August 1, 2025 • 38 mins
Music regrets and a gig to forget: From Court Cases to Space Elevators
In this episode of 'Fun Facts and Sidetracks,' hosts Marty and Al explore the controversial world of music plagiarism, discussing famous cases such as George Harrison's 'My Sweet Lord' vs. The Chiffons' 'He's So Fine', Vanilla Ice vs. Queen and David Bowie, and many others. The episode delves into the nuances of creativity, subconscious influences, and some downright weird aspects of music litigation.
The boys then shift to share fascinating facts about the history of flight, from the first hot air balloons to the rapid progression from the Wright brothers' first flight to the moon landing, and even talk about future concepts like Japan's space elevator. As usual Mart has a hilarious stories about a gig he’d rather forget and the lively English-style pub parties at his home in suburban Brisbane.
00:00 Welcome to Fun Facts and Sidetracks
00:27 Exploring Famous Plagiarism Cases in Music
01:07 The George Harrison vs. The Chiffons Case
04:09 Vanilla Ice and the Under Pressure Controversy
04:46 John Fogarty Sued for Sounding Like Himself
05:40 Blurred Lines and Marvin Gaye's Legacy
06:58 The Rolling Stones vs. The Verve
07:52 Ghostbusters and Huey Lewis
09:43 The Beatles and Chuck Berry
11:38 A Regrettable Job Experience
17:57 Fun Facts About Flight
19:42 Man Lands on the Moon: A Giant Leap in 66 Years
20:32 The International Space Station: Orbiting Every 90 Minutes
21:28 NASA's Countdown: Inspired by a Silent Movie
22:29 Bert Hinkler Museum: A Tribute to Aviation
26:25 Space Elevator: The Future of Space Travel
30:26 Growing Up as a 10 Pound Pom in Australia
32:26 Building Bars and Boxing Day Parties
37:15 Conclusion
If you have a fun fact you’d like us to share, send us an email to: funfactsandsidetracks@gmail.com or leave us a comment online at our social pages on Facebook or Instagram Thanks for listening and never be afraid to get sidetracked.
The boring disclaimer: We do try to double-check all of the facts we talk about. If something isn’t quite correct, we humbly apologise. Credit to our many sources including, A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs, Tim from Kicking Harold, Mental Floss, Wikipedia and so many more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Al and Marty (00:16):
Hey Al.
Hey, Mart.
Here we are.
Welcome to Fun Facts andSidetracks.
I'm Marty.
And I'm Al.
Shall we kick off?
Yes, let's do it.
Okay.
Our music segment today is alittle bit different.
Mart.
I'm ready for it.
You ready for it?
I reckon it'd be good to talkabout plagiarism in music.
Oh, wow.
Because there are a lot ofreally famous court cases.
(00:40):
Yeah.
And it kind of raises thequestion of whether sometimes
people are blatantly beinginfluenced by what they've heard
before.
Yeah.
Subconsciously or otherwise, orsometimes it's simply that
there are only so many chords togo around and so many chord
progressions and tunes andthings.
Yeah, that's it.
I, that's what I believe.
(01:01):
Yeah.
But there are some prettyfamous ones.
I thought we might touch on afew of them.
Okay.
What have we got?
Probably one that went for thelongest time was, George
Harrison's my sweet Lord.
I remember that.
And The Chiffons.
He's so fine.
He's so fine.
Which of course, those threenotes, he's so fine.
(01:25):
Yeah.
Is exactly the same as My sweetLord.
Wow.
Yeah.
And then there's a bunch ofother stuff in there where it,
it actually kind of has a, chordchange that is exactly the
same.
Wow.
So, the people that own therights to The Chiffons.
Music, were pretty keen to takeGeorge Harrison to court and it
(01:46):
actually went for five years.
The court case went for fiveyears, which is a bloody long
time.
In that time, the guy who wasbehind the publishing rights for
The Chiffons music had themrecord a version of My Sweet
Lord.
Oh, yeah.
Which didn't do GeorgeHarrison any good in the court
case because they were able toprove that there's such a
(02:08):
similarity between the twotunes.
Oh, wow.
Intended or otherwise.
I mean, it, it, I find it hardto believe that he would need to
follow some crappysixties song, you know?
Yeah.
But in his book, he actuallysays that.
He was really influenced by anIndian swami who, kind of
claimed that if there's a God,you must see him.
(02:29):
You know?
So rather than just believingstuff, he's saying, if there's a
God, you must meet him.
And that's why he went, Hey,that's the one for me.
Yeah.
Which is why all that lyric isabout, I really want to know you
or really wanna see you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, I think there was a muchhigher, cause at Stake for
George in writing that song, butwhatever the case, it ended up
(02:50):
costing him, $587,000 in 1981.
I thought you were gonna say$587.
Yeah, that's right.
That's right.
After court costs, that's whatthey got.
Yeah.
And interestingly, the personbehind Bright Songs was the
label that had, he's so fine.
Yeah.
(03:10):
And it was Alan Klein.
And Alan Klein had a fairlymixed past in managing the
Beatles.
So, he knew his way aroundmaking money off.
Music.
That's for sure.
So it's basically a leech?
Yeah.
Or you said it, not me.
Okay.
He was a nice guy.
Send, send all legal messagesto, yeah.
Anyway, that's a prettyinteresting one and one that a
(03:32):
lot of people would know.
I did really want to play somemusic samples on this segment
because it's a lot easier Yeah.
To explain them.
But when you start Googling,using music on podcasts.
You get scared away prettyquickly.
Yeah.
Well, you think, I don't wannaspend any time in jail. The
money we make out of thispodcast.
(03:52):
I know you'd come bail me out,wouldn't you?
So, no, not a good idea.
So we're gonna kind of useexamples that people will know
or examples that are so bizarrethat you don't even need to hear
the music to know that this isjust.
Odd.
A really good example of thatis Vanilla Ice.
And Queen and David Bowie.
(04:14):
Yes.
So that pretty famous bass linefrom Under Pressure.
But isn't that also ding,ding, ding, dinga ding ding.
Yeah.
Okay.
Now you would think thatthat's just a sample and he's
got approval to use that.
Yeah.
He didn't, and Vanilla Iceactually claimed that, that
wasn't the same and that hewasn't ripping them off.
(04:35):
Wow.
Yeah.
Nice.
So he should have stopped,collaborated, and listened.
I suspect. I hate myself forsaying that already.
Ah.
Um okay, so let's quickly moveon, a really odd one is Credence
Clearwater Revival.
John Fogarty, the lead singer.
Yeah.
When he went solo, the bandCredence Clearwater Revival, or
(04:58):
at least their record company,sued John Fogarty for sounding
like CredenceClearwater Revival.
I wonder why that was.
Geez.
So they were claiming that hissong from his solo album, the
Old Man Down the Road Yeah.
Was pretty well just a rehashedversion of Run Through the
Jungle.
Oh, wow.
So the Record Company, FantasyInc.
(05:19):
, owned the rights to that.
And so they were claiming thathe'd ripped himself off.
Um, so they, they got away withit?
No, not surprisingly, it waskicked out.
The judge ruled that an artistcannot plagiarize themselves.
Yeah.
Rightly so.
But you know Yeah.
Just shows you that inlicensing.
Yeah.
It's everyone's fair game,right?
They are.
(05:40):
One of the most famous onesrecently is, do you know that
song, Blurred Lines?
Robin Thicke and Pharrell.
Yes.
Yeah.
About 10 years or so back.
Marvin Gaye, or the estate ofMarvin Gaye, took them to court
because it sounds an awfullot like one of his songs
called, Got to Give It Up.
Yeah.
(06:01):
Um, well, it does, it does.
I know we've had the advantageof sort of comparing them side
by side.
Yeah.
And not surprisingly, theestate of Marvin Gaye won the
court case.
They were rewarded $7.4 millionand, that was lowered to $5.3
million later.
But, it's.
It actually probably says a lotabout how terrific Marvin Gaye
(06:24):
was because the estate of MarvinGaye seems to be incredibly
litigious and they seem to winquite a lot.
Yeah, yeah.
Similarly, Radiohead and Creepis a song that they've been sued
by people like the Hollies forcopying The air that I breathe.
Wow.
But equally, Lana Del Rey has atrack, which, sounds so much
(06:47):
like the same chords, the samekind of atmospheric thing as
Creep.
And again, they sued her.
So a lot of these things, justeven a tone, you know, it's
pretty amazing.
The Rolling Stones sued TheVerve.
They were saying thatBittersweet Symphony sounds an
awful lot like The Last Time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(07:08):
And, often it's managers thatare instigating these things,
not the bands themselves.
So The Verve was actually suedby, I guess the managers.
Yeah.
The management of the Stonesfor $1.7 million in royalties
and credits.
And Jagger and Richardsactually gave the rights back
to, Richard Ashcroft, the leadsinger.
(07:28):
Really?
From The Verve.
Yeah.
So, geez, that's a pretty coolthing to do.
Pretty good guys.
Yeah.
So I think he was pretty happyto get those rights back.
Wow.
As you would be.
But that's pretty decent, isn'tit?
Yeah, very decent.
I know the Stone's made a lotof money, but you know, it's
still pretty decent.
Yeah, you don't hear that toooften.
(07:52):
Another really good one I reckonis the song Ghostbusters.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So Ray Parker, Jr.
Mm-hmm.
Who you gonna callGhostbusters.
Exactly.
So the story goes that, HueyLewis from Huey Lewis and the
News Yeah.
Was, originally supposed tocompose a theme song for the
(08:13):
movie Ghostbusters.
And when he declined, theyactually bought in Ray Parker,
Jr.
But they wanted something thatstill sounded like, Huey Lewis
and the News.
And apparently they weregetting really down to the wire
in terms of the film was prettywell edited.
Yeah.
And it was ready to go and theyneeded to get the movie out.
(08:34):
So they put the pressure on RayParker Jr.
To create a song that sounded alot like Huey Lewis.
And if you think about the twosongs, Ghostbusters and I Want a
New Drug.
Yeah, it's pretty well, got thesame.
So did he get sued?
He did get sued.
He get, and basically HueyLewis claimed that he just went
(08:55):
a bit too far and copying hisstyle.
Yeah.
And when you, when you line upGhostbusters and I want a new
drug.
Yeah, they're pretty close.
Apparently they settled in1995.
And part of the agreement wasthat the two artists would never
talk publicly about it.
Okay.
Alright.
But then apparently, Huey Lewissort of spilled his beans on
(09:18):
it, on a TV show on VH One.
So then Ray Parker Jr.
sued him for breaching theiragreement.
Oh.
Parker then claimed that he wonthe money back from his second
lawsuit out of court, so, wow.
It's a pretty tangled web,right.
Oh, dear.
Yeah.
Geez.
Makes you want, doesn't it?
It does a bit just to have ajob and go to work.
(09:39):
Yeah.
Okay.
One last one.
And this is The Beatles song.
Come together.
Yeah.
We're both Beatles tragics, andCome together is an awesome
song.
It is.
Yeah.
Come together right now.
Awesome song.
(10:03):
When John Lennon wrote, cometogether and presented it to the
band, McCartney actually saidThat sounds pretty similar to a
Chuck Berry song called YouCan't Catch Me.
And when you listen to it, itdoes, it does.
And there's a lyric in thereabout, here come old flat top
, he come groovin' up slowly.
And there's a sort of achunking, kind of a driving
(10:26):
rhythm behind it.
Yeah, slightly different, butit's, it's there.
Anyway, most lawsuits come downto money, but in this case,
they decided that it would be anout of court settlement, that
if Lennon could cover more ChuckBerry songs.
Then they'd be happy for him touse that track.
Wow.
Without any legal recoursebecause that would be good for
(10:50):
business if they had Lennoncovering a whole bunch of Chuck
Berry's.
Sure.
Yeah.
Well, you see him playing onstage with him.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Doing lots of songs and, yeah,and I mean, Lennon did that Rock
and Roll album, which was allcovers, yeah.
Benny King and all that stuff.
Yeah, but apparently the storygoes that Lennon hated every
minute of recording that album,and it's something that he
(11:10):
really regretted It put him offmusic for a long time, actually.
But pretty interesting.
Yeah.
So yeah, there's all sorts ofthese and we could probably do
another segment on more of themsometime because Yeah.
I think we should.
It's a shame we can't play thetracks.
Yeah, I know.
We need you whistling orsomething.
No, we'll play the spoons.
Yeah.
Alright.
(11:39):
Okay, Mart.
Now talking about jobs that youkind of regret after the event.
Mm.
Don't go there.
I've got so many.
You have shared a few with mein the past.
What comes to mind?
Look.
I've got a lot being in themusic industry, but one stands,
well, one stands in mind and um,I already told you one, the
(12:02):
Expo.
Yeah.
But, um, for anyone listeningwho hasn't checked out episode
three.
Yeah.
Uh, Costello, Carrie and theCrazy Expo bike, I think it's
called.
Yeah.
Well this was a, this was ajob, like I was work, I was
driving down to a place calledRobina.
Down the coast from Brisbaneand it used to take me, geez,
(12:22):
probably about an hour andquarter to get down there and
then set up and play for fourhours on a Friday night.
Mm-hmm.
And we used to have a greattime.
It was myself and this otherfriend of mine, Nick used to
sing with me and we had a greattime and the crowd were behind
us and the manager come up meand he says, listen, we're
having a big, fair, massive, bigthing happening on Sunday, the
(12:45):
so and so.
He said, we'd love you to playthere on the afternoon.
In the courtyard and I thought,yeah, okay, sounds good.
Nick said, yeah, yeah, I'm in.
He said, but I'm gonna be abouttwo hours late.
And I said, that's fine.
I can go in there anyway.
So I'm all hyped up about thisand they've hyped me all about,
it's gonna be a great day.
They're gonna have, you know,jumping castles and all this
sort of thing.
I just thought I was gonna bein the courtyard, so I've turned
(13:08):
up with my gear.
There's nothing happening outthe back.
It's just like a normal Sundayand I'm thinking, oh, it's okay.
They'll just put me in thecourtyard and I'll entertain the
people.
It's all good.
So they put me and there's abig field out the back with a
massive big lake in the field.
It's huge.
I don't know how many hectaresor acres it was, but it was
(13:28):
huge.
And um, he said to me, well, webetter put you out here.
And he put me about 60 metersfrom the back of the courtyard
in the middle of this field,this cow paddock, like, and I'm
thinking it's the middle ofsummer, like what sort of
temperatures we get in summer.
It was so hot, right?
See, no, no marquee, no shade.
(13:50):
He's put me out the middle ofthis field.
Yeah.
So I'm about 60 meters fromthe, the courtyard where the
people are.
My speakers were really goodfor distance anyway, but anyway,
so I'm set up and I startplaying and I'm getting hotter
and hotter and hotter.
And then my, sequencer of therecorded music starts playing
up cause it's so hot.
So I g o to the guy and I say,look, you've gotta get me an
(14:11):
umbrella.
Or something.
Yep.
So I set up like a beachumbrella over my gear and a
little bit of me and I, I musthave looked really bad anyway,
so I'm playing away.
And then this RV turns up this,it was something like out of
Ren and Stimpy, or you know,this RV turns up and the door
opens up and this kid jumps outand he's probably about nine
(14:36):
or ten, right?
He's got a cowboy hat on that'staller than he is.
He's got this massive big beltwith a massive big buckle.
He's got a road crew.
He's got like his mom and dadand this, this other guy, I
think he was his agent.
He was done up like a cowboy aswell.
So they've come in between meand them, so they're about, no
(14:58):
even closer.
They were closer to thecourtyard Uhhuh.
And I'm thinking, they said,you don't mind if he does a
little?
I went, no, sure.
Great.
He's got out this, sorry.
He's a 10-year-old with acowboy hat on.
He even, this is back beforephones were like everyone had a
phone.
Mm-hmm.
If you had a phone, it was abig deal.
Anyway, he even had a phone andthis kid, his name was Scotty
(15:20):
Scurving.
Okay.
He gets out, he does his littleboot scoot and dance, the
recorded music.
Okay.
Like a country type boot scoot,and he had the big boots on and
everything, and I'm thinking,you never work with kids and
animals.
This isn't looking good becauseI'm getting no one's,
everyone's ignoring me like whatI've done so far, but they're
(15:42):
just going crazy over this kid.
Then he sings this song called.
I like beer and he sort of goeslike, I like beer.
It makes me a jolly goodfellow, he's a 10-year-old, I
like beer! Inappropriate sville.
And sometimes it makes me feelmellow.
Makes him feel mellow.
And so he goes on about allthese drinks that he drinks, you
(16:05):
know, in the song.
And as soon as he's there, he'swalked around a little walk,
you know, in the crowd.
Probably signing autographs.
I don't know what he was doing,but they loved him.
They got in this RV and tookoff.
Right.
So I'm back to the middle ofthe field.
It was just a really badafternoon, and my mate Nick
(16:26):
didn't turn up.
Oh.
He only did about an hour withme.
Wow.
Yeah.
I had this massive migraineheadache for being in the sun
for so long.
Yeah.
But hey, listen, skippingforward about.
Oh, I don't know, 25 years I'mworking in the house.
I got the radio playing was on4BH I think, country sort of
(16:47):
songs and bits and pieces andthey had a talk back and he
said, we've got a young fellowcoming.
We've got a young guy that'sdoing the Buddy Holly, Buddy
Holly story at the moment that'stouring round Australia.
His name's, I don't know, Ican't remember what his name
was, but started chatting awayto him and he's going, yeah,
yeah.
And tell me, listen.
You used to have a differentname.
You used to go under adifferent name.
(17:07):
And he went, yes, I did.
And he said, what name wasthat?
He said it was actually ScottyScurving.
Was that triggering at thatpoint?
Look, I actually thought, well,bloody good on you.
Yeah.
You know, like, here's his kidwho's upstage me.
And then I'm playing, I'mworking away.
(17:29):
And I hear he's on radio andhe's, he's doing all right.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Good on him.
Yeah.
I, I thought you were gonna sayit was, you know, Keith Urban
or somebody No, no, no.
It's gotta scare me.
No, it would be nice if it wasKeith. I wouldn't mind.
Oh, how good, Mart.
Yeah.
Crazy.
Yeah.
That was the job that I wish Inever took on.
Yeah.
One of many.
(17:49):
Yes.
I thought it might beinteresting to talk about
flight.
Have some fun facts aboutflight.
Oh yeah.
I'd love to hear that.
This, well, you know, justrecently we saw, Katy Perry.
Oh yeah.
(18:10):
Wasn't that great.
Sneak out into....
was, was that real?
That's right.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, it's probablythe, where the future's going,
where it's just like, taking alittle, a joy trip.
Isn't it extravagant?
It's a little bit, yeah.
But, but hey, if you can do it,I guess good luck.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But it did make me kind ofponder, flight in general.
(18:31):
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
And so I did a little bit ofresearch the first flight.
It was actually two Frenchbrothers named Joseph, Michelle
and Jacques Ettienne.
Yeah.
And , they actuallydemonstrated hot air ballooning
flight.
They didn't have passengers inthe first ones.
But they did have animals andeventually they actually
(18:55):
tethered a flight with humansaboard.
Okay, so that's in, uh,November 21st, 1783.
So 1783.
Yes.
1783.
So we'll fast forward, a coupleof centuries.
And as we know, the Wrightbrothers were the first ones to
(19:15):
actually undertake, a successfulflight of a heavy than than air
manned and powered aircraft.
Yeah.
So that's 1903, right?
Yep.
And they did that at, KittyHawk in North Carolina.
Flight lasted for 12 secondsand it went for 120 feet.
Yeah.
But the thing that blows meaway about this, so you've got,
(19:39):
Orville and Wilbur Wright in1903.
Yeah.
Now it's only 1969 that we sawman land on the moon.
Planted on the Moon.
Thank you for that authenticsound effect.
That's only 66 years.
Yeah, I know from a flight thatlasts for 120 feet to
(20:02):
yeah, sending people into orbitand obviously people were in
space before then.
Well that's sort ofexponential, isn't it?
But to kick the moon 66 yearslater is, I just think amazing.
It is.
And they're talking again,going to Mars and Yeah.
And what they're doing.
Yeah.
Well, that's it.
So, 1903 to current is only 122years, so again.
(20:22):
It's, oh, you wanna go for ajoy flight out outside the
atmosphere, then Yeah.
You can do that if you've gotenough money.
Wow.
Like, it's not long in thescheme of things.
Right.
Some of this stuff blows meaway.
The International SpaceStation.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, I knew it was, I.
Pretty fast.
Yeah, he said usingunderstatement for effect.
How fast is it?
But it orbits the earth every90 minutes.
(20:44):
Oh my goodness.
How does it not run into stuffor how does stuff not run into
it?
Well, how do you feel insideit?
Yeah.
Is it like being on the BigZipper?
Uh, maybe.
How fast is that again?
Well, maybe you just pinned toyour chair going, whoa! But they
don't, they float aroundinside.
(21:05):
Yeah.
Well, so how does that work?
Oh, greater minds and mine willexplain that to you, Mart.
How do they work it all thatwhen they'd never been there
before.
Yeah.
Oh, goodness.
And how do they dock onto it?
At that speed.
Yeah.
And everything looks like it'snot moving when they do it.
Like on the James Bond movies.
That's right.
It's um, it's pretty wild.
(21:28):
Here's a fun fact.
Yeah.
NASA uses a countdown, but theydon't really need to, they use
a countdown because of a sci-fimovie.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
So Fritz Lang, who was a famousfilmmaker back in the twenties
made this silent movie calledFrau Monde, which is the Woman
(21:48):
in the Moon.
Yeah.
And, for effect, they used thiscountdown to, you know, to
countdown before the big blastoff.
Yeah.
NASA have no reason to use acountdown.
They can abort the, launchanytime they want to.
They can pause it, but theyactually use, you know, so much
like on the Thunderbirds, youknow, the countdown..
10,9,8,7 Oh.
(22:11):
So yeah.
But yeah, I wonder why theywanted use a countdown.
I don't know.
But it's, it's pretty wild.
For a 1929 silent movie.
Actually kind of influenceseverything that happens at Cape
Canaveral and, you know, allthese places.
Ah, yeah.
It's pretty wild.
It is.
Have you ever been speaking offlight?
(22:31):
Have you ever been to the BertHinkler Museum?
No, I haven't now in Bundaberg.
No.
I've heard all about it.
Mate, it's amazing.
It is.
It, yeah.
It's pretty amazing.
Yeah.
Well, you know, if you nerd outon this stuff.
Yeah.
Um, I must say that my wifeCarole, was less than impressed.
She kind of headed for the giftshop, but I, I kind, it's a man
(22:51):
thing.
I think so.
But, the two things that struckme, the size of the planes,
they were just tiny.
Yeah.
They were these tiny littleplanes and they.
Did not look all that stable.
Let's face it.
Um, I see there'd be like amoth, like a little, yeah.
Yeah.
You've seen like moth get blownaround with the wind and
butterflies, but being anairplane, could you imagine some
(23:12):
of the things that actuallyhappened when they're up there
and they've just got a big gustof wind?
Yeah.
Turbulence Yeah.
But honestly, like you'd putthem in a two car garage sort of
thing.
No, tiny.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
Anyway.
But the amazing thing up thereis they've also got this kind of
a little video display on theChallenger space shuttle.
Oh yeah.
The one that exploded.
Yeah.
(23:32):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So to kind of symbolize thisprogression of, you know, man,
moving forward with flight, theyactually got a piece of timber
from Bert Hinkler's plane.
They wrapped it up in plasticand they took it up with them.
Yeah.
On the Challenger shuttle,right?
Yeah.
And so, so at at the HinklerMuseum, you're sitting in this
(23:55):
kind of circular theatre.
And they show this movie of,what happened, but they also
talk about how they took thispiece of Bert Hink ler's plane
as this symbolic kind of, movingin, moving on.
Yeah.
Anyway, they show the vision ofwhat happened, but when the
rescue crews were out therecollecting whatever they could
(24:17):
find what's floating on thesurface, but this little plastic
bag with this piece of timberin it.
Wow.
So every, I mean, you've seen,everyone's seen that footage,
right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
The whole bloody thingdisintegrates.
But here's this little piece ofplastic and they've got it.
They've got it next to thescreen, and it just makes me go
misty every time I think of itbecause Wow, this little humble
(24:41):
little piece of timber survivedall of that.
Yeah.
And yeah, it's very cool.
Yeah, there's just something init, isn't it?
I reckon a thing like thatshould have just disintegrated.
If bodies disintegrated, itwill.
Yeah.
It's pretty wild.
It's just got blown and, and itwas over the ocean, wasn't it?
Yeah, it was.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
(25:01):
So if you have a In BundabergYeah.
And I haven't seen that for awhile, so I assume it's still
there.
I hope it hasn't been replacedwith, you know, a shopping mall
or something.
But if you get to the HinklerMuseum, it's well worth a look.
Or a coffee shop.
Yeah, that's right.
An all you can eat , we do nothave enough coffee shops.
Let's face it, the BurkeHinkler special.
(25:23):
What, what do they serve atthe Hinkler Coffee Shop?
Mart?
The Bert Hinkler special.
It's a jumbo size Oh, flight.
I like it.
I like where you got it.
And it comes with a little, um,balsa wood piece wrapped in
(25:46):
plastic.
Authentic, oh dear.
That you stir coffee with.
Oh, you only just got that.
You thought it was a littlegift.
(26:07):
Oh dear.
Sorry about that.
Oh, that's too good.
That's funny.
Okay, Al.
Mm-hmm.
Now I've seen this, uh, theJapanese are working on a space
(26:30):
elevator, okay?
Mm-hmm.
Also called, called a spacebridge or star ladder or orbital
lift.
Orbital lift.
Yeah, an orbital lift.
Wow.
Yeah, so.
And how does that work?
Well, it's a cable of designand it's, it's been modelled on
(26:52):
a spider's web.
'cause it's apparently, thatweb, if you look at it really
closely, it's the strongestweave.
And I don't know.
What's the material that you'reusing?
Probably silk.
Okay.
And they make this cable goesup into space and there'll be
like a lab up there.
So it's attached to the earth.
(27:13):
So it's like a big click clack.
Yeah.
Right.
So it's, it's spinning aroundthe earth, so it must be
spinning even faster than theearth.
'cause you think about it, it'sa lot, lot further around.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, and they're doing it somore people can go up into space
and look down at the earth.
And so you said it's anelevator.
What, what's the go with itlike?
(27:34):
Well, it's, yeah.
It's, it's an elevator and soit's clamped to with, you know,
like a like.
Two big three big rollers say,and two of them push in, two of
them push out.
So it sort of creates thistension.
Mm.
And then the motors come on andthen it starts to lift, right?
(27:54):
This is what they showed you itall, they're working on it.
They're gonna do it.
And that's it.
I wonder how fast it goes liketo.
Floor.
First of all, men's wear, goingdown ladies' underwear.
Yeah.
No.
(28:14):
So that's, that's what they'reworking on.
Wow.
And that's scary.
I don't think I'd go up in it.
I wouldn't trust it.
It's probably a Toyota I get.
Um, I get a bit nervous gettinginto our lift at work, which
goes up 18 floors, so I think Imight wait until they kind of
iron out the bugs on that one.
So I'm not sure how it goes.
(28:36):
I'd love to get you drunk andthen shove you in it and just
shut the door and hit.
Top floor, but hit all thefloors in between.
I wonder what all the otherstops are.
It's like the, the stratosphereand, yeah.
Yeah.
Cloud, cloud nine heaven.
Oh dear.
(28:59):
No, with, yeah.
That's pretty amazing, isn'tit?
But they're doing it.
Yeah.
This, these are all thesethings that they're doing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And mimicking nature.
Yeah.
With the spider thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I don't know.
Believe it or not, imaginegoing to work and, you know,
coming home at the end of theday and somebody says, oh, how
was your day?
(29:19):
And it's like, oh yeah, I'mjust, you know, working on this
cable that Yeah.
Will be anchored in out ofspace.
And I just dunno how they'regonna get it out into space.
Yeah.
I think some gonna gotta throwit.
Yeah.
Or they're gonna catapult itor.
They'd have to put it on somesort of, I'll get a rocket.
And then one of those reallyrockets from cracker night, you
(29:40):
know, tied to one of them.
The double bunger.
Yeah, that's it.
No, but they might getsomething out there and just
like the space station and justdrop a rope and just keep
letting the rope go so it getsdown to earth.
Just try and catch it.
There's gonna be one reallytired spider at the end of it.
(30:00):
Or better still.
Just get a spider to do it.
Oh, the spiders from Mars.
There's the connection.
There you go.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Took a while.
Yeah, I think, I think that'senough silliness in this house.
Oh, in joke.
Okay.
Yeah.
That's what they're doing.
It's a good fact, mate.
I like it.
Mart, we had some terrificfeedback from a few listeners
(30:30):
about your description of beinga 10 pound pom.
Really?
Yeah.
Okay.
Uh, some That's nice.
Some people who themselves were10 pound poms.
Oh, good.
Hello?
Yeah.
Hello Governor.
And if they weren't 10 poundpoms, they had immigrated from
England under their own steam,if you like.
Yeah.
Uh, but I think at the time wesaid that there were other
(30:53):
stories that you could shareabout, oh, there's lots of
things that.
We're different growing up inAustralia, and I love Australia
and I love the fact that I'mhere.
It's such a great place,especially now, isn't it?
Like, that's awesome.
Yeah.
It's such a good mix.
Well, when I think back, say inthe seventies when I was, you
(31:14):
know, 16, 17.
When I left school, I couldn'tread or write.
I was, I was not, not theacademic.
But I jumped into a job that Ireally loved and that was laying
bricks and it just suited me,it burnt me out.
'cause it was just physicalwork.
I.
And I loved it.
I loved the laying of thebricks and what it was all about
and I felt a part of something.
(31:34):
Mm.
Anyway, it was my dad said tome, okay, you lay a brick.
It was my first year of myapprenticeship and I was
learning a lot, and he said,we're gonna brick in underneath
the house.
Under this, I guess it was ahouse home and it was on stumps.
So we hand mixed all the slabsunderneath my brothers and
myself.
(31:54):
Um, and our mates that wereroped into it, hand mixed, all
the slabs, the concrete slabsunderneath the house.
Wow.
Yeah.
And then not with a mixer, juston the ground.
Like a big volcano you'd made.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah, and we did that.
And then dad bought me allthese bricks and we started
(32:18):
laying the bricks.
I started laying the bricks andyou can see my brick laying,
getting better and better overthe years.
'cause I was doing it on aSaturday.
Every Saturday he make me sortof, but I built this bar
underneath the house, so theexternal brick work.
And then inside I, I builtsomething like all up was
probably about 16 arches.
And I built a garage on theside of the house, which had
(32:40):
like an arch, you know, verandaon the back that had three
arches.
Wow.
And there was these blackbricks he gave me.
They were like cobblestonelooking bricks with all these
black bricks and timber.
And he made this like pubunderneath the house.
And it was a bar.
We had a slate bar.
My, my brother Benny, he was aconcreter /landscaper and he
(33:03):
built a slate bar and we gotupholstered at top on it.
So it was just like being in apub and we had a pool
table, dart board of course.
Yeah.
Full English pub treatment,huh?
Yeah.
And, and so, and this is justin our suburb where we grew up
in Brisbane, here.
And there were so many Englishfamilies that moved to this
(33:26):
suburb.
Mm-hmm.
And they all built little barsunderneath their homes.
So it was like Wednesday nightat Frankie Boys and Maxie Boy
Williams was over his place onthe Thursday and Big Terry and
Bob, who was a boxer, heactually sparred with bloody
Muhammad Ali.
Yeah.
He went to the RussianOlympics.
(33:47):
Wow.
He's this massive guy who was agentle giant.
You know, he'd just, he'd havea few drinks and maybe 'cause of
the boxing, but he'd have a fewdrinks and all he'd say for the
rest of the night is, I don'tbelieve it.
I don't believe it.
You know, so you got, justgoing, going, I don't believe
it.
And he'd be playing pool and itwas like coming home to a
(34:09):
nuthouse.
When you come home and they'reall, you know, three quarters
full, laughing and playing pool.
So all the hours in, in, youknow, yeah.
So they're out most nightsplaying pool at each other's
bars that they created.
And I dunno if that happenedanywhere else in Australia, but
(34:29):
it certainly happened in mylife.
And, uh, I think the best thingfor Dad was that I was a
bricklayer and my brother was aconcreter.
And my other brother was agood, hard worker.
Yeah.
My other brother missed out'cause he was too young and he
became a builder anyway, right?
Yeah, he did.
He became a carpenter.
Yeah.
Wow.
So.
But that's what a lot of themdid.
(34:50):
But the parties they had werehuge.
You know, it got outta hand, itjust ended up getting outta
hand.
Yeah, like, 'cause you had mythree brothers, my two brothers
at the time, my youngest brotherwas too young for this, but my
other two brothers were older.
We'd go out in the town and andinvite people and they'd have a
Boxing Day party and it all ledup to this Boxing Day party.
(35:12):
And so my brother would invitejust anyone, my other brother
invite.
Just anyone.
I'd invite all my Greek, I hadheap of Greek friends 'cause
they thought I was Greek, 'causeI had black hair.
So it was just thismulticultural.
There was Irish and then therewas all dad's friends that were
Irish and Scottish and, andAussies and it all Greek.
(35:36):
And they would come on a Sundayand it was started at about 12
o'clock and it went to like.
The Boxing Day party just wentand in the end there were bikies
turning up and it just gotout of hand.
You know, it was, it was just,you know, as full as a
Caterpillar's sock drawer, asthey say.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(35:57):
It, it was like, and we, thesecurity were just us, but you'd
have all these people that wedidn't even know that got word.
Oh, there's a party on thismassive Boxing Day party.
Wow.
So these people that turn upand.
In the end, we had, you know,these bloody bikies turned up
and they were, and the guy nextdoor was a big unit.
He was a big young guy.
(36:18):
He was a, you know, rugbyplayer.
And he, I remember him standingthere one day and this guy
said, don't touch my bike.
And he went, I won't touch yourbike mate.
He said, I've got some.
He said, I've got some, uh,some big friends, some rough
friends.
He went.
Don't worry, I've got some bigfriends too.
He was big footballer.
Uh oh.
(36:38):
And like it was, I'mthinking.....
this is my house.
Yeah.
And this is when I'm sort ofprobably about 19.
Yeah.
And I'm just starting torealie, wow, I.
There's this, all these peoplein my home and I don't know half
of them.
Yeah.
And they're all, some of arebringing alcohol.
Some of 'em are.
All my dad's going is Did hebring booze?
Did he bring booze?
(36:58):
Like, anyway, all good fun.
Yeah.
Wow.
It's a good story.
Yeah.
Now it's time to say goodbye.
No, it is time to say goodbye.
(37:19):
I think we've done enoughtoday.
What do you reckon?
Uh, I think we've definitelyhad enough.
What if I'm singing the MickeyMouse theme?
No look.
Hey, if you think we've gotsomething wrong or you'd like to
give u s a bit of input, we'dlove to hear from you.
Yep.
Jump on our Facebook orInstagram pages or send us an
(37:43):
email.
Email.
Yeah, send us an email to funfacts and sidetracks@gmail.com.
We'll see you now.
See you Mark.
Thanks for popping in.
Hey Al.
Hey, Mart.
Here we are.
Welcome to Fun Facts andSidetracks.
I'm Marty.
And I'm Al.
Shall we kick off?
Yes, let's do it.
Okay.
Our music segment today is alittle bit different.
Mart.
I'm ready for it.
You ready for it?
I reckon it'd be good to talkabout plagiarism in music.
Oh, wow.
Because there are a lot ofreally famous court cases.
(00:40):
Yeah.
And it kind of raises thequestion of whether sometimes
people are blatantly beinginfluenced by what they've heard
before.
Yeah.
Subconsciously or otherwise, orsometimes it's simply that
there are only so many chords togo around and so many chord
progressions and tunes andthings.
Yeah, that's it.
I, that's what I believe.
(01:01):
Yeah.
But there are some prettyfamous ones.
I thought we might touch on afew of them.
Okay.
What have we got?
Probably one that went for thelongest time was, George
Harrison's my sweet Lord.
I remember that.
And The Chiffons.
He's so fine.
He's so fine.
Which of course, those threenotes, he's so fine.
(01:25):
Yeah.
Is exactly the same as My sweetLord.
Wow.
Yeah.
And then there's a bunch ofother stuff in there where it,
it actually kind of has a, chordchange that is exactly the
same.
Wow.
So, the people that own therights to The Chiffons.
Music, were pretty keen to takeGeorge Harrison to court and it
(01:46):
actually went for five years.
The court case went for fiveyears, which is a bloody long
time.
In that time, the guy who wasbehind the publishing rights for
The Chiffons music had themrecord a version of My Sweet
Lord.
Oh, yeah.
Which didn't do GeorgeHarrison any good in the court
case because they were able toprove that there's such a
(02:08):
similarity between the twotunes.
Oh, wow.
Intended or otherwise.
I mean, it, it, I find it hardto believe that he would need to
follow some crappysixties song, you know?
Yeah.
But in his book, he actuallysays that.
He was really influenced by anIndian swami who, kind of
claimed that if there's a God,you must see him.
(02:29):
You know?
So rather than just believingstuff, he's saying, if there's a
God, you must meet him.
And that's why he went, Hey,that's the one for me.
Yeah.
Which is why all that lyric isabout, I really want to know you
or really wanna see you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, I think there was a muchhigher, cause at Stake for
George in writing that song, butwhatever the case, it ended up
(02:50):
costing him, $587,000 in 1981.
I thought you were gonna say$587.
Yeah, that's right.
That's right.
After court costs, that's whatthey got.
Yeah.
And interestingly, the personbehind Bright Songs was the
label that had, he's so fine.
Yeah.
(03:10):
And it was Alan Klein.
And Alan Klein had a fairlymixed past in managing the
Beatles.
So, he knew his way aroundmaking money off.
Music.
That's for sure.
So it's basically a leech?
Yeah.
Or you said it, not me.
Okay.
He was a nice guy.
Send, send all legal messagesto, yeah.
Anyway, that's a prettyinteresting one and one that a
(03:32):
lot of people would know.
I did really want to play somemusic samples on this segment
because it's a lot easier Yeah.
To explain them.
But when you start Googling,using music on podcasts.
You get scared away prettyquickly.
Yeah.
Well, you think, I don't wannaspend any time in jail. The
money we make out of thispodcast.
(03:52):
I know you'd come bail me out,wouldn't you?
So, no, not a good idea.
So we're gonna kind of useexamples that people will know
or examples that are so bizarrethat you don't even need to hear
the music to know that this isjust.
Odd.
A really good example of thatis Vanilla Ice.
And Queen and David Bowie.
(04:14):
Yes.
So that pretty famous bass linefrom Under Pressure.
But isn't that also ding,ding, ding, dinga ding ding.
Yeah.
Okay.
Now you would think thatthat's just a sample and he's
got approval to use that.
Yeah.
He didn't, and Vanilla Iceactually claimed that, that
wasn't the same and that hewasn't ripping them off.
(04:35):
Wow.
Yeah.
Nice.
So he should have stopped,collaborated, and listened.
I suspect. I hate myself forsaying that already.
Ah.
Um okay, so let's quickly moveon, a really odd one is Credence
Clearwater Revival.
John Fogarty, the lead singer.
Yeah.
When he went solo, the bandCredence Clearwater Revival, or
(04:58):
at least their record company,sued John Fogarty for sounding
like CredenceClearwater Revival.
I wonder why that was.
Geez.
So they were claiming that hissong from his solo album, the
Old Man Down the Road Yeah.
Was pretty well just a rehashedversion of Run Through the
Jungle.
Oh, wow.
So the Record Company, FantasyInc.
(05:19):
, owned the rights to that.
And so they were claiming thathe'd ripped himself off.
Um, so they, they got away withit?
No, not surprisingly, it waskicked out.
The judge ruled that an artistcannot plagiarize themselves.
Yeah.
Rightly so.
But you know Yeah.
Just shows you that inlicensing.
Yeah.
It's everyone's fair game,right?
They are.
(05:40):
One of the most famous onesrecently is, do you know that
song, Blurred Lines?
Robin Thicke and Pharrell.
Yes.
Yeah.
About 10 years or so back.
Marvin Gaye, or the estate ofMarvin Gaye, took them to court
because it sounds an awfullot like one of his songs
called, Got to Give It Up.
Yeah.
(06:01):
Um, well, it does, it does.
I know we've had the advantageof sort of comparing them side
by side.
Yeah.
And not surprisingly, theestate of Marvin Gaye won the
court case.
They were rewarded $7.4 millionand, that was lowered to $5.3
million later.
But, it's.
It actually probably says a lotabout how terrific Marvin Gaye
(06:24):
was because the estate of MarvinGaye seems to be incredibly
litigious and they seem to winquite a lot.
Yeah, yeah.
Similarly, Radiohead and Creepis a song that they've been sued
by people like the Hollies forcopying The air that I breathe.
Wow.
But equally, Lana Del Rey has atrack, which, sounds so much
(06:47):
like the same chords, the samekind of atmospheric thing as
Creep.
And again, they sued her.
So a lot of these things, justeven a tone, you know, it's
pretty amazing.
The Rolling Stones sued TheVerve.
They were saying thatBittersweet Symphony sounds an
awful lot like The Last Time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(07:08):
And, often it's managers thatare instigating these things,
not the bands themselves.
So The Verve was actually suedby, I guess the managers.
Yeah.
The management of the Stonesfor $1.7 million in royalties
and credits.
And Jagger and Richardsactually gave the rights back
to, Richard Ashcroft, the leadsinger.
(07:28):
Really?
From The Verve.
Yeah.
So, geez, that's a pretty coolthing to do.
Pretty good guys.
Yeah.
So I think he was pretty happyto get those rights back.
Wow.
As you would be.
But that's pretty decent, isn'tit?
Yeah, very decent.
I know the Stone's made a lotof money, but you know, it's
still pretty decent.
Yeah, you don't hear that toooften.
(07:52):
Another really good one I reckonis the song Ghostbusters.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So Ray Parker, Jr.
Mm-hmm.
Who you gonna callGhostbusters.
Exactly.
So the story goes that, HueyLewis from Huey Lewis and the
News Yeah.
Was, originally supposed tocompose a theme song for the
(08:13):
movie Ghostbusters.
And when he declined, theyactually bought in Ray Parker,
Jr.
But they wanted something thatstill sounded like, Huey Lewis
and the News.
And apparently they weregetting really down to the wire
in terms of the film was prettywell edited.
Yeah.
And it was ready to go and theyneeded to get the movie out.
(08:34):
So they put the pressure on RayParker Jr.
To create a song that sounded alot like Huey Lewis.
And if you think about the twosongs, Ghostbusters and I Want a
New Drug.
Yeah, it's pretty well, got thesame.
So did he get sued?
He did get sued.
He get, and basically HueyLewis claimed that he just went
(08:55):
a bit too far and copying hisstyle.
Yeah.
And when you, when you line upGhostbusters and I want a new
drug.
Yeah, they're pretty close.
Apparently they settled in1995.
And part of the agreement wasthat the two artists would never
talk publicly about it.
Okay.
Alright.
But then apparently, Huey Lewissort of spilled his beans on
(09:18):
it, on a TV show on VH One.
So then Ray Parker Jr.
sued him for breaching theiragreement.
Oh.
Parker then claimed that he wonthe money back from his second
lawsuit out of court, so, wow.
It's a pretty tangled web,right.
Oh, dear.
Yeah.
Geez.
Makes you want, doesn't it?
It does a bit just to have ajob and go to work.
(09:39):
Yeah.
Okay.
One last one.
And this is The Beatles song.
Come together.
Yeah.
We're both Beatles tragics, andCome together is an awesome
song.
It is.
Yeah.
Come together right now.
Awesome song.
(10:03):
When John Lennon wrote, cometogether and presented it to the
band, McCartney actually saidThat sounds pretty similar to a
Chuck Berry song called YouCan't Catch Me.
And when you listen to it, itdoes, it does.
And there's a lyric in thereabout, here come old flat top
, he come groovin' up slowly.
And there's a sort of achunking, kind of a driving
(10:26):
rhythm behind it.
Yeah, slightly different, butit's, it's there.
Anyway, most lawsuits come downto money, but in this case,
they decided that it would be anout of court settlement, that
if Lennon could cover more ChuckBerry songs.
Then they'd be happy for him touse that track.
Wow.
Without any legal recoursebecause that would be good for
(10:50):
business if they had Lennoncovering a whole bunch of Chuck
Berry's.
Sure.
Yeah.
Well, you see him playing onstage with him.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Doing lots of songs and, yeah,and I mean, Lennon did that Rock
and Roll album, which was allcovers, yeah.
Benny King and all that stuff.
Yeah, but apparently the storygoes that Lennon hated every
minute of recording that album,and it's something that he
(11:10):
really regretted It put him offmusic for a long time, actually.
But pretty interesting.
Yeah.
So yeah, there's all sorts ofthese and we could probably do
another segment on more of themsometime because Yeah.
I think we should.
It's a shame we can't play thetracks.
Yeah, I know.
We need you whistling orsomething.
No, we'll play the spoons.
Yeah.
Alright.
(11:39):
Okay, Mart.
Now talking about jobs that youkind of regret after the event.
Mm.
Don't go there.
I've got so many.
You have shared a few with mein the past.
What comes to mind?
Look.
I've got a lot being in themusic industry, but one stands,
well, one stands in mind and um,I already told you one, the
(12:02):
Expo.
Yeah.
But, um, for anyone listeningwho hasn't checked out episode
three.
Yeah.
Uh, Costello, Carrie and theCrazy Expo bike, I think it's
called.
Yeah.
Well this was a, this was ajob, like I was work, I was
driving down to a place calledRobina.
Down the coast from Brisbaneand it used to take me, geez,
(12:22):
probably about an hour andquarter to get down there and
then set up and play for fourhours on a Friday night.
Mm-hmm.
And we used to have a greattime.
It was myself and this otherfriend of mine, Nick used to
sing with me and we had a greattime and the crowd were behind
us and the manager come up meand he says, listen, we're
having a big, fair, massive, bigthing happening on Sunday, the
(12:45):
so and so.
He said, we'd love you to playthere on the afternoon.
In the courtyard and I thought,yeah, okay, sounds good.
Nick said, yeah, yeah, I'm in.
He said, but I'm gonna be abouttwo hours late.
And I said, that's fine.
I can go in there anyway.
So I'm all hyped up about thisand they've hyped me all about,
it's gonna be a great day.
They're gonna have, you know,jumping castles and all this
sort of thing.
I just thought I was gonna bein the courtyard, so I've turned
(13:08):
up with my gear.
There's nothing happening outthe back.
It's just like a normal Sundayand I'm thinking, oh, it's okay.
They'll just put me in thecourtyard and I'll entertain the
people.
It's all good.
So they put me and there's abig field out the back with a
massive big lake in the field.
It's huge.
I don't know how many hectaresor acres it was, but it was
(13:28):
huge.
And um, he said to me, well, webetter put you out here.
And he put me about 60 metersfrom the back of the courtyard
in the middle of this field,this cow paddock, like, and I'm
thinking it's the middle ofsummer, like what sort of
temperatures we get in summer.
It was so hot, right?
See, no, no marquee, no shade.
(13:50):
He's put me out the middle ofthis field.
Yeah.
So I'm about 60 meters fromthe, the courtyard where the
people are.
My speakers were really goodfor distance anyway, but anyway,
so I'm set up and I startplaying and I'm getting hotter
and hotter and hotter.
And then my, sequencer of therecorded music starts playing
up cause it's so hot.
So I g o to the guy and I say,look, you've gotta get me an
(14:11):
umbrella.
Or something.
Yep.
So I set up like a beachumbrella over my gear and a
little bit of me and I, I musthave looked really bad anyway,
so I'm playing away.
And then this RV turns up this,it was something like out of
Ren and Stimpy, or you know,this RV turns up and the door
opens up and this kid jumps outand he's probably about nine
(14:36):
or ten, right?
He's got a cowboy hat on that'staller than he is.
He's got this massive big beltwith a massive big buckle.
He's got a road crew.
He's got like his mom and dadand this, this other guy, I
think he was his agent.
He was done up like a cowboy aswell.
So they've come in between meand them, so they're about, no
(14:58):
even closer.
They were closer to thecourtyard Uhhuh.
And I'm thinking, they said,you don't mind if he does a
little?
I went, no, sure.
Great.
He's got out this, sorry.
He's a 10-year-old with acowboy hat on.
He even, this is back beforephones were like everyone had a
phone.
Mm-hmm.
If you had a phone, it was abig deal.
Anyway, he even had a phone andthis kid, his name was Scotty
(15:20):
Scurving.
Okay.
He gets out, he does his littleboot scoot and dance, the
recorded music.
Okay.
Like a country type boot scoot,and he had the big boots on and
everything, and I'm thinking,you never work with kids and
animals.
This isn't looking good becauseI'm getting no one's,
everyone's ignoring me like whatI've done so far, but they're
(15:42):
just going crazy over this kid.
Then he sings this song called.
I like beer and he sort of goeslike, I like beer.
It makes me a jolly goodfellow, he's a 10-year-old, I
like beer! Inappropriate sville.
And sometimes it makes me feelmellow.
Makes him feel mellow.
And so he goes on about allthese drinks that he drinks, you
(16:05):
know, in the song.
And as soon as he's there, he'swalked around a little walk,
you know, in the crowd.
Probably signing autographs.
I don't know what he was doing,but they loved him.
They got in this RV and tookoff.
Right.
So I'm back to the middle ofthe field.
It was just a really badafternoon, and my mate Nick
(16:26):
didn't turn up.
Oh.
He only did about an hour withme.
Wow.
Yeah.
I had this massive migraineheadache for being in the sun
for so long.
Yeah.
But hey, listen, skippingforward about.
Oh, I don't know, 25 years I'mworking in the house.
I got the radio playing was on4BH I think, country sort of
(16:47):
songs and bits and pieces andthey had a talk back and he
said, we've got a young fellowcoming.
We've got a young guy that'sdoing the Buddy Holly, Buddy
Holly story at the moment that'stouring round Australia.
His name's, I don't know, Ican't remember what his name
was, but started chatting awayto him and he's going, yeah,
yeah.
And tell me, listen.
You used to have a differentname.
You used to go under adifferent name.
(17:07):
And he went, yes, I did.
And he said, what name wasthat?
He said it was actually ScottyScurving.
Was that triggering at thatpoint?
Look, I actually thought, well,bloody good on you.
Yeah.
You know, like, here's his kidwho's upstage me.
And then I'm playing, I'mworking away.
(17:29):
And I hear he's on radio andhe's, he's doing all right.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Good on him.
Yeah.
I, I thought you were gonna sayit was, you know, Keith Urban
or somebody No, no, no.
It's gotta scare me.
No, it would be nice if it wasKeith. I wouldn't mind.
Oh, how good, Mart.
Yeah.
Crazy.
Yeah.
That was the job that I wish Inever took on.
Yeah.
One of many.
(17:49):
Yes.
I thought it might beinteresting to talk about
flight.
Have some fun facts aboutflight.
Oh yeah.
I'd love to hear that.
This, well, you know, justrecently we saw, Katy Perry.
Oh yeah.
(18:10):
Wasn't that great.
Sneak out into....
was, was that real?
That's right.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, it's probablythe, where the future's going,
where it's just like, taking alittle, a joy trip.
Isn't it extravagant?
It's a little bit, yeah.
But, but hey, if you can do it,I guess good luck.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But it did make me kind ofponder, flight in general.
(18:31):
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
And so I did a little bit ofresearch the first flight.
It was actually two Frenchbrothers named Joseph, Michelle
and Jacques Ettienne.
Yeah.
And , they actuallydemonstrated hot air ballooning
flight.
They didn't have passengers inthe first ones.
But they did have animals andeventually they actually
(18:55):
tethered a flight with humansaboard.
Okay, so that's in, uh,November 21st, 1783.
So 1783.
Yes.
1783.
So we'll fast forward, a coupleof centuries.
And as we know, the Wrightbrothers were the first ones to
(19:15):
actually undertake, a successfulflight of a heavy than than air
manned and powered aircraft.
Yeah.
So that's 1903, right?
Yep.
And they did that at, KittyHawk in North Carolina.
Flight lasted for 12 secondsand it went for 120 feet.
Yeah.
But the thing that blows meaway about this, so you've got,
(19:39):
Orville and Wilbur Wright in1903.
Yeah.
Now it's only 1969 that we sawman land on the moon.
Planted on the Moon.
Thank you for that authenticsound effect.
That's only 66 years.
Yeah, I know from a flight thatlasts for 120 feet to
(20:02):
yeah, sending people into orbitand obviously people were in
space before then.
Well that's sort ofexponential, isn't it?
But to kick the moon 66 yearslater is, I just think amazing.
It is.
And they're talking again,going to Mars and Yeah.
And what they're doing.
Yeah.
Well, that's it.
So, 1903 to current is only 122years, so again.
(20:22):
It's, oh, you wanna go for ajoy flight out outside the
atmosphere, then Yeah.
You can do that if you've gotenough money.
Wow.
Like, it's not long in thescheme of things.
Right.
Some of this stuff blows meaway.
The International SpaceStation.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, I knew it was, I.
Pretty fast.
Yeah, he said usingunderstatement for effect.
How fast is it?
But it orbits the earth every90 minutes.
(20:44):
Oh my goodness.
How does it not run into stuffor how does stuff not run into
it?
Well, how do you feel insideit?
Yeah.
Is it like being on the BigZipper?
Uh, maybe.
How fast is that again?
Well, maybe you just pinned toyour chair going, whoa! But they
don't, they float aroundinside.
(21:05):
Yeah.
Well, so how does that work?
Oh, greater minds and mine willexplain that to you, Mart.
How do they work it all thatwhen they'd never been there
before.
Yeah.
Oh, goodness.
And how do they dock onto it?
At that speed.
Yeah.
And everything looks like it'snot moving when they do it.
Like on the James Bond movies.
That's right.
It's um, it's pretty wild.
(21:28):
Here's a fun fact.
Yeah.
NASA uses a countdown, but theydon't really need to, they use
a countdown because of a sci-fimovie.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
So Fritz Lang, who was a famousfilmmaker back in the twenties
made this silent movie calledFrau Monde, which is the Woman
(21:48):
in the Moon.
Yeah.
And, for effect, they used thiscountdown to, you know, to
countdown before the big blastoff.
Yeah.
NASA have no reason to use acountdown.
They can abort the, launchanytime they want to.
They can pause it, but theyactually use, you know, so much
like on the Thunderbirds, youknow, the countdown..
10,9,8,7 Oh.
(22:11):
So yeah.
But yeah, I wonder why theywanted use a countdown.
I don't know.
But it's, it's pretty wild.
For a 1929 silent movie.
Actually kind of influenceseverything that happens at Cape
Canaveral and, you know, allthese places.
Ah, yeah.
It's pretty wild.
It is.
Have you ever been speaking offlight?
(22:31):
Have you ever been to the BertHinkler Museum?
No, I haven't now in Bundaberg.
No.
I've heard all about it.
Mate, it's amazing.
It is.
It, yeah.
It's pretty amazing.
Yeah.
Well, you know, if you nerd outon this stuff.
Yeah.
Um, I must say that my wifeCarole, was less than impressed.
She kind of headed for the giftshop, but I, I kind, it's a man
(22:51):
thing.
I think so.
But, the two things that struckme, the size of the planes,
they were just tiny.
Yeah.
They were these tiny littleplanes and they.
Did not look all that stable.
Let's face it.
Um, I see there'd be like amoth, like a little, yeah.
Yeah.
You've seen like moth get blownaround with the wind and
butterflies, but being anairplane, could you imagine some
(23:12):
of the things that actuallyhappened when they're up there
and they've just got a big gustof wind?
Yeah.
Turbulence Yeah.
But honestly, like you'd putthem in a two car garage sort of
thing.
No, tiny.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
Anyway.
But the amazing thing up thereis they've also got this kind of
a little video display on theChallenger space shuttle.
Oh yeah.
The one that exploded.
Yeah.
(23:32):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So to kind of symbolize thisprogression of, you know, man,
moving forward with flight, theyactually got a piece of timber
from Bert Hinkler's plane.
They wrapped it up in plasticand they took it up with them.
Yeah.
On the Challenger shuttle,right?
Yeah.
And so, so at at the HinklerMuseum, you're sitting in this
(23:55):
kind of circular theatre.
And they show this movie of,what happened, but they also
talk about how they took thispiece of Bert Hink ler's plane
as this symbolic kind of, movingin, moving on.
Yeah.
Anyway, they show the vision ofwhat happened, but when the
rescue crews were out therecollecting whatever they could
(24:17):
find what's floating on thesurface, but this little plastic
bag with this piece of timberin it.
Wow.
So every, I mean, you've seen,everyone's seen that footage,
right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
The whole bloody thingdisintegrates.
But here's this little piece ofplastic and they've got it.
They've got it next to thescreen, and it just makes me go
misty every time I think of itbecause Wow, this little humble
(24:41):
little piece of timber survivedall of that.
Yeah.
And yeah, it's very cool.
Yeah, there's just something init, isn't it?
I reckon a thing like thatshould have just disintegrated.
If bodies disintegrated, itwill.
Yeah.
It's pretty wild.
It's just got blown and, and itwas over the ocean, wasn't it?
Yeah, it was.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
(25:01):
So if you have a In BundabergYeah.
And I haven't seen that for awhile, so I assume it's still
there.
I hope it hasn't been replacedwith, you know, a shopping mall
or something.
But if you get to the HinklerMuseum, it's well worth a look.
Or a coffee shop.
Yeah, that's right.
An all you can eat , we do nothave enough coffee shops.
Let's face it, the BurkeHinkler special.
(25:23):
What, what do they serve atthe Hinkler Coffee Shop?
Mart?
The Bert Hinkler special.
It's a jumbo size Oh, flight.
I like it.
I like where you got it.
And it comes with a little, um,balsa wood piece wrapped in
(25:46):
plastic.
Authentic, oh dear.
That you stir coffee with.
Oh, you only just got that.
You thought it was a littlegift.
(26:07):
Oh dear.
Sorry about that.
Oh, that's too good.
That's funny.
Okay, Al.
Mm-hmm.
Now I've seen this, uh, theJapanese are working on a space
(26:30):
elevator, okay?
Mm-hmm.
Also called, called a spacebridge or star ladder or orbital
lift.
Orbital lift.
Yeah, an orbital lift.
Wow.
Yeah, so.
And how does that work?
Well, it's a cable of designand it's, it's been modelled on
(26:52):
a spider's web.
'cause it's apparently, thatweb, if you look at it really
closely, it's the strongestweave.
And I don't know.
What's the material that you'reusing?
Probably silk.
Okay.
And they make this cable goesup into space and there'll be
like a lab up there.
So it's attached to the earth.
(27:13):
So it's like a big click clack.
Yeah.
Right.
So it's, it's spinning aroundthe earth, so it must be
spinning even faster than theearth.
'cause you think about it, it'sa lot, lot further around.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, and they're doing it somore people can go up into space
and look down at the earth.
And so you said it's anelevator.
What, what's the go with itlike?
(27:34):
Well, it's, yeah.
It's, it's an elevator and soit's clamped to with, you know,
like a like.
Two big three big rollers say,and two of them push in, two of
them push out.
So it sort of creates thistension.
Mm.
And then the motors come on andthen it starts to lift, right?
(27:54):
This is what they showed you itall, they're working on it.
They're gonna do it.
And that's it.
I wonder how fast it goes liketo.
Floor.
First of all, men's wear, goingdown ladies' underwear.
Yeah.
No.
(28:14):
So that's, that's what they'reworking on.
Wow.
And that's scary.
I don't think I'd go up in it.
I wouldn't trust it.
It's probably a Toyota I get.
Um, I get a bit nervous gettinginto our lift at work, which
goes up 18 floors, so I think Imight wait until they kind of
iron out the bugs on that one.
So I'm not sure how it goes.
(28:36):
I'd love to get you drunk andthen shove you in it and just
shut the door and hit.
Top floor, but hit all thefloors in between.
I wonder what all the otherstops are.
It's like the, the stratosphereand, yeah.
Yeah.
Cloud, cloud nine heaven.
Oh dear.
(28:59):
No, with, yeah.
That's pretty amazing, isn'tit?
But they're doing it.
Yeah.
This, these are all thesethings that they're doing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And mimicking nature.
Yeah.
With the spider thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I don't know.
Believe it or not, imaginegoing to work and, you know,
coming home at the end of theday and somebody says, oh, how
was your day?
(29:19):
And it's like, oh yeah, I'mjust, you know, working on this
cable that Yeah.
Will be anchored in out ofspace.
And I just dunno how they'regonna get it out into space.
Yeah.
I think some gonna gotta throwit.
Yeah.
Or they're gonna catapult itor.
They'd have to put it on somesort of, I'll get a rocket.
And then one of those reallyrockets from cracker night, you
(29:40):
know, tied to one of them.
The double bunger.
Yeah, that's it.
No, but they might getsomething out there and just
like the space station and justdrop a rope and just keep
letting the rope go so it getsdown to earth.
Just try and catch it.
There's gonna be one reallytired spider at the end of it.
(30:00):
Or better still.
Just get a spider to do it.
Oh, the spiders from Mars.
There's the connection.
There you go.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Took a while.
Yeah, I think, I think that'senough silliness in this house.
Oh, in joke.
Okay.
Yeah.
That's what they're doing.
It's a good fact, mate.
I like it.
Mart, we had some terrificfeedback from a few listeners
(30:30):
about your description of beinga 10 pound pom.
Really?
Yeah.
Okay.
Uh, some That's nice.
Some people who themselves were10 pound poms.
Oh, good.
Hello?
Yeah.
Hello Governor.
And if they weren't 10 poundpoms, they had immigrated from
England under their own steam,if you like.
Yeah.
Uh, but I think at the time wesaid that there were other
(30:53):
stories that you could shareabout, oh, there's lots of
things that.
We're different growing up inAustralia, and I love Australia
and I love the fact that I'mhere.
It's such a great place,especially now, isn't it?
Like, that's awesome.
Yeah.
It's such a good mix.
Well, when I think back, say inthe seventies when I was, you
(31:14):
know, 16, 17.
When I left school, I couldn'tread or write.
I was, I was not, not theacademic.
But I jumped into a job that Ireally loved and that was laying
bricks and it just suited me,it burnt me out.
'cause it was just physicalwork.
I.
And I loved it.
I loved the laying of thebricks and what it was all about
and I felt a part of something.
(31:34):
Mm.
Anyway, it was my dad said tome, okay, you lay a brick.
It was my first year of myapprenticeship and I was
learning a lot, and he said,we're gonna brick in underneath
the house.
Under this, I guess it was ahouse home and it was on stumps.
So we hand mixed all the slabsunderneath my brothers and
myself.
(31:54):
Um, and our mates that wereroped into it, hand mixed, all
the slabs, the concrete slabsunderneath the house.
Wow.
Yeah.
And then not with a mixer, juston the ground.
Like a big volcano you'd made.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah, and we did that.
And then dad bought me allthese bricks and we started
(32:18):
laying the bricks.
I started laying the bricks andyou can see my brick laying,
getting better and better overthe years.
'cause I was doing it on aSaturday.
Every Saturday he make me sortof, but I built this bar
underneath the house, so theexternal brick work.
And then inside I, I builtsomething like all up was
probably about 16 arches.
And I built a garage on theside of the house, which had
(32:40):
like an arch, you know, verandaon the back that had three
arches.
Wow.
And there was these blackbricks he gave me.
They were like cobblestonelooking bricks with all these
black bricks and timber.
And he made this like pubunderneath the house.
And it was a bar.
We had a slate bar.
My, my brother Benny, he was aconcreter /landscaper and he
(33:03):
built a slate bar and we gotupholstered at top on it.
So it was just like being in apub and we had a pool
table, dart board of course.
Yeah.
Full English pub treatment,huh?
Yeah.
And, and so, and this is justin our suburb where we grew up
in Brisbane, here.
And there were so many Englishfamilies that moved to this
(33:26):
suburb.
Mm-hmm.
And they all built little barsunderneath their homes.
So it was like Wednesday nightat Frankie Boys and Maxie Boy
Williams was over his place onthe Thursday and Big Terry and
Bob, who was a boxer, heactually sparred with bloody
Muhammad Ali.
Yeah.
He went to the RussianOlympics.
(33:47):
Wow.
He's this massive guy who was agentle giant.
You know, he'd just, he'd havea few drinks and maybe 'cause of
the boxing, but he'd have a fewdrinks and all he'd say for the
rest of the night is, I don'tbelieve it.
I don't believe it.
You know, so you got, justgoing, going, I don't believe
it.
And he'd be playing pool and itwas like coming home to a
(34:09):
nuthouse.
When you come home and they'reall, you know, three quarters
full, laughing and playing pool.
So all the hours in, in, youknow, yeah.
So they're out most nightsplaying pool at each other's
bars that they created.
And I dunno if that happenedanywhere else in Australia, but
(34:29):
it certainly happened in mylife.
And, uh, I think the best thingfor Dad was that I was a
bricklayer and my brother was aconcreter.
And my other brother was agood, hard worker.
Yeah.
My other brother missed out'cause he was too young and he
became a builder anyway, right?
Yeah, he did.
He became a carpenter.
Yeah.
Wow.
So.
But that's what a lot of themdid.
(34:50):
But the parties they had werehuge.
You know, it got outta hand, itjust ended up getting outta
hand.
Yeah, like, 'cause you had mythree brothers, my two brothers
at the time, my youngest brotherwas too young for this, but my
other two brothers were older.
We'd go out in the town and andinvite people and they'd have a
Boxing Day party and it all ledup to this Boxing Day party.
(35:12):
And so my brother would invitejust anyone, my other brother
invite.
Just anyone.
I'd invite all my Greek, I hadheap of Greek friends 'cause
they thought I was Greek, 'causeI had black hair.
So it was just thismulticultural.
There was Irish and then therewas all dad's friends that were
Irish and Scottish and, andAussies and it all Greek.
(35:36):
And they would come on a Sundayand it was started at about 12
o'clock and it went to like.
The Boxing Day party just wentand in the end there were bikies
turning up and it just gotout of hand.
You know, it was, it was just,you know, as full as a
Caterpillar's sock drawer, asthey say.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(35:57):
It, it was like, and we, thesecurity were just us, but you'd
have all these people that wedidn't even know that got word.
Oh, there's a party on thismassive Boxing Day party.
Wow.
So these people that turn upand.
In the end, we had, you know,these bloody bikies turned up
and they were, and the guy nextdoor was a big unit.
He was a big young guy.
(36:18):
He was a, you know, rugbyplayer.
And he, I remember him standingthere one day and this guy
said, don't touch my bike.
And he went, I won't touch yourbike mate.
He said, I've got some.
He said, I've got some, uh,some big friends, some rough
friends.
He went.
Don't worry, I've got some bigfriends too.
He was big footballer.
Uh oh.
(36:38):
And like it was, I'mthinking.....
this is my house.
Yeah.
And this is when I'm sort ofprobably about 19.
Yeah.
And I'm just starting torealie, wow, I.
There's this, all these peoplein my home and I don't know half
of them.
Yeah.
And they're all, some of arebringing alcohol.
Some of 'em are.
All my dad's going is Did hebring booze?
Did he bring booze?
(36:58):
Like, anyway, all good fun.
Yeah.
Wow.
It's a good story.
Yeah.
Now it's time to say goodbye.
No, it is time to say goodbye.
(37:19):
I think we've done enoughtoday.
What do you reckon?
Uh, I think we've definitelyhad enough.
What if I'm singing the MickeyMouse theme?
No look.
Hey, if you think we've gotsomething wrong or you'd like to
give u s a bit of input, we'dlove to hear from you.
Yep.
Jump on our Facebook orInstagram pages or send us an
(37:43):
email.
Email.
Yeah, send us an email to funfacts and sidetracks@gmail.com.
We'll see you now.
See you Mark.
Thanks for popping in.
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