neither do Tim nor Maynard, but in a show that somehow connects 3 different native animals, a cat and Alan Jones you are assured to be no wiser by the end of this travesty of a mockery. Your Crankmail is answered, Tim addresses the country’s lack of panic buying this week and Maynard starts an airline with the help of Winston Churchill. Keep hoarding Australia!Tim Ferguson Kangaroo disappointed by Adelaide. Maynard Air, it’s up yours.Maynard Winston Churchill describes the future Maynard Air. Gretel Killeen’s website Bunga Bunga live video at Tim’s June, Taryn & Wendy are back with Aerobics Oz Style. Tim’s concerns about shoulder pads are ill founded. Jodie asked, What is this plastic thing? Don’t Take Pandemic Advice From A Podcast The post Bunga Bunga 59 – Tim Ferguson & Maynard appeared first on Planet Maynard.