Monty Oxymoron, The Damned / Dr Space Toad Experience / Punk Floyd / Sumerian Kyngs

What a career Monty Oxymoron has had, and continues to have. We cover everything from the early days of Dr Spacetoad and Punk Floyd, his longstanding collaboration and friendship with Captain Sensible and his near 30-year stint with The Damned. And then there’s Monty’s parallel career as a psychiatric nurse. Strap in for a super...

The post Monty Oxymoron, The Damned / Dr Space Toad Experience / Punk Floyd / Sumerian Kyngs appeared first on The Keyboard Chronicles.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
what's the opposite of a trauma?
Because you know when often you have traumas and you forget them you know because you blotthem out of your mind and you think they stay in your unconscious well this is like the
opposite of trauma it's like a whoa!

(00:22):
oh Hello and welcome to the Keyboard Chronicles, a podcast for keyboard players.
I'm your host, David Holloway, and I'm thrilled as always to be here with you.
I've just gotten off an hour and 10 minutes or so with the brilliant Monte Oxymoron.
So whether you're a fan of British music, punk music, keyboard players that cover a rangeof genres, Monte has that all and some more.

(00:46):
It was a real thrill talking with him.
We cover quite a bit of ground.
We always do, but...
Monty also had a parallel career as a psychiatric nurse.
He's played with a bunch of amazing artists and is just coming up to 30 years with iconicoutfit The Damned.
So yeah, there's a lot to learn and find interesting in this interview and I hope youenjoy it I'll talk to you at the end of the show.

(01:21):
Monty, it's an absolute pleasure and privilege to have you on the show, sir.
How are you?
Oh very well thanks.
Little child and we just only just got back from Athens the other day.
Wow.
It was a very quick trip.
We just went over, did a festival and came back again.
How is the heat over there with the festival too?

(01:41):
I know Europe's copping a lot of heat at the moment.
Yes, it was very hot and it was an outdoor festival and the sun was actually shining onthe stage at the beginning.
But fortunately it was sunset time, which looked really good actually, it was quiteatmospheric and once it had gone down it was okay.
Yeah, absolutely.
And we're going to talk lots about The Damned in a little while too.

(02:03):
So I'm keen to get back to that, we'll talk.
Well, I thought we'd kick off just a standard way and just talk a little bit about yourmusical upbringing.
So what was um your younger years as far as a child into teenage years?
What was your development in music?
Right.
Well, the musical side of my family was on my mother's side, really.

(02:26):
My father was a historian.
And so he was into sort of philosophy and history of ideas and things like that.
But my mother's side, my mother played piano, but her parents were in a swing band inplaying for the troops.
My grandmother on piano, who also used to do the silent movies, you know, do the little...

(02:50):
improvised the silent movies my grandpa on clarinet.
Sadly I never heard him play apparently he was very good at both classical and jazz buthe'd given up by the time I was old enough to know what was going on.
But then oh my grandmother would still play and she I remember I was having lessons inpiano lessons but I always had struggled with reading I couldn't read I think I'm sure I

(03:14):
would have been diagnosed as dyslexic these days.
because I struggled to learn to read and write.
And I never really mastered reading music.
So my grandmother was sitting, I was sitting at the piano and she had said, listen tothis.
And she did a little figure and it's a bubbling brook.
And I thought, wow, this is what I want to do.

(03:35):
I want to do that sort of stuff.
So I did play for ages on the piano when I was a kid, but also in the family was my uncle.
Damien and he was into the counterculture.
So I was, you know, you know, seven or eight years old and he was playing me Pink Floyd,you know, he had a pirate radio show in Cambridge and of course they were local guys, you

(04:04):
know.
So he was playing me that and Hendrix and Captain Beefheart and all sorts of stuff.
And then later the early prompt stuff as well.
So he was really my key inspiration into.
into music.
Although I didn't really get into it properly until towards my teenage years.

(04:26):
kind of went into remission for a while and we moved from Cambridge to Norwich and then toHove next to Brighton.
And it was there really, started to, I was watching Top of the Pops and so on and it wasthe Dlam movement was going on.
So my friend Henry had

(04:47):
a load of Alice Cooper singles, which we really enjoyed.
And I was listening to The Sweet and to Slade.
And I heard they were playing, they were in number one at the time, and they were playingBrighton Dome.
And I said, I want to go to that.
So my poor mum had to take me because I was too young to go on the home.

(05:08):
And it was fantastic because it was Alex Harvey band supporting.
And that was my very first gig that I had.
Went to.
And I've got to ask you, I've got to ask you, Monty, just as a major Slade fan myself,what are your impressions of that gig?
Like what stands out to you after all these years that really made an impression?

(05:29):
gosh, I suppose stage presence and just creating a sort of an event.
I remember Noddy had little mirrors on his hat and there were all these little reflectionsgoing all over the room.
And also the Alex Harvey band, they were shining a big spotlight on the audience and therewas a bit of theatricality going on.

(05:52):
There was just a great sense of occasion and the feeling that something
special was happening on stage, something that was separate from the rest of existence,know, there's some small uh area and time and space for something different.
Absolutely.
And you mentioned Pink Floyd and please correct me if wrong.

(06:12):
One of your earliest bands was a band called Punk Floyd.
Just tell us about how you went from going to a gig to actually starting to play in bands.
Well, I suppose it was quite a long quite a long journey and I coming back to my uncle andI uncle came to stay in Sussex and I was telling him about being interested in and in the

(06:33):
Glam stuff and he said no, don't you don't want to be into that commercial stuff You knowremember what I played you and well, yeah.
Yeah, I remember this and uh So I started then I think the first record I bought was darkside of the moon when it came out and I was
delighted with the sound effects and things and the clocks and heartbeats and explosionsand all that stuff and I liked hearing them play live when they used to improvise so every

(07:02):
every song would be different after that so I don't mean they started to just copy thealbums which was a shame I thought that was spoiled it but I worked my way backwards and
got into the Sid Barrett stuff again which I remembered from my previous you knowchildhood
and also got into uh the Canterbury scene, lot of like caravan soft machines.

(07:27):
That soft machine was my second gig that I went to and that really blew my mind.
mean, the playing was just astonishing and all those buzzy organs and distorted electricpianos and things and incredible drumming that was John Marshall's sadly passed away now.
But yeah, so I was getting into all that stuff.

(07:48):
Captain Beefheart was another.
favorite and so I just I think we just started mucking around with tapes me and my friendHenry initially mostly speeding things up, slowing things down, putting things inside the
piano, playing several different radios at the same time, banging all things, that kind ofthing and we called that Moon Orchid so he did a few albums of that stuff and then later

(08:17):
then of course Punk came out
and I was already listening to John Peel religiously before that.
so when punk came out, initially I was taken aback, thought, wow, what's this?
This isn't like grandiose prog stuff with references to mythology and loads ofsynthesizers.

(08:40):
No, it's just different.
But I got into it after a while, and The Dam was the band that I remembered first hearing.
them and the Stranglers and a lot of obscure bands who just come up and did a single anddisappear, like the Vowels, they were on a par with the Johnny Moped band of course, who

(09:02):
still going.
And I think it was that do-it-yourself philosophy that made me start to actually try andwrite songs.
uh So I started doing that and initially
playing everything myself except on the early stuff.
My uncle helped me with the drumming, playing the drums and did the engineering.

(09:26):
And after a while, we created some albums and these were released on a cassette,underground cassette label called Acid Tapes in the 80s.
And I got a little write-up in the Encyclopedia Psychedelica, which was quite pretty.
So there was a kind of psychedelic revival going on.

(09:47):
mean, Captain had his solo albums going and there was Julian Cope and Robin Hitchcock.
I loved all of that.
I felt as if I was kind of a part of that.
And The Cleaners from Venus, who also released on acid tapes as well.
So that's kind of how I started out.

(10:08):
It took a while before...
I was very, very shy and very unsociable.
So I played a lot of stuff on my own in my room for hours and I went out if there was agig and that sort of thing.
Very anorak kind of geeky carrot listening very, very intensely to music.

(10:29):
But I did end up, first of all, there was a little band called The Second Attic, which wasan acid folk ah trio and we used to play in people's front rooms basically, so I wasn't
too scary.
But I sent one of my tapes to Kate Bush because I was a fan of Kate Bush.
Yeah.

(10:49):
And she wrote back, which was really, really nice.
And said she liked some of the stuff and I should play live.
I thought, right, where am I going to do that?
But that was really nice and encouraging.
And I think the second band I was in was a jazz band.
was the Trevor K.

(11:09):
Sextet.
think it was Sextet.
Trevor Kaye was an amazing saxophone player, sadly passed away years ago now, but that wasgood fun.
And then I went into psychiatric nurse training.
And during that time, I was still doing my own recordings, but I also was in a band,basically called the Sweet Corn Experience, which play covers.

(11:32):
Some of them were punked, know, punked like, in a rut by the Ruts we did, and Rogue Runnerand things like that.
But that was kind of fun too.
And after that, yes, I, after my nurse training, I met a tutor at the college who playedFrench horn called Rod Payton.

(11:57):
We became good friends and we had a duo together called Id, which was mostly improvised,so improvising duo, Id.
By the way, all this stuff is represented on my band cam.
So if anyone's listened to it, it's all there.
Most of the acid tapes and stuff with Rod and the second acid, all of that, that's allthere.

(12:19):
And my early experiments.
In fact, even the stuff we did as kids, there's a little bit of that.
There's some very, very mad stuff on there as well as serious stuff.
uh
So where am I?
Yes, so I studied related arts at college, which was really good fun.

(12:40):
So it was combining art, music, literature and dance while playing with Rod as well.
And that was like after my nurse training and working as a nurse for a year, that was likea playground for me.
was just like, so I was interested in the ideas as well, studying the philosophy of art,aesthetics and all of that kind of thing and the history.

(13:03):
So it was great.
And I had the idea of becoming an art therapist.
So the next course I got on was art psychotherapy at Goldsmiths in London.
ah So I did that.
And during that time, I heard about that Captain Sensible was playing bass with a chapcalled Dr.

(13:25):
Space Toad ah in the Albert pub on a Monday evening.
So I thought, I've got to check that out.
So I went along and...
I thought, oh, we can join in with this with some percussion.
They've got no percussion.
They've got bass, they've got space to playing guitar and mandolin.
And, uh, and this crazy chap called Roy who made synthesizer noises and dressed up as anarmy captain and sometimes as a bishop and all of this.

(13:50):
So I came along banging a, you know, like a African drum or something later, but my uncleleft me his drum kit when he went to America and he's been there ever since.
And so.
this became a band, Dr.
Spacetoe Experience, with me playing drums initially until the drum kit fell apart after awhile and then I moved on to keyboards.

(14:15):
uh But we record an album, Time Machine, which I think is a classic kind of Englisheccentric neo-psychedelic thing.
uh
And that's, and that's where Monte, I'd love to ask you a little bit about the keyboardside.
We're not a technical podcast, but I mean, I listened to, for example, the live in eviltown recording of Dr.

(14:37):
Space Tode experience and there's some amazing sounds in there.
And I'm talking about groundbreaking stuff for its time, but even holds up well today.
What were you actually using to do some of those sounds and what was your learning curvewith it?
Oh gosh, well we've been playing off and on for quite a few years so I've got to thinkwhat laterally maybe I've got this lovely little keyboard, little Yamaha job that I've

(15:03):
used for the Sumerian Kings as well and it's got, it's a great little thing and it's gotyou know effects that you can add on echo and wah-wah and all sorts of stuff and beautiful
to carry about it's so light the only thing is it's being that small you have to
go up and down with the octaves to get enough notes.
But it's a wonderful little thing.

(15:26):
So I don't know if I was using that with the Eveltown stuff.
But before that, I borrowed a keyboard from Roy, I think, because he had a room full ofkeyboards.
I didn't have much money, so I didn't really own very much.
ah He used to play the synthesizers amidst his rubber plants into the night and I wastrying to sleep upstairs.

(15:47):
It was quite a nice way.
going off to sleep.
But yeah, I probably use, think that's probably the thing, various things.
And then later I did use my, the Roland VK8, which I also use with the Damned for organand pianos.
I was about to say, because there's lots of lovely organ in there.
Okay.
That, yeah, that, that explains that.

(16:09):
That's great.
Um, and so, mean, I know we've covered Dr.
Space Tote very briefly.
um and so in 1996, and it's mind blowing that you're coming up to your 30th year with theDamned, but just talk to us about the bridge between sort of Space Tote experience and
obviously Captain Sensible being involved in that and, and, uh, you finally joining theDamned yourself.

(16:33):
Yes, well, after we did a tour of the North with the Dr.
Space Tone band and some local gigs.
And then Captain asked me if I'd play keyboards in his band, which he called the PunkFloyd.
And so we were playing, you know, stuff like what and happy to punky version of happy toBrenda, you know, songs like that from his solo albums.

(17:00):
It would be so nice at Pink Floyd cover we did.
And so started touring with him and we were supposed to be doing a tour, a joint tour withDave Anian's Phantom Chords.
But they ended up only doing the last gig at the Mean Fiddler in London.

(17:23):
I think things weren't going well in the band for some, it was falling to bits orsomething.
But anyway, that was where
We met Dave and where he and Captain started talking about possibly getting anotherversion of the dam together.
And I didn't think anything, you know, I oh, good, yeah, I've missed Captain in the dam.

(17:43):
I think that would be good, you know.
I had no notion at all that I'd be the fault.
And then suddenly, I can't even remember how I found out.
I was thinking of this.
was trying to think, what's the opposite of a trauma?
Because you often you have traumas and you forget them, you because you blot them out ofyour mind and you think they stay in your unconscious.

(18:06):
Well, this is like the opposite of trauma.
It's like, whoa, this is a great thing.
An epiphany of perhaps, I don't know.
But anyway, I can't remember who told me how I found out, uh suddenly, yes, suddenly I wasin the Damned.
And we also had Captain's drama called Carrie Dreadful at that time.

(18:28):
um and initially Paul Gray who is now back in the van now ah and that was the line upthen.
Yeah, amazing.
did you, given that you'd already played, you had a lot of playing experience.
It sounds like you weren't needing to audition for the damned.
And I'm assuming you picked up the songs pretty quickly.

(18:50):
And then obviously you develop new songs as the sort of new version of the damned or thenext version of the damned.
Yeah, all the songs were very, very familiar to me because I them in my record collection,know, black albums, strawberries.
In fact, it was strawberries.
And I think it's when I bought that and I heard the keyboard playing on it and I wasthinking, oh yeah, that rum joke's pretty good.

(19:13):
I wish I could have a chance to play with these guys.
You know, that is an honest truth.
Be careful what you wish.
Cool.
But yeah, so yeah, they were very familiar to me.
The one that was most difficult to learn was was family enough Eloise, so I didn't knowthat so well.
I didn't have it in the collection because it wasn't on the album.

(19:36):
And so that was a bit more tricky to learn, but I did get there in the end with it.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I mean, how much time did you have between joining the band and playing your firstgig?
have recollections of those first gigs with The Damned?
well it was pretty quick.
The very first one was uh really a warm-up gig at Harlow Square.

(19:59):
I think I've gathered it doesn't exist anymore now which is kind of sad but yeah it waswarm-up gig before some festivals and in those days the festivals are absolutely
completely mad.
I really bunky, lots of spitting, throwing beer, stuff, chucking stuff and there's quite alot.
I wouldn't want to do it now.

(20:22):
I'm glad those festivals are not like that.
I mean we're doing rebellion but rebellion is nice now, it's peaceful, it's harmonious.
It's not like those days where I remember being in big room in Birmingham and there's agroupie pile of beer cans on the stage and all being chucked there and someone was

(20:43):
throwing a chair, a fold-up chair around and it so bloody dangerous.
and there were all these people collapsed in piles of vomit in the corridors and theechoing rumbling noise of the punk stuff.
That's something mad it was.
Do you have any recollections?
I mean, I'm aware of sort of that scene more broadly.

(21:05):
And you mentioned the Stranglers.
I know the Stranglers have many stories of similar things of, know, fisticuffs withaudience members and stuff.
Yeah.
So any particularly memorable nights with either other bands or yourselves where youthought, gee, I'm glad I got out of that alive.
Yeah, I don't remember so much violence thankfully.

(21:25):
was mostly people throwing, the worst thing was throwing beer.
It really used to annoy, especially after I started, you know, I'd buy a new keyboard andI'd have to learn to program it and put some sounds together.
And I got this brand new keyboard and there's some, you know, two songs in, somebodychucks a load of beer on it and it really used to piss me off.

(21:49):
because it wasn't good for the keyboard.
mean, keyboards don't like to drink beer.
oh So yeah, in fact those early years were quite tough in Britain.
A lot of people didn't accept me.
A lot of the people didn't.
thought, no, shouldn't be keyboards in punk, even though there's plenty of keyboards onthe albums.

(22:10):
But they didn't seem to accept it.
They didn't want it.
They didn't like what I did.
They could say quite obnoxious things online.
and they'd spit and they'd shout abuse and throw beer and it was quite traumatic.
Only in Britain, I should hasten to that.
When we went to America and other places, no problem at all.
They accepted me fine, but in Britain it was difficult.

(22:34):
And it's quite strange, isn't it Monty, given in parallel and sorry to mention thestranglers again, but Dave Greenfield was paving that way as well.
It's not as if you were alone in that.
yeah, it's interesting that that was still an issue.
Yes, I should have asked him if he had problems with him throwing beer on his keyboard.
I met him a couple of times I didn't think to ask.

(22:54):
I can imagine him jumping down in the audience and punching on.
Yes, probably did.
Now the best I could do is just shout a beer at them.
I think there some bits of that on YouTube, but I haven't watched them.
Not great memories though.

(23:15):
And over the past 30 years though, or nearly 30 years, Monty, it's hard to encapsulate anyband's career over that longer period of time.
But how have you managed to keep things sort of fresh and still, I mean, you guys arestill playing, as you said, major festivals.
I think you're in Australia, it was only last year you're doing Europe.
You're all over the place.

(23:36):
How have you managed to maintain success and also keep it fresh and I assume, keep itcivil with each other because every band has their challenges.
Oh gosh, I don't know how to answer that really.
It certainly, I think it, I don't know.
um It always seems to have a freshness to it.

(23:58):
It doesn't, it never feels as if you're going through the motion.
I think there was a period for a while when we just seemed to be going round and round thesame venues and, but.
That's why you have to do new records, know, have to give it a new thing.
that could take time, because you can't turn on inspiration.

(24:24):
we tended to be few, as Captain puts it, it's quality not quantity with the time.
But yeah, doing new albums, putting in different songs, different old songs.
Pinch used to be very good at the drummer we had for a long time.

(24:45):
He took on a lot of responsibilities of stage design and themes for particular tours andsuggestions of different old songs we could do, some of more obscure ones like Rape It or
Lovely Money and things like that.

(25:06):
So we managed to keep it.
keep it interesting and yeah, on the whole I think when he gets on alright.
I mean, as you know, every band has issues and that's normal.
And I certainly wouldn't delve into that, but it says, yeah, look, I think it's amazing.
And can I say from seeing some of the footage from just your recent gig, so obviouslyeverything's on YouTube nowadays and the energy is amazing.

(25:35):
The stage design is amazing.
And you, it really is honestly a fresh looking band.
And I think that's no mean feat.
Yeah, I know.
now that we've got Rat back in the fold, it is the band that I wish to be in.
It's that line up from Strawberry's back album.
And yeah, it's quite amazing.

(25:59):
I probably can't really say much about the new recording.
No, that's okay.
There is some recording and it sounds fantastic.
It does sound really, really good and Rat's drumming is amazing.
it just, oh yeah.
I remember this now.
I remember what this is supposed to sound like.
And yeah, it's quite incredible.

(26:20):
Yeah, looking forward to that stuff coming out.
It's super exciting to have new recorded material coming out and obviously I'm not surehow much it coincides but I mean you've got The Damned as a band has its 50th anniversary
show at Wembley next April.
I'm assuming you've played Wembley before?
eh Maybe with Motorhead, perhaps, because we supported Motorhead.

(26:45):
I think, yeah, possibly did then.
Only then, never played it on our own and never headlined it.
I mean, I imagine you're looking, what sort of preparation do you need to do for a giglike that?
I I assume it's much the same as playing any venue, but obviously it's an enormous venueand it's an enormous occasion.

(27:05):
So I assume there's a little bit more preparation involved in that.
Yes, I don't know yet.
We'll see.
I mean, I remember we worked quite hard for the one we did at the Albert Royal AlbertHall.
We worked hard on that one.
That was quite nerve wracking and I just kept saying, it's just another gig.

(27:26):
It's just a few more people.
That's all.
And we did fine.
It was really good.
So hopefully we can do that or do even better this time.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And I do need to ask about your keyboard rig with the Damned.
So I mean, you're doing a lot of touring.
What is your go-to keyboard rig that you use now?

(27:48):
Well, I'm still using, as I mentioned, the Roland VK8.
I'm very fond of it.
I know my way around it well.
Mind you, they don't make them anymore.
And then people keep saying I should try out a Nord Electro.
I did have a go on it.
It does seem it's very good, but I can't get one at the moment because the local musicstore, Brighton Music Store just closed down suddenly for no reason.

(28:10):
So we haven't got a proper music store in Brighton, which is crazy.
But that's for the piano and organ kind of sounds.
And then what I've changed in recent years, I used to have, I think I had a cork and thenI had a Roland.
And then I've moved on now to uh using a laptop.

(28:33):
So on the laptop, there's a program called Mainstage.
And I had to have help to do this.
I'm not very technically minded.
So I had to go in the studio in Hove, Church Road Studios, my friend.
uh
Julian who's an absolute whiz with all of this stuff and he helps me put the soundstogether on the laptop and then I've got a Roland keyboard to trigger the sounds so we're

(28:59):
not actually using any of the sounds on the Roland.
But the problem was, the idea was that I could perhaps use any generic keyboard to triggerthe sounds and we found no it doesn't work like that, it really doesn't like...
and using anything other than that roll and widow.
I don't know if it's some problem with the program or what, but in particular, I can'tseem to get to scroll the sounds up and down.

(29:26):
And that's really important because otherwise I don't want to be holding up the whole gigwhile I'm fiddling around with the laptop.
Yeah.
right sound.
And some of the songs, I just can't be happy today, have two sounds in the same song.
So I have to be able to go straight from one to the other.
Can't be messing about.
No, we might talk after the show, Monty.

(29:46):
I'm a heavy main stage user.
Yeah, that does sound frustrating.
So yeah, we might have a chat after we record.
I'll help you with that.
uh So, but yeah, so that's, that's fascinating.
You're using main stage and as you know, it has all the key sounds that you need.
I, suppose makes it a little bit easy when it's working from a touring viewpoint, as faras you've just got, you know, the consistent rig.

(30:10):
That's right, I I can carry the laptop in my rucksack.
But as I say, we still have to either get the same Roland trigger it or else uh bring onewith us, which is kind of defeats the purpose a little.
uh
Absolutely.
And I know aside from, mean, I know you've got a busy year coming up with The Damned, butyou also are known around Brighton for your work with the Sumerian King.

(30:36):
So tell us a little bit about how that came about and the itch that that scratches that'sa little bit different from The Damned.
So I've listened to some of the live videos and it's certainly a different sort of outfit.
Yes, well that's one of the things that came about.
I've always been trying to find the scenes in Brighton where things are happening, youknow.
So the first one was the Zap Club and that's where I met Captain the first time.

(31:02):
He was attending Robert Hitchcock gig and he used to come along to the platform nightwhere I used to perform.
As a result of Kate saying I should do stuff live, this was the perfect place to try stuffout.
And it was compared by the wonderful Mr.
Ian Smith, who sadly passed away, but he always got every good enthusiastic welcome foranybody who was doing anything, whether it was crap or good or what it was.

(31:28):
And the Brighton, the Zad Club was amazing.
There was so many different kinds of performances of every sort, in performance art,poetry, dance, stand-up comedy, music, everything.
So there was that.
And then from there, when that closed down,
there was a thing called the Zink Bar which was a similar thing but that moved around fromplace to place.

(31:51):
Then Club Space Stone at the Albert and then after that there was a there's a thing whichis still going now called the Real Music Club which was I think it was set up to fight
against the kind of DJ dominated culture that had become that in Brighton.
Suddenly they weren't.

(32:12):
bands anymore and posters of all DJs and was all discos.
So it was a real music club gig where I did a solo piece and my friend from college, RossClifford, came up to me and he said, we're in a band.
said, are we?
And he said, yeah, they're called the Samarian Kings, are they?
okay.
And that was that.

(32:32):
So uh initially it was very wacky initially, was just him doing his kind of poetry andstuff.
And later he added...
very noisy guitar, uh two saxophone players, myself playing keyboards and a conga player.
But after a while it developed and I seemed to become kind of center of gravity.

(32:57):
I wasn't the leader of it at all.
It just like it revolved around me.
was different musicians come in.
There's some very good musicians, very good bass player.
Andy Powell is a great, very, very good bass player.
I remember jamming with him in Captain and Captain said, yeah, he's good, know.
And Sats player, Steve is very good.
And then there's Harmonica player, Stuart, uh yeah, it just became a sort of band.

(33:27):
I suppose a festival band mainly.
We did local gigs and played festivals, mostly you know, hippie psychedelic festivals likeColes Fest, which I'll gather has just happened, think Coles Fest this year.
uh
And the sound evolved after Ross left.
We got Tony Green, who's the singer, and he had a voice very much like Captain Beefheart.

(33:50):
He could do kind of that Captain Beefheart's way of...
And it's very improvised.
mean, the songs would be different every time.
Basically, there'd be a bass riff and there some lyrics and that was it.
know, whatever else happened, happened.
uh Which...
It be really varied, it did vary.
Sometimes it could just be a big noise, know, just everybody playing one.

(34:14):
Everyone fighting for trying to get a solo in some way.
But sometimes when it worked, when people were listening to each other, it could be reallybrilliant, you know, the sound of the, oh, this sounds good.
But I'm not sure if the band is still going.
I kind of withdrew from it because they started rehearsing further away from me.

(34:35):
in Lewis and I didn't have so much time.
after Tony Day they got another singer, Joe Moon, who's from a band called The Noir Mates.
I think Andy's playing with them now as well.
And they sounded really good without me, I thought.
I to see them play and I thought, they don't need me.

(34:58):
I'd say B minus B.
Fair call.
But whether they're still going or not, I'm not sure.
The normates are, but I'm not sure whether the kings are still...
Oh, talk about the kings.
That's how we got friendly with the author Robert Rankin.
He writes these very, very funny spoof science fiction come fantasy books.

(35:21):
And one of them, the Sumerian kings were in one of them because he saw the name on thewall.
He thought, I need to make a band for this band in the book.
And he took...
But then unfortunately he came to see us and he liked us and he's very into beat art andall the older music, Arthur Brown and Hendrix and all of that stuff.

(35:42):
So it's perfect for him.
Nice call out.
No, I love it.
Love it.
And just, did, did neglect one question, Monty, in regards to the dam, didn't you mentionthere's maybe some new recording in that?
What is the creative process and the recording process for you guys now being so wellestablished?
I mean, do you have fairly well delineated roles around who writes what or is is it a bitmore fluid than that?

(36:08):
No, I think it's pretty fluid.
I tend to get a bit marginalized because of my problems with tech, you know?
Because, I mean, the others can create files and send them to each other, and I don't knowhow to do that, which is really annoying.
I just have sort of certain blockages with tech stuff.

(36:29):
So I have to go into a studio if I want to record stuff.
I have got a hard drive machine, so can do stuff at home on that.
But when it comes to actually mixing it or making it into something consent to someone, Ihave to do that.
So that makes it a bit more difficult for me.
mean, Captain's always got ideas and he's always recording stuff.

(36:50):
Never seems to run out.
Dave seems to be more, when he's inspired, he's really inspired.
Like the last album, Darkademic, he just had loads of great song ideas.
and he just came into the studio with them, we had to learn them on the spot, which wasquite difficult with some of them.
But yeah, sometimes he hasn't got any ideas and sometimes he's got loads.

(37:14):
And no, I think it's democratic, just whoever's got good ideas and they get used.
That's great.
And just you mentioning needing to learn new songs is because you're a band that does keepcreating and you do mix up things with your set list.
um How do you prompt yourself to remember the song?
So, I mean, I know in my case, I use main stage as a prompt.

(37:35):
I have some notes there.
How do you make sure you, you recall all this stuff?
Cause it's not.
No, swear, most of it seems to be stored in a cerebellum, fortunately, because I live inthis pokey, me and Kirsty live in this pokey little flat and I don't even have a piano
here, there's no room for a piano.

(37:56):
So of course I've got electric keyboards, but it's not the same, you know what And theywere all stacked away, so I have to drag one out, put it on the bed, plug into an
amplifier, play, put it away again.
So fortunately, I find I don't have to do so much unless they want to do a new song.
Actually, they sprung that on me at the American tour.

(38:17):
They suddenly wanted to do Is It a Dream, which we've never ever played.
And oh, I struggled to learn the very beginning of it.
I messed it up, I think up to about four times before I got it right.
I've got it right now.
But you know, they could have told me before we set out that they were going to do that.
and I would have worked on it at home and launched it by ear.

(38:39):
So it's just really just by ear, playing the CD, playing along with it all YouTube andyeah, like that.
No, no, that's more than reasonable.
And that's probably a good segue, into a train wreck.
So is there a time with The Damned or any of your other collaborations or bands wheresomething's gone spectacularly wrong that you can laugh about now?

(39:01):
Oh gosh.
I suppose there was the tour with Rob Zombie.
That was pretty awful.
I mean, he himself was very nice and he was a fan of the band.
So he took us on tour and these were huge, you know, stadium gigs.
But his fans couldn't stand us.

(39:22):
They didn't like us and they chucked stuff and they, know, they, chant, Zorn V, Zorn V.
And yeah, I remember them throwing coins, which is really quite painful if you hit by acoin at speed.
I had kept a lump on his head and yeah, it was pretty, pretty bad.
But I do remember us once making that zombie chant into a kind of conga.

(39:48):
D-d-d-d-d-zombie, d-d-d-d-zombie.
We were doing that one stage, I don't know.
I love that.
But yeah, we can kind of laugh at it now, but it was pretty tough.
You've probably prompted me on a question I hadn't thought of, Monty, and that's youmentioned supporting Motorhead, Rob Zombie.

(40:08):
What are some of the memorable either support or co-headline slots where there wasn'teither a great match musically or just it was a really good match and it was memorable for
you?
Any highlights for you there?
definitely most of the Motörhead ones went very well.
Remember I think the very last one in Paris, it must have been one of Lamy's last gigs,maybe not the last one, I don't know.

(40:36):
But that went really really well because normally we didn't go damn well in Paris but thistime it was really great.
We also supported, there's a band called Derze, the Doctors in Germany and nobody knowsthem here.
Or perhaps anywhere except Germany, but in Germany, they're huge.
They're a bit like the German the police in Germany.

(40:58):
Wow.
Huge So we played some spectacular places like there's one of Hitler's You know placeswhere you do the rallies and and then there was a big place called ferropolis where they
got these huge machines Nazi sort of machines and and uh that's an extraordinary

(41:20):
like a kind of dumping ground for all these these dinosaur like structures.
And I remember there was a the sunset there was amazing and then there was a big red mooncame up and it was all very I didn't have the iPad then sadly to take any pictures of it.
Well that was really good.

(41:40):
Yeah.
And I mean, I know bands don't necessarily hang out, but you mentioned Lemmy andMotorhead.
mean, you know, you're a smart guy.
Lemmy has always come across in interviews, an incredibly smart guy.
imagine he would have been great for a conversation if you had the opportunity.
Well, that's the thing.
We didn't really have the opportunity.
The latterly, his management were very good at keeping everybody away from him.

(42:03):
And we were kind of escorted down at the end of the tour.
And I remember him saying, yeah, Oteroode and the Damned, the best lineup ever.
Everybody say that.
But I remember the first time I met him, he came backstage in the House of Blues in LA.
made straight for the whiskey and he said to me, he said to me, oh you're the you're thekeyboard player, I don't trust keyboard players.

(42:31):
But then we did the gig and after the gig he came back again and he said that was greatand he shook my hand you know.
side of a prune.
There's a moment in the film, isn't it?
The Lemmy film where we're playing with him and playing neat, neat.
But unfortunately the scene cuts out just before he shakes my hand on stage.

(42:53):
think, bang, there goes my rock and roll credentials.
He was nice.
He was very, very nice chap.
seems like a super smart guy too.
um I do need to ask you Monty, having been in the industry for quite a while now, wealways like to get the wisdom of more senior players.
If you had any advice to pass on to younger players entering the industry, what would itbe?

(43:18):
I think I would say, well to young people in general, I'd say save some stuff for later.
You don't have to do everything all at once.
Do all the drugs and all everything.
No, save some for later.
I'm saving acid for when I'm 80.
Good idea.

(43:40):
But I suppose the other thing is that the problem is getting enough rest.
You don't want to party too much because if you're burning at one end and then you've gotto travel and do the next gig, it can get very, very stressful.
Obviously, when it comes to drinking, there's a balance there as well.

(44:02):
You need to be in the Goldilocks zone where you've just had enough to be bit moredisinhibited and into it, but not too much.
In the past, I did tend to overdo it a little bit.
and got told off by Mr.
Bainian.
In those days though, everything didn't end up on YouTube.
This was before YouTube.

(44:25):
But now, everything can be on YouTube.
So you can't afford to do a uh gig where you mess up because you've drunk too much.
Just kind of all get stoned or anything, whatever it is.
No, great, great perspective.
And I do need to ask you, mean, uh, what is a typical day on tour like for the dam?
As you know, most bands you spend 22 hours of the day waiting around or sleeping, and thenyou play for a couple of hours.

(44:50):
it's sort of, is it a little bit more civilized now from a viewpoint of, know, you it'snot too physically, um, much of a strain or, mean, as you get older, it gets harder
anyway, but yeah, just interesting.
A typical day on tour.
Well, it depends on how we're traveling because obviously, I mean, the last big Americantour, me and Captain were both on the tour bus with the crew.

(45:14):
And uh I mean, that has its disadvantages, but it does mean that you can do most of thetraveling overnight.
So you wake up in the place where you're going to do the gig and then you've got some timeto look around and, you know, relax a bit, which is, which I found a lot better than.
having to be in the van for hours and then do sound check and then try and scramble forsomething to eat and do the thing.

(45:40):
The disadvantage of the tour bus is that you can't produce solids on the toilet.
uh Me being, my bowels being worked like clockwork.
So soon as I wake up, I have to go.
around, very uncomfortable trying to find somewhere to release.

(46:04):
I sometimes the club is open and that's fine but other times you know wandering aroundsome strange town, well where's the museum, station, anything, just to find a toilet.
That's a very valid point.
And for the sake of our listeners and viewers, before we started recording, Monty and I, Imentioned to Monty that I come from a nursing background and you mentioned Monty already

(46:27):
that you trained as a psychiatric nurse and, you continued to work in that area up untilrelatively recently.
Just tell us about this two questions I want to ask you, the impact that career had onyour musical career or vice versa.
and then what led you to finally sort of calling it quits on that part of.

(46:48):
life?
Well, initially I got into nursing because I never thought I'd ever make any money frommusic at all.
just thought it was, nah, it's nothing at all.
So I thought, well, I need a career to earn some money while I'm, you know, I'll stillkeep the music as a hobby and so on.
And I wanted to do something that was meaningful.

(47:10):
I really, I had a horror of doing a job, just going someplace and doing something.
which you were alienated from, know, in the Marxist sense, you don't have anything to dowith the product or the thing.
At least in nursing, you know, it's meaningful, and I was fortunate enough to be led intothat by a woman having a breakdown in the job.

(47:36):
I was on a community scheme during the Thatcher years, there were a lot of us unemployedthen, millions of us.
So we were doing this community scheme just, you know, it was just for a few months to getus off the dole.
And a woman came into work and she said, I've got till quarter to 10 to save the universe.
And I thought, whoa, what's this?

(47:56):
That's interesting.
And so I heard she'd been admitted to hospital.
I visited her and that's how I got interested in that and in psychology and psychotherapyand all of that.
And so it was a real boon being able to do that because, you know, I could
I could do agency.
I didn't really like agency much because you're in different places every time.

(48:20):
could have continuity.
But some places have what's called a bank.
So you've got a reserve of nurses.
And he used to work perfectly.
I ended up working for people with dementia in the end.
then I'd go away on tour.
I'd tell them I won't be available then.
I'll be available when I come back and come back to the nursing.

(48:43):
And it was a nice mix, know, different, such a different experience.
Oh God, I remember once I was cleaning this chap up, you know, as you do.
he, think he schizophrenia a bit.
I was saying, do you know what I do when I'm not doing this?

(49:04):
He was in fits of laughter.
I don't know whether he believed me or not.
So I go on tour, play music with him.
He was just in fits of laughter.
So you never ran across anyone Monty that was actually aware of the band?
Because that would have been a bit strange.
That was more usually relatives.
Yeah, relatives.
Yeah, because they paid.

(49:25):
I mean, it is catching up.
But yeah, the time I was working, it was more I remember there was a chap there.
I was talking to him about the pretty things.
So I mean, the pretty things are 60s band.
So it is creeping up.
It's not Max Bygroves anymore.
It won't be long before they'll be playing the Sex Pistols in the nursing home.

(49:45):
That's right.
If they're not already so.
So yeah, that was another funny thing.
I was on my way to work in the nursing uniform I had and I was sitting next to this guy,this guy, lovely chap called James, who I'd come across in nursing.
He'd been in the acute hospital in Worthing when I'd been working there.

(50:07):
But he moved to Brighton and his thing was to dress up in the most crazy, ridiculouscostumes he could possibly find and just walk very slowly through the streets of Brighton.
So he was on the bus and I was sitting next to him, undressed up and I said, now out of ustwo, who do you think people would think was the rock star?

(50:29):
That's right.
That's gold.
love it.
And so what made you um sort of in that part of your career, Monte, you sort of got, itfelt like it was time to retire or?
Not really, I didn't want to.
mean, during the lockdown period, was an absolute, you know, was an absolute lifesaverbecause we couldn't gig or anything.

(50:49):
I couldn't go out or do anything except go to work.
And at least there I had some social contact and could still earn some money.
But it all went a bit weird.
I got into teaching.
I got very interested in what's called person-centered care.
So what I'm thinking about what

(51:10):
What's it like, you know, I'm trying to teach people, what's it like to be a person withdementia?
What is it like to be receiving care from us?
What's it like for them being in this place?
You know, these kinds of things.
So was teaching some things, it was all going pretty well.
But I think some people didn't like the fact that I was stepping outside of my role, youknow, it was kind of more management role.

(51:36):
And first of all,
They insisted that we do this Boots Online course about medicines.
I'm not that interested in medicines.
And I struggled with this.
couldn't pile, you you have to get every single question right on the online thing.
And I couldn't do it for a while.
So I stopped for a while because of that until a fellow nurse, not in the management, afellow nurse helped me pass this thing.

(52:03):
just by sitting with me making a cup of tea now and again, just saying, make a note ofthis and that, not doing it for me, just being supportive.
And so I got back into it, but I'd found by then they'd introduced these 12 hour shifts.
So what I always used to do was afternoon shifts.
It was perfect.
I, you know, I could, because I have trouble sleeping sometimes, I know, I knew that if,know, I could lie in a bed and come in,

(52:31):
sit in the staff room a bit, do a bit of meditation and prepare myself and then do anafternoon shift.
Because I did find it stressful.
The responsibility mainly was the thing I did find.
I wasn't the best nurse clinically, I was better at psychology.
so suddenly it was 12 hour shifts and they weren't letting me do half days anymore.

(52:55):
So I thought, well, if I could have do 12 hour I might as
I doing nights because at least I'll be alert at the beginning of the shift and not at theend of it.
But I wasn't coping very well.
It was getting so tight in the middle of the night.
Oh God, this is really hard.
I can't stay awake.
can't concentrate.
And I was getting all the regular things done.

(53:17):
But if an emergency came up, I wasn't very good.
couldn't, know, relying on the carers and it's no good.
You can't do that.
oh So reluctantly I stopped, well basically I went to a meeting and they were saying, Isaid there can I do half days, no you can't has to be.

(53:39):
So the next meeting I didn't bother attending because I thought well I haven't got anyshifts and then suddenly they sent me the P45 after having worked there for 20 years.
My P45, no good luck card or nothing like that.
Nothing.
It's just that.
That's it.
So I did look for other places to work, but I didn't find anything.

(54:04):
Again, they all seem to be doing 12 hours.
shifts.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, for what it's worth, Monty, let this other nurse who works in at leastbroadly in the music industry, thank you for your service to the profession, because I'm
sure it is appreciated by a lot of patients.
And so I'll jump back, Monty, I've got the dreaded desert island discs question.

(54:26):
So I know I gave you slight warning.
So this is five albums.
If you had to pick five go-to albums across your lifetime that made an impact on you, whatwould they be?
Right, mean this is very difficult because I have such a, I have a very, very eclectictaste.
So I mean I can spend like two, three hours in Amoeba records in the States just looking,because I'm looking everywhere.

(54:51):
I'm looking at classical section, I'm looking at the jazz section, the rock section, theexperimental section, electronica, anything, you all sorts.
There's something everywhere.
So to try and hone them down.
I'll try, I suppose I'll pick.
like you say, ones that historically, I think I have to, I have to pick a Pink Floyd forthat.

(55:12):
So it'd be Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the Zimbabra Pink Floyd.
Definitely.
I still, still love that stuff.
And it was, it was the love of Sid that got me, you know, friendly with Captain.
And we did, we played the tribute for the Madcap's Last Laugh.

(55:33):
and the Floyd were there and all sorts of people were there.
Mike Herron of the Incredible String Band, Robin Hitchcock, the guys from Blur, all sortsof people.
That's worth a quick discussion.
I apologize for not bringing that up.
tell us about your recollections of that night and what were the highlights of that nightfor you?

(55:58):
Oh, well, there's several things.
One of them was meeting Kevin Ayers, because Captain Ayers felt well, and myself also.
And they got on great, know.
Captain wasn't feeling very well.
I can't remember what he went through.
so Kevin said, come into my dressing room.
And he had this doctor's bag.
And he opens it up, and he's just full of tablets.

(56:21):
So try one of these.
So that was really nice.
He was great.
No, not again.
talking to him a bit about David Allen, because I was friends with David Allen of Gong andthey were obviously, we were in the same band right at the beginning.
I suppose just being on stage at the end of that with everybody, everybody except forRoger Walters who bugged it off.

(56:46):
But we did a version of Bike and appropriately enough, because there so many people on thestage, you couldn't hear one side of the stage, what was happening to the other.
So we all went.
time and fell apart and it seemed appropriate you know.
No, thank you.
That's excellent.
So sorry, I'll move you back then to the desert.
didn't say yes.
So I'll pop you to the gates of dawn.

(57:07):
That's great.
Yep.
Now what else did I think of?
yes, I've got to have a Frank Zappa.
I love Frank Zappa.
Great.
But I mean, if you're a Frank Zappa fan, you're very lucky because there's always newstuff coming out.
It'll never run out.
So it seems.
So I'll pick Uncle Meat for that one.
It's a nice early mothers uh album.

(57:29):
I love every part of it.
I could say Civilization III.
I love that stuff as all these synthesizer, these computer music.
But yeah, and Uncle Meat's a good album, so I'll pick that.
And we did meet, I did meet Jimmy Cole Blackham, one of the drummer, he was playing withthe Muffin Men and he was a nice chap.

(57:52):
And he used to paint uh houses with Arthur Brown out in Texas.
So that's Uncle Meat, what else?
I think I should pick a Terry Riley.
Persian surgery dervishes I think it's called.
There's double album that they improvised.
Terry Riley, what can we say about him?

(58:15):
I always think of the saying that Picasso said of Cezanne, he said, he's the master of usall.
And when I think of Terry Riley, think, yeah, musically, he's so influential on all thatminimalist sort of improv stuff that he did.
And he's still going, he's still alive and playing.

(58:37):
He'd actually met him a few years ago when he played the local gig.
And he looks great, really, he's very, very sprightly.
He obviously looks after himself well.
So yeah, long life, long more life, longer life to him.
Cherry Rydie, when else?
Oh gosh, I've run.
Oh yes, of course.

(58:58):
I've got to have a David Allen of Gong.
Yeah, love Gong.
Kong is still going, you he passed the mantle to Carvis as a chap from Cardiacs andThey've got a new Kong now, is really good But I think I'll pick there's an album called
David Allen Exist Par That doesn't exist Which is a crazy conflict.

(59:26):
mean who else would think of a concept like that?
of non-existence of the...
it's a kind death of the author, isn't it?
And even on where the credits are, it says what the tracks are by, he makes it by JimmySmith, not by him, he doesn't it is.
But it's a crazy album, very interesting album, mixture of stars and partly this sort ofacid folk, very peaceful sort of spacey acid folk stuff that he'd been doing before that.

(59:57):
but also there's a weird jazz stuff and crazy poetry and all kinds of interesting things.
So David Allen exists per that one.
And then finally, I guess I should have a Dandale album.
love the Black Album.
Because I think it was the Black Album that I realized that, oh yeah, is, you know,they're into the prog stuff as well.

(01:00:21):
I can hear it, you know.
I love it.
Great picks.
Thank you for those.
Because our listeners love hearing about all the picks and they listen to them themselves.
So thank you very much.
And our last question is actually a 10-parter, but it's what we call a quick fire 10.
So 10 short and sharp questions with hopefully 10 short and sharp answers.
Lonnie, the first part is the first album you recall hearing that had a big impact on you.

(01:00:45):
sounds like Dark Side of the Moon was perhaps it, but was there another album that reallyhad a big impact on you in the early?
I think yeah, this is good.
I remember my uncle putting headphones on my head and He's saying listen to this and itwas a crazy world of crazy world of Arthur Brown So he's like crazy wind and weird stuff

(01:01:05):
and then he was there's atomic explosions in my brain What's this and then fire, know isit God it was it was a trip oh
And he's still going too, bless him.
He's still working hard and it should be, there's so many musicians and artists thatshould be celebrated in British music.

(01:01:27):
I don't know why it's very, I mean, the Dan also being so great.
But yeah, that made that, that really did make it.
Yeah.
No, thank you.
Before, let's use the dammed as an example.
What is your most important pre-gig ritual?
So nowadays what you need to do to feel settled before you go on stage.

(01:01:48):
God, that's a good question.
It's difficult.
Yeah, I never know what really what to do with myself if I'm very tired.
So I've been listening to some there's a electric Miles Davis, I'm called Doc Magus andit's really that kind of command of a you know, people I take some supplements as well and

(01:02:10):
I've been saying and Ginkgo, Geron are those things.
I need a little drink, yes.
I'm afraid so.
Not too much.
I remember Pinch taking the piss at me saying, there you go, looking at the wall, makingsure it still exists.

(01:02:31):
uh
No, that's good.
Great.
That's a ritual.
That's good.
um We sort of know the answer this because you did have two careers.
So it's a bit redundant, but if you hadn't been a musician, what do think your careerchoice would have been?
Right.
Yes.
Well, obviously, yeah, the nursing, I do miss it by the way.

(01:02:54):
I miss aspects of it.
I don't miss so much the responsibility in the medicines, endless medicines.
Oh God, I do never want to see another bloody tablet.
I was more into the psychotherapy aspect of it, trying to understand where people were at.
And uh I did kind of want to be a psychotherapist, but I don't know, maybe it was betterbeing a nurse therapist because it was less formal.

(01:03:18):
The thing of sitting down for 50 minutes with just with one other person and trying to doit all in that way, it's very formal.
It is, yeah.
But I was always very interested in understanding psychotic people and there's atremendous literature oh of that and it's fascinating reading.

(01:03:39):
Yeah, absolutely.
like that really go into what people's experiences are and trying to find meaning in them.
Yes.
No, great answer.
um If it's at all possible, Monte, the favourite tour you've ever done as a musician?
Oh, God!
How can I remember?

(01:04:01):
I don't know.
Yeah, that's very difficult to say.
I mean, I do like touring the States.
There are certain places.
mean, when my dad took us to Berkeley, when he was teaching there for a term, and I wasunemployed at the time, so I went along with.
And I was just amazed by San Francisco.

(01:04:23):
And I remembered at the end of...
the trip thinking, I don't suppose I'll go to this lovely place again.
And of course, I've been back loads of times and I've got friends there and everything.
It's really, it's really nice.
So I always liked going there and some of the other places.
We recently went to New Orleans.
That's really good.

(01:04:43):
Great.
And yeah, New York's always good.
Yeah, I like doing, I like paying the states.
No, that's great.
And an even more impossible question, a favourite gig you've ever done.
Oh my gosh, I mean there's so many but I always come back, I think all of us come back tothis, particular festival near Canterbury which was hosted by Arthur Brown and Love were

(01:05:10):
playing there and the Electric Prunes were playing there so both of them bands that Danhad done covers of and there was a version of King Crimson that was very good, Stranglers
were on just before us.
That was funny, I remember John Jett, we were walking around in the dressing room, youknow, one of those makeshift dressing rooms, and he peered over the top.

(01:05:32):
And he's, you lot are having a lot of fun aren't you?
He's a serious guy.
Yes, we loved that one.
I think we all loved that one.
We thought it was a very good festival that particular.
No, great.
And I think you've already called this out to some extent, but a favourite city you'veever played.

(01:05:53):
I know that's hard when you do so much travel, but it sounds like San Francisco is upthere.
Oh yes, definitely San Francisco.
Melbourne I like.
That's where David and was born.
Yeah, where else?
Oh, it's difficult.
I checked for the last time we played a festival near Essendon.

(01:06:14):
I'm quite liking it.
I mean, it's a little bit like, know, the rap was saying, oh, it looks a bit like Crawley.
It is a little bit like Crawley.
But it had a pretty good record store in there.
I bought some.
Let us do records.
That's question.
Love it.
Now that's great.
Name a song that you used to love, but you've probably played it to death now and wouldhappily never play it again.

(01:06:39):
Oh, I should not say that.
uh I understand you may not be able to, yeah.
So it doesn't, yeah.
I suppose, I don't know, it's difficult, know, when I think about it in advance, sometimesI think Eloise, I've got to do that.
But then when we do it, sometimes that middle bit, there's a middle bit where there's abit of room for a bit of improv.

(01:07:01):
Oh, that which I haven't mentioned, I'm still very interested in improv music that youmake spontaneously.
And one of the things I do is I attend a thing called the Safe House Collective.
And basically people just turn up and pull names out of the hat for people play together10 minutes, quarter of an hour.

(01:07:22):
You just make it up straight off.
No, no, no key, no rhythm, no nothing.
It's just whatever you can do in that time.
And I love doing that.
so yeah, I like little bits of improv.
can, I'll be able to do the solo at the end of limit club and I've

(01:07:43):
I I should mention while we're on that subject, I should mention this, think.
It's an album I've got coming out, a piano version of Dan's songs on Damaged GoodsRecords.
think the covers come out really nice, I think.
love the cover and that's obviously going to be available on vinyl because I tell you nowI'll be picking up the copy.

(01:08:06):
first CD is going to be the 5th of September.
That'll be for your bandcamp, Monty.
That'll be...
No, it'll be through the through company So the the finals obviously shorter than the CDthe CDs got extra tracks on it including some improvisations Dedicated to the members.

(01:08:30):
I've played with the most so it's on for captain one for Dave I'm for Paul and one forpensions to on there, which is very percussive.
So Yes, I'm coming out
You absolutely should and we'll link to it as well.
No, that's amazing.
um And so the we're on the last three parts of the quick fire 10, a favourite musicdocumentary or movie is the one that you quite quite enjoy watching.

(01:08:58):
Oh god, that's really difficult actually.
You mentioned the Lemmy, the Lemmy doco.
Yes, yes, I've never seen it all though.
No.
seen it in its entirety.
gosh.
blimey.
Oh yes, okay, let's see, Pink Floyd in Pompeii, that's kind of yeah, You know, wherethey're playing in the, in, in the midst of all the ruins and all of that.

(01:09:20):
No good.
Name one thing you'd like to see invented that would make your life as a keyboard playereasier.
Oh, Freddy.
can make one suggestion, Monty.
Mainstage automatically detecting the keyboard you're using and adjusting to fit.
Exactly.
so that the sustain pedal does what it's supposed to do and the two buttons are selectedto go through.

(01:09:44):
Yeah, that would be really helpful.
There we go.
And last but not least, your favourite non-musical activity or hobby.
What keeps you sane outside of music?
Ah, well, I study lot of philosophy and since I left nursing, I discovered Substack.

(01:10:04):
don't know if you know Substack.
Yes.
A blogging site.
I gather John Preece uses it amongst other people.
But you can write anything you want there.
So I've been writing stuff on nursing theory, ideas of nursing theory.
wow.
And also philosophy.
My favorite philosopher is this chap,

(01:10:25):
Morris Malaponte, oops, there we go.
And he's a phenomenologist.
And his thing is understanding what it's like to be in the world as an embodied being.
So it's a really interesting and unusual way of thinking about it.

(01:10:48):
I find it quite, it's like meditation almost, like Zen or Taoist.
kind of way of thinking where we are a part of nature, we're not separate.
We're in nature like the heart is um in the body.
And so I've been trying to explain, he's not easy to read.

(01:11:09):
So I'm trying to pick out the stuff and I make it easier for people to understand and thenrelating it to other things like the psychoanalyst, Donald Winnicott and people like that.
So yeah, I like writing.
I've been doing that on tour sometimes.
I've been reading stuff, writing stuff.
And it takes me out of the touring space for a while and also gives me something to do athome now.

(01:11:32):
I haven't got the nursing.
That's right.
mean, I think it's fair to say, Monty, you've inhabited a lot of spaces over your careerand there's a lot more to inhabit.
And I can't thank you enough for even giving us this hour and a bit to go through justpart of it.
It's been hugely appreciated.
I could just sorry, can I just mention- In case anyone wants to read them, they're undermy real name, which is Lawrence Burrow, rather than Monty Oaks and War.

(01:11:58):
I'll find that and link to that.
So that's on Substack.
Yeah, I'll find that and I'll make sure the link's there.
That's great.
uh So you can't thank you enough for that.
It's been absolutely amazing.
And I know you've got a big tour of sort of US, Canada and then Wembley next year and lotsmore to come.
And hopefully we will also see you again down in Australia.
I know it's relatively recently you were here, but hopefully we get you back down again.

(01:12:19):
Yeah, that would be good.
remember David Allen used to come and see us when we used to play there.
It was just really nice.
Yeah, so nice.
Can't thank you enough.
And there we have it.
hope you enjoyed that interview.

(01:12:40):
I mentioned in the introduction, Monty covered quite some ground across many genres anddifferent perspectives on life and a lot more.
So cannot thank him enough for his time.
It's just, yeah, it's really amazing with some of the Keeble players we interview just thebreadth of their careers.
Well, pretty much all of our interviewees have had enormous breadth across their careersand

(01:13:01):
I certainly wish for those of you out there like myself that maybe haven't had thatbreadth of career that you enjoy hearing about how it works for those amazing artists.
Speaking of amazing people, we do want to thank our gold and silver supporters.
So the amazing Tammy Katcher at Tammy's Musical Stew.
I think I've said the word amazing now 28 times in this outro, but it does apply to Tammywell and truly.

(01:13:24):
Dave Bryce, the team at the musicplayer.com forums.
Definitely do check out the keyboard corner in particular.
It's just such a font of knowledge for everything keyboards.
And I'm a proud member of 20 plus years standing.
And then we have the excellent Dewy Evans from the Sunnylander Wales.
Thank you, Dewy.
Dewy's involved in a band like most of us out there and is playing some gigs over the UKsummer, which has been great to see.

(01:13:49):
So good on you, Dewy.
And last but definitely not least, Mike at Midnight Mastering.
you are creating your own work and you need a high quality job for not an exorbitantprice, then Mike's the guy at midnightmastering.com.
Most importantly, thank you as always for listening.
We'll be back again in another week or two and until then keep on playing.