August 29, 2024 • 33 mins
Rikki Morris has released a new album called About Time, he popped in to talk about his time with Th' Dudes, Tex Pistol, on after school TV in the early 90s and so much more.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Radio Hodar Keys Off the Record podcast with
Matt he and Jeremy Wells.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Ricky Morris, Ya used to be here. Oh, it's nice
to have you, Recky. People who are listening to the podcast,
they'll know you from lots of ways. I suppose they
may have seen you on TV back in the nineteen
eighties on three forty five Live.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
That's how.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Oh no, I actually first knew about you from nobody
else your single smash It Single nineteen eighty eight, and
then after that you were I think you were interviewed
on three forty five Live.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
I was, yeah, at the beginning of nineteen eighty nine,
I was a guest on three forty five Live. And
do you want me to tell the story?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Well, that would be great because then what happened then,
because weirdly enough, I was, I mean I watched every
single TV program that was recorded or filmed in New
Zealand from about nineteen eighty two through to about nineteen
ninety six as a kid, terrible television addict. So I
followed your career, you know, from the start, you know,
(01:03):
in terms of in terms of television career, and I
remember it and I remember you on three forty five Live.
And I remember think because I loved the song, and
I remember thinking that guys really cool were really cool
on that and obviously the producers of three forty five
Live thought the same as girl.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Well, I fell into that job and it was quite
bizarre because, as I say, I was a guest on
the show, and the show in nineteen eighty nine, Three
forty five Live started off with Vanilla Bathfield Lovely and
a guy called Nigel Hurst who was he was a
stand up comic.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Nobody remembers Nigel Hurst.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Well, he was a stand up comic, but he's actually
a teacher and he still is a teacher at the
LASL College. But at that stage I think he was
maybe BEDS Intermediate and Utata or somewhere like that. Can't
quite remember.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
It would have been quite full on being on three
forty five Live and also a teacher.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
He well, he'd quit the teacher.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
Okay, because how did you get home from school?
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Because it would have been really cool, only he would
have fanned it.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
I was only just getting home in time for three
forty five Live, and I lived in a small town.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
But you could skimp last period, I mean, and the
students would love it.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Anyway, I digress, you digress. So so anyway, after about
two months of nineteen eighty nine, Nigel decided that he
didn't want to be on TV anymore. Oh yeah, he
missed his kids that you know, he's a primary school teacher.
He missed his kids, and he decided, I don't want
to do TV anymore. It's but much for him. God
bless him. And so anyway, they had a farewell party
(02:35):
for him on a Friday night, his last show, and
to celebrate, they've got a lot of people back who
had been guests. So there was me and Double J
and twice.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
The Team Larger and the.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
And the War of Yeah, that was one of them.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Robert D.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Frog Yeah, yeah, Wastewater. I think I sang on that.
And they also did a remake of She's a modd
That's right. Yeah, anyway, I digress again. Invaders, Yeah, I
think Ray was on it. Yeah, God bless them. Sorry,
I keep knocking the mic anyway.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
So it's good to save someone. It's great to have
someone with some Michael whenness.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Finally we've got a guest with some Mike awareness.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Anyway, So I was a guest on the show, and
at the end of the show we said goodbye to Nigel,
Bye Nige. They hadn't got anyone to replace him yet.
They'd been auditioning, but they hadn't found anyone.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yep. So that's what Jeremy. They haven't got around to replacing.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
There, not thinking things through, not having a plan surely.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
So Fanella was freaking and she she we were talking afterwards,
we had a few drinkies up in the in the
kids department and TV and Z and she said, why
don't you come in on Monday and just help me
out because we haven't found anyone. So she went and
talked to Stephen Campbell, who was the producer, and Stephen went, yeah,
that's a great idea. So I came in on the
Monday just as a kind of co host and and
(04:07):
I loved it. And at the end of the day
Stephen said, can you come back tomorrow because we haven't
found anyone yet. And it went on for the whole week,
and on the Friday we went and had drinks again
up in the kids room at Kids Office, Little parties
on that kid of Cheap as Jason Gunn was the
(04:27):
worst and and and Stephen said, you want a job,
You've got the job if you want it. So I went, yeah, cool,
I loved it. Wow, And that was it. So I
did an audition. I just kind of that's.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
What proximity is important, isn't it in the right place?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
And it's there.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
But I had chemistry, Yeah, you had chemistry.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Well, I think you know, a lot of a lot
of people struggled with Finella because she was she was very,
very headstrong, and and you know, nowadays women stand up
for themselves. Back then, Fanella stood up for herself and
it wasn't you know, we weren't quite PC in those days.
So she was shot down. What's she Yeah, especially by
(05:10):
the heads of like you know, the heads of the
children's department didn't like it, wearing jeans and all that.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
I like that a lot.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
I'll tell you what. I liked it. Yeah, I don't
know anybody who didn't like it.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
I mean, we just we were just talking before about
you coming on the show on our live show, and
then and then we also brought up Vanilla Bathfield. The
text machine exploded.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
It really did. But it was still those days.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Which of Courtunately, we have drifted away from a little
bit on television now, which is something for the mums
and something for the dads, and you were something for
the mums and.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Something for the dads. And I'll tell you what, there's
got to be something for the mums and dads.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Yeah, that does. And we had good guests, incredible guests.
Speaker 5 (05:54):
Incredible guests because we leveled because you were having a
huge market.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
And there was no TV three till the following year,
so we were up against Emmidale Farm. Yeah, you know,
so it was a bit unfair really, no, but you.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
But the guests that came through, I mean BB King.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah, yeah, I interviewed BB King, which was probably one
of the highlights of my life. We had guys like
Roland Gift Wanker from simply Read what's his name? Yeah, yeah.
It's funny because about about six or seven years later
(06:35):
I played soccer against him because I'm soccer nut and
I was still playing in those days. And Warners, who
were their record company simply reads for record company, wherever
simply read go in the world, they want to play
football because he's a big Manchester United fan, so simply
Read played a Warner's eleven which just happened to have
Noel Barclay and a couple of X all whites and honestly,
(06:57):
you would have thought mc huckner was playing in a
f A Cup final. He was such a dick. He
was such a dick, like he threatened to beat up
the ref because he awarded a penalty.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
Know, he's singing such beautiful songs, you can still detect
that he's a dick. Just it's amazing how it can
come through.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Well, that's interesting because as well, the UK press have
always been hard on him, and I suspect it's because
they knew he was a deck yet possibly, but you've
got to say, from one singer to another, great, the
guy's got great.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Absolutely great singer and I wouldn't mind having you know,
one percent of his bank back.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
Now going back to that, and we're really focused on
this area. But there Phillip Schofield speaking of people that
the British press are hard on. He was. He was,
He was in and about and around them, wasn't he Sam?
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Yep? He was on Shazam? Isn't that really? It's unfortunate
what happened.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Ready to Roll at that stage was sort of operating
and I feel like hosting that was Robbie Rakati was
that a little bit later on?
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Might have been a bit later on.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
It was a TV wasn't he.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
I don't think they had I don't think we need
to roll had a host.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
I just had that.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Andy Coca Cola Countdown or something Saturday morning show.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Oh yeah, there were a whole lot of them, and
Robert Scott and uh one. I had a thing going
in the maybe TV three in the early nineties. I
remember going on that once. So there was a bit
of stuff.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Radio Okay, bosed to direct Coca Cola Countdown. I was
the studio director for that.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Show long time, when Robbie Uraka was on much later.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
Their host was a someone called Alex Ban at that.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Time, Alex Bean.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
It was pre Big Rogga days, pre Big Big Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
So Radio Pictures was the big one. Oh Yesunday Night,
Hey Yeah. Karen Hage and Dick Driver and Dick Driver,
Dick Driver, Mark Tierney as well with.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
His host very deep voice, Mark KEENNI yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Became a straw person, Yes he did.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
And now he's one of the top videographers and photographers.
And he lives in America and yeah, he lives out
in the desert.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
Okay, So Ricky hello, speaking of deep booming voices, we
were talking about that. You can sing quite high, you can.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Sing very high.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
I can sing very high.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
You can sing very high, and nobody else has a
hard song to sing if you're a guy with balls.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
And so when you say balls dropped at that.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Stage, only just I was twenty eight twenty seven when
I recorded that.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
Fine, so yeah, they just there's no free sure to
go through puberty, just when it happens.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
But I'll tell you a story about that too, because
when I wrote that song, I came very quickly, so
to speak, and I recorded it on my little four
track machine. I had all the melody and all the instruments.
It was kind of like a country song to start with,
(10:05):
and I hadn't come up with any lyrics. So I
did a gig and late, you know, I was driving
home from this gig. It was probably like two o'clock
in the morning, and all of a sudden, all these
words started coming to me. I was like, shit, So
am I allowed to sweat?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Oh fucking great, I'm late. So anyway, I was living
in a little bedsit at the back of a friend's
house and I got home at two o'clock and I
was paranoid that I was going to forget all these words.
So I went into my little bedsit and got the
mic and it was very It was like us two
in the morning. So I just sang it really quietly.
(10:46):
There's nobody, and I listened to it back the next
morning and I thought, shit, that's a great effect singing
it really quietly like the Beg's And I never thought
I was going to sing it like that. And I
kind of did the vocals like that and yeah, and
it kind of had its own little character or something
(11:08):
to it. Yeah. But when Ian and my brother Ian
and I recorded it, we actually slowed it down and
I recorded it, and then we sped it up to
normal speed, which was a very beatlesy things to do
thing to do, and it made that kind of chip
monkey kind of.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
I was saying, it came along that it's it's got
Paul McCartney esque.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
It's an effect.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Yeah, But we were filling around and we lowered it, didn't.
Speaker 6 (11:35):
We Yeah, I think we did.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
We lowered it awesome.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
It sounds.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
That's probably the key that it was recorded, So it
was recorded in the key of G but on the record,
it's just under a So we sped it up that much.
For people who are musicians or who understand music, that's
quite a lot.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
Speaking of which we were just discussed before he came in,
whether you contemplated, you know, changing key and the for
the final blast of the chorus.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Nah, you know, I wanted to do a key change
and even high. Yeah, I think you mean take it
down a bit. It's too high to sa you know.
We we did think about that coming out of the
drum fill. Yeah, but now that's we've thrown every cliche already.
We can't we can't do a key change. Y, if
(12:27):
you don't mind me showing you.
Speaker 6 (12:28):
This ruder in studio B is quite a quite a
good music and he actually he's mocked up what it
would have sounded like the end of your song with
a key change. So this is what it might have
sounded like. So this is coming out of the breakdown.
Speaker 7 (12:41):
I guess, yeah, wait for it.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
We should I've done it?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Whoa you may how good aroda? All the people like
me he were struggling to reach the note already, would
been like, oh damn, oh my.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
God, we should have done it.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
It would have been a hit around the world. Oh mate,
I love it well done.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
It's funny because I was telling to you about the
song and it's in a lot of places. Great song
still sounds fantastic. It's aged particularly well so well. And
you were telling me that because I said, do you
ever hear it in supermarkets and stuff?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
And ever think?
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Oh, bugger, I should have maybe done that. So I
should have done that, and you said, no, no, I'm very
happy with it.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Now we play you.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Damn, damn, damn damn. Maybe I'll re record it. I
did re recorded a few years ago with a Niker
and with a Nick Moore and yeah, we did it
for her show, and I released it last year because
it was like the thirty fifth anniversary of going to
number one. So I did a thirty fifth anniversary version
of it, which was just a live takee with my
(14:01):
band and Anika sing bvs. Which was amazing. Yeah, so cool.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
I'm always interested in the relationship that people have with
songs like that, like the songwriters, because they birth out
of you somehow in this weird way. I've never written song,
so I wouldn't know how, but I imagine they birth
out of you and then you give them to the world,
they go into other people's heads. That song's in my head,
I know, I know the entire song, I know the lyrics.
I'm walking around with it in my head all the time. Yeah,
(14:28):
it's kind of weird.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
It is weird.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Does the relationship change over time, like I like, your
relationship with your children sort of changes.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Or is that exactly the same.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
I don't know. It's a weird one because I still
love it as much as I did then, So.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Thank God for me, I must be happy about that.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Yeah, yeah, I do believe I've written better songs. But
it was it was, you know, it was just a
moment in time. I remember Neil saying once that when
when a song becomes a hit, it's like it's like
when you are picking a you're picking the lock on
a safe. It's like you all the you know, all
(15:11):
the little clickers line up, all the planets line up,
and it's like and it's really it's like a snowball.
It's really hard to stop it once it starts. And
for some reason, all the planets lined up at that
particular moment in time, and it was Yeah, it was
just I knew it was going to be a hit though, right,
I knew for ten years that it was going to
(15:33):
be a hit, right because I wished it into I did.
And I'm not a spiritual well, I kind of a
I'm not really, I'm a lapse Catholic, but I do
believe in the power of you know, positive thought. I'm not.
I'm not kind of mad about it. But at that
time in my life, I knew I was going to
(15:54):
write a number one single. And every night before I
went to sleep, I just I just saw it, you know. Wow,
I just saw it every night for ten years. And
I do believe. And John Lennon said this, You've got
to be careful what you wish for. Yeah, it's and
it's not. Yeah, I believe, and I wish I could.
(16:15):
I wish I could remember how to do that. I'm
kind of forgotten now.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
You know, it's interesting that when you say about things
fall into place with a song, because that song is
like the production, it is so clear, and it's it's
out and forward like, so all those things have to
fall into place as well. Just have such a distinctive
production that we're so clear and forward, and the speakers
and yet the vocals back.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
It's I can't I can't speak highly enough of my
late brother as a producer. I think he was a
world class producer, Yeah, and an amazing engineer. More than
anything is. He had ears and he knew, he knew
what it was amazing. We had this telepathic thing where
I'd be sitting on the couch and he'd be tweaking
some stuff and listening to you know, the certain instruments whatever,
(17:06):
and I'd just be thinking that doesn't quite work, and
he'd turn around about two minutes later and go, I
don't think that works, does it?
Speaker 2 (17:14):
You know?
Speaker 4 (17:14):
So we had this amazing kind of chemistry in the
studio which which I miss. And yeah, I think he
just he was the one who brought that song to life.
He's the one who recognized that. I didn't really know
it was going to be a hit when I wrote
it because it was a country song, but he saw
(17:34):
something in it and he worked really hard at getting it.
Sounds amazing, getting those sounds together. It was just me
and him. There was no one else. There was nobody else.
There was nobody else in the studio, nobody else, but
nobody else.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
A lot of people ask this question, I'm sure of you,
because it was there. What has there been anybody else since?
Nobody else, because clearly that's written about somebody that you were.
You were either trying to woo or you'd maybe done
something that you shouldn't have done, and you were trying
to make sure that you were trying to get away
a bit of your own guilt.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
It is it is a bit well, yeah, something like that.
I am a Catholic after all, survive.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
That's interesting.
Speaker 6 (18:21):
You said that I thought there was a breakup song
when I originally heard that.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
No, it wasn't. It was I had a fight with
my girlfriend at the time, Rebecca her name was, and
we'd been going out for a couple of years or
maybe a year or so, and we had a big
fight and she left and I was like, holy shit,
I'm in trouble. Oh yeah, and she was feisty, and
(18:50):
and I thought I'll write her a song. So that's
kind of where it came from. And I played it
to her and it was like.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Oh, that's a beautiful thing, and she came out.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
She came back for a little while until I met
my first wife.
Speaker 5 (19:09):
My life an interesting song for me, I was just
saying before because I sometimes believe we live in a
simulation because I made a film in about two thousand
and six or seven, and there was a scene when
the edits and Sweet and I was like, boy, we
need that song. Nobody else.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Oh wow.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
And and then I remember the other guy's making the
film with and he goes, you can't just get songs
like that, can you? And then and then we got
that song. So what was the first called the Devil
Dead Me too?
Speaker 4 (19:37):
I remember that, I remember the I remember the check.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
There's a guy, a guy whose girlfriend gets a leg
decapitated when she was little, and then they run into
each other again and he's been pining for her for
the longest time. And then he turns around and he's
working on a stunt site. And then it pans up
and from the from the leg that's been you didn't
know who was amputated, it's up and just saw it
(20:03):
to go, I'll see I'll send you a little bit
of it. I'll see you the club please, And we
were like, it's got to be that song. Well and
then and then and I'd never licensed songs before, so
I was trying to work out to ring Mushroom in Australia,
or something like that.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Mushroom owned my publishing at that Yeah, they don't anymore.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
And they were like they didn't care because they were Australian.
So you ring them we go you want for a
New Zealand film, it's and New Zealand song and they
just you couldn't find anyone to freaking talk.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
To about it because they dropped me so that they
still had my publishing and he took my publishing money. Unbelievable.
That's a story for the book.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
Yeah, yeah, So what about tell us about the new
album about time?
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Well, it's about time. Yeah, yeah, I guess it's twenty
eight years since I did an.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
Album, so it is definitely about time, which is so
you're twenty eight when then when you.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Know, twenty eight when nobody else came out? Yeah yeah,
And then I did an album in the mid nineties,
so I was in my thirties there yep, Now I'm
sixty four.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
Jeez, you're looking good.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Yeah, say.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Sixty four a couple of weeks ago on the twelve.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
That's your skin care regime.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
No drugs and no alcohol, brilliant, That's that's my skin key.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
It's freaking working eighteen.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Years and I believe that is the that is the
key to eternal youth.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Okay that and potentially did you grow up in the UK? Well,
you spend some years in the UK.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
I was born there and we immigrated in nineteen sixty
six and I was just a nipper.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Okay, you were just do.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
I do I have? Sorry to interrupt, I have Dalmatian
blood in me. I have Croatian blood and Teas blood and.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Maldea on my mom's side.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Very good looking people.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
The crash and it's a very fiery on the football field.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Yeah, I think that's where my love of football. My
dad was a Jordie. He was well, he was from
Stockton on Teas and Northeast.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
So it must be interesting like we're turning sixty four
as a Beatles fan, because you'll go your whole life,
you've been thinking about when I'm sixty four, and then
you're sixty four and you go, I'm sixty four.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
I went to Ballei and I was in Bali for
my birthday and I was working over there and I
sang that song of course you dad, and yeah, I thought, yay,
I'm going to sing this song on my birthday. And
it was it's cool. It's a shit song though it is.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Actually is it's really it's one of those it's one
of the ones that John called them, John Lennon call
them Paul McCartney's granny song. I'm so glad to, he
said after the break It so glad to.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Paul McCartney's the ole granny songs. He wrote some shockers,
he wrote some good ones too.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Very controversial to very good songs. So you're touring as well,
RACKI sorry.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Back to the album. So anyway, twenty eight years and
every year since I released this album in ninety ninety
six or whenever it was, I thought, I'm going to
do it. Now, I'm going to do another album. I'm
going to do it. But life kind of got in
the way and I had to make a living, you know,
I had children, Yeah, and I had other kind of
(23:11):
things going on in my life and a you know,
marriage breakup and all that sort of shit, and it just, yeah,
I just kind of kept putting it off and putting
it off. And to be honest, you know, I don't
have a lot of I guess there's also that severe
lack of self worth and good old Catholic stuff. You
(23:33):
know that I'm not good enough to do that, and
I'm too old to do that. Every excuse under the site,
give to that stuff if you can.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
But then in twenty eighteen, I did a gig at
the Mount Eden Village series and I sold it out
and I was like, which was about one hundred and
thirty people, it's certainly not Oasis, And I thought, and
I got my band together and we played these songs
and a few new ones, and I thought, hmm, I'm
(24:02):
going to tell you anyway. A couple of months later,
we were we started recording at the lab and then
you got lockw and again and then lockdown, and then
we got into covid, and COVID actually helped because it
gave me.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
The were you working with Oli at the Lamb?
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, I've got a great news.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
Yeah, he's amazing and yeah, and then I just it
was going to be an EP, and then I just
thought I might as well just keep going.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
So it comes out tomorrow, August the thirtieth, and I
can't believe. I can't believe it's.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
Here digitally and vinyly yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
I pick up the vinyl tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Awesome.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I'm doing some shows. I'm doing
a show tomorrow night at the Tuning at the Tuning Fork,
thirtieth at the Tuning Fork.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
And then I can go through them if you want.
Saturday thirty, first of August YEP at Room twenties and
Nelson and then yeah, Sunday the first, Oh Common, Dned
and christ In on Sunday the first, Yeah, we're.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Out at the Shelter which is out in probably so
cool and Jed Parsons parents place out there.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Wow, it's cool.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
It's really cool.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
And then the Jam Factory in total.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
We're not doing Hamilton by the way, not doing Hamilton.
I won't read that one out. And then New Plumouth
at the Fourth War Theater.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
So it's a little short run. Not so much gigs,
but little celebrations. I just thought, if I'm going to
release an album, I don't want to just release an
album and you know, I don't know. I just thought
I might as well do some shows to one hundred
people if they wanted to turn out.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Also, you've been you've been playing with the dudes.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, and so did you do a show last weekend.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
On Saturday night? I sold out show. People will say
we've sold out. We sold out, We sold out the
power Station on last Saturday night and it was amazing.
It was the best Dude's crowd I have ever seen.
And you know, I've seen probably close to two hundred
Dude shows. Yeah, well in my time, were you Roady, Yeah,
Roady and Brother's band yep, I was back in the day,
(26:03):
So you have seen them a lot over the years.
And this crowd on Saturday night, Man, they were up
for it and they were happy. They were just so
happy and costurious, and you know, we were a little bit,
you know, because Dave's Dave Dobbin's not in the band anymore.
With that that has you know, he made it that
(26:24):
very clear that he didn't want to do anymore at
the end of the last tour in twenty twenty. And
but over the year, over the four years since we
last played, we've all been the rest of us have
just been going, oh, we want to keep going. So
Dave with you know, and Lorraine as manager, have given
us their blessing to carry on. Yeah, which is cool.
(26:46):
And you know, Dave's got his own thing, you know,
he never he never, you know, the Dudes is old
time for him. You know he doesn't need the.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
Dudes, although he plays dude songs when he plays does
yeah some of recently.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Any he would have done Bliss and he did.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
Bliss and be Mine tonight.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Yeah, of course he has to do those. Yeah, But
so we've got We've got Bred Adams to come in
and play guitar with us, and it's a totally different
vibe as it would be without Dave. But it seems
to have worked. It worked really well, and we're hoping
to do more shows. Yeah, I think maybe some festively
kind of things we're looking at over summer. So cool,
(27:25):
I must something has just been announced and the younger
or funger guitar I can't remember which kicked down one
of those gig though.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
And then looking at and then having a whole bunch
of happy people singing back to you must give you
a great energy that must fill you up.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
Well, you know, for me personally, playing in my favorite
band of all time is and seeing all those people
having fun and singing all those songs, and it's just
it's kind.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Of the worldly, spiritual experience.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
It's like playing in the Beatles or something, you know,
it's like, But the dudes are my favorite band apart
from the Beatles. Maybe the Dudes are my favorite band
of all time, So to be asked to join the
band is like, it's mind blowing for me.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
So you've always been a big fan of pop music, Yeah,
and you must be super excited about what the world
of pop music's offering up at the moment, because it's
it's kind of the most interesting part of music, like in.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Terms of production and experimentation and all sorts of stuff.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
Yeah, there's there's certainly a lot of stuff out there.
There's a lot of stuff that I don't particularly like.
A lot of it I find quite seey, but there's
little there's little what do you call rose buds that
poke up now and again. My favorite band at the
moment is a band called the Lemon Twigs who are
from Brooklyn as two brothers, the Dadariel brothers, Brian and Machael,
(28:59):
and they are like a cross between the Beach Boys,
the Beatles, the Raspberries, Gilbert O'Sullivan and you know, they're
amazing things.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
I like, they're.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Incredible and quite experimental as well. Yeah, they're my favorite
band and they actually they were actually in Australia last
year and I couldn't get to that. One of these shows.
I was going to fly over and see them. The
Lemon Twigs, I.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Think we've got a little bit of Lemon Twigs here.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
That's lep Off. Their latest album. It's great.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
They got a great look about it.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
They've got Beatles sort of nineteen seventy one Beatles haircuts.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Yeah, very retro, you know, all the everything that they have.
They play rickonbackers and you know, I understand, and the
bass play plays are Hofner, you know. But they're not
a They're not a Beatles covers band, you know. They
and their dad was Ronnie de Dario was a quite
a he never quite broke through, but he was a
(30:01):
singer songwriter in his own right. So yeah, they're great,
They're they're They're my favorite band at the moment. But
I also love some of the new country stuff that's
coming out.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
You know.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
It's like, I really like Casey Musgraves. I think she's amazing.
There's a couple of others like Marion Morrison. Obviously I
love her because she's got a great name. Uh, there's
a few that I that I like. I don't particularly
like the you know, Luke Holmes is my youngest daughter
will hate me for some but yeah, there's there's little
(30:31):
there's always little pockets of Actually you know what I've
I love at the moment as Mike Hall's new.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
Yes, we just had him on to talk about it.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Wow. Yeah, that's a.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Great album and him and Joel Mulholland together.
Speaker 5 (30:42):
Is like out of the Lab as well, some Fridgship,
some knock at crany of the Lamb.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Yep, yep, it's Joel's little studio upstairs. Yeah, that's a
great record. Yeah, that's a great record. I quite like
that kind of just slightly off center, kind of poppy,
which is the antithesis of me. My album is very melancholy.
And I'm a ballady, you know. I like writing ballads.
(31:10):
That's my thing. So a lot of the songs I've
been searching for the perfect to write the perfect love song,
and I think there is. I write a song about
my wife Jane, and I think it's as close as
the perfect love song ballad that I will ever.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
What's it called.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
It's called Jane Ah. You'll be able to yep, you'll
be able to hear it tomorrow. You can play some now, we.
Speaker 5 (31:40):
Can play the we've got the saddest we can play
the saddest sound.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
Okay, yep, sadest sound, which my brother wrote. Ian wrote
that just after the Dudes broke up in nineteen eighty,
so it's a little tribute to him.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
We should go out on this.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Ricky, thanks so much for coming and they podcast always
great to chat to you luck with the album, bits
of luck with the touring.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
If you want to come tomorrow night, let me know.
I'll put your names on the door.
Speaker 5 (32:13):
The chat and I'll get your email address and i'll
find you that's from movie.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Please do, please do. Thanks, thanks for the check.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Radio Hodaches of the Record podcast. Why not subscribe so
they download automatically and don't forget to rate us five stars?
Thanks mate. Find out more about this podcast and the
people who make it at Holaky dot co dot inz
it
Welcome to Radio Hodar Keys Off the Record podcast with
Matt he and Jeremy Wells.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Ricky Morris, Ya used to be here. Oh, it's nice
to have you, Recky. People who are listening to the podcast,
they'll know you from lots of ways. I suppose they
may have seen you on TV back in the nineteen
eighties on three forty five Live.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
That's how.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Oh no, I actually first knew about you from nobody
else your single smash It Single nineteen eighty eight, and
then after that you were I think you were interviewed
on three forty five Live.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
I was, yeah, at the beginning of nineteen eighty nine,
I was a guest on three forty five Live. And
do you want me to tell the story?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Well, that would be great because then what happened then,
because weirdly enough, I was, I mean I watched every
single TV program that was recorded or filmed in New
Zealand from about nineteen eighty two through to about nineteen
ninety six as a kid, terrible television addict. So I
followed your career, you know, from the start, you know,
(01:03):
in terms of in terms of television career, and I
remember it and I remember you on three forty five Live.
And I remember think because I loved the song, and
I remember thinking that guys really cool were really cool
on that and obviously the producers of three forty five
Live thought the same as girl.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Well, I fell into that job and it was quite
bizarre because, as I say, I was a guest on
the show, and the show in nineteen eighty nine, Three
forty five Live started off with Vanilla Bathfield Lovely and
a guy called Nigel Hurst who was he was a
stand up comic.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Nobody remembers Nigel Hurst.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Well, he was a stand up comic, but he's actually
a teacher and he still is a teacher at the
LASL College. But at that stage I think he was
maybe BEDS Intermediate and Utata or somewhere like that. Can't
quite remember.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
It would have been quite full on being on three
forty five Live and also a teacher.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
He well, he'd quit the teacher.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
Okay, because how did you get home from school?
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Because it would have been really cool, only he would
have fanned it.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
I was only just getting home in time for three
forty five Live, and I lived in a small town.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
But you could skimp last period, I mean, and the
students would love it.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Anyway, I digress, you digress. So so anyway, after about
two months of nineteen eighty nine, Nigel decided that he
didn't want to be on TV anymore. Oh yeah, he
missed his kids that you know, he's a primary school teacher.
He missed his kids, and he decided, I don't want
to do TV anymore. It's but much for him. God
bless him. And so anyway, they had a farewell party
(02:35):
for him on a Friday night, his last show, and
to celebrate, they've got a lot of people back who
had been guests. So there was me and Double J
and twice.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
The Team Larger and the.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
And the War of Yeah, that was one of them.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Robert D.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Frog Yeah, yeah, Wastewater. I think I sang on that.
And they also did a remake of She's a modd
That's right. Yeah, anyway, I digress again. Invaders, Yeah, I
think Ray was on it. Yeah, God bless them. Sorry,
I keep knocking the mic anyway.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
So it's good to save someone. It's great to have
someone with some Michael whenness.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Finally we've got a guest with some Mike awareness.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Anyway, So I was a guest on the show, and
at the end of the show we said goodbye to Nigel,
Bye Nige. They hadn't got anyone to replace him yet.
They'd been auditioning, but they hadn't found anyone.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yep. So that's what Jeremy. They haven't got around to replacing.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
There, not thinking things through, not having a plan surely.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
So Fanella was freaking and she she we were talking afterwards,
we had a few drinkies up in the in the
kids department and TV and Z and she said, why
don't you come in on Monday and just help me
out because we haven't found anyone. So she went and
talked to Stephen Campbell, who was the producer, and Stephen went, yeah,
that's a great idea. So I came in on the
Monday just as a kind of co host and and
(04:07):
I loved it. And at the end of the day
Stephen said, can you come back tomorrow because we haven't
found anyone yet. And it went on for the whole week,
and on the Friday we went and had drinks again
up in the kids room at Kids Office, Little parties
on that kid of Cheap as Jason Gunn was the
(04:27):
worst and and and Stephen said, you want a job,
You've got the job if you want it. So I went, yeah, cool,
I loved it. Wow, And that was it. So I
did an audition. I just kind of that's.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
What proximity is important, isn't it in the right place?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
And it's there.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
But I had chemistry, Yeah, you had chemistry.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Well, I think you know, a lot of a lot
of people struggled with Finella because she was she was very,
very headstrong, and and you know, nowadays women stand up
for themselves. Back then, Fanella stood up for herself and
it wasn't you know, we weren't quite PC in those days.
So she was shot down. What's she Yeah, especially by
(05:10):
the heads of like you know, the heads of the
children's department didn't like it, wearing jeans and all that.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
I like that a lot.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
I'll tell you what. I liked it. Yeah, I don't
know anybody who didn't like it.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
I mean, we just we were just talking before about
you coming on the show on our live show, and
then and then we also brought up Vanilla Bathfield. The
text machine exploded.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
It really did. But it was still those days.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Which of Courtunately, we have drifted away from a little
bit on television now, which is something for the mums
and something for the dads, and you were something for
the mums and.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Something for the dads. And I'll tell you what, there's
got to be something for the mums and dads.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Yeah, that does. And we had good guests, incredible guests.
Speaker 5 (05:54):
Incredible guests because we leveled because you were having a
huge market.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
And there was no TV three till the following year,
so we were up against Emmidale Farm. Yeah, you know,
so it was a bit unfair really, no, but you.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
But the guests that came through, I mean BB King.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah, yeah, I interviewed BB King, which was probably one
of the highlights of my life. We had guys like
Roland Gift Wanker from simply Read what's his name? Yeah, yeah.
It's funny because about about six or seven years later
(06:35):
I played soccer against him because I'm soccer nut and
I was still playing in those days. And Warners, who
were their record company simply reads for record company, wherever
simply read go in the world, they want to play
football because he's a big Manchester United fan, so simply
Read played a Warner's eleven which just happened to have
Noel Barclay and a couple of X all whites and honestly,
(06:57):
you would have thought mc huckner was playing in a
f A Cup final. He was such a dick. He
was such a dick, like he threatened to beat up
the ref because he awarded a penalty.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
Know, he's singing such beautiful songs, you can still detect
that he's a dick. Just it's amazing how it can
come through.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Well, that's interesting because as well, the UK press have
always been hard on him, and I suspect it's because
they knew he was a deck yet possibly, but you've
got to say, from one singer to another, great, the
guy's got great.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Absolutely great singer and I wouldn't mind having you know,
one percent of his bank back.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
Now going back to that, and we're really focused on
this area. But there Phillip Schofield speaking of people that
the British press are hard on. He was. He was,
He was in and about and around them, wasn't he Sam?
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Yep? He was on Shazam? Isn't that really? It's unfortunate
what happened.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Ready to Roll at that stage was sort of operating
and I feel like hosting that was Robbie Rakati was
that a little bit later on?
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Might have been a bit later on.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
It was a TV wasn't he.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
I don't think they had I don't think we need
to roll had a host.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
I just had that.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Andy Coca Cola Countdown or something Saturday morning show.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Oh yeah, there were a whole lot of them, and
Robert Scott and uh one. I had a thing going
in the maybe TV three in the early nineties. I
remember going on that once. So there was a bit
of stuff.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Radio Okay, bosed to direct Coca Cola Countdown. I was
the studio director for that.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Show long time, when Robbie Uraka was on much later.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
Their host was a someone called Alex Ban at that.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Time, Alex Bean.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
It was pre Big Rogga days, pre Big Big Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
So Radio Pictures was the big one. Oh Yesunday Night,
Hey Yeah. Karen Hage and Dick Driver and Dick Driver,
Dick Driver, Mark Tierney as well with.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
His host very deep voice, Mark KEENNI yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Became a straw person, Yes he did.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
And now he's one of the top videographers and photographers.
And he lives in America and yeah, he lives out
in the desert.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
Okay, So Ricky hello, speaking of deep booming voices, we
were talking about that. You can sing quite high, you can.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Sing very high.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
I can sing very high.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
You can sing very high, and nobody else has a
hard song to sing if you're a guy with balls.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
And so when you say balls dropped at that.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Stage, only just I was twenty eight twenty seven when
I recorded that.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
Fine, so yeah, they just there's no free sure to
go through puberty, just when it happens.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
But I'll tell you a story about that too, because
when I wrote that song, I came very quickly, so
to speak, and I recorded it on my little four
track machine. I had all the melody and all the instruments.
It was kind of like a country song to start with,
(10:05):
and I hadn't come up with any lyrics. So I
did a gig and late, you know, I was driving
home from this gig. It was probably like two o'clock
in the morning, and all of a sudden, all these
words started coming to me. I was like, shit, So
am I allowed to sweat?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Oh fucking great, I'm late. So anyway, I was living
in a little bedsit at the back of a friend's
house and I got home at two o'clock and I
was paranoid that I was going to forget all these words.
So I went into my little bedsit and got the
mic and it was very It was like us two
in the morning. So I just sang it really quietly.
(10:46):
There's nobody, and I listened to it back the next
morning and I thought, shit, that's a great effect singing
it really quietly like the Beg's And I never thought
I was going to sing it like that. And I
kind of did the vocals like that and yeah, and
it kind of had its own little character or something
(11:08):
to it. Yeah. But when Ian and my brother Ian
and I recorded it, we actually slowed it down and
I recorded it, and then we sped it up to
normal speed, which was a very beatlesy things to do
thing to do, and it made that kind of chip
monkey kind of.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
I was saying, it came along that it's it's got
Paul McCartney esque.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
It's an effect.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Yeah, But we were filling around and we lowered it, didn't.
Speaker 6 (11:35):
We Yeah, I think we did.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
We lowered it awesome.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
It sounds.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
That's probably the key that it was recorded, So it
was recorded in the key of G but on the record,
it's just under a So we sped it up that much.
For people who are musicians or who understand music, that's
quite a lot.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
Speaking of which we were just discussed before he came in,
whether you contemplated, you know, changing key and the for
the final blast of the chorus.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Nah, you know, I wanted to do a key change
and even high. Yeah, I think you mean take it
down a bit. It's too high to sa you know.
We we did think about that coming out of the
drum fill. Yeah, but now that's we've thrown every cliche already.
We can't we can't do a key change. Y, if
(12:27):
you don't mind me showing you.
Speaker 6 (12:28):
This ruder in studio B is quite a quite a
good music and he actually he's mocked up what it
would have sounded like the end of your song with
a key change. So this is what it might have
sounded like. So this is coming out of the breakdown.
Speaker 7 (12:41):
I guess, yeah, wait for it.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
We should I've done it?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Whoa you may how good aroda? All the people like
me he were struggling to reach the note already, would
been like, oh damn, oh my.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
God, we should have done it.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
It would have been a hit around the world. Oh mate,
I love it well done.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
It's funny because I was telling to you about the
song and it's in a lot of places. Great song
still sounds fantastic. It's aged particularly well so well. And
you were telling me that because I said, do you
ever hear it in supermarkets and stuff?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
And ever think?
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Oh, bugger, I should have maybe done that. So I
should have done that, and you said, no, no, I'm very
happy with it.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Now we play you.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Damn, damn, damn damn. Maybe I'll re record it. I
did re recorded a few years ago with a Niker
and with a Nick Moore and yeah, we did it
for her show, and I released it last year because
it was like the thirty fifth anniversary of going to
number one. So I did a thirty fifth anniversary version
of it, which was just a live takee with my
(14:01):
band and Anika sing bvs. Which was amazing. Yeah, so cool.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
I'm always interested in the relationship that people have with
songs like that, like the songwriters, because they birth out
of you somehow in this weird way. I've never written song,
so I wouldn't know how, but I imagine they birth
out of you and then you give them to the world,
they go into other people's heads. That song's in my head,
I know, I know the entire song, I know the lyrics.
I'm walking around with it in my head all the time. Yeah,
(14:28):
it's kind of weird.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
It is weird.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Does the relationship change over time, like I like, your
relationship with your children sort of changes.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Or is that exactly the same.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
I don't know. It's a weird one because I still
love it as much as I did then, So.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Thank God for me, I must be happy about that.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Yeah, yeah, I do believe I've written better songs. But
it was it was, you know, it was just a
moment in time. I remember Neil saying once that when
when a song becomes a hit, it's like it's like
when you are picking a you're picking the lock on
a safe. It's like you all the you know, all
(15:11):
the little clickers line up, all the planets line up,
and it's like and it's really it's like a snowball.
It's really hard to stop it once it starts. And
for some reason, all the planets lined up at that
particular moment in time, and it was Yeah, it was
just I knew it was going to be a hit though, right,
I knew for ten years that it was going to
(15:33):
be a hit, right because I wished it into I did.
And I'm not a spiritual well, I kind of a
I'm not really, I'm a lapse Catholic, but I do
believe in the power of you know, positive thought. I'm not.
I'm not kind of mad about it. But at that
time in my life, I knew I was going to
(15:54):
write a number one single. And every night before I
went to sleep, I just I just saw it, you know. Wow,
I just saw it every night for ten years. And
I do believe. And John Lennon said this, You've got
to be careful what you wish for. Yeah, it's and
it's not. Yeah, I believe, and I wish I could.
(16:15):
I wish I could remember how to do that. I'm
kind of forgotten now.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
You know, it's interesting that when you say about things
fall into place with a song, because that song is
like the production, it is so clear, and it's it's
out and forward like, so all those things have to
fall into place as well. Just have such a distinctive
production that we're so clear and forward, and the speakers
and yet the vocals back.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
It's I can't I can't speak highly enough of my
late brother as a producer. I think he was a
world class producer, Yeah, and an amazing engineer. More than
anything is. He had ears and he knew, he knew
what it was amazing. We had this telepathic thing where
I'd be sitting on the couch and he'd be tweaking
some stuff and listening to you know, the certain instruments whatever,
(17:06):
and I'd just be thinking that doesn't quite work, and
he'd turn around about two minutes later and go, I
don't think that works, does it?
Speaker 2 (17:14):
You know?
Speaker 4 (17:14):
So we had this amazing kind of chemistry in the
studio which which I miss. And yeah, I think he
just he was the one who brought that song to life.
He's the one who recognized that. I didn't really know
it was going to be a hit when I wrote
it because it was a country song, but he saw
(17:34):
something in it and he worked really hard at getting it.
Sounds amazing, getting those sounds together. It was just me
and him. There was no one else. There was nobody else.
There was nobody else in the studio, nobody else, but
nobody else.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
A lot of people ask this question, I'm sure of you,
because it was there. What has there been anybody else since?
Nobody else, because clearly that's written about somebody that you were.
You were either trying to woo or you'd maybe done
something that you shouldn't have done, and you were trying
to make sure that you were trying to get away
a bit of your own guilt.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
It is it is a bit well, yeah, something like that.
I am a Catholic after all, survive.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
That's interesting.
Speaker 6 (18:21):
You said that I thought there was a breakup song
when I originally heard that.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
No, it wasn't. It was I had a fight with
my girlfriend at the time, Rebecca her name was, and
we'd been going out for a couple of years or
maybe a year or so, and we had a big
fight and she left and I was like, holy shit,
I'm in trouble. Oh yeah, and she was feisty, and
(18:50):
and I thought I'll write her a song. So that's
kind of where it came from. And I played it
to her and it was like.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Oh, that's a beautiful thing, and she came out.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
She came back for a little while until I met
my first wife.
Speaker 5 (19:09):
My life an interesting song for me, I was just
saying before because I sometimes believe we live in a
simulation because I made a film in about two thousand
and six or seven, and there was a scene when
the edits and Sweet and I was like, boy, we
need that song. Nobody else.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Oh wow.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
And and then I remember the other guy's making the
film with and he goes, you can't just get songs
like that, can you? And then and then we got
that song. So what was the first called the Devil
Dead Me too?
Speaker 4 (19:37):
I remember that, I remember the I remember the check.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
There's a guy, a guy whose girlfriend gets a leg
decapitated when she was little, and then they run into
each other again and he's been pining for her for
the longest time. And then he turns around and he's
working on a stunt site. And then it pans up
and from the from the leg that's been you didn't
know who was amputated, it's up and just saw it
(20:03):
to go, I'll see I'll send you a little bit
of it. I'll see you the club please, And we
were like, it's got to be that song. Well and
then and then and I'd never licensed songs before, so
I was trying to work out to ring Mushroom in Australia,
or something like that.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Mushroom owned my publishing at that Yeah, they don't anymore.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
And they were like they didn't care because they were Australian.
So you ring them we go you want for a
New Zealand film, it's and New Zealand song and they
just you couldn't find anyone to freaking talk.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
To about it because they dropped me so that they
still had my publishing and he took my publishing money. Unbelievable.
That's a story for the book.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
Yeah, yeah, So what about tell us about the new
album about time?
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Well, it's about time. Yeah, yeah, I guess it's twenty
eight years since I did an.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
Album, so it is definitely about time, which is so
you're twenty eight when then when you.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Know, twenty eight when nobody else came out? Yeah yeah,
And then I did an album in the mid nineties,
so I was in my thirties there yep, Now I'm
sixty four.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
Jeez, you're looking good.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Yeah, say.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Sixty four a couple of weeks ago on the twelve.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
That's your skin care regime.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
No drugs and no alcohol, brilliant, That's that's my skin key.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
It's freaking working eighteen.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Years and I believe that is the that is the
key to eternal youth.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Okay that and potentially did you grow up in the UK? Well,
you spend some years in the UK.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
I was born there and we immigrated in nineteen sixty
six and I was just a nipper.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Okay, you were just do.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
I do I have? Sorry to interrupt, I have Dalmatian
blood in me. I have Croatian blood and Teas blood and.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Maldea on my mom's side.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Very good looking people.
Speaker 5 (21:51):
The crash and it's a very fiery on the football field.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Yeah, I think that's where my love of football. My
dad was a Jordie. He was well, he was from
Stockton on Teas and Northeast.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
So it must be interesting like we're turning sixty four
as a Beatles fan, because you'll go your whole life,
you've been thinking about when I'm sixty four, and then
you're sixty four and you go, I'm sixty four.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
I went to Ballei and I was in Bali for
my birthday and I was working over there and I
sang that song of course you dad, and yeah, I thought, yay,
I'm going to sing this song on my birthday. And
it was it's cool. It's a shit song though it is.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Actually is it's really it's one of those it's one
of the ones that John called them, John Lennon call
them Paul McCartney's granny song. I'm so glad to, he
said after the break It so glad to.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Paul McCartney's the ole granny songs. He wrote some shockers,
he wrote some good ones too.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Very controversial to very good songs. So you're touring as well,
RACKI sorry.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
Back to the album. So anyway, twenty eight years and
every year since I released this album in ninety ninety
six or whenever it was, I thought, I'm going to
do it. Now, I'm going to do another album. I'm
going to do it. But life kind of got in
the way and I had to make a living, you know,
I had children, Yeah, and I had other kind of
(23:11):
things going on in my life and a you know,
marriage breakup and all that sort of shit, and it just, yeah,
I just kind of kept putting it off and putting
it off. And to be honest, you know, I don't
have a lot of I guess there's also that severe
lack of self worth and good old Catholic stuff. You
(23:33):
know that I'm not good enough to do that, and
I'm too old to do that. Every excuse under the site,
give to that stuff if you can.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
But then in twenty eighteen, I did a gig at
the Mount Eden Village series and I sold it out
and I was like, which was about one hundred and
thirty people, it's certainly not Oasis, And I thought, and
I got my band together and we played these songs
and a few new ones, and I thought, hmm, I'm
(24:02):
going to tell you anyway. A couple of months later,
we were we started recording at the lab and then
you got lockw and again and then lockdown, and then
we got into covid, and COVID actually helped because it
gave me.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
The were you working with Oli at the Lamb?
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, I've got a great news.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
Yeah, he's amazing and yeah, and then I just it
was going to be an EP, and then I just
thought I might as well just keep going.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
So it comes out tomorrow, August the thirtieth, and I
can't believe. I can't believe it's.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
Here digitally and vinyly yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
I pick up the vinyl tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Awesome.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I'm doing some shows. I'm doing
a show tomorrow night at the Tuning at the Tuning Fork,
thirtieth at the Tuning Fork.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
And then I can go through them if you want.
Saturday thirty, first of August YEP at Room twenties and
Nelson and then yeah, Sunday the first, Oh Common, Dned
and christ In on Sunday the first, Yeah, we're.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Out at the Shelter which is out in probably so
cool and Jed Parsons parents place out there.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Wow, it's cool.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
It's really cool.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
And then the Jam Factory in total.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
We're not doing Hamilton by the way, not doing Hamilton.
I won't read that one out. And then New Plumouth
at the Fourth War Theater.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
So it's a little short run. Not so much gigs,
but little celebrations. I just thought, if I'm going to
release an album, I don't want to just release an
album and you know, I don't know. I just thought
I might as well do some shows to one hundred
people if they wanted to turn out.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Also, you've been you've been playing with the dudes.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, and so did you do a show last weekend.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
On Saturday night? I sold out show. People will say
we've sold out. We sold out, We sold out the
power Station on last Saturday night and it was amazing.
It was the best Dude's crowd I have ever seen.
And you know, I've seen probably close to two hundred
Dude shows. Yeah, well in my time, were you Roady, Yeah,
Roady and Brother's band yep, I was back in the day,
(26:03):
So you have seen them a lot over the years.
And this crowd on Saturday night, Man, they were up
for it and they were happy. They were just so
happy and costurious, and you know, we were a little bit,
you know, because Dave's Dave Dobbin's not in the band anymore.
With that that has you know, he made it that
(26:24):
very clear that he didn't want to do anymore at
the end of the last tour in twenty twenty. And
but over the year, over the four years since we
last played, we've all been the rest of us have
just been going, oh, we want to keep going. So
Dave with you know, and Lorraine as manager, have given
us their blessing to carry on. Yeah, which is cool.
(26:46):
And you know, Dave's got his own thing, you know,
he never he never, you know, the Dudes is old
time for him. You know he doesn't need the.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
Dudes, although he plays dude songs when he plays does
yeah some of recently.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Any he would have done Bliss and he did.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
Bliss and be Mine tonight.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Yeah, of course he has to do those. Yeah, But
so we've got We've got Bred Adams to come in
and play guitar with us, and it's a totally different
vibe as it would be without Dave. But it seems
to have worked. It worked really well, and we're hoping
to do more shows. Yeah, I think maybe some festively
kind of things we're looking at over summer. So cool,
(27:25):
I must something has just been announced and the younger
or funger guitar I can't remember which kicked down one
of those gig though.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
And then looking at and then having a whole bunch
of happy people singing back to you must give you
a great energy that must fill you up.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
Well, you know, for me personally, playing in my favorite
band of all time is and seeing all those people
having fun and singing all those songs, and it's just
it's kind.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Of the worldly, spiritual experience.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
It's like playing in the Beatles or something, you know,
it's like, But the dudes are my favorite band apart
from the Beatles. Maybe the Dudes are my favorite band
of all time, So to be asked to join the
band is like, it's mind blowing for me.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
So you've always been a big fan of pop music, Yeah,
and you must be super excited about what the world
of pop music's offering up at the moment, because it's
it's kind of the most interesting part of music, like in.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Terms of production and experimentation and all sorts of stuff.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
Yeah, there's there's certainly a lot of stuff out there.
There's a lot of stuff that I don't particularly like.
A lot of it I find quite seey, but there's
little there's little what do you call rose buds that
poke up now and again. My favorite band at the
moment is a band called the Lemon Twigs who are
from Brooklyn as two brothers, the Dadariel brothers, Brian and Machael,
(28:59):
and they are like a cross between the Beach Boys,
the Beatles, the Raspberries, Gilbert O'Sullivan and you know, they're
amazing things.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
I like, they're.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Incredible and quite experimental as well. Yeah, they're my favorite
band and they actually they were actually in Australia last
year and I couldn't get to that. One of these shows.
I was going to fly over and see them. The
Lemon Twigs, I.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Think we've got a little bit of Lemon Twigs here.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
That's lep Off. Their latest album. It's great.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
They got a great look about it.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
They've got Beatles sort of nineteen seventy one Beatles haircuts.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Yeah, very retro, you know, all the everything that they have.
They play rickonbackers and you know, I understand, and the
bass play plays are Hofner, you know. But they're not
a They're not a Beatles covers band, you know. They
and their dad was Ronnie de Dario was a quite
a he never quite broke through, but he was a
(30:01):
singer songwriter in his own right. So yeah, they're great,
They're they're They're my favorite band at the moment. But
I also love some of the new country stuff that's
coming out.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
You know.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
It's like, I really like Casey Musgraves. I think she's amazing.
There's a couple of others like Marion Morrison. Obviously I
love her because she's got a great name. Uh, there's
a few that I that I like. I don't particularly
like the you know, Luke Holmes is my youngest daughter
will hate me for some but yeah, there's there's little
(30:31):
there's always little pockets of Actually you know what I've
I love at the moment as Mike Hall's new.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
Yes, we just had him on to talk about it.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Wow. Yeah, that's a.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Great album and him and Joel Mulholland together.
Speaker 5 (30:42):
Is like out of the Lab as well, some Fridgship,
some knock at crany of the Lamb.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Yep, yep, it's Joel's little studio upstairs. Yeah, that's a
great record. Yeah, that's a great record. I quite like
that kind of just slightly off center, kind of poppy,
which is the antithesis of me. My album is very melancholy.
And I'm a ballady, you know. I like writing ballads.
(31:10):
That's my thing. So a lot of the songs I've
been searching for the perfect to write the perfect love song,
and I think there is. I write a song about
my wife Jane, and I think it's as close as
the perfect love song ballad that I will ever.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
What's it called.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
It's called Jane Ah. You'll be able to yep, you'll
be able to hear it tomorrow. You can play some now, we.
Speaker 5 (31:40):
Can play the we've got the saddest we can play
the saddest sound.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
Okay, yep, sadest sound, which my brother wrote. Ian wrote
that just after the Dudes broke up in nineteen eighty,
so it's a little tribute to him.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
We should go out on this.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Ricky, thanks so much for coming and they podcast always
great to chat to you luck with the album, bits
of luck with the touring.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
If you want to come tomorrow night, let me know.
I'll put your names on the door.
Speaker 5 (32:13):
The chat and I'll get your email address and i'll
find you that's from movie.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Please do, please do. Thanks, thanks for the check.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Radio Hodaches of the Record podcast. Why not subscribe so
they download automatically and don't forget to rate us five stars?
Thanks mate. Find out more about this podcast and the
people who make it at Holaky dot co dot inz
it
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