November 25, 2025 • 30 mins
We take a deep dive into the catastrophic implosion of Leigh’s band - a saga that, in no particular order, involves Jimmy Barnes, mop fights in jail cells, the nightclub fish tank incident, frosty run-ins with French police, bourbon and a deportation or two.
Catch more Paid To Talk, every Friday at 3pm on Radio Hauraki. Get set for a full-on assault on your sense of humour as Leigh and sparring partner Matt Ward delve into the big topics of the week.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
This is an iHeartRadio New Zealand podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Right, Well, welcome along to another episode of Page to
Talk with Lee Hart and Matt Wood. And well, as
you can tell by that intro bit of but you
passed there, Lee, I guess a.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Bit of nostalgia.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Indeed there Mada sanitates you back hearing that those sounds again,
I haven't heard that music in any way since way
back then in the mid nineties.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Of course, that was our band Wild Turkey.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I was gonna say it's a bit of a Wild
Turkey special. We're going to go back to way back
when when the band kicked off.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, that would be a bit to ol of ineligence.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
So I think it would be probably best to focus
less on.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
The origins where we all began.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
When there'll be another episode perhaps perhaps coming at the end,
we're at the disastrous dysfunction and the the breakup of
the band.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Now, I think there'd be more interesting to the viewers.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
I'm talking in Chucks, the names that you Jimmy Barnes, prison, drugs.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Sex, and now go. I think that's what people want
to hear.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
All those things, Jimmy.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Barnes, Well, not all the Jimmy what do you hear about.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
The business Why you just listened off prison or not?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
These things aren't going to order. They're not they're not
mutually exclusive.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Was it was there a comma between prison and when I.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Get to the prisoner, we'll talk about the sex. Okay,
I had to build up for that.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
But you go, well, incidentally, this is the Fender Telecastic
guitar which I did a lot of the writing of
those songs on there.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
You can see a lot of signatures on There.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Is that, lyrics on there is it.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
No, they've all actually worn off. These are sort of
well known bands and celebrities which signed my guitar back
in the day, but they've all worn off, so I
can't actually tell who's who. So it's just basically whole
lot of squibbles now.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
But there you go.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Briefly, a bit of a bit of a backstory on
Wild Turkey. Was the band that you started with your brother.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
My brother and good friend Matt and guitar Johnson on drums.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
We started off course overseas originally after I worked on
the Channel Tunnel, went back to New Zealand. We got
a band going in christ Church, decided would go back
overseas and take over the world. So picture this.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
You've got a band leaving the airport. We actually thought
we were going to probably you know, do pretty well.
We were armed with a althought our equipment which has
been sent over there, and a sort of a flight
briefcase I suppose with five thousand Wild Turkey CDs in
it EPs and we.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Took those over with us and we're going to sell.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Them at our gigs and all that sort of stuff,
and the radio stations that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Especially, still got about four thousand of them, right Carlos
Story show. We were in Edinburgh, we're having a great time,
We're doing very well.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
So he'd straight to Scotland. You're like, this is where
we go to make our break very.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Much, because we've been there before. We can do well here.
You know, a bit of a rock and roll scene
and they play you can play every night. A lot
of funny stories happen there. But I think that's another
episode on this deep dive in too Well too.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
I'm already sensing a part two.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Yeah, okay, but the part two will be the prequel.
As I say, we're going to focus.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
On the bitter call, thaw and breaking bed or Star Wars.
This is volume four, is it? No, I'd say the
Phantom Menace, the Heenus Menace, the Heenous Minus.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
So you land in Edinburgh, yes, And then we spend
about our six months or a year or so playing
music and Edinburgh doing pretty pretty well. We think, pretty cool,
and then we hear from another band that it's all
(03:55):
happening in France in the winter and you can get
gigs there, and they god of stupidly told us about this,
so we sort of shot over a couple of weeks
before them and stole their gigs, or so we thought
we had. We went over there and got there and
he drove the van all the way over and I
remember we'd get to France at the Alps Mirabelle okay,
(04:16):
and we pulling with the van and Matt apparently arranged
all these gigs for us, which we're great.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
We're going to start in a couple.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Of days, you know, and we'll have food and we'll
have money because we're literally broke as at this moment.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Show up to this bar to meet this guy.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
And he comes out and he's a bit cag and
he basically decided He says, look, I'm sorry, guys, I'm
not taking a band of the season. I'm just gonna
have a DJ. You know, that's DJs. You know, this
is back back then DJ was pretty bad, you know
what I mean. It's before DJs became cool.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Right.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
He was just a DJ, not a DJ, right, you know,
big difference from a DJ. And you know, so anyway,
the DJ took our spot, so we had no gigs
at all, and we had to sleep in the van
for a couple of days, and it was so cold.
We'd sleep on the band gear and at night all
the moisture from the day would freeze into sort of
(05:09):
like st stalet types of ice. In the van, it's
freezing big jackets on.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
And we had to take.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Turns to shoplift to go into like stores like a
super Marche. And I had this big sort of black
transcoat that you've walked around and you'd go to the
bread section get like trying to get like French breadsticks.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Right, because you's a fresh free streak sticks.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
But it's quite good for a jacket.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
You can put up here and as you know, someone
talks to you, you sort of like this the whole time.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
You know you've got sticks in there, so you walk around, you.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Can't really bend at your joints.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
But anyway, m story short. Where he got to the
stage where is where things got better and worse. Eventually
we met this this Singus guy called Peter Green, and
he goes, all right, he ran about three bars. I'll
give you a couple of gigs and I'll give you
some accommodation for a little while. I can't pay you yet,
but you can have your accommodation. And one condition. He
(06:03):
was an English guy.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
You've got to play for my rugby team as well,
you know, because he saw.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
We were Kiwis and Greg, my brother is quite big.
I wasn't so bad. I was probably the worst at rugby.
Matt was quite good at rugby, you know. So and
three Kiwis in your team with all.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
These muppets that couldn't play at all was a big deal.
So we had to play rugby.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
So we were professional rugby plays well before a lot
of the the all blacks back then were if you
know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
So you're hit of your time, really with you anyways?
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Yeah, you know, we didn't have public contracts those guy.
You know, I wasn't trying to get us abatagaloth you had.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
To reduce reduced odds of hypothermia from sleeping in a van.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Well, that's right. We now we had accommodation. But this
is where it starts yet sort of bedding down a gig.
Yet you know, all our man is still sitting there.
I was standing one of whether we even still could.
But we had confidence, as you do when you're when
you're young, in your twenties, early twenties. And I remember
one ridiculous night was which was probably the start of
(06:59):
the beginning of the end when I reflect on it.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Was Christmas Eve, I believe, and all the a gig
at this point.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
No, we didn't even have a gig on Christmas Eve.
And everybody else is starting.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
To filter into mary Bell and to this town, and
it's starting to get busy. And I think we've scraped
enough money together somehow for our Christmas dinner, which involved
a pre cooked chicken, a bottle of champagne, cheap bottle
of champagne, maybe a dozen beers.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
And a bottle of bourbon. And we're in this apartment
a brother who was kind of them, I would say,
not the leader of the band musically I'd argue that
was maybe me, but certainly the boss of us.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
So he is my older brother, so you know, he
told us how to behave I suppose, and I remember
him saying, whatever you do, guys, you know, once we're
doing this bourbon and stuff, do not end up down
at that club place down the road where there's a
big party going on, because you know, you make arsesself
and it's not gonna be good for us. It's not
gonna be good for our residency that which are going
(07:56):
to get. Whatever we do, we drink the alcohol, have
our Christmas stuff, and we all stay here. We say, okay,
sure and fair enough.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Have the beers, have the bourbon.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
We ended up well, there's one thing in your mind,
isn't it?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
And that's the place that that was last mentioned to
you as you started drinking the beers in the bourbon.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I guess how do you know that? Exactly?
Speaker 4 (08:14):
So we ended up down there, Matt and I not
Greg at this big venue where there's all these these
people of the coming to town and it's a massive
sort of place and there's a big Christmas.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Party going on there.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Don't know how we got on there, obviously, quite ineberated,
and they had a huge fish tank in there. But
like I don't know how many of the listeners as
viewers have been to Mermaids. I've heard of it, Yeah,
with a big sort of indoor fish tank, but it's
big on that. Somehow Matt and I ended up swimming
in a fish tank. So one man up where having
Christmas dinner, but you know, chicken, bourbon and champagne next.
(08:48):
The next thing, we're both swimming in a massive fish
tank and find of all these well to do people
at this at this place.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Which is pretty much what Greek was was hoping. You, Yeah,
wouldn't I mean, I don't.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
I don't think Greg could have foreseen or imagined that
there was even a fish tank there, but he had
already imagined something bad was going to happen.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
It was pretty much worse than he could have possibly imagined.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
I don't know if it was.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Worse than he could have imagined, but it was early
on par of what he could have imagined. Probably different
than he imagined because as I say, he didn't know
the fish tags were there, but he knew something would
have happened.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Next thing, we know the John Darmrie, the John Dams.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Come running into the place to arrest us. That's the
that's the police, and that's the local police. So that
Matt jumps out, I jump out and he runs off
for wet of course, now I jump out. I mean
I'm behind Matt. But I get caught by the police.
You know, one of us had to get caught. Matt
somehow escapes, goes back to the apartment, and but they
just forget about me.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
What's the worst that could happen?
Speaker 5 (09:45):
It was probably a bit of bourbon there No, there wasn't.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
That's the whole point.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
You know, if there was burber left, it in't think
would be in the fish tank, right, I end up
I'm in the local Mirabelle police cells.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Might just stop you there, just for a mile at
the moment, just to just together your thoughts, and we'll
come back to the marrabel police hous. Thanks man, welcome
back to page Talk and we're deep in them. Not
the origin story, but the where the wheel started to
(10:21):
fall off of your Bandly Wild Turkey. You were just
in a fish tank. Yeah, this is a disastrous end
of the band.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Really.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Yeah, I found myself in a giant fish tank at
a function center. On a Christmas Eve, I get arrested
by the local French police and I find myself in
a jail cell by myself.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
The concrete jail cell at the local police station.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Probably when they're an hour or so so I'm starting
to realize or god, this is this is not good,
but probably thinking they're gonna let me out.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
The next morning.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Anyway, then you can imagine what would have happened. And
then the office next door the French police let's let's
have some fun with this guy. So one of them
walked in with a cup of coffee. You know, I said, oh,
this is great, it's like for me, you know. But
as he gets to me, he just tips it on
the floor on the concrete.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Like, you know, to wind me up.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
You know, you're obviously trying to antagonize me. And and
now obviously I would just go okay, and you do,
you wouldn't rethink, but when you're twenty four, you don't
think that video and then then he tips it on
the floor and gives me this big wet mop you
know those stringy mops, Yeah, you know, the heavy ones
water and it's got this long sort of ropy string
(11:31):
on it gives it to me and says.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
You know, clean it up, and I'm going, nah, nah,
you know, you.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Mob it up, and he sort of pushes me or something,
and I've got the mop and so I sort of
had him with the mop and he freaks out.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
He's wearing a cell here in the corner and he's.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Coming at me, and I so whack him on the
side of the head with the wet mop and will
a bit a bit of way to that when the
fingerbal I imagine, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
So two or three others come in, and I'm not exaggerating.
I think there was had to be at least three
of them at the stage, and at this.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Point it sounds like quite the kuff coming in to
the cell.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
To address with this this issue. So now I'm in
a real situation because they're coming in to give me
a hiding coffee on the floor. One guy's got a
sore air, and as they come closer, I've got no
choice but to keep them off. So I'm going boof
to HLP one guy in the nose, the other on
the side of the head. This guy, you know, so
I'm going pop. They're getting closer and closer, you know,
(12:31):
so I'm getting back into the corner, but mop hitting
them and you know there's a bleeding nose here and there.
It's full on and they're getting pretty pied off. Now,
the psycho with the with the mat mop.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
They get me to the.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Corner obviously, and I've got no room anymore to wield
my and I'm not trained with the wet mop.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
You know, I don't have much lucks, no, but when
you're in that situation, you know, you fight your way
out of a corner. I suppose. But as a matter
of time, they got me on the ground and you know,
probably gave me a little bit of a working over.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
But then of course next morning, as I suspected, they
woke up, I think they maybe gave me a cup
of cofee this time for real, and they said, you
can go. So I want a way, you know, walk
all the way back up to where we were staying
and find my way back into the apartment.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
They go, where do you mean? Uh? I want to know?
You know, that was that was our first experience with
the local French police, not the last, unfortunately, So yeah, yeah,
can run in.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
So now we're actually we've started to get a few gigs,
so we're starting to play around a lot of different
bars and make a bit of a name for ourselves.
So we're ski during the day, you know, and have fun.
Then we'd play music at night. Pretty awesome lifestyle for
you know, people out at that age. We didn't even
have ski passes.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
But just it was everything was a bullshit sort of thing.
But we're doing hipster skiing and play music at night
in different venues.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
We're sort of escalated. We've got to a stage where
we had a residency at this sort of bar. By
this stage, we'd had a few noise complaints literally just
too loud. A few complaints were about the music itself, but.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
So we're sort of on the radar of the police.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
But then we heard, I don't know how we got
onto this, that Jimmy Barnes was in Merrabelle on holiday
kind of thing sort of thing, and we said, wow,
we should get hold of him because we're Kibi's. He's Aussie,
he'd love us, and he'd love us, he'd love to
come and play with us, you know. So somehow we
worked out he must be staying at this nice hotel,
(14:28):
so we contacted reception van out he was there.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
His old school, you know.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Detective Work wrote him a note saying, hell, look, we've
got a gig on tonight or tomorrow night.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
At our local place. Come on down and we play
some songs with us. We're by a few beers. Kind
of thing, is right, And he got back said, nah, sorry, guys,
I'm just kind of busy. I'm here on holiday.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
Not very rock and roll.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
That's not rock and roll, you know, surely. So then
we said, oh bugget, we'll try again. So this time
we send him a signed copy of our sign copy
of our like send ap, but we send.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Him a bottle of bourbon I rune a pier as well.
And how could he say no to that?
Speaker 5 (15:07):
You know, now you've only got four thousand nine exact.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Way you got to get rid of them. But for
some reason he got back and said, look, yeah, maybe
I might. It was very weak maybe, you know. That
was enough for us. So we told everyone in the
whole area. Of course, he's coming down.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Every Aussie, every Kiwi in the hole within you know,
one hundred klumeters square radius was all went down to
this venue and we're there.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
We were playing away for about a good hour and
a half. He's not there, you know, oh this is
pretty bad. We're playing our.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Ship and we're sort of given up, and was probably
the last half hour the thing. All of a sudden
someone walks in.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And he walks in the bar, so the door opens
and a blizzard comes and then everyone turns.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
In the movie, that's what happened, you know, Yeah, you know,
the music stops and he sort of walks in kind
of thing, but probably.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Wasn't quite like that.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
He came in and we tak the break, went down
there to be with him and said, would you want
to get up and do a couple of songs? Is
you know he has much Tommy Barnes pressing year me
And my impression was he was such a good guy
even just to talk to his very sort of charismatic
and fun even if you weren't going to do a
good them. You know, I just enjoyed having a few beers. Actually,
(16:22):
so we had to get back up. It's quite follong
for me.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
I was a singer in the band to playing bass.
I was never that confident that anyway.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
But I've got to get back up both.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
But and I'm up there now doing I'm singing Stone
songs everything you know, and I'm asking Jimmy Barns to
watch and come up, and we sort of waved him
and he comes up, and obviously we don't know that
many cultures or Jimmy Barnes songs.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
We I think we learned a couple just in case
he did come. And then we're just doing sort of stones.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
And all sort of rock and roll stuff, and he
got up and pretty much just sang our set and
our keys as well. His keys abound to be different
than mine, but he didn't care. That's what I was
so impressed about it. He didn't really care what key.
We'll be playing something like home kun Woman or something,
(17:10):
so this we do it and go, yeah, they'll lose,
and he might be singing it three times higher orlthougher
than he was used to.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
But he's that's the kind of a former his he
was just a professional.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
He'll go for it.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Yeah, but without a professional, without you go yeah, because
other people go no, I'm not going to sound good
on that whatever, you know, what the hell?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
You know, your gig will just have some pup. So
that was really cool. So we're obviously in a bit
of a high. We played. I don't have ten songs
or something, and the night's over. By the stage.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
We've been cranking all the amps up all night because
you know, it's such a big deal for us, so
it's getting loud and runt it.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
We're on our last morning anyway with the stuff. First night,
have you drinks? He disappears, and.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Then of course we're thinking, great, we're packed the gear up.
We had this roady actually was quite funny.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Called Dez, the Scottish guy that we sort of met.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
It's a bit of an alcoholic. Ironically, he sort of
found us he was skiing. He said, look, I'll be
your roady.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
And he's a bit of a good looking guy. And
what he would do he would he would.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Shoup to the gigs with us in the van, help
us load all the gear and you know, we'll take
all the ampsy everything out. And but at the end
of the night he was comotosed and we had to
carry all the gear and him as well well.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
I couldn't work out whether it was making more work
for us or less.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
And plus he would have been spading all the girls
at the bar the whole night be forward, you know,
so it was a real liability. Yeah, good guy, Yeah,
I don't know how he put it into it, but
anyway we would have packed the gear and and him
the next day or maybe late that night. We're driving along,
please pull us over with the van of course, it's
highly illegal or like sitting out in front of it.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
No snow tires or son registered. You know everything about
it that's wrong.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Well, all right, before we delve into part two of
Yorkafuffles with the the French Bends.
Speaker 5 (19:08):
Yeah, John Dan's will take another quick break and be
back right after this.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Nice all right, welcome back to Pay to Talk, where
we're delving deep into Lee's past with your band, your
former band, Yes, the.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Final days, the final days of when the band was
probably together. Uh why you know, it's much like the
Beatles when they broke up. You know, you can hear
different versions of why it happened. The similarities probably and they.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Probably least please assault with the breakup of the Beatles,
you would imagine. So yeah, yeah, a stick and running.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
So they said we're going to arrest you again because
the music was too loud and where they took us
back to our apartment where's our work permits?
Speaker 3 (19:58):
We didn't have any of that.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
We're going to legally, they're looking for drugs everything in
the bartment, which we really didn't have, but everything else gone.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Yeah, yeah, we'd sold them to desk, but the no. Yeah,
it's just basically everything about us operating there was sort
of illegal, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
But we're on a bit of a high. So they
arrested us again, put us in that cell. I spent
time and earlier on the Yeah. Yeah, but then they
say you're pretty much getting deported.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Was the mob still there?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Good question. I think with the three of us might
be on to fight our way out.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
We each had them mop I remember, so it's a
bit vague, but this is where it gets confusing.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
We had to go to Geneva to go to court.
We got a trial and it that's really weird.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Here they said the three of verse and they say
one of you can stay out of prison and send
get your equipment and arranged to get it sent home.
But if you're still in France in a week and
we catch you, you'll go to prison for five years
or something.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
So that was kind of you know, there's a lot
of pressure. Greg my brother, was the guy that ended
up having to do that because he's probably qualified to
do it. Matt and I have to court.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
They said that you two are going to this and
so prison until such time that we can deport you
and it can take this along with this song whatever
to be okay. Cool, So we're in this van again
or all these John Darms and just us too. It's
like a prison van. We're driving along and by this stage,
remember Matt's Cobby is younger than me, but you know
he's he was pretty worried.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Put it that way. You remember, I'm hardened.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
I've been your in and out of prison.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
I've been inside before.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
So we're driving on there and it's quite worried, going
can we're going to this jail again. We provis going
to be like I said, honestly, don't worry about it.
It's just going to be like you know, departure lounge
kind of place you just won't be able to leave
until you can get your plane. Okay, it's cool. Pull
around the corner, you know, I have to come hours
to this place. And they see this big castle, barbed
(21:56):
wir and everything, and it's just like cold. It's castle
from a movie.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
And you go through a big gate. It's like all
those movies in.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
One and there and we've got a little bit of
bandgear like my guitar, and he had some jump sittings.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
They's some sort of stuff.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
I don't know how that worked, and use it to
trade for protection.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Well we got worse than that.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
So it is a sort of an immigration prison. So
you've got to remember every single other person in there
is well from Africa, if you know what I mean,
So from Algeria, Morocco, probably living in France for fifteen
twenty years, probably even have families there.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
So you bring a bit of diversity to the present.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Oh yeah, well you know, you know, to use the
word we're the only white guys there.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
But that wasn't a worry for me. It just it
just context of why people are there. So these are
sort of people that would get picked up on the
street in Paris and go where's your papers, you know,
and they get sent to this and sent back home
to Sierra Leone as.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Something whereas a war going on. They don't want to
go back there.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Because it's serious stuff, so they'll do anything not to
be going home. By this stage, we'll be doing anything
to go home, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
We just want to get the hell out of there.
I don't think we knew how long.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
We're going to be that so could I'd be a week,
ten days or fourteen, and that thing would end up
being at fourteen. And we're in one little cell with
another guy. There's cockroaches and stuff in there and on
your little beds. You know, you try and keep busy
during the day. There's one phone in the corner and
the and the corridor, and everyone's on it trying to
get a hold of their embassies, trying to go, you know,
(23:25):
get me out of here, or we're trying to ring
you know, friends in London to try and help us
to get hold of New Zealand the embassy, to get all,
you know, that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
But other than that, it wasn't too bad.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
You didn't have to walk straight in and pick the
bigger sky and punch them and try and get protection.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
It's weird.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
It certainly crossed your mind whether you should be doing
that kind of stuff. But then it started to get
quite weird because the food was okay, and I remember
about the second day, everybody else goes on a hunger strike,
you know, because they don't want to get deported, so
they're doing a hunger strike. And people come up to
us and go, are you hunger striking? We're going why,
(24:07):
why would you? It's the only good thing about the place,
you know, it was the red and cheese. You wouldn't
want to go on a hunger strike. But it start
off there's about thirty guys hunger striking, and after about
third day's twenty five. Then about the fourth day it's
early twenty got down to after eight days is only
four guys hunger and the hunger strikers.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
It's quite good because you can have their food as well. Yeah,
it all comes out.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
It's like a bit of a buffet.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Yeah, yeah, Toby say, you sort of get more. The
last thing we're going to do is hunger strike. But
what the cops there were quite full on the John
Dames are quite full on them. They're like the special police,
the ones that go to the trouble places like in
New Mia or you know around the world when there's
riots and stuff that they're all quite big and this
kind of stuff. But they found out we were kiwis
(24:50):
once again, and it's that classic thing, ah all blacks,
all this sort of stuff. And one of them was
having their birthday one night when he's John Darams, And
they said, are you guys those musicians.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
They they got arrested. You've got to come down and
play music for us. What.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
So they get us out of our cell and walk
us past all the other inmates kind of thing. We're
without guitar and that, and everyone's boo and stuff, and
we go down and we have to we go through
the gate through where the guards are sitting, and we've
got to do like an imprompture gig and entertain them.
And they're giving us this like whiskey or some passed
(25:25):
these stuff stuff to drink as well. But the problem
there is you do that and then you've got to
walk back past all the all the other prisoners, like
we're getting special treatment kind of thing. Then the other guards,
the other chef heard what had happened, so oh that's
sound a fine. We'll get the matter as well. So
the next night they got us out again to do that.
Actually got more and more confident each day.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Well, I was going to say, the longer and then
surely you work your way up the ranks, yeaheah, because
people leave, and.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
We were there for a little while, and I remember
people on the phone who come up. You just hang
up and you push them off and you try and
use it because if we didn't, you'd really get pushed around.
But then came the day that we got deported. This
is where it gets totally bizarre.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Again. We were at Leon prison.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Just some context again, I've googled the place since the
actual building you know of it, and during World War
Two it was actually used.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
As the Gestapo.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
The Germans used it as one of those the Nazi
kind of interrogation centers and stuff would be people killed
there that the same building, So that's what it was.
So when we had to leave, they said you guys
can go now. I said, cool, where's our van? You're
taking us to the airport. We getting deported said, nah,
you're flying out of Paris.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
You're a Leon.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
You've got to catch a flight from Leon to Paris
to catch your flight. We've only got your flight from
Paris back to New Zealand. Said you does this work?
So well, it's up to you.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
You've got to get there and to port yourself more
or less.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Because it's kind of like prison Break meets the Amazing
Race literally, like.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
The Amazing Rass.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
So if we could have actually disappeared off into Leon
then again and taken our chances, but if we got
caught present five years kind of thing. We end up
talking to a woman, a laundry woman who's running the
laundry at the prison, and she sees us we'll get
upset and explain that. She said, I'll get give you
a left. So she gives us a left and a
(27:08):
little sort of a little tiny little French car with
all our bass and guitars. So she drives us to
Leon airport. Somehow we must got a flight to Paris
airport to catch and his.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Own flight I think it was.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
But we're like in a queue like you would be
checking in a bit, like you know, you're running late
for before your flight. You're going, hey, supporter, we're getting
deported here, you know, as oppose our flight's gonna leave.
And ivan we get through, and I went nuts at
some again another John darm who was and he pulled
a machine gun out and because we just we're.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
At our wits end at the stage and you're on
a hat trick for prison here.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Oh yeah, so we're just how is this going to
get any worse?
Speaker 4 (27:47):
So we check in and so we get deported so
they take a passport's off us again because we had them,
and then we get taken off into another room again
where we're not allowed to leave.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
So we almost back into the jail inside the airport
when we've been free up to that point.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
We're not going anywhere. Let us just get on the plane,
and I think, what happens? They give you sports to
the supposed to give the passports to the pilot when
you get deported. Eventually, you know, it's about an eight
hour wait in the airport, and we get onto the
plane and I think someone gave us a bit of
a wink, the pilot or hostess or something, and just
and gave us.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Our passports that you know there you goo u sweet.
We went to the back of the plane and just
sat there. Whoa, you know, just so relieved all of
a sudden, like a normal person. And they come to
the drink. Surely anything to drink? Whoa, yeah, just leave
the vote climb so yeah, yeah, totally sorry, and then yeah,
land and god there's blue off that but yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
Almost like I go, you finally an international war.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Totally and until you've taken off, Like those movies Midnight
Express Memories on them, on the bus, trying to get
on the on the plane until you've actually left.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Surely it's not over it. It can only get worse. Yeah,
it's bizarre. It actually wrote it all down on the
back of all this paperwork ahead in prison.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
How long were you and then in total there with
you do I was Matt.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Fourteen days or something.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
You know, it's not long in the big scheme of things,
but when you really just getting deported, you know, it's
it was long enough.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
Tell you what I think. I think you need to
write a twel all memoir.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Yeah, well this is it. And then of course we
got back to New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
We sort of foiled as a grade was already back
by then, I think, and with all the CDs being sold,
and basically it was just take a bit of a
break from the band a yeah, okay, And.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
This is where you would ask the Wild Turkey reunion.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Yes, that's right. So we're getting back together, going on
tour everywhere by France. Now I can still go back. Actually,
the weirdest part was, remember I mentioned that Judge in Geneva,
he had to sort of make this official Readail writes,
and he goes, look, I hope you don't have a
bad impression of France and you come back and see
us sometimes what we can come back? Yeah, of course,
can just do it properly. Oh god, here we go.
(30:02):
So the whole thing seemed futile and a waste of time, but.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
There you go. That was it.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
Well what a story.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yeah, Ben and Joe not in France. But that's all
we got time for. Thanks for joining us for the
trip down memory lane or I guess triggering PTSD from
Lee's days in a band in the nineties.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
It's cathartic man. Thanks thanks for putting up with that. Listens, But.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Yeah, I hope that gives some sort of idea and
some stage maybe we can talk about that now the
band began the origins.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
Yes, maybe one day we can get Jimmy Barnes on
the show as well.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Yeah, and let's play some while turkey out the other
one's better.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
Yeah, it didn't sound like good
This is an iHeartRadio New Zealand podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Right, Well, welcome along to another episode of Page to
Talk with Lee Hart and Matt Wood. And well, as
you can tell by that intro bit of but you
passed there, Lee, I guess a.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Bit of nostalgia.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Indeed there Mada sanitates you back hearing that those sounds again,
I haven't heard that music in any way since way
back then in the mid nineties.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Of course, that was our band Wild Turkey.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I was gonna say it's a bit of a Wild
Turkey special. We're going to go back to way back
when when the band kicked off.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, that would be a bit to ol of ineligence.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
So I think it would be probably best to focus
less on.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
The origins where we all began.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
When there'll be another episode perhaps perhaps coming at the end,
we're at the disastrous dysfunction and the the breakup of
the band.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Now, I think there'd be more interesting to the viewers.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
I'm talking in Chucks, the names that you Jimmy Barnes, prison, drugs.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Sex, and now go. I think that's what people want
to hear.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
All those things, Jimmy.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Barnes, Well, not all the Jimmy what do you hear about.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
The business Why you just listened off prison or not?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
These things aren't going to order. They're not they're not
mutually exclusive.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Was it was there a comma between prison and when I.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Get to the prisoner, we'll talk about the sex. Okay,
I had to build up for that.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
But you go, well, incidentally, this is the Fender Telecastic
guitar which I did a lot of the writing of
those songs on there.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
You can see a lot of signatures on There.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Is that, lyrics on there is it.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
No, they've all actually worn off. These are sort of
well known bands and celebrities which signed my guitar back
in the day, but they've all worn off, so I
can't actually tell who's who. So it's just basically whole
lot of squibbles now.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
But there you go.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Briefly, a bit of a bit of a backstory on
Wild Turkey. Was the band that you started with your brother.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
My brother and good friend Matt and guitar Johnson on drums.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
We started off course overseas originally after I worked on
the Channel Tunnel, went back to New Zealand. We got
a band going in christ Church, decided would go back
overseas and take over the world. So picture this.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
You've got a band leaving the airport. We actually thought
we were going to probably you know, do pretty well.
We were armed with a althought our equipment which has
been sent over there, and a sort of a flight
briefcase I suppose with five thousand Wild Turkey CDs in
it EPs and we.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Took those over with us and we're going to sell.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Them at our gigs and all that sort of stuff,
and the radio stations that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Especially, still got about four thousand of them, right Carlos
Story show. We were in Edinburgh, we're having a great time,
We're doing very well.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
So he'd straight to Scotland. You're like, this is where
we go to make our break very.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Much, because we've been there before. We can do well here.
You know, a bit of a rock and roll scene
and they play you can play every night. A lot
of funny stories happen there. But I think that's another
episode on this deep dive in too Well too.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
I'm already sensing a part two.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Yeah, okay, but the part two will be the prequel.
As I say, we're going to focus.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
On the bitter call, thaw and breaking bed or Star Wars.
This is volume four, is it? No, I'd say the
Phantom Menace, the Heenus Menace, the Heenous Minus.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
So you land in Edinburgh, yes, And then we spend
about our six months or a year or so playing
music and Edinburgh doing pretty pretty well. We think, pretty cool,
and then we hear from another band that it's all
(03:55):
happening in France in the winter and you can get
gigs there, and they god of stupidly told us about this,
so we sort of shot over a couple of weeks
before them and stole their gigs, or so we thought
we had. We went over there and got there and
he drove the van all the way over and I
remember we'd get to France at the Alps Mirabelle okay,
(04:16):
and we pulling with the van and Matt apparently arranged
all these gigs for us, which we're great.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
We're going to start in a couple.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Of days, you know, and we'll have food and we'll
have money because we're literally broke as at this moment.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Show up to this bar to meet this guy.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
And he comes out and he's a bit cag and
he basically decided He says, look, I'm sorry, guys, I'm
not taking a band of the season. I'm just gonna
have a DJ. You know, that's DJs. You know, this
is back back then DJ was pretty bad, you know
what I mean. It's before DJs became cool.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Right.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
He was just a DJ, not a DJ, right, you know,
big difference from a DJ. And you know, so anyway,
the DJ took our spot, so we had no gigs
at all, and we had to sleep in the van
for a couple of days, and it was so cold.
We'd sleep on the band gear and at night all
the moisture from the day would freeze into sort of
(05:09):
like st stalet types of ice. In the van, it's
freezing big jackets on.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
And we had to take.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Turns to shoplift to go into like stores like a
super Marche. And I had this big sort of black
transcoat that you've walked around and you'd go to the
bread section get like trying to get like French breadsticks.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Right, because you's a fresh free streak sticks.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
But it's quite good for a jacket.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
You can put up here and as you know, someone
talks to you, you sort of like this the whole time.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
You know you've got sticks in there, so you walk around, you.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Can't really bend at your joints.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
But anyway, m story short. Where he got to the
stage where is where things got better and worse. Eventually
we met this this Singus guy called Peter Green, and
he goes, all right, he ran about three bars. I'll
give you a couple of gigs and I'll give you
some accommodation for a little while. I can't pay you yet,
but you can have your accommodation. And one condition. He
(06:03):
was an English guy.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
You've got to play for my rugby team as well,
you know, because he saw.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
We were Kiwis and Greg, my brother is quite big.
I wasn't so bad. I was probably the worst at rugby.
Matt was quite good at rugby, you know. So and
three Kiwis in your team with all.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
These muppets that couldn't play at all was a big deal.
So we had to play rugby.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
So we were professional rugby plays well before a lot
of the the all blacks back then were if you
know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
So you're hit of your time, really with you anyways?
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Yeah, you know, we didn't have public contracts those guy.
You know, I wasn't trying to get us abatagaloth you had.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
To reduce reduced odds of hypothermia from sleeping in a van.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Well, that's right. We now we had accommodation. But this
is where it starts yet sort of bedding down a gig.
Yet you know, all our man is still sitting there.
I was standing one of whether we even still could.
But we had confidence, as you do when you're when
you're young, in your twenties, early twenties. And I remember
one ridiculous night was which was probably the start of
(06:59):
the beginning of the end when I reflect on it.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Was Christmas Eve, I believe, and all the a gig
at this point.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
No, we didn't even have a gig on Christmas Eve.
And everybody else is starting.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
To filter into mary Bell and to this town, and
it's starting to get busy. And I think we've scraped
enough money together somehow for our Christmas dinner, which involved
a pre cooked chicken, a bottle of champagne, cheap bottle
of champagne, maybe a dozen beers.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
And a bottle of bourbon. And we're in this apartment
a brother who was kind of them, I would say,
not the leader of the band musically I'd argue that
was maybe me, but certainly the boss of us.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
So he is my older brother, so you know, he
told us how to behave I suppose, and I remember
him saying, whatever you do, guys, you know, once we're
doing this bourbon and stuff, do not end up down
at that club place down the road where there's a
big party going on, because you know, you make arsesself
and it's not gonna be good for us. It's not
gonna be good for our residency that which are going
(07:56):
to get. Whatever we do, we drink the alcohol, have
our Christmas stuff, and we all stay here. We say, okay,
sure and fair enough.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Have the beers, have the bourbon.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
We ended up well, there's one thing in your mind,
isn't it?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
And that's the place that that was last mentioned to
you as you started drinking the beers in the bourbon.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I guess how do you know that? Exactly?
Speaker 4 (08:14):
So we ended up down there, Matt and I not
Greg at this big venue where there's all these these
people of the coming to town and it's a massive
sort of place and there's a big Christmas.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Party going on there.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Don't know how we got on there, obviously, quite ineberated,
and they had a huge fish tank in there. But
like I don't know how many of the listeners as
viewers have been to Mermaids. I've heard of it, Yeah,
with a big sort of indoor fish tank, but it's
big on that. Somehow Matt and I ended up swimming
in a fish tank. So one man up where having
Christmas dinner, but you know, chicken, bourbon and champagne next.
(08:48):
The next thing, we're both swimming in a massive fish
tank and find of all these well to do people
at this at this place.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Which is pretty much what Greek was was hoping. You, Yeah,
wouldn't I mean, I don't.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
I don't think Greg could have foreseen or imagined that
there was even a fish tank there, but he had
already imagined something bad was going to happen.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
It was pretty much worse than he could have possibly imagined.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
I don't know if it was.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Worse than he could have imagined, but it was early
on par of what he could have imagined. Probably different
than he imagined because as I say, he didn't know
the fish tags were there, but he knew something would
have happened.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Next thing, we know the John Darmrie, the John Dams.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Come running into the place to arrest us. That's the
that's the police, and that's the local police. So that
Matt jumps out, I jump out and he runs off
for wet of course, now I jump out. I mean
I'm behind Matt. But I get caught by the police.
You know, one of us had to get caught. Matt
somehow escapes, goes back to the apartment, and but they
just forget about me.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
What's the worst that could happen?
Speaker 5 (09:45):
It was probably a bit of bourbon there No, there wasn't.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
That's the whole point.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
You know, if there was burber left, it in't think
would be in the fish tank, right, I end up
I'm in the local Mirabelle police cells.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Might just stop you there, just for a mile at
the moment, just to just together your thoughts, and we'll
come back to the marrabel police hous. Thanks man, welcome
back to page Talk and we're deep in them. Not
the origin story, but the where the wheel started to
(10:21):
fall off of your Bandly Wild Turkey. You were just
in a fish tank. Yeah, this is a disastrous end
of the band.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Really.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Yeah, I found myself in a giant fish tank at
a function center. On a Christmas Eve, I get arrested
by the local French police and I find myself in
a jail cell by myself.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
The concrete jail cell at the local police station.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Probably when they're an hour or so so I'm starting
to realize or god, this is this is not good,
but probably thinking they're gonna let me out.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
The next morning.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Anyway, then you can imagine what would have happened. And
then the office next door the French police let's let's
have some fun with this guy. So one of them
walked in with a cup of coffee. You know, I said, oh,
this is great, it's like for me, you know. But
as he gets to me, he just tips it on
the floor on the concrete.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Like, you know, to wind me up.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
You know, you're obviously trying to antagonize me. And and
now obviously I would just go okay, and you do,
you wouldn't rethink, but when you're twenty four, you don't
think that video and then then he tips it on
the floor and gives me this big wet mop you
know those stringy mops, Yeah, you know, the heavy ones
water and it's got this long sort of ropy string
(11:31):
on it gives it to me and says.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
You know, clean it up, and I'm going, nah, nah,
you know, you.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Mob it up, and he sort of pushes me or something,
and I've got the mop and so I sort of
had him with the mop and he freaks out.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
He's wearing a cell here in the corner and he's.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Coming at me, and I so whack him on the
side of the head with the wet mop and will
a bit a bit of way to that when the
fingerbal I imagine, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
So two or three others come in, and I'm not exaggerating.
I think there was had to be at least three
of them at the stage, and at this.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Point it sounds like quite the kuff coming in to
the cell.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
To address with this this issue. So now I'm in
a real situation because they're coming in to give me
a hiding coffee on the floor. One guy's got a
sore air, and as they come closer, I've got no
choice but to keep them off. So I'm going boof
to HLP one guy in the nose, the other on
the side of the head. This guy, you know, so
I'm going pop. They're getting closer and closer, you know,
(12:31):
so I'm getting back into the corner, but mop hitting
them and you know there's a bleeding nose here and there.
It's full on and they're getting pretty pied off. Now,
the psycho with the with the mat mop.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
They get me to the.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Corner obviously, and I've got no room anymore to wield
my and I'm not trained with the wet mop.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
You know, I don't have much lucks, no, but when
you're in that situation, you know, you fight your way
out of a corner. I suppose. But as a matter
of time, they got me on the ground and you know,
probably gave me a little bit of a working over.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
But then of course next morning, as I suspected, they
woke up, I think they maybe gave me a cup
of cofee this time for real, and they said, you
can go. So I want a way, you know, walk
all the way back up to where we were staying
and find my way back into the apartment.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
They go, where do you mean? Uh? I want to know?
You know, that was that was our first experience with
the local French police, not the last, unfortunately, So yeah, yeah,
can run in.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
So now we're actually we've started to get a few gigs,
so we're starting to play around a lot of different
bars and make a bit of a name for ourselves.
So we're ski during the day, you know, and have fun.
Then we'd play music at night. Pretty awesome lifestyle for
you know, people out at that age. We didn't even
have ski passes.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
But just it was everything was a bullshit sort of thing.
But we're doing hipster skiing and play music at night
in different venues.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
We're sort of escalated. We've got to a stage where
we had a residency at this sort of bar. By
this stage, we'd had a few noise complaints literally just
too loud. A few complaints were about the music itself, but.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
So we're sort of on the radar of the police.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
But then we heard, I don't know how we got
onto this, that Jimmy Barnes was in Merrabelle on holiday
kind of thing sort of thing, and we said, wow,
we should get hold of him because we're Kibi's. He's Aussie,
he'd love us, and he'd love us, he'd love to
come and play with us, you know. So somehow we
worked out he must be staying at this nice hotel,
(14:28):
so we contacted reception van out he was there.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
His old school, you know.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Detective Work wrote him a note saying, hell, look, we've
got a gig on tonight or tomorrow night.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
At our local place. Come on down and we play
some songs with us. We're by a few beers. Kind
of thing, is right, And he got back said, nah, sorry, guys,
I'm just kind of busy. I'm here on holiday.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
Not very rock and roll.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
That's not rock and roll, you know, surely. So then
we said, oh bugget, we'll try again. So this time
we send him a signed copy of our sign copy
of our like send ap, but we send.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Him a bottle of bourbon I rune a pier as well.
And how could he say no to that?
Speaker 5 (15:07):
You know, now you've only got four thousand nine exact.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Way you got to get rid of them. But for
some reason he got back and said, look, yeah, maybe
I might. It was very weak maybe, you know. That
was enough for us. So we told everyone in the
whole area. Of course, he's coming down.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Every Aussie, every Kiwi in the hole within you know,
one hundred klumeters square radius was all went down to
this venue and we're there.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
We were playing away for about a good hour and
a half. He's not there, you know, oh this is
pretty bad. We're playing our.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Ship and we're sort of given up, and was probably
the last half hour the thing. All of a sudden
someone walks in.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And he walks in the bar, so the door opens
and a blizzard comes and then everyone turns.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
In the movie, that's what happened, you know, Yeah, you know,
the music stops and he sort of walks in kind
of thing, but probably.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Wasn't quite like that.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
He came in and we tak the break, went down
there to be with him and said, would you want
to get up and do a couple of songs? Is
you know he has much Tommy Barnes pressing year me
And my impression was he was such a good guy
even just to talk to his very sort of charismatic
and fun even if you weren't going to do a
good them. You know, I just enjoyed having a few beers. Actually,
(16:22):
so we had to get back up. It's quite follong
for me.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
I was a singer in the band to playing bass.
I was never that confident that anyway.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
But I've got to get back up both.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
But and I'm up there now doing I'm singing Stone
songs everything you know, and I'm asking Jimmy Barns to
watch and come up, and we sort of waved him
and he comes up, and obviously we don't know that
many cultures or Jimmy Barnes songs.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
We I think we learned a couple just in case
he did come. And then we're just doing sort of stones.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
And all sort of rock and roll stuff, and he
got up and pretty much just sang our set and
our keys as well. His keys abound to be different
than mine, but he didn't care. That's what I was
so impressed about it. He didn't really care what key.
We'll be playing something like home kun Woman or something,
(17:10):
so this we do it and go, yeah, they'll lose,
and he might be singing it three times higher orlthougher
than he was used to.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
But he's that's the kind of a former his he
was just a professional.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
He'll go for it.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Yeah, but without a professional, without you go yeah, because
other people go no, I'm not going to sound good
on that whatever, you know, what the hell?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
You know, your gig will just have some pup. So
that was really cool. So we're obviously in a bit
of a high. We played. I don't have ten songs
or something, and the night's over. By the stage.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
We've been cranking all the amps up all night because
you know, it's such a big deal for us, so
it's getting loud and runt it.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
We're on our last morning anyway with the stuff. First night,
have you drinks? He disappears, and.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Then of course we're thinking, great, we're packed the gear up.
We had this roady actually was quite funny.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Called Dez, the Scottish guy that we sort of met.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
It's a bit of an alcoholic. Ironically, he sort of
found us he was skiing. He said, look, I'll be
your roady.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
And he's a bit of a good looking guy. And
what he would do he would he would.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Shoup to the gigs with us in the van, help
us load all the gear and you know, we'll take
all the ampsy everything out. And but at the end
of the night he was comotosed and we had to
carry all the gear and him as well well.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
I couldn't work out whether it was making more work
for us or less.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
And plus he would have been spading all the girls
at the bar the whole night be forward, you know,
so it was a real liability. Yeah, good guy, Yeah,
I don't know how he put it into it, but
anyway we would have packed the gear and and him
the next day or maybe late that night. We're driving along,
please pull us over with the van of course, it's
highly illegal or like sitting out in front of it.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
No snow tires or son registered. You know everything about
it that's wrong.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Well, all right, before we delve into part two of
Yorkafuffles with the the French Bends.
Speaker 5 (19:08):
Yeah, John Dan's will take another quick break and be
back right after this.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Nice all right, welcome back to Pay to Talk, where
we're delving deep into Lee's past with your band, your
former band, Yes, the.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Final days, the final days of when the band was
probably together. Uh why you know, it's much like the
Beatles when they broke up. You know, you can hear
different versions of why it happened. The similarities probably and they.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Probably least please assault with the breakup of the Beatles,
you would imagine. So yeah, yeah, a stick and running.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
So they said we're going to arrest you again because
the music was too loud and where they took us
back to our apartment where's our work permits?
Speaker 3 (19:58):
We didn't have any of that.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
We're going to legally, they're looking for drugs everything in
the bartment, which we really didn't have, but everything else gone.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Yeah, yeah, we'd sold them to desk, but the no. Yeah,
it's just basically everything about us operating there was sort
of illegal, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
But we're on a bit of a high. So they
arrested us again, put us in that cell. I spent
time and earlier on the Yeah. Yeah, but then they
say you're pretty much getting deported.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Was the mob still there?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Good question. I think with the three of us might
be on to fight our way out.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
We each had them mop I remember, so it's a
bit vague, but this is where it gets confusing.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
We had to go to Geneva to go to court.
We got a trial and it that's really weird.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Here they said the three of verse and they say
one of you can stay out of prison and send
get your equipment and arranged to get it sent home.
But if you're still in France in a week and
we catch you, you'll go to prison for five years
or something.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
So that was kind of you know, there's a lot
of pressure. Greg my brother, was the guy that ended
up having to do that because he's probably qualified to
do it. Matt and I have to court.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
They said that you two are going to this and
so prison until such time that we can deport you
and it can take this along with this song whatever
to be okay. Cool, So we're in this van again
or all these John Darms and just us too. It's
like a prison van. We're driving along and by this stage,
remember Matt's Cobby is younger than me, but you know
he's he was pretty worried.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Put it that way. You remember, I'm hardened.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
I've been your in and out of prison.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
I've been inside before.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
So we're driving on there and it's quite worried, going
can we're going to this jail again. We provis going
to be like I said, honestly, don't worry about it.
It's just going to be like you know, departure lounge
kind of place you just won't be able to leave
until you can get your plane. Okay, it's cool. Pull
around the corner, you know, I have to come hours
to this place. And they see this big castle, barbed
(21:56):
wir and everything, and it's just like cold. It's castle
from a movie.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
And you go through a big gate. It's like all
those movies in.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
One and there and we've got a little bit of
bandgear like my guitar, and he had some jump sittings.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
They's some sort of stuff.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
I don't know how that worked, and use it to
trade for protection.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Well we got worse than that.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
So it is a sort of an immigration prison. So
you've got to remember every single other person in there
is well from Africa, if you know what I mean,
So from Algeria, Morocco, probably living in France for fifteen
twenty years, probably even have families there.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
So you bring a bit of diversity to the present.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Oh yeah, well you know, you know, to use the
word we're the only white guys there.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
But that wasn't a worry for me. It just it
just context of why people are there. So these are
sort of people that would get picked up on the
street in Paris and go where's your papers, you know,
and they get sent to this and sent back home
to Sierra Leone as.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Something whereas a war going on. They don't want to
go back there.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Because it's serious stuff, so they'll do anything not to
be going home. By this stage, we'll be doing anything
to go home, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
We just want to get the hell out of there.
I don't think we knew how long.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
We're going to be that so could I'd be a week,
ten days or fourteen, and that thing would end up
being at fourteen. And we're in one little cell with
another guy. There's cockroaches and stuff in there and on
your little beds. You know, you try and keep busy
during the day. There's one phone in the corner and
the and the corridor, and everyone's on it trying to
get a hold of their embassies, trying to go, you know,
(23:25):
get me out of here, or we're trying to ring
you know, friends in London to try and help us
to get hold of New Zealand the embassy, to get all,
you know, that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
But other than that, it wasn't too bad.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
You didn't have to walk straight in and pick the
bigger sky and punch them and try and get protection.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
It's weird.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
It certainly crossed your mind whether you should be doing
that kind of stuff. But then it started to get
quite weird because the food was okay, and I remember
about the second day, everybody else goes on a hunger strike,
you know, because they don't want to get deported, so
they're doing a hunger strike. And people come up to
us and go, are you hunger striking? We're going why,
(24:07):
why would you? It's the only good thing about the place,
you know, it was the red and cheese. You wouldn't
want to go on a hunger strike. But it start
off there's about thirty guys hunger striking, and after about
third day's twenty five. Then about the fourth day it's
early twenty got down to after eight days is only
four guys hunger and the hunger strikers.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
It's quite good because you can have their food as well. Yeah,
it all comes out.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
It's like a bit of a buffet.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Yeah, yeah, Toby say, you sort of get more. The
last thing we're going to do is hunger strike. But
what the cops there were quite full on the John
Dames are quite full on them. They're like the special police,
the ones that go to the trouble places like in
New Mia or you know around the world when there's
riots and stuff that they're all quite big and this
kind of stuff. But they found out we were kiwis
(24:50):
once again, and it's that classic thing, ah all blacks,
all this sort of stuff. And one of them was
having their birthday one night when he's John Darams, And
they said, are you guys those musicians.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
They they got arrested. You've got to come down and
play music for us. What.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
So they get us out of our cell and walk
us past all the other inmates kind of thing. We're
without guitar and that, and everyone's boo and stuff, and
we go down and we have to we go through
the gate through where the guards are sitting, and we've
got to do like an imprompture gig and entertain them.
And they're giving us this like whiskey or some passed
(25:25):
these stuff stuff to drink as well. But the problem
there is you do that and then you've got to
walk back past all the all the other prisoners, like
we're getting special treatment kind of thing. Then the other guards,
the other chef heard what had happened, so oh that's
sound a fine. We'll get the matter as well. So
the next night they got us out again to do that.
Actually got more and more confident each day.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Well, I was going to say, the longer and then
surely you work your way up the ranks, yeaheah, because
people leave, and.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
We were there for a little while, and I remember
people on the phone who come up. You just hang
up and you push them off and you try and
use it because if we didn't, you'd really get pushed around.
But then came the day that we got deported. This
is where it gets totally bizarre.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Again. We were at Leon prison.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Just some context again, I've googled the place since the
actual building you know of it, and during World War
Two it was actually used.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
As the Gestapo.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
The Germans used it as one of those the Nazi
kind of interrogation centers and stuff would be people killed
there that the same building, So that's what it was.
So when we had to leave, they said you guys
can go now. I said, cool, where's our van? You're
taking us to the airport. We getting deported said, nah,
you're flying out of Paris.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
You're a Leon.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
You've got to catch a flight from Leon to Paris
to catch your flight. We've only got your flight from
Paris back to New Zealand. Said you does this work?
So well, it's up to you.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
You've got to get there and to port yourself more
or less.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Because it's kind of like prison Break meets the Amazing
Race literally, like.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
The Amazing Rass.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
So if we could have actually disappeared off into Leon
then again and taken our chances, but if we got
caught present five years kind of thing. We end up
talking to a woman, a laundry woman who's running the
laundry at the prison, and she sees us we'll get
upset and explain that. She said, I'll get give you
a left. So she gives us a left and a
(27:08):
little sort of a little tiny little French car with
all our bass and guitars. So she drives us to
Leon airport. Somehow we must got a flight to Paris
airport to catch and his.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Own flight I think it was.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
But we're like in a queue like you would be
checking in a bit, like you know, you're running late
for before your flight. You're going, hey, supporter, we're getting
deported here, you know, as oppose our flight's gonna leave.
And ivan we get through, and I went nuts at
some again another John darm who was and he pulled
a machine gun out and because we just we're.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
At our wits end at the stage and you're on
a hat trick for prison here.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Oh yeah, so we're just how is this going to
get any worse?
Speaker 4 (27:47):
So we check in and so we get deported so
they take a passport's off us again because we had them,
and then we get taken off into another room again
where we're not allowed to leave.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
So we almost back into the jail inside the airport
when we've been free up to that point.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
We're not going anywhere. Let us just get on the plane,
and I think, what happens? They give you sports to
the supposed to give the passports to the pilot when
you get deported. Eventually, you know, it's about an eight
hour wait in the airport, and we get onto the
plane and I think someone gave us a bit of
a wink, the pilot or hostess or something, and just
and gave us.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Our passports that you know there you goo u sweet.
We went to the back of the plane and just
sat there. Whoa, you know, just so relieved all of
a sudden, like a normal person. And they come to
the drink. Surely anything to drink? Whoa, yeah, just leave
the vote climb so yeah, yeah, totally sorry, and then yeah,
land and god there's blue off that but yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
Almost like I go, you finally an international war.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Totally and until you've taken off, Like those movies Midnight
Express Memories on them, on the bus, trying to get
on the on the plane until you've actually left.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Surely it's not over it. It can only get worse. Yeah,
it's bizarre. It actually wrote it all down on the
back of all this paperwork ahead in prison.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
How long were you and then in total there with
you do I was Matt.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Fourteen days or something.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
You know, it's not long in the big scheme of things,
but when you really just getting deported, you know, it's
it was long enough.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
Tell you what I think. I think you need to
write a twel all memoir.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Yeah, well this is it. And then of course we
got back to New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
We sort of foiled as a grade was already back
by then, I think, and with all the CDs being sold,
and basically it was just take a bit of a
break from the band a yeah, okay, And.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
This is where you would ask the Wild Turkey reunion.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Yes, that's right. So we're getting back together, going on
tour everywhere by France. Now I can still go back. Actually,
the weirdest part was, remember I mentioned that Judge in Geneva,
he had to sort of make this official Readail writes,
and he goes, look, I hope you don't have a
bad impression of France and you come back and see
us sometimes what we can come back? Yeah, of course,
can just do it properly. Oh god, here we go.
(30:02):
So the whole thing seemed futile and a waste of time, but.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
There you go. That was it.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
Well what a story.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yeah, Ben and Joe not in France. But that's all
we got time for. Thanks for joining us for the
trip down memory lane or I guess triggering PTSD from
Lee's days in a band in the nineties.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
It's cathartic man. Thanks thanks for putting up with that. Listens, But.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Yeah, I hope that gives some sort of idea and
some stage maybe we can talk about that now the
band began the origins.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
Yes, maybe one day we can get Jimmy Barnes on
the show as well.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Yeah, and let's play some while turkey out the other
one's better.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
Yeah, it didn't sound like good
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