Peter Flierl - New Music from Plan B Australia

Peter "Sneaky Pete" Flierl of the internationally-acclaimed Rock-n-Soul band Plan B Australia joins host Chris Cordani in The Outhouse Lounge. ]

Plan B, named after the classic Dexy's Midnight Runners song, has a new album which quite defines the band's nature: "HELLO, DEAR STRANGER" Peter talks about the album, the band's origin and its travels around the world -- even into far-reaching areas of Thailand, Vietnam and Mongolia.

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Welcome to the Outhouse Lounge when werelax and talk about stuff. I'm Chris
Gordany, your host. Joining mein the lounge is a man who has
traveled around the world with his reallycool band. I've pantemon a past show
it several times. They've and Imean around the world. I'm not talking
about just the English speaking countries.These guys have been all over East Asia,

(00:26):
smaller countries around the world, thelarger venues, and they've played with
a huge band over the years.I like the name Plan B because my
life has always been a Plan B. I have with me the frontman,
the little leader of the group thatis sneaky Pete Peter Flarell. Welcome to
the Outhouse Lounge. Thanks very much. Chris's scrit debate. Hear with you

(00:47):
on the Outhouse Lands the first timeon the new Foemen. That's right,
you've been on the Revenge of theEighties show several times. I might ask
some of the same questions I askedbefore for the new audience. But you
do have a lot of great thingshappening. You have a new video the
you're you're promoting the one of thenewest album. Hello dearest Stranger. We've
talked about this before, but you'veyou have a new video out for this

(01:11):
and I kind of like that,but it's pretty cool. It's called New
Ways to Love You, so let'sget in there. Yes, our latest
video, New Ways to Love You, was filmed during our recent tour when
we returned back to Cambodia and alsoincluded Lao on on this particular tour for
plan be the first post COVID tourif you like, Magical Mekong tour we

(01:32):
called it. And yeah, Ihad a great time and filmed a lot
of footage during our travels there forthis clip, and we've got another another
clip in the wind as well fromthis particular tour, and hoping to do
clips for all the all the tracksfrom the Hello Dear Stranger album, which
I just realized it is almost twoyears since it's been released, but it's

(01:53):
our latest album at this stage.I know you have a lot of great
footage, Like you just said,where is some of this beautiful country?
A lot of this was on thetrain trip that we had, the first
train trip I guess that we madein Cambodia from non Pen heading up towards
Batonbong I think it was. Andthere's a lot of the footage with the

(02:15):
brass players there in the paddy fields. That was down south in Campot,
and then we've got other footage therenow with the boat which is on the
Mekong and that's in Luang Prabang,the ancient capital of the Lao Republic.
Yeah, I see that, Pete. You were on the boat, you

(02:36):
were on railroad tracks too. Thatmust have been fun. Absolutely. I
mean it was great just to Iguess mix with the locals there as well.
We're sort of on the on thetrain there playing the recording and getting
some some footage with the locals aswell as always a great to mix with
the people there, and we hadreally good reaction from the ex pats over

(02:57):
there as well as many of theCambodians and the Lao people themselves. That's
interesting because when artists say they're goingon a world tour, they're usually saying
we're gonna hit the US, we'regonna hit Europe, we're gonna hit maybe
a little part of North Africa anddefinitely Japan or somewhere around there. But
when you say world tour, I'mhearing things like Mid Africa. I'm hearing,

(03:21):
I'm hearing some of the smaller placesin Eastern Europe, and I'm hearing
I love this Mongolia and as yousaid, Cambodia, allows Timeland, these
are really exotic places. Music hasbrought you into some really interesting cultures.
And and how's the reception Because thismusic is planned being music. You're you're

(03:43):
a you're a huge band, youhave that rock and soul. What's the
reception in these countries that don't generallyget this music down there? That's exactly
the reason why we go to thesecountries. I guess we're all all to
guys. We enjoy our music somuch. We actually toured with nine people
on the latest tour, so wehad a four piece brass section instead of

(04:04):
the usual three piece brass section.So just I guess the novelty, the
excitement of seeing nine performers on stageat once. And all of our music,
I would say, is very melodic. Be at a rock tune,
be at a ballad, be ata mid tempo number, or as the
latest tune has got some reggae tonesabout it as well, So yeah,

(04:28):
it's something that everyone can relate to. It's very danceable so that that all
works in our favor, and theguys don't stand like statues on stage.
They all have their own movements choreographedto a fine degree there though not exactly
to a fine degree, but yeah, no, it's a it's a visual,
visually stimulating thing and the music goesdown very well as well. What

(04:49):
are some of your favorite venues andlet's see a police say Cambodia or a
Mongolia. That's you're putting out allthe difficult questions, mate, the look.
I very much enjoyed our tour justPride of COVID. When we went
to Camboia, we played a coupleof the hard rock cafes there, particularly

(05:11):
the one up in Sea and Reapup in northern northern Camboi there where Anchor
what is located, and that wasa great outdoor gig. There a lot
of passing traffic and people coming tosee us. But there's a lot of
smaller venues that we play at whichyou know, I've never heard of before.
But it's every every tour that Iorganize, I'm making contacts with new

(05:32):
people and getting new venues and soforth. And yeah, even looking hopefully
going back to Camboia again even towardsthe end of next year to try and
capitalize on our the in rows thatwe've made there so far. But yeah,
it's it's the music, I guesslends itself to our good vibes.
You know, it's it's always summerover there as well. So yeah,

(05:57):
we're very happy with the response weget there everywhere where it happened. You've
been yet that you want to go? We haven't that we've been to the
UK. I'd love to come tothe US and to Europe as well.
Again, I mean now with COVIDbacking down a bit there, we've got
everyone's coming out of the woodwork.They are tolls happening everywhere. So it's

(06:19):
with us, it's not so mucha matter of having to make a profit
or anything. We just enjoy travelingthe world, playing to people who enjoy
hearing our music and sort of gettingto new audiences and so forth. But
we'd love to do a couple ofcountries in Europe and also the States.
It's that world all possible, andeven if we were supporting someone that would
be that would probably be the idealway to go. Sneaky Peters with me

(06:44):
Peter Flarell from Plan B Australia,not to be confused with a rapper.
Of course, it's a huge band. We'll talk about the inner workings of
the band and just a little bitin the origins and everything else. But
the album, it's it's Hello,Dear Stranger. You released it back in
twenty twenty one. It cannot havebeen it could not have been easy to
promote the album during those corvid luckdownyears, especially you know places like Australia.

(07:08):
I mean, America was bad enough, Europe was bad enough. Australia
had very strict rules. There werethere were thrown people in jail over over
getting out to stay during curfew.All of that was happening. Yeah,
all of that and more. Look, it was it was difficult to promote.
I mean, we we have areasonable following on Facebook and we we

(07:30):
try to, I guess do aclip for every song on the album.
And we've got the luxury of ourtrombone player, Patrick Stapleton, who who
dabbles in this to to a verydarge degree, so we're able to actually
do that. So being that itisn't a I guess we'd love to I
guess play in front of someone who'sgoing to discover us one day. But

(07:53):
you know, in the meantime,we just enjoyed playing it, you know,
bringing our music while there's people buyingstuff, buying our music, and
you're going to come and see usthere. I think we'll just keep going
until the next COVID. That isthe good thing. At least you can
download music during COVID. At leastyou can create. That's another thing.
A lot of artists locked themselves intotheir studios or lock themselves into their homes

(08:16):
and just started writing a little moreand gotsu utilize the solitude, or utilize
the fact that they really couldn't getaround to push forth their creative juices and
promote the music they already put out. That's the good thing. Imagine the
lockdowns without the Internet. That wouldbe horrible for musicians. It was bad
enough already. Now you've hit thenail on the head. There many many,

(08:41):
I guess many bands. A lotof them were streaming live I guess,
doing little little constants from their homesand things like that as well.
But yeah, so that it didmushroom into a whole lot of ideas,
new ideas and of ways that bandscan sort of I guess still peep in
the in the spotlight to something thegreat and yeah, now we're at the

(09:03):
stage where I guess is going tobe a flurry of activity in all sorts
of wis the bands around the world. Peter Flarell of Plan B is with
me here on the Outhouse Lounge.Peter, let's talk about the band Plan
B intrigued me back in the daywhen I was doing Revenge of the Eighties
radio. Some of my friends,couple of my friends from the Dexi's Midnight

(09:26):
Runners group and now Dexi's group werewe're putting out your videos and Jim and
Sandra Patterson, who were I seetheir fans of years as well. They
were They introduced me to your band, and thanks to Sandra, I got
you on and it was I've knownyou ever since and I had a great
time. But for our Outhouse Loungeaudience, tell us how Plan B was

(09:50):
formed, and yes, Plan Bis called Plan B for a reason,
right, the original plan they formedin the in the mid eighties, and
the name comes I guess it's Ihad another band, an eight piece band
called Dell Web Explosion, and thatdid the same thing that Dexi's did basically

(10:11):
splintered down the middle, and soPlanned B I shows as a name as
being it was a second second choiceafter Dell Web explosion. But also it
was a song by Dexi's Midnight Runnersthat I absolutely loved at the time that
they put out there, and itwas I think the first or the second
single with the second version of Dexi'sMidnight Runners, and that song was of

(10:35):
course Planned B and were still occasionallyplayed that as well in our repertoire and
it's on one of our CDs aswell, our our own version there and
very kindly the trombone solo provided byJim Patterson himself, And yeah, you
mentioned Jim and sand Sandra is abit of a I guess, been very

(10:58):
kind to the band. She's abit of a movers acre in those fields,
and very grateful to her for introducingus to you and giving us,
I guess the opportunity for Plan Bto to reach a larger audience than we
would have been otherwise been able todo. So yeah, we've been very
very grateful for the support and wecatch up with them every time we've we've

(11:18):
done two UK tours now and catchup with them every time there and they're
living up north, up in thetop of Scotland there at the moment,
so yeah, it's always great tosee them. And yeah, sand has
introduced us to many people. Encodingyourselves, The Dexie's song Plan B has

(11:39):
affected lives in many ways. Yours, Well, it's the band's name.
Me. I can't go to abusiness meeting without some without some gay saying
here's what happens regular a business meeting, whether it be on Zoomer in person.
I cannot resist when somebody in thegroup says, well, this didn't
work, let's go with a PlanB. I just can't resist shouting Jimmy
after words, I know exactly whatyou're talking about, mate, And I

(12:03):
watched movies the number of times youhear geez, we've got to have a
Plan B. And I said jimAnd I just imagine the trump bone solow
in my head. Yeah, yeah, he re recorded it for us,
a version for us, And yeah, Trullion debtor to him for the time

(12:26):
and effort he put into to helpus with that, And yeah, will
forever be grateful. Are a oneof the games in your edies, Plan
B carried over to the current PlanB, or at least the reincarnation we
started that some years ago. Thereare basically three including myself. There are
three members from the original Plan Bback in the eighties, from the lineups

(12:48):
back then. So it's basically myselfon bass, and we've got two of
the brass players, Patrick on tromboneand rob rob Williams as in let me
entertain, not to let me into tain you, Robbie Williams, but
our own Robbie Williams on trumpet.So yeah, three of us from back
then. But there's other people whoactually we knew back at that time and

(13:09):
they're they're in the band as well. Chris Cordonny here with Peter of Farrell
Snicky Pete of Plan B. PlanB Australia. That is I's how you
have to call yourself now because thatthe rapper is called Plan B. But
I still like just calling your PlanB. I haven't heard much of him
lately though, and I do liketo tell the story that when he was

(13:31):
actually born, I think we actuallyplayed our first festival in Australia, a
Biking Bikers Festival Pondi. Prior tothe UK Plan B guy being born.
So yeah, so we're sort oflaying claim to that name a little bit.
But yeah, I haven't heard hewas doing so well, but I
haven't heard much of lately of whathe's been doing, neither of I I

(13:54):
never give that any thought really,to be honest with you. Now we
have to look this stuff up.Great, now we have another I have
some more homework to do. Absolutelyfantastic. Thanks a lot, Pete.
I did enjoy and I still enjoythe rock and soul genre. It was
kind of a subgenre of rock andnew wave back in the late seventies early

(14:15):
eighties. You and Dexies have madethat live on. It's it's timeless.
I hate to say short lived,but it definitely was timeless. I guess
you can say the roots of rockand soul from back in the sixties were
extent, were extended into the eighties, but I just kind of consider them
a little a little different the wayyou guys did because there was a new

(14:35):
wave, modern rock aspect to it. It might far off or am I
just yapping on doing some words salador whatever you yeap you go on,
but absolutely hit. I couldn't agreewith you more. Yeah, it does
go back further, you know,the Northern Soul, the soul numbered Sam
and Dive that that that sort ofthing. But I also had a very

(14:58):
strong influence Dixi's was the number onefor me. But I also had one
on your side of the ocean aswell there which was southside Johnny and they
asbrey Dukes. I followed them rightfrom the outset, and I guess they're
very close to your neighborhood where youare at the moment too, where they
originated. They're from Jersey, notnecessarily close in relative and relative terms.

(15:18):
They were, though, I guessabout two and a half hour drive down
that way. There is a nicebowling alley down in Asbury Park. Asbury
Park was a birthplace or some greatmusic as well's. Yeah, that's a
pretty iconic place down there. Thereare there are certain places that are music
mecca's in every country in America.You'll see Detroit obviously, New York and

(15:39):
La are obvious choices. But youhad special music coming out of certain areas
of Texas. You also have specialmusic coming out of Athens, Georgia that
was pretty big in the in theat Ees. What are some of the
non obvious sources or non obvious nonSydney or Melbourne, I should say music
Mecca's in Australia. Who look,Adelaide is probably punching a little bit above

(16:06):
its weight. We've we've had afew of the big names that started up
playing in Adelaide, like you mayhave. I'm sure you've heard of Cold
Chisel, the Angels. They basicallyoriginated from down here. There's quite a
few other bands which when I guess, by the time they make it big
there they're relocated to places like Melbourneand Sydney. But yeah, the other

(16:33):
the other capital cities of Brisbane,Perth, they've all they've all produced a
reasonable number of bands that went onto become reasonably you know, big names
around the country, and some ofthem went over to the UK or the
US. I mean even LRB LRB, they little riverband. They a lot

(16:53):
of their members I think they actuallystarted off in that lade as well.
So yeah, I do forget thatthey're they're originating in Australia. They were
a fantastic band that it was theseventies. Yeah, out of the seventies,
yeah, yeah, a lot ofAustralian artists did not cross over that
much up until maybe the eighties,but you had your outliers like him.

(17:15):
I know, Rolf Harris had thatnumber one hit. I also one band
I loved out of the out ofthe Australian area. Actually, I believe
it was a New Zealand band,because that's where Murray Grintley is from.
The Underdogs. I've always enjoyed theUnderdogs, right, I can't profess to
know him. The two by themjust to strike rock and roll bandle well,

(17:37):
they were kind of, I don'tknow how to describe them. They
were kind of a pretty cool sixtiesrock band, but they weren't just straight
out normal. Here here, here'sthe thing. Murray Grindle was Monty Video
of Monty Video and the cassettes outof New Zealand. That was they had
that big song Shoop Shoop Diddy WopComma Come Away. So I had to

(17:59):
obviously go down the rabbit hole ofwho these guys really were back then,
and I found the Underdogs, Andwith the advent of the Internet, I
got to listen to more of theirmusic. Even so, it's just you
get down those rabbit holes and youfind some of this great music out of
there. You say, I wishthis stuff could have crushed over earlier when
I was a team You've given MasonHunway. There you go. You deserve

(18:19):
that, Peter. Let's get tothe album. We did talk about this
a little bit on Revenge of theEighties and past shows, but we're still
we'd like to talk a little moreabout with for our new audience. Obviously,
Hello Dear stranger, and I believethat title in and of itself.
Let's talk about the tracks, butthe title Hello Dear Stranger, in of

(18:41):
itself is what Plan B is allabout. In my opinion, you said
before you like going to small venuesaround the world. You like going to
large venues around the world. You'relike meeting the people. You don't sit
there and take your bus and goplay and leave. You like to shake
hands and talk with the both Xhats and people who are needed for those

(19:02):
countries and get their feelings about themusic, which enjoy a little time or
some food with them. That's that'sone way of saying hello, they're a
stranger. You're right. The actualthe actual line is taken from one of
the one of the tracks, danceFloor on the album which is I think
the opening line to the to thesong there. It's the band actually similar

(19:30):
to what you just said, theband greeting the people coming to see them
at the gig there and welcome,welcome, welcoming them to the dance floor.
And you know, you can comeand dance to the band or just
sit down and listen to the band, but we're here and we're going to
play for you. That's the clip, all right, And yeah, that's
one that really took off for us. Adrian Miller, our keyboard player,

(19:53):
came across a dance academy in Genevathat were on Facebook and I thought they
were called something like Dance Floor andhe sort of They had all these amazing
clips on there, and we contactedthem and said, look, we've got
the song about dancing and is itokay can we get permission to use snippets

(20:18):
from the various clips you've got there, And they very kindly said, well,
it's okay with them, we justneed to check with the various people
who have posted the clips there.And Patrick again, our trombone player,
was able to put put them alltogether and it's it's quite a I still
get a kick out of watching themoves there and it seems like they're all
dancing to our song there, andhe didn't slowly. Yeah, just happened

(20:41):
that way. And we had avery interesting experience when we on our last
tour in non Pen we played avenue there and there was a dance club,
a Latin dance club there, andthe members would go there and there
would be dat and Lance Latin notthat Lance Latin dance classes during the week

(21:03):
and they got up there during thesong dance floor and went through their Latin
dance moves there and it worked perfectly. And it's the first time I've seen
the whole dance Law completely full dancingto the dance flow there, So yeah,
that was pretty special. That worksall around. It works on so
many levels right there, the dancefloor, people on the dance floor,

(21:25):
the video, the clips were justperfect. So I guess anybody can dance
to dance floor. How about thatuniverse? Absolutely, Now there's some little
kids. There are amazing moves onthe dance Law. Peter. Let's go
with the rest of the album.We did talk about the video for your

(21:45):
most recent track, that of coursebeing New Ways to Love You. Let's
talk about the song itself, thoughthis is our first I guess departure or
delving into a reggae a reggae beatfor the It's very unusual plan We just
haven't we're not a reggae band,but it's we thought that when we wrote

(22:07):
the song there, we were tryingto work out which which genre, which
type of beat best suit of thesong there, so we went from a
very slow ballad to an uptempoe typenumber and then I can't remember whether it
was Adrian or someone else said look, let's try a reggae reggae beat there,
reggae and it worked and yeah,look, well we'll never be a

(22:32):
reggae band, but we like todabble in a few different styles of music
and it just works so well forNew Ways to Love You There, and
we're very happy with the outcome ofthe song. And it's a lovely clip
to of the It really captures thethe fun we had on the last tour
through Cambodia and Laos from reggae torack another dance song you had dance for

(22:56):
But let's go with the plan Bshuffle right, yeah, Plan Beam Plan
Beam meets zz top shouldn't I shouldn'treally say that feature guitars at the times
you feature the horns. This isa heavy guitar featured song. Yeah it
does. I mean there is anice little horns segment in the in the
middle and then haunts throughout. Butyeah, it's very much that that the

(23:18):
boogie, that shuffle type guitar soundwhich I wrote for the song a couple
of years back when I pen thenumber there and yeah it's it's a number
that's gone down extra well with theaudiences from from day one, from the
first day that we played it inthe set, and yeah, it's uh

(23:38):
yeah, I guess it's just anotheranother arrow in the quiver for plan B
there. In styles of music,we don't like to sort of go down
the one track completely. I dowant to note, just like the just
like the newer video of the NewWays to Love You, this features a
lot of footage out and in thewild, if you will. Besides the

(24:02):
way of action, I'm talking aboutthe nature of the trips you're taking from
city to city. Yes, yeah, look, I'm just just looking at
it now there. I've noticed thatthere is some some Asian stuff, but
I think Patrick's also incorporated some footagethere from the UK tour as well,
so it's yeah, it does capturemainly the one of our Asian tours,

(24:23):
which would have been the one justprior to COVID hitting well and proper in
Australia. But yeah, it's it'sit's yes, it's a Plan B shuffle.
It's it's the way we about thevarious modes of transport that we use
to get around on our tours there. What's the most interesting form? I

(24:44):
have you ever broken down in themiddle of a third world country? Emotionally?
Oh? Good? The bus waspretty safe, I guess, sorry
it was. Yeah, Look,we've we usually usually the local transport,
like the the larger buses there.I guess the most dangerous things have been

(25:06):
some of the some of the driversare a little bit don't worry too much
about the road rules and and youknow, they take take chances and everyone
seems to give way to each otheror everyone expects something, everyone expects the
unexpected from the other drivers there.So it's a little bit. Yeah,
I don't know if I'd like todrive personally over in the in Cambo a

(25:32):
year and paces like that. Imean I have done so in Vietnam.
But yeah, we haven't actually brokendown anywhere. We've we've but yeah,
we've had a few interesting close shavesthere, which uh, yeah, we
can't let your play without telling usabout at least one of them. Look,
there was one, I think itwas an evening bus when we were

(25:55):
turning Vietnam a couple of quite afew years ago, and basically there's been
rain, the rain has got tobe a little bit worse, and the
bus was coming down this track intoone of the villages between Ho Chi Minh
City and where we were heading toplay, and basically there was something was
happening down there, and he puthis skids on there and the bus actually

(26:18):
kept kept going, swerved to theside and kept going and cars went around
it type thing, and then westraightened up and kept going there. But
the thing to remember, you don'tsit in the front seat or just behind
the driver because you're you're you're dyingseveral times each trip. Then you know
you're seeing everything that's happened, andhow many close misses you have. It's

(26:38):
best to be up the back ofthe bus sort of snoozing or something like
that. So it's yeah, butit's cheap your phone on YouTube, a
lot of really interesting documentaries or topfive, top ten, top fifteen lists
the most dangerous roads in the world, and there are a couple in the
Pakistan or years an India area,and of course some of the obviously the

(27:00):
far East countries where you have todrive around a mountain and a thin road
and next there's no railing. Haveyou ever been on one of those?
Uh? No, no, no, I haven't. There's been railing sometimes
the railing you know, you're ina huge, big bus, but the
railing is only comes a foot offthe ground to things, so if it

(27:21):
tipped over, you'd go over theedge anyway, so the railing wouldn't make
any difference whatsoever. So but you'vebeen on one of those roads? I
guess I have been on one ofthose roads. Yes, yeah, over
in Pakistan, Yes, while touring. Have you ever been in I interviewed
J. C. Carol from theMembers a while ago on Revenge of the

(27:41):
Eighties, and I'd like to gethim on the lounge. One day.
He told me of a time hewas in his band was in a jail
in a foreign country. Did youwind up in a sticky situation or have
you ever wound up in a stickysituation. I don't mean jail or anything
like that, but something where yetyou just didn't feel right while in the
middle of a country you're not overlyfamiliar. Worth if you if you had

(28:04):
gave me an hour to think aboutit, I'd come up with something decent.
Look, the only thing I couldcome up with is I guess issues
surrounding and I think I can saymost people about visas, it depends on
how how how how how one theyare or how much how they please those

(28:25):
I mean, it's it's great thatin places like the UK when we go
there, they say, look ifif if, if you're not making money
enough money or whatever, if you'remaking it like we make so little money
anyway, and we've got eight ornine people touring, So it just doesn't
it doesn't go there. It doesn'tdeter us from from being able to travel

(28:48):
without having to pay substantial amounts ofmoney to get and like an entertainment or
a working visa or be sponsored bysomeone over there, because everything is sort
of runner the meal type. Youknow, I'll contact the hotel and make
the arrangements and it's sort of allword of mouth type things, no big
formal contract and you know this hugebig tour and the tour manager over there.

(29:10):
It's just me organizing it for theband. So yeah, there's a
few countries there, which I guessChina is probably the most interesting one with
The last time we toured there,we played a huge, big festival up
north near Inner Mongolia. It waslike a it was a three day festival,
like like China's Woodstock version of Woodstockthere. And this was interesting because

(29:34):
the Chinese authorities actually wanted all ofthe lyrics of the songs that we were
going to play there, and theywanted all the trans they wanted translations of
everything there so they could vet thatto make sure that there was nothing anti
establishment or we weren't saying things toincite anybody coming out of error. But

(29:57):
the thing is with China, Iguess the official line is we we we
shouldn't be we shouldn't be playing anyway, you know, But it's not really
enforced, or it wasn't enforced backthen. You know. I think there's
a lot of things have changed quitedramatically in China over the last number of

(30:18):
years there under under the guise ofdifferent things, and yeah, I don't
know whether you'd be able to getaway, but yeah, things will happen,
like major festivals will be canceled,you know, a week or two
before they're due to start, youknow, so they start all the tickets
there and the government will just clampdown for whatever reason. They don't have
to give a reason type thing.So it's can be very sticky situation there.

(30:41):
So when we have set these lyricsthrough, clearly the authorities knew that
we were there and we just hada visit of visa, but we were
playing at a big vestival. Wewere getting a little bit of remuneration but
nothing. The main thing they wereconcerned with was our lyrics. So yeah,
well the reason why ansked these questionsbecause they're noticed in the video for
Wish You Well. The story.The premise of the story is your band

(31:03):
goes missing in a video well byaliens, that's right, exactly. Well
there's an alien that drives down andyeah, we get zapped up and yeah,
disappear and we're taken to another planetbasically. So yeah, that was

(31:25):
an interesting storyline that the Patrick cameup with there for that one. But
yeah, that's quite an interesting clipthat one. I'm sure you're convinced by
playing for them, you convinced thealiens not to invade us. That's a
good thing. Yeah, Look,we did a free gig for them.
They were happy with that. Sotell us a little bit about the band,

(31:48):
the personnel involved. Look, theband is still a situation where I
think we're getting closer to more peoplebeing retired now and you having the time
to tour with Plan B. Butthere are still a number of people three
or I guess possibly fifty percent ofthe guys in the band that are still

(32:09):
working as well and and take timeoff to to to join Plan B for
for international touring. But yeah,it looks it seems to work well,
and it's it's always difficult to getthe whole band together for rehearsals. The
bulk of us are from Adelaide inSouth Australia, but we've got one of

(32:31):
our players at the other end ofthe country up in Queensland. But he's
a that's Cameron McCracken Smith, whois our rock and roll flugel horn player
and horn player had a great flugalhorn solo and mello yellow. So there
was a horn player, Yes,that's we need. There are a few,

(32:53):
a few weshmans we need more inmusic. Flubal horn is one of
them, but as soon as theother. Yeah, well look, I'm
sure flugal horn's going to go downwell if we get to Switzerland, you
know, up up there in theout somewhere. So yeah, I like.
I like the idea. I reallydon't it ends you have a nice
horn section, but yeah you can. You can only go so far with

(33:15):
trumpets and uh and trumpets, saxesand trombones, which are great. Those
are three gray instruments. But somebody'sgot to throw a tuba in there somewhere.
Somebody has to throw a flugal horneror something like that. Yeah.
I think Patrick Patrick spin pushing meto write a song where he can play
the tuba instead of the trombones.So yeah, fun fact on the tuba.

(33:37):
I I don't want to jump inon you know, I want to
hear the rest of this part becauseI like the idea. I wanted to
jump in because I saw a videoand it was a live performance video from
Blood, Sweat and Tears. Itdid his performance of Spinning Wheel and they
had a guy playing tuba in theband. For that particular performance, and
he had a really cool tuba solo. Ah okay, okay that to me,

(34:00):
Yeah, I love Lucretia mckevil.That that was a great song that
they had a follow up. AndI know they did tour back here a
few years ago, just prior toCOVID and that was a band where I
did contact the venue. I wantedthought they might want us to do the
support for them, but that one, it's probably too many members up on
stage there, so we did.We didn't get that one. Yeah.

(34:22):
Hey, that's the tough thing abouthaving a huge band. It's hard to
get you in some of the smallplaces, and it's hard to kind of
bring you around on tour. Itmust be difficult to coordinate with all those
people, but you do it.Yeah. Look, it's a labor of
love for my very much, formyself and for a lot of the guys

(34:45):
in the band as well. ButI guess it says something. It's a
testament to the their love of wantingto play wanting to play music, and
and I guess the bulk of themreally liked to travel to see new countries
or even to go of the samecountries as well, because you know,
you do meet, as you said, the local people there. You you

(35:07):
go to countries, I mean Westand US. What Western Eastern Europe would
be the same too, a lotcheaper than the western Western Europe side there,
so it'd be easier to get around. You know that the combination costs
are cheaper, the foods cheaper,the beer is cheaper and everything. Yeah,
so yeah, I'm very lucky thatthe guys do. They all enjoy

(35:30):
that. So that's that's certainly abig incentive there and for them to keep
going with the band sort of stilltrying to break it to make it.
People are watching the video or listeningto this on wherever they get their podcasts,
and I call your sneaky pet everyonce in a while. But again

(35:51):
I have to ask, how didyou get the nickname snyd? This one's
this one's always embarrassing. We'll haveto ask back back in the day when
I when I had a day job, I worked for the Australian government and
I was actually on posting in China, working out of the embassy in Beijing
there and a couple of us decide, look, we've got to play music

(36:14):
in China here and we actually didform a band, three of us at
the embassy, and then we gota lady in, a Chinese lady to
play drums for us here who waswith one of the famous famous bands,
actually with an all girl band calledCobra, and my wife actually comes from
that from that band as well.She's a bass player there. So we

(36:35):
formed a band which we called wedecided to call the Vodka Gods because just
a casual a glass of vodka wasdrunk at our at our rehearsals, and
so we thought, look, we'vewe've got to take this to the next
level there, and we'll come upwith stage names for everybody. So our
leads, our guitarist, he becameSexy Enrique, our lead vocalists became Backdoor

(37:02):
Eugene. And they actually wanted togive me another name. They wanted to
call me pants Down Pete, andI said, no, no way,
I can't go as pants down Pete. This I offered them, Look,
make it sneaky Pete. Okay,I'm happy to go with Sneaky Pete.
And that's just stuck since then backDoor brand and and and Eugene. Sexy

(37:25):
Enrique, Yes, yeah, definitelysexy. That's that's kind of what are
you putting together a porn band orsomething like that. Well, the music
we played it was like it waslike sex Pistols meets meets Julian Cleary,
so it was you know, itwas we would actually, I guess it's

(37:46):
a cover band, but we wouldtake songs and we would just change them
around. So we would do Madonna'slike a Virgin and he would sing it
like a posh English gentleman, likea virgin, perfect very and then something
else we do in a in aBeijing opera voice, you know, different
songs there, so it's hard torecognize, you know, disputin the Sky

(38:08):
and things like that. So,yeah, that sounds fantastic. So this
is pre Plan B. You gotthe nickname, that's absolutely, absolutely absolutely
yeah. And I'm in good company, aren't. I mean the sneaky Peet
Klein out from the Flying Burrito Brothersas well. So yeah, and I'm
of course the cheap Liquer too,so as at least that was ungreased ones.

(38:35):
But that's a that's a long story. It's a different story for a
different day. Peter, what's nextfor Plan B? What's going on with
you guys? And are you whereare you planning a tour next? Are
you're looking at putting together some moremusic maybe Eddie a player? Ah,
we are, we are. We'vegot to get some more material together.
I'm I'm writing with with Adrian thekeyboard player at the moment, so we're

(38:58):
probably going to get together very addedmaybe another half a dozen songs to the
set list and try to get themroad tested before we do any recording.
But we'd also liked to before ournext tour towards the end of next year.
And again it's not not setting concreteyet, but I would certainly.

(39:20):
I've certainly got a few contacts thatwant us back in Cambo years, so
we might not We won't go toallow us this time, but we would,
you know, maybe stay in anonpen and see them reap for ten
days or so and maybe even doa recording over there. We've we've done
a we've learned, we want torecord another cover. We've added a song,

(39:43):
well you'd know it for sure,Rolling Stones song Painted Black. We've
done a complete rearrangement of that withhorns and everything like that. That's now
part of our staple set list andgoes down very well, so yeah,
putting together half a dozen new songwas getting them hopefully recorded. We've got
a couple of gigs coming up thisyear. A few few big ones are

(40:07):
around Adelaide in a church which hasgot beautiful acoustics, and we're also going
to do a few more clips.We collected some extra footage on our last
tour, so we meant to shoottwo music clips in Cambodia and Laos.

(40:29):
And there's a couple of songs lefton the album which I've got some ideas
as well that I want to sharewith Patrick so that we can get maybe
maybe two more clips out before thewithin the next four or five months as
well. So yeah, we're keepingreasonably busy, but again a lot of
the with COVID lifting there and asyou said eight eight nine people everyone's doing

(40:50):
stuff too. You know that peopleare traveling. My wife and I are
heading overseas again and well in justover a week so we'll be gone for
a little while there, and otherguys are traveling to different parts of the
world. So yeah, the coordinationdoes take a little bit, but it's
nice to be able to get outof the house again without police saying hey,
get back in there. You're yourpast curfew. Well we'll throw you

(41:15):
around and gets him in the car, Get him in the car, different
reasons. He's done. Yeah,Peter Flarell, thank you for being with
us on the Outhouse Lounge. Thankyou very much for having me mate much
appreciate it. Once again, Thewebsite is Plan B Australia dot com.
That's Plan B Australia dot com.Check them right. You get to hear

(41:36):
the music, tour information and alot more. You can even check out
the past albums the new one ofcourse. Hello dear stranger. Once again,
thank you all for joining us herewith me in the Outhouse Lounge.
I have a lot more coming soon. Stay tuned and keep enjoying cool retro
stuff. Un